Original Composition on Video

Recording Original Composition

As I mentioned in a recent blog, I am setting out to record all of my compositions. Many of my solo works are on Gyre CDs, but much work is left to be done. Video is fairly rich over the past few years, but I hope to achieve my goal over the next few on CD and video. I will soon be releasing some of my first tutorial videos with brief commentary on my student pieces. Look here, on YouTube-Aaron Green and on Facebook to keep in touch.

So to that end I offer this recording, done late this winter. It features a vintage 1965 Fleta on my composition Fünf Kleine Stücke. Look below and to various links for more info. Thanks for coming to my website.

Writing Fünf Kleine Stücke

Fünf Kleine Stücke was written for Dr. Daniel Pewsner in thanks for many favors and good friendship. It also represents my new found love of Switzerland and its many graces and lovely medieval towns, such as Basel, Bern and Solothurn. View a short collection of my photos from the trip. Read more about the trip and composition here. So to reflect the occasion and sentiments, composition titles are:

I. Sequenz I
II. Basel, 1298
III. Lindenberg, 2017
IV. Durch den Rhein
V. Sequenz II

I began this composition as a scale and slur study.  The first movement has few chords, but a variety of scales with, and without, slurs up and down the fingerboard. My intent, being in the ancient city of Basel, was more than that though. I wanted to invoke the medieval architecture and sounds of the music that infused Basel 800 years before. The guitar, it turns out, is very adept at parallel fourths, given it’s tuning. I took advantage of that mostly in the second movement and that piece became a study in playing two note chords.  I am always thinking about texture and color in my compositions, this short piece feels very romantic and rich in those possibilities. The third is also more extensive and difficult exercise in moving those i and m fingers across the strings, occasionally even jumping from the lowest to the highest. IV is a lovely more romantic melody and accompaniment while Sequenz II returns to the scale theme and combines other elements from the previous sections.

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Recording Fünf Kleine Stücke

Last summer I did a complete recording of this composition on five separate guitars – four of which were vintage Hausers. Watch here. But I recently had the opportunity to record the work again with two reasons in mind. The exceptional 1965 Fleta on which I originally composed the works was back in Aaron Green’s shop, and I had performed the works a fair amount over recent months. Some of the raw newness of my playing has mellowed out. And the room in which I made this video has more natural acoustics extremely favorable and honest for the guitar.

Recording Guitar Videos

Please visit Vintage Classical Guitars, owned by Aaron Green, to view his current and past guitar offerings. Various length biographies of mine are here.