Extended Techniques

This is the 3rd chapter of my book 'The Adaptation of Bağlama Techniques into Classical Guitar Performance', published by VDM Publishing, in Germany, 2011.

Bu yazı, 2011 yılında Almanya'da VDM Publishing tarafından basılan 'The Adaptation of Bağlama Techniques into Classical Guitar Performance' isimli kitabımın 3. bölümüdür.

Esta pesquisa investigou as estratégias utilizadas na preparação de repertório vanguardista para violão solo com técnicas expandidas a partir da observação dos processos de aprendizagem dos estudantes de Instrumento (bacharelandos em Violão da Escola de Música da Universidade Federal da Bahia).
O primeiro capítulo traz uma revisão de literatura abordando como temas “Técnicas Expandidas” e “Música Contemporânea e o Ensino de Música”. O segundo capítulo traz uma breve investigação sobre como a música contemporânea vem sendo abordada no curso Instrumento (Violão) da UFBA. O terceiro capítulo descreve como a pesquisa foi organizada metodologicamente. O quarto capítulo apresenta as obras selecionadas para a pesquisa de campo, bem como, uma breve análise sobre seus principais aspectos e os resumos biográficos dos seus compositores. E por fim, os estudos de caso são descritos e analisados no quinto capítulo.

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This research investigated the strategies used in the preparation of avant-garde repertoire for guitar solo with extended techniques from observation of students learning processes of instrument (high schools in Classical Guitar School of Music of the Federal University of Bahia).The first chapter provides a review of the literature addressing how themes "Extended Techniques" and "Contemporary Music and Music Education". The second chapter provides a brief research about contemporary music has been addressed in the course "Instrumento" (Classical Guitar) at UFBA. The third chapter describes how the survey was methodologically organized. The fourth chapter presents the works selected for field research, as well as a brief analysis of its main aspects and biographical summaries of their composers. And finally, the case studies are described and analyzed in the fifth chapter.

The acoustic guitar and its predecessors in the Baroque and Classical period have proven a popular instrument for performance, composition and general entertainment and for many centuries hence. The popularity has increased exponentially in popular culture since then introduction of the guitar in Blues Music of Deep South America in the beginning of the twentieth-century and furthered through the 1950’s Rock and Roll movement and is now often viewed as a synonym of Popular music.
However, as will be demonstrated it is not merely an instrument for accompaniment or purely jovial entertainment: a wide range of Western art music composers and composer-guitarists have paved the way for a whole new range of performance techniques for the instrument.

Winner of the Alt Pibroch Club and Altpiborch.com “Modern Pibroch Library” Competition, 2018.

Program Notes and Piece Mechanics:

Shrouded in myth and mystery, a tradition that has been passed from master to pupil for unknown centuries, piobaireachd (Scots Gaelic for “piping” and anglicized as “pibroch”) is the “classical music” of the Great Highland Bagpipe, originating sometime during the Middle Ages. Piobaireachd is the oldest and perhaps most austere of all the Scottish bagpiping genres, focusing on simple tone progressions with slight elaborations over a series of variations. Crucial to this style is tone and timbre, and thus highly refined and particular tunings were constructed around these pieces, generally emphasizing tuning by Pythagorean ratios, particularly focusing on the 7th and 11th partials.

This piece returns the modern Scottish bagpipe to these medieval traditions, however in unconventional ways through building a scale of 15 micro-tonal notes based on octave transpositions of the prime partials of an implied fundamental. Along with the 7th and 11th partials, the scale of this piece incorporates all the prime partials from 2 to 31. This resulting piece is both Medieval in aesthetic and form, but modern in its expansion of Pythagorean tuning and extended techniques on the bagpipe, including unconventional droning, alternative fingerings, and multi-phonics.

The scale is based on octave transpositions of all the prime partials (up to 31) of the fundamental note, which is (approximately) 60 Hz. This fundamental was chosen for convenience, since most Great Highland Bagpipes are tuned to about 480Hz on the lowest “A” of the chanter. The three drones form the second, third, and fifth partials above the non-sounding, implied fundamental of 60Hz. The primary chanter notes (melodic notes), given on the first page of the score instructions, form the other octave-transposed prime partials up to the 31st – 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31 – barring the low-A, which is simply a multiple of the 60Hz fundamental (Note: the tuning of these partials is as close as possible, +/- 5 Hz or so, pretty much indistinguishable to most human ears). The additional microtonal inflections or embellishments are totally for color and are not based on any mathematical proportion. They are simply created through alternative fingerings. The primary melodic content, however, is solely based on these prime partials.

APC and Altpibroch.com:

The Alt Pibroch Club and altpibroch.com are sites dedicated to the pursuit of bringing new approaches to bagpipe performance informed by ancient scores. While we support reconstructions of old playing, they are also interested in bringing new musicality to piobaireachd long since forgotten, much to the detriment of audiences and performers alike. AltPibroch.com is the definitive resource for information on pre-1841 pibroch manuscripts, their interpretation and history. These are the original, unexpurgated primary sources of our art, and the different musical perspective, interpretation and insight they bring is a revelation to those accustomed to the modern pibroch scene. They encourage performers to explore the full musical depth and creativity of the folk music of piobaireachd, from as many sources of instrumentation and inspiration as they can find.

Jordan Alexander Key:

Jordan Alexander Key (b. 1990) currently pursues his PhD in composition and musicology at the University of Florida. He earned bachelor’s degrees in music composition, mathematics, and Eastern Asian philosophy from The College of Wooster (2013), as well as a master’s degree in music composition from the University of Arizona (2015). His significant recent projects include his European premier with Vienna’s PHACE Ensemble performing his Octet, “Threnody on the Death of Children;” a performance by Boston String Quartet of his String Quartet No. 1; a concert with Bold City Contemporary Ensemble performing his Quintet, “Discursus Anachronismus;” a collaboration with the Vancouver Queer Arts Festival for his Art Song, "God Ourselves;” and the display of his recent audio-visual projects as part of the Wolfsburg Kunstmuseum’s new exhibit, “Never Ending Stories: The Loop in Art, Film, Architecture, and Music,” in Germany during the Winter and Spring of 2018. Jordan gives regular concerts on his two instruments: the pipe organ and bagpipes. His performance repertoire focuses primary on music from the Middle Ages, Early Renaissance, and Early Baroque. He has been a bagpiper for 15 years as of 2018. For more information on Jordan Alexander Key and for recent recordings of his works, see his website, www.jordanalexanderkey.com, or search for his work on YouTube (channel, “Jordan Alexander Key”)

A  notação  da  música  contemporânea  apresenta  uma  série  de peculiaridades  para  sua  interpretação. Este artigo se propõe a  discuti- la, particularmente com relação a sonoridades estendidas na  flauta transversal,  dos  pontos  de  vista  histórico,  gráfico,  de  sua  performance,  e  da  necessidade  de  que seja clara e inequívoca.