Music for guitar in concerto and chamber music settings
A portfolio of compositions and supporting materials, comprising scores, recordings, films, text files, and images.
- Submitting institution
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The University of Surrey
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 9002505_4
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2019
- URL
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https://ref2021uoa33portfolios_9002505_4.surrey.ac.uk/
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This portfolio represents the culmination of many years’ research exploring new approaches to writing for the guitar in chamber and concerto settings. Goss has worked in partnership with luthiers (Joshia de Jonge, Hanson Yao, Gabriele Lodi) on the development of double-top and flexible top guitars, which achieve a more equal balance between the guitar and other instruments. Recent advances in guitar amplification technology have made it possible to replicate the precise sound quality of delicate textures on the guitar at a dynamic level appropriate for a concerto. This has enabled techniques developed in Goss’s works for solo guitar to be successfully transplanted into his chamber and concerto works: novel left-hand fingering patterns to maintain and enhance resonance, the use of an extended timbral palette, and a radical approach to right-hand tone, touch, and voicing (Ballam-Cross, 2019).
Working in close collaboration with some of the world’s leading practitioners (John Williams, Evelyn Glennie, Xuefei Yang, and Ian Bostridge), Goss has been able to develop in new directions the research carried out by other contemporary composers in the field (Leo Brouwer, Dusan Bogdanovic, Nikita Koshkin). Still Life aims to extend the rhythmic, textural, technical, and timbral possibilities of the cello and guitar combination. Talking Drums explores metric hierarchy (Ladinig et al 2009, Honing 2012), rhythmic displacement and grouping dissonance (Butler 2006). The Book of Songs investigates levels of musical time (Biamonte 2014, Mermikides 2016), and issues of cultural appropriation. A Concerto of Colours was the first concerto to be written for a large wind ensemble and guitar, while the Koblenz Concerto uses the largest orchestration of any published guitar concerto since 1983 (Takemitsu): exploiting recent advances in amplification technology. The research examines differences in composer and performer creativity, the mediating function of notation, and the transformative potential of collaboration (Clark & Doffman, 2017).
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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