Monday, September 21, 2020

Instrumental Grace

 Back when I was a professional guitar soloist, I used to do a lot of recordings for the CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, sometimes in their Vancouver studios and sometimes they would even take the ferry to Victoria to record my concerts at the University of Victoria. One day my producer, out of the blue, called me up and asked me my opinion of some pianists that we both knew. I was kind of surprised and said, "Why me? Why aren't you asking other pianists?" He replied, "For the same reason I wouldn't ask you about other guitarists or a soprano about other sopranos!" I got the point.

Over the weekend I was asked to write a piece for the local chamber music society to be premiered in their 21/22 season. A guitar piece? Well, no, a piano piece! But I no longer ask why me, because they have heard enough of my compositions to NOT think of me as a guitar composer. Thank goodness! Actually, I am not the most comfortable writing for guitar, except in company with other instruments or the voice. I'm not sure why. But I delight in writing for piano, because it can execute things easily that are difficult on guitar.

Here is a piece for violin and piano from a few years ago. We recorded this in the CBC studios in Toronto:



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5 comments:

  1. UnknownSeptember 21, 2020 at 12:46 PM

    After listening to this, I see I've been taken in by your natural Canadian modesty; Bryan: "Well I don't really understand harmony, melody or counterpoint or notation but I dip my hand in now and then ..." (You know I'm teasing you, right?)

    In conclusion, you are a very fine composer and this piece is the work of a real composer; it's wonderful (I'm leaving it to your smarter commentators to do the analysis ....)

    Hearty congratulations ...

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  2. UnknownSeptember 21, 2020 at 1:07 PM

    p.s. That "Mr. Unknown" is me, Dex - writing on a different computer that doesn't know my name ....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bryan TownsendSeptember 21, 2020 at 4:25 PM

    Thanks so much, Mr. Unknown (Dex)!

    I try to model myself after Richard Strauss, who once said, "I am a second class composer, but I try to be a very good second class composer."

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousSeptember 22, 2020 at 2:50 PM

    It's a really good piece. Thank you for posting it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Bryan TownsendSeptember 22, 2020 at 3:02 PM

    Thanks so much!

    ReplyDelete