New York City Guitar Orchestra, Jason Sagebiel – Spectra: New Music for Guitar Orchestra (2024) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

New York City Guitar Orchestra, Jason Sagebiel – Spectra: New Music for Guitar Orchestra (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:22:57 minutes | 2,47 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ReEntrant

The New York City Guitar Orchestra, conducted by Jason Sagebiel and Nicoletta Todesco in collaboration with artistic direction by John Olson, releases Spectra, a collection of newly composed works for multiple guitars by such luminaries of the plucked string world as David Leisner, Frederic Hand, David Loeb, William Anderson, and João Luiz. Music for multiple players on the same instrument has grown in recent years, perhaps inspired by the success of percussion ensembles. Works by prominent composers for several bassoons, or flutes, or pianos have made their mark on concert programs. The guitar is a natural fit for similar ventures, inhabiting its own space in the concert music world, increasingly integrated with other instruments but retaining its unique profile. The music and spirited collaboration on this recording reflect the sense of community that is only further enhanced by projects of this sort.The New York City Guitar Orchestra has undertaken an ambitious project of commissioning seventeen new works for multiple guitars. The result is Spectra, an exuberant celebration of the possibilities afforded by the guitar orchestra format and the variety of compositional approaches taken by the composers who were involved in the project.

Frederic Hand’s poignant Chorale opens the program, threading lyrical, contrapuntal lines through the ensemble in a warm opening. The piece intensifies with a driving, mixed meter middle section before a return of the opening thematic material.

David Leisner’s Medanales Morning is inspired by the vibrant colors and effervescent signs of life in the New Mexico desert at sunrise. Leisner uses an aleatoric score to allow the sonic ecosystem to evolve organically, providing the performers with a series of evocative gestures, including bends that explore microtonal shadings of pitch, repeated cells and scalar gestures, and a cyclical, modal bass figure. As the performance grows, and the desert “wakes up,” the overlapping harmonic implications create a cacophonous halo.

Dave Hart’s Granada is an earnest, lilting portrait of the Spanish city so central to the guitar’s lore.

João Luiz’ Three Brazilian Pieces is a musical portrait of three forms of expression from his native country. The opening movement is inspired by the Brazilian martial art of capoeira, in which the fight (jogo) occurs inside a circle (roda) and incorporates dance and acrobatics within the discipline which Luiz evokes through an infectious, syncopated rhythm. A toada is an Amazonian style that melds Indigenous, traditional, and African influences; “Kirsten” features a triplet motif that glides easily through the shifting melodic material. Maracutu is a collection of styles from Pernambuco in Northeastern Brazil; in “Alfaia e Mare” a clock-like repetitive figure in harmonics serves as an anchor for a pugnacious theme.

Andrew York’s Catwalk uses blues references and a repeated ostinato in the bass to paint a film-noiresque image.

The next several works incorporate minimalism in various ways. How Slowly, All of a Sudden by Joshua Eustis and Alfredo Nogueira uses layered minimalist cells to build a hypnotic sound world, featuring a chorus of bell-like harmonics in its contrasting middle section. Clarice Assad’s Magnetic Trance also uses the tools of minimalism, but the harmonic rhythm shifts more frequently, and the rhythmic material often is displaced or obscures the barline. Jonathan Pieslak’s Ambienspheres creates a washes of sound with repeated cells performed simultaneously, effectively capturing the mental state created by sleeping pills.

Despite its gentle outer sections, the focal point in Pat Irwin’s Unsung Hymn for a Friend is a Spanish tinged middle section, with melodic flourishes reinforced by forceful tutti chords.

William Anderson’s six movement Folksongs for guitar quartet exemplifies his disciplined approach to pitch materials and development. “The Wedding Dress” is based around a diatonic descending melody that gradually introduces non-scale tones. In “Scherzo,” a quick slurred figure serves as the motivic seed for this short, polytonal movement, returning later in “The Farmer is the Man.” “The Er-i-e” features a pentatonic main melody that is harmonized with clever chromaticism, reprised in a higher key and with more creative reharmonizations in “The Er-i-e II.” “Whistle, Daughter, Whistle” unfolds in a lilting tempo, with a glistening tremolo line adding shimmer towards its end.

NYCCGS orchestra conductor Jason Sagebiel’s Bachirvanas is expansive and accumulating, deftly orchestrating across the ensemble so that it functions as a hybrid unit.

Takuma Tanikawa’s Mist is an impressionistic score, reveling in swelled tremolos that are passed between players, and eventually become non-pitched percussive rolls on the bodies of the instruments.

Gyan Riley’s The Landloper establishes a cyclical groove based around a loping bass line and percussion effects, adding several layers of figuration on top of it. Hocketed accents amidst a repeated line interrupt the cycle, before harp-like chords utilize the resonance of the entire ensemble. Riley applies careful coordination to a section featuring string scrapes, Bartók pizzicati, percussive hits, and preparations on the strings.

Marco Oppedisano’s Two of a Kind is built from a declamatory, rock-influenced riff, contrasted when he explores the material with fewer instruments and in a more spacious context.

David Loeb’s six movement Concerto for Four Guitars and Guitar Orchestra is intricately constructed with luminous harmonic detail, and the expressive character can change on a dime. The accompaniment in the “Lento” swings like a pendulum, supporting a melody that grows in intensity. In “Grazioso” and “Moderato,” the pacific mood of watery arpeggios and dolce harmonics is broken suddenly with dramatic bursts. “Allegretto” weaves contrapuntal lines within the quartet, with bold supporting sonorities in the orchestra. “Adagio” evolves regally, while the final “Allegro Spiritoso” opens with several entrances of a strong subject that Loeb proceeds to deconstruct, mining it for its corners and angles.

Richard Charlton’s Inner Voices is in two movements, and features a solo part over the coloristic orchestration. A descending and ascending sextuplet in the solo part plays a key motivic role in “Misterioso,” while “Allegretto con Moto” is based on a rhythmic groove reinforced by percussion on the guitars.

The final work in the collection, Joseph Parisi’s Guitar Brigade in three movements, is also scored for soloist with orchestra, with the composer as soloist. The piece is lyrical in character, alternating between sections where the soloist plays primary melodic material and others where it merges with the orchestra to create a driving whole based on climactic strumming or pointed accents.

Tracklist:

01. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Hand: Chorale (05:26)
02. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Leisner: Medanales Morning (09:35)
03. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Hart: Granada (05:39)
04. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Luiz: Three Brazilian Pieces: Jogo de Roda (Capoeira) (02:35)
05. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Luiz: Three Brazilian Pieces: Kirsten (Toada) (04:42)
06. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Luiz: Three Brazilian Pieces: Alfaia e Mare (Maracatu) (05:47)
07. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – York: Catwalk (08:05)
08. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Eustis: How Slowly, All of a Sudden (05:33)
09. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Assad: Magnetic Trance (05:44)
10. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Pieslak: Ambienspheres (04:04)
11. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Irwin: Unsung Hymn for a Friend (05:29)
12. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Anderson: Folksongs: I. The Wedding Dress (01:22)
13. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Anderson: Folksongs: II. Scherzo—The Counterpoint of Supertonics (01:09)
14. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Anderson: Folksongs: III. The Er-i-e (01:09)
15. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Anderson: Folksongs: IV. Whistle, Daughter, Whistle (01:54)
16. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Anderson: Folksongs: V. The Er-i-e II (01:14)
17. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Anderson: Folksongs: VI. The Farmer is the Man (The Counterpoint of Supertonics) (02:43)
18. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Sagebiel: Bachirvanas (06:38)
19. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Tanikawa: Mist (09:01)
20. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Riley: The Landloper (16:05)
21. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Oppedisano: Two of a Kind (09:43)
22. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Loeb: Concerto for Four Guitars and Guitar Orchestra: I. Lento (02:59)
23. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Loeb: Concerto for Four Guitars and Guitar Orchestra: II. Grazioso (01:11)
24. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Loeb: Concerto for Four Guitars and Guitar Orchestra: III. Moderato (02:08)
25. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Loeb: Concerto for Four Guitars and Guitar Orchestra: IV. Allegretto (01:18)
26. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Loeb: Concerto for Four Guitars and Guitar Orchestra: V. Adagio (01:36)
27. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Loeb: Concerto for Four Guitars and Guitar Orchestra: VI. Allegro Spiritoso (01:41)
28. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Charlton: Inner Voices: I. Misterioso (03:35)
29. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Charlton: Inner Voices: II. Allegretto con Moto (02:37)
30. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Parisi: Guitar Brigade: Movement 1 (05:57)
31. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Parisi: Guitar Brigade: Movement 2 (02:43)
32. New York City Guitar Orchestra & Jason Sagebiel – Parisi: Guitar Brigade: Movement 3 (03:20)

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