Jorge Caballero
Matthew Halper – 3 Dedications for Guitar, Jorge Caballero (Guitar)
The following are notes by the composer:
"Three Dedications is an early work written not long after I was first introduced to the classical guitar. Growing up with the electric guitar in my hands, and progressive rock in my ears, the tonal and textural possibilities of this “other type of guitar” presented a vast and intriguing terrain I was eager to explore.
The guitar music of Heitor Villa-Lobos was some of the first repertoire for this instrument I was exposed to; his musical output is an impressive compendium of guitar technique and sound. As a composer, one with rock music in his veins, I felt an affinity, a kinship to his use of driving rhythms, shifting meters, and what I heard as aspects of propulsive “pattern music” that foreshadowed electric guitar idiom. The vigorous Danza alludes to these elements of Villa-Lobos’s style in various ways.
I have always been drawn in by the evocative beauty and subtlety of the music of Maurice Ravel. I was disappointed to discover that he never had the opportunity to write for the guitar. The soft-spoken Aria is my modest tip-of-the-hat to Ravel’s finely-wrought, not-so-simple elegance, as it might be realized on this instrument.
The Toccata is the most virtuosic of the three movements. It is a perpetual-motion work that weaves a small melodic motive into its tight rhythmic fabric. It is dedicated to my good friend, guitarist Keith Fanella who was the prime mover in my writing these Dedications and the person who introduced me to the world of the classical guitar, an instrument that Beethoven purportedly described as a “miniature orchestra.”
Matthew Halper has received performances in many leading venues such as Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, the Moores Opera House in Houston, and live on Chicago Radio and Public Television. He received a Whitaker Reading Prize from the American Composers Orchestra for his orchestral work Stalin’s Wake: Homage to Shostakovich. His String Quartet was awarded the Walsum Prize and premiered by principal members of the National Symphony Orchestra. Recordings include the release of his Concerto for Flute and Wind Ensemble on Albany Records (TROY821) which the American Record Guide lauded as “ambitious, ... lyrically dramatic, majestic and broadly American in flavor.” The St. Louis Post Dispatch characterized his Transfiguration as “a most satisfying piece, …and an ultimately mysterious work.” Recent performances of his Trio in Taiwan include the National Theater and Concert Hall in Tapei. Other recent premieres include Shadow on the Andes (for string orchestra) by the Arco Ensemble, Paul Lustig Dunkel, conductor. He was Composer-in-Residence in 2011-12 with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s Greater Newark Youth Symphony and in 2013-14 with the New Jersey Youth Symphony. His Prelude and Fugue for Orchestra was performed that season by the NJYS at the Union County PAC. He has lectured on contemporary music, music technology and has had his works performed at conferences of the College Music Society, College Band Directors National Association, National Association of Composers USA, the Society of Composers, the National Flute Association, and at various institutions including the Juilliard School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has received several awards from ASCAP and is a 2000 and 2006 recipient of a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship. As a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, Halper has been exploring the boundaries of art music, progressive rock, heavy metal and jazz-rock fusion with projects such as the instrumental power trio Before the Calm. Dr. Halper is Professor of Music in the Music Conservatory at Kean University where he was awarded the 2006 Presidential Excellence Award for Creative Work and Scholarship, and is Artistic Director of Ars Vitalis: The New Jersey New Music Forum. He received the D.M.A. degree in music composition and theory from the University of Maryland and holds an M.S. degree in applied mathematics, an M.A. degree in composition and theory, and a B.S. degree in electrical engineering.
www.matthewhalper.com
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Produced by Jorge Caballero, 2022. All rights reserved.
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