PROGRAM LISTING


Harlequin Sketches (1991)
        	Michael Gandolfi (b.1956)




I. Twilight Promenade

II. Minimetalism

III. Once and for All

IV. Nylon Drumming

V. Ricochet








PROGRAM NOTES



     Harlequin Sketches, dedicated to William Matthews, was funded by a fellowship grant from the Guggenheim Foundation. This five-movement work explores past and present guitar techniques and compositional forms.
  
     The first movement, Twilight Promenade, is a hybrid rondo form (AABACADA) in which each of the episodes develops from a portion of the rondo theme.
  The second movement, Minimetalism, employs a technique used extensively by electric guitarists in which the right hand is used to strike notes on the fretboard as opposed to its usual function of plucking the strings.  Heavy-metal rock guitarists frequently use this technique in repetitive passage-work, suggestive of minimalist procedures.
  The third movement, Once and for All, is a broad, arching monody in which every possible note on the guitar is played once and only once.
  Nylon Drumming employs the 'tambor' technique characterized by right-hand string tapping.
  The finale, Ricochet, is a virtuoso piece that makes extensive use of string coloration (i.e. a single figure which is played successively on different strings producing subtle shadings of color).  Like the first movement, the form is a rondo.  However, this rondo differs substantially from that of the first movement; here the rondo theme becomes shorter with each successive statement, which propels the piece to its ultimate close.  Each episode develops directly from the last portion of the rondo theme.  This end-most portion of the rondo theme is then discarded, allowing the next episode to develop from a different portion of the rondo theme.  As this process continues, the episodes literally consume the theme until only the tiniest fragment remains and the piece ends.

                                 



Michael Gandolfi












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