Shift & Riff -- Pre-festival events at Loft 393 Day III

September 14
Loft393
7:00 – 8:30pm

Shift and Riff

Xingxing Yao, Muxin Li & Matt Kaplan, guitar soloists
Mark Humburg, cellist
William Anderson, tenor banjo & Joan Forsyth, piano
The Curtis Guitar Quartet --  Muxin Li, Ruqi Jiang, Radomir Romashkov-Danilov, Xingxing Yao -- offers Eric Sessler's "Shift and Riff", plus soloists Xingxing Yao, Muxin Li & Matt Kaplan guitar soloists,

Leo Brouwer's "Lorquiana" for cello & guitar with Matt Kaplan and cellist Mark Humburg

Brouwer's "El Mito de Sisifo", written for Matt Kaplan and performed here by Matt Kaplan

Works by Eric Sessler, Mario Davidovsky, Michael Starobin, Wolpe, and Robert Pollock's Burlesque for tenor banjo & piano with Anderson/Forsyth Duo.

Lorquianas (from EEE Website): Two songs based on poems by Lorca (Memento and Madrigalillo) became a somewhat virtuoso duet for cello and guitar. This process is far from literal; instrumentally and temporally enriched in its duration, Lorquianas became an instrumental duet with a cantabile essence that gives it an undeniably lyrical character.

Mito (from EEE Website):

The Myth of Sisyphus, composed in 2023 and dedicated to Matthew Kaplan, was inspired by his connection to the thought of Albert Camus. The work does not translate the myth into music nor does it propose a literal philosophical interpretation. Rather, it is an aural reflection on repetition, the persistent gesture, and the tension between meaning and action. There is no narrative here, only structure.

Mito (my own notes of my site):

“Expression begins where thought ends.” - Albert Camus

“It has truly been a great honor for me to realize a new work for solo classical guitar by Maestro Leo Brouwer.  El Mito de Sísifo para guitarra is a dream come true for someone passionate about philosophy and music.  This project was initially inspired by the Maestro’s 2021 release of the Trois Nouvelles Études for solo guitar.  They were written in memoriam of Claude Levi-Strauss, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Jacques Derrida. In the liner notes of the sheet music, Mtro. Brouwer describes them all as, “ideologues of form” and goes on to discuss how their philosophies link to ways in which he composes music.  

This got me thinking about Albert Camus and his philosophy of the absurd.  Camus explains Absurdism through Greek mythology in The Myth of Sisyphus (1942).  Sisyphus, King of Ephyra, is punished by Zeus for attempting to escape death multiple times.  The gods forced Sisyphus to roll a giant boulder to the hilltop only to watch it fall to the bottom as soon as he got close to the peak.  He is sentenced do this for all eternity.  However, in Camus' view, seeing the act of rolling the boulder as the human condition, urges us to imagine Sisyphus happy in his punishment.  Sisyphus revolts against his fate and thus, accepts it.  He is free.

Mtro. Brouwer does not disappoint in transforming such a story and philosophy into music.  How lucky we are to have him compose a musical interpretation on absurdity, existentialism, and defiance for solo classical guitar.  The opening, marked Quasi Cadenza and Tranquillo, provokes a jagged sense of introspection. The irregolare rhythms, dynamic shifts, and constantly changing time signatures create an atmosphere of uncertainty - absurd, indeed.  As the piece progresses we are met with an Allegretto in an odd meter with a repetitive dance-like quality evocative of the boulder’s journey up and down the hill.  Thematic fragments from the Allegretto are found in the heavy Moderato section that follows.  The accompaniment for the Moderato is mostly made up of chords without quality (no 3rd, only power chords and quartal harmonies) to support the fragments.  The piece ends at the bottom of the hill with a welcome return to the opening quasi cadenza.  All is well.

--

Matt Kaplan | Classical Guitarist & Educator

www.kaplanguitar.com

Brooklyn Classical Guitar Studio

https://www.brooklynclassicalguitar.com/

Brooklyn Classical Guitar Society

https://www.bkcgs.org/