• Premiere: November 13, 2011 / Robert Ward, guitar/ St. Andrew's Hall / Trinity Church in the City of Boston 

• Instrumentation: Guitar solo

• Duration: 7'

Program Note

To the consternation of my high school band directors, I received a guitar for Christmas my freshman year. It was a beautiful, sparkly blue Yamaha electric with a modified Stratocaster shape and I loved it with my whole heart. I taught myself to play using Metallica tablature books, was in a few bands, slowly made my way in jazz, and developed a large catalogue of standards and original songs that took me through the coffee house circuit and a few demo CDs.

When I went back to school, my foot in the door was guitar, and entered the University of Southern Mississippi with a classical guitar focus.  A whole new love of the instrument developed through my study of Sor, Villa-Lobos, Terrega and other masters.

This short suite is an adaptation of the traditional dance suites of Bach, one of which, through transcription, was in my repertoire as a student. A moody prelude sets the stage for a sensual Barcarolle and a wild Tarantella.  The piece was written for a concert I curated in 2011.  On the program, I paired my own compositions involving the number 'six' with pieces by members of 'Les Six,' a French composer gang consisting of Poulenc, Milhaud, Honegger, Auric, Taillefaire, and Durey.