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Bryan Johanson's 13 Ways of Looking at 12 Strings for Two Guitars: Recording and Critical Investigation

abstract: The purpose of this project is to introduce Bryan Johanson's composition for two guitars, 13 Ways of Looking at 12 Strings, and present an authoritative recording appropriate for publishing. This fifty-minute piece represents a fascinating suite in thirteen movements. The author of this project performed both guitar parts, recorded them separately in a music studio, then mixed them together into one recording. This document focuses on the critical investigation and description of the piece with a brief theoretical analysis, a discussion of performance difficulties, and guitar preparation. The composer approved the use and the scope of this project. Bryan Johanson is one of the leading contemporary composers for the guitar today. 13 Ways of Looking at 12 Strings is a unique guitar dictionary that takes us from Bach to Hendrix and highlights the unique capabilities of the instrument. It utilizes encoded messages, glass slides, metal mutes, explosive "riffs," rhythmic propulsion, improvisation, percussion, fugual writing, and much more. It has a great potential to make the classical guitar attractive to wider audiences, not limited only to guitarists and musicians. The main resources employed in researching this document are existing recordings of Johanson's other compositions and documentation of his personal views and ideas. This written document uses the composer's prolific and eclectic compositional output in order to draw conclusions and trace motifs. This project is a significant and original contribution in expanding the guitar's repertoire, and it uniquely contributes to bringing forth a significant piece of music. / Dissertation/Thesis / Recording of movement 1: Toccataesque mp3 / Recording of movement 2: Bad Egg Cafe mp3 / Recording of movement 6: Strings Etouffee mp3 / Recording of movement 7: Steel Pans mp3 / Recording of movement 8: Slide Rule mp3 / Recording of movement 10: EGAD! mp3 / Recording of movement 13: Jammus Vulgaris mp3 / D.M.A. Music 2011

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:asu.edu/item:8981
Date January 2011
ContributorsSavic, Nenad (Author), Koonce, Frank (Advisor), Rotaru, Catalin (Committee member), Mclin, Katherine (Committee member), Feisst, Sabine (Committee member), Landschoot, Thomas (Committee member), Arizona State University (Publisher)
Source SetsArizona State University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeDoctoral Dissertation
Format59 pages
Rightshttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/, All Rights Reserved

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