Donald Hollier From the Twelve Preludes for Guitar (1979) - #11 - B Major

Abstract

"This set of pieces arose from discussions in 1978 with Ian Davies, a composition student at the Canberra School of Music, about the difficulty of writing idiomatic music for the guitar and the scarcity of really good guitar music by mainstream composers. Part of my objection to the guitar repertoire was that so much of it sounded as if it were written in E minor - because of the natural tuning of the strings to that key. Consequently, as a joke, I began a s,eries of preludes in every key to prove that it simply was not possible to write for any other key than the principal relative keys of E. Eventually Davies edited my preludes· and gave them their first performance. It had proved (just) possible to write in keys other than E, although admittedly with a degree of difficulty. The preludes were adopted by the resident guitarist at the Canberra School of Music, Timothy Kain, who has played them on many occasions. He has since commissioned another set." -- Donald Hollier