Writing a guitar concerto?!?!

Hi.

I have been thinking of writing a guitar concerto for a while now ... I have various possible sections written down and i do know that a concerto normally entails three movements.

Do concertos follow any strict rules etc within these three movements though? Or is the entire structure generally considered comletely up to the composer?

Thanks ...

Traditionally there is a structure....but of course you don't have to follow it! I think it's up to the composer, as long as the music flows. Check out Tan Dun's Guitar Concerto if you're looking for an example of a more liberal approach to guitar concerto structure.

Thanks - much appreciated.

Often the first movement is at a moderate tempo. There is usually a break near the end called a cadenza where the performer has an opportunity to improvise and show off a little. The second movement is often slow, and the third movement the fastest of the three.

Sometimes the first movement follows the sonata allegro form of exposition, development, recapitulation: a musical idea is expressed, then you mess around with it a bunch and bring in new stuff--sorry about all the technical jargon--and then you revisit the original idea. In a concerto the recapitulation can either include or be followed by the cadenza, which is sometimes then followed by a coda.

This overall form is probably the center of the bell curve, but for every concerto that follows it you can probably find another one that uses a different form.

Thanks that's really helpful.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

depends what era you're talking about but generally throughou the classical and early romantic era concertos did in fact follow a strict set of rules. The first movement is almost always in a sonata allegro form and is also generally a brisk, fast allegro type movement. The second movement is generally slow and in the subdominant or dominant key and is usually in a ABA form. The 3rd movement is fast again and usually in a Rondo (abaca etc form). Often if the concerto's first movement is in a major key, the 2nd would be in the relative minor and 3rd in the major again, or vice versa, or other times all the movements are all in either major or minor.

One example, is in Mozart's 23rd concerto in A major, the 2nd movement is in F# minor and 3rd movement again in A major. And in Beethoven's 3rd concerto the 1st movement is in C minor, the 2nd is in Eb major and the 3rd is again in C minor. Same goes for his 4th concerto which is in G major though has a middle movement in E minor. Though plenty other concertos have all movements in a major key such as Beethoven's 5th (emperor) that has the 1st movement in Eb major, the 2nd in B major (the minor submediant) and the 3rd again in Eb major.

If you're not a guitarist, I would advise against writing a guitar concerto. There's a very good reason that nearly every important work for guitar was written by guitarists who compose.

Wow, thanks for all the advice ... Yes i am a guitar player (have been playing solidly for just under 5 years now.) My background, however, has been primarily in (progressive) rock - so naturally i am fairly un-familiar with most classical forms (as they don't usually translate well to popular music.)

If you're not a guitarist, I would advise against writing a guitar concerto. There's a very good reason that nearly every important work for guitar was written by guitarists who compose.

Benjamin Britten wrote the best piece for classical guitar (IMO!) but even he worked very closely with Julian Bream (famous guitarist) during it's creation.

Even as a guitarist I find it difficult to write for the instrument. I cannot seem to mess around and improvise as I would on a piano without the music either being to simple and idiomatic, or too random. When I write for guitar I usually try to write away from the guitar and then adapt what I have written so that it fits better later.