If I'm a Filler Arc, I Hope This Isn't a Magical Girl Anime (for Vibraphone and Electric Guitar) (Contemporary Classical Electric Guitar Repertoire)

Here's a piece that's in my PhD composition portfolio, originally premiered in Cyprus in May 2022!

Hey there

Very cool mix of instruments. I don't think I've heard anything using this ensemble before. If I have, it's usually featuring more instruments. 

I liked the aesthetic, although I was hoping it would change at some point. That's merely subjective, it's very fine music as it is. You obviously know what you're doing with composition, I'd encourage you to share some thoughts with other members here. I'm sure you have tons to offer!

Any chance we could see a score? It definitely helps when sharing insight if we can follow along. If not, that's cool too.

Since I play guitar, I'd like to mention two things about it. This piece you shared is obviously complete, so this would be for future works/performances of it. One thing I think you could tinker with is the guitarists tone. Perhaps a bit more gain or saturation would really improve the sound quality, because as is it's very brittle and weak sounding. It's got that naked straight through the amp sound, but with a few adjustments I think it would really enhance the performance. 

Also, too bad the 7th string was never played! Any reason for that, or maybe that was the guitarists main guitar and it just wasn't needed. In any case, I felt like aside from the chord shapes and tapping pull offs, the music could have been written a bit more idiomatically. For instance, I felt the tapping was good, but there were several moments I would have just hit the note fretted like normal. 

Your musical voice is unique, and the language was a bit out of reach for me, but it sounded mystical and lovely. It's nice to here a modern language used in a way that I can comprehend, and you employed this wonderfully. 

Well done, and congratulations on an excellent piece!

P.S. The constant moving around of the camera on the guitarist made me feel seasick at times, but very cool video 😄

Hi @DanielCComposer,

Welcome to the forum!

I am no guitarist myself, I can only say I enjoy the timbre of this piece! The vibraphone mix well with the electric guitar! Very chic for me!

You can spare some of your time looking at other talented members' pieces, and review on them! You will for sure find many interesting ones and may inspire your work as well!

Thank you joining the forum and sharing the piece!

Henry

Interesting indeed - nice to see someone concentrating at the end of the guitar where there are usually cobwebs! 

Some interesting sounds but I have to admit it started to drag around 1'36" and at 2'31" By 3'30" it seemed to stand still. It would certainly make a fine accompaniment to a modern ballet but as a concert piece I felt it needed more, perhaps echoing some of the material lower in the register. It lacked any kind of tension and release or dynamic variation to me, from which a 5 minute work would benefit. 

I'm in agreement with Thatguy V2 about it sounding perhaps too clean although I appreciate it can be difficult that high up the instrument - short of distortion there doesn't seem much to do. A modulation effects unit may have helped. Also agree with Thatguy it would be nice to see a score if it wasn't improvised, or was it improvised? 

However, these are just my views. You're the composer and it's a completed work with which you're satisfied so fine!

Good luck with your PhD.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R_wv9xtzyBvTiVEPTKoagbvHPR6UT9cY/view

The score is just above!

Regarding the tone, this was kind of by design. For me, the piece is very cold, 'naked' as Thatguy put it, so for me, the tone worked, it was created with the Kemper Profiling Amp, and all gain was rolled off, meaning that the amp had no natural breakup. As this can't be done with a valve/tube amp, I get how it might sound unnatural to some listeners, but considering that I was aiming for the kind of modern, neo-soul style popularised by such guitarists as Ichika Nito, I'm quite happy. Funnily enough, the original premiere of this piece was done with a more traditional setup, so you might have enjoyed that performance. Any guitarist is free to interpret this work as they can, and if a guitarist played this on a Marshall or Vox that nearly broke up on each forte+ dynamic, that might be really, really effective, and that's for them to choose. In my opinion, that's why the electric guitar is such a valuable and under-utilised instrument in contemporary classical, the interpretation of a piece can come down to the very tone of the instrument, rather than just the way tone is achieved through playing.

As for the use of the seventh string, this piece was, as mentioned, originally premiered in a concert hall in Cyprus, and it was played by another player who used a 6 string guitar with 22 frets. I, myself, always prefer seven and eight strings, I'm endorsed by Aristides, and that, in the video, is my custom-built guitar, so it felt natural to use it. Certain pieces I've made (which I'll definitely share here once they're recorded/performed) do use the seventh string (particularly orchestral works), but as my research is based around the creation of future contemporary classical repertoire for electric guitarists, I always know that if I write a piece for seven-string guitar, it alienates players who don't own one. I will also say as a little aside, the tapping is essential, if a guitarist played the notes fretted, they'd be playing the piece incorrectly. Idiomatic electric guitar writing music include both hands, and there's a specific chapter in my research that goes into ambidextrous guitar playing, that is, using all eight fingers on the fretboard!

Thanks for the great feedback, guys, looking forward to spending more time around here! 

Hi Daniel! 

Sincerely I don't usually get on well with stuff that goes under the "contemporary" tag much but the title you put just won me, honestly. On top of that, the interpretation of the piece and the atmosphere you create is definitely immersive to me, dreamlike and peaceful with stains of intrigue. Despite its pace, it doesn't feel static, but quietly dynamic. 

The only thing that didn't convince me was that more or less long pause before the final passage and the sudden increase in density and volume just before that, I think that a bit more of room —not much, a couple of bars— for the music to grow more gradually wouldn't have hurt but in the end, you do you and as long as you like the result, the rest matters little.

Overall a solid and carefully crafted piece that I enjoyed listening very much (multiple times already).

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.