Point / Wave
Catherine Lamb / Cristián Alvear
LISTEN:
Extract
An extended work for solo guitar with electronics, written for and played by Cristián Alvear.
"In 2013 or 14 Cristián had approached me to write a guitar piece for a project he was doing in Chile. I was (am) very touched by his playing. I had composed for guitar as a teenager (which I won’t share). My uncle was (is) a very serious and knowledgeable classical guitarist (though he never performs in public as far as I know), so I was around a lot of inspired thinking around the guitar and its (mostly lute) repertoire and approaches. When I started to work with particular harmonic space around 2004 I must admit I found the guitar to be rather frustrating as I could never keep it in tune, I think I am forever trying to tune one whenever there is one lying around! I have included re-tuned electric guitars with e-bows in various pieces (perhaps inspired by Michael Pisaro’s approach), limited to partial playing, and I have a pedal steel piece for instance. However, Point/Wave truly is the first piece I have specifically written for acoustic guitar (as a more mature composer that is). When I wrote it I thought that it could benefit from the extra sonority/decay and harmonic clarity of the steel string, however Cristián has proved its potential on the classical guitar!" (Catherine Lamb)
