Classical guitar music can be a dreary exercise, too often relegated to bittersweet Mediterranean holiday soundtrack, but this disc of works by two of New Zealand’s most famous composers is indeed compelling. Expertly performed by Brazil-born New Zealand-based guitarist Gunter Herbig, much of this set retains hints of the refreshing air of Segovia’s Spanish favourites whilst injecting enough modernist kinks to keep things interesting.
As a student of Vaughan-Williams, one might assume Douglas Lilburne’s music to be docile, but while these works for guitar are certainly easy to enjoy passively, they’re far from being placid revisionist tonal exercises. Rather, he approaches these short works as exploratory sketches, etudes of sorts for the contemporary guiarist. Of the ‘Seventeen Pieces for Guitar’ of 1963, 1969 and 1970, his only published music for guitar, few contain key signatures, titles or time signatures, so they function more as free-floating patterns for the performer to interpret, this notion reinforced by frequent notations of ‘…with freedom’ in the score. There’s a languid, open quality which allows them to drift by like flowing water, forking off in novel but rarely shocking paths. The ‘Canzona: Semplice, con moto’ seems to recall the contemporary British folk techniques of Fairport Convention and co., while ‘No. 4’ updates Bach-like patterns into a mdoern framework. His unpublished work takes greater risks in it’s even looser stance, with ‘Unpublished Piece No. 3’ for instance slowed to a crawl, notes dropping like rain.
David Farquar was a student of Lilburne’s and his guitar music is more aggressive, more fond of dissonance and sharp angles. His ‘Suite’ of 1966, dedicated to English painter and guitarist Ronald Burt who apparently popularised the instrument in New Zealand, employs frequent changes in time signature, harmonics and extra-instrumental attack, akin to much of today’s post-Fahey free-folk guitarists. 1995’s ‘Prospero Dreaming’ reaches further, exploring the guitar’s entire range, scrapes, whacks and pinging tones accompanying agressive fingerwork, and frequent riffs left intentionally suspended. This engaging set of rarely-heard music deserves much wider recognition.
Joshua Meggitt
