Hey! 

Welcome to issue 14/24 of our newsletter. Today is going to be magical, spherical, cinematic and, in keeping with the season, a little quieter musically.

The centerpiece and highlight of today's issue is our Know-How short interview with Laura Snowden. About creativity and inspiration in connection with composing. 

Plus: Boards of Canada transferred to guitar, sheet music by a composer who also puts out forest fires (not a metaphor), and a new version of a classic film score. 

Once again, we would like to point out our Spotify playlist for the newsletter, where you can find many artists from all issues: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZwxJRAsW9Zs2JiS2eLy6a?si=C6ZpyZbFTI2kinfgI5uY5A

Feel free to follow us on Spotify and… reply to this mail if you have a new album or a track for the playlist.

Enjoy reading and listening!

YOUTUBE FIND OF THE WEEK
with Simon Farintosh

Transferring electronic music with epic synth pads to guitar. Is that possible? Yes, it is!

Boards of Canada is a Scottish electronic/ambient duo. Wonderful, relaxed downtempo music. We have several records in our studio. The albums The Campfire Headphase (2005) and Tomorrow's Harvest (2013) are among our favorites, but Twoism from 2002 also spins on our turntables every now and then. This album also features the track “Melissa Juice”, which Simon Farintosh arranged and recorded in our video of the week!

This also means that Boards of Canada build melodies and harmonies beyond their sound world that work even in a reduced sound and in a different context. More of this, please!

We are fans of the original and are delighted to hear it on guitar! Thank you Simon!

SHEET MUSIC
Craig Perry – Retonicizing the Noösphere

Guitarist and guitar teacher, guitarist and university professor, guitarist and content creator. There are combinations that you come across more frequently, which at first glance seem obvious.

Guitarist and fireman though? 

Welcome to Craig Perry's world. On the one hand he puts out fires in California, on the other he composes beautiful music for guitar.

Craig's compositions are something special and since he only composes by hand, we went to the trouble of typing up the piece with his permission.

It was worth it: “Retonicizing the Noösphere” – the title opens a door that you want to, indeed have to, engage with philosophically. Just like the title, the composition also brings more clarity with each deeper dive.

Two brief definitions may be helpful:

In music, tonicization is the treatment of a pitch other than the overall tonic (the "home note" of a piece) as a temporary tonic in a composition.

Noösphere is the sphere of human consciousness and mental activity especially in regard to its influence on the biosphere and in relation to evolution.

Here’s what Craig says about it: „If only we could re-tune the world’s current and overall state of consciousness (disconnected, individually self-centered); i.e. our ‘home chord’, into one more connected and altruistic.“ 

If you want to find out more about Craig's exciting life, we recommend this podcast episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4rVLDlyDcUBgEflf5PVhXp?si=IGDI9CXwQma5mi5V9PbpJA (a Podcast about multi-passionate life)

Our you connect with him via Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/_craiper_/

ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Kavall

Our album of the week is Inmitten (Amidst) by Kavall. This LP delivers nine very finely woven minimal pieces. With his own sound aesthetics, Kavall invents a magical world, his immersive concept of the Spatial Guitar has something multidimensional, something big that you wouldn't expect from a solo guitar. It becomes a spatially playable instrument with independent voices.

We particularly like the spherical sound aesthetics of the track “Cycle”. You can really lose yourself in it. But we were also immediately carried away by “Flageolets”. 

A little tip: turn off the lights tonight, put on your headphones and let the whole record sink in. 

KNOW-HOW 
with Laura Snowden

„Instinct is a powerful tool“! A phrase to spray on the wall (in the best sense), wherever you compose.

Without falling back on the usual superlatives, for us, Laura Snowden is certainly not just a very exciting and highly creative musician. Her creativity and curiosity, as well as her magical sound when she plays, have fascinated us for a long time and, having already recommended her piece “The Strange World of Spiders” to you in an earlier issue, we were very curious to hear how Laura approaches composing and what inspires her. 

We were delighted that Laura took the time to do this. Sometimes we regret the brevity of the format. However, there is something to be said for getting the interviewees to get directly to the heart of the matter.

By the way: When we found out what types of artists Laura finds inspiring, the question arose for us: Do you unconsciously feel musically drawn to artists who also prefer a similar aesthetic world beyond classical music? We hadn’t thought about that before ... An exciting question that we should look into elsewhere.

Hey Laura, how does an idea for a new composition appear to you? How do you go on after the initial idea?

It really depends! Sometimes I have a particular story, emotional journey or life experience I want to write about. Other times, I might come up with an idea through improvisation and that will be the starting point, and the “story” of the piece will grow from there. After the initial idea, it’s really just a lot of experimenting, trial and error, changing things, thinking, coming up with ideas on walks or in the shower… the concept of the piece will often change a huge amount from start to finish. Sometimes it ends up being about something completely different than what I originally thought it was about!

Is there any other art form besides music, that inspires you for your writing or do you have other inspirational sources?

A lot of the artists I am really inspired by have an approach that feels to me to be very holistic, where (at least from the outside) I feel as though every aspect of their being is poured into their art, and as though they express themselves in multi-faceted ways. Many of these artists are vocalists, composers, lyricists, dancers, and visual artists all rolled into one. Some of the artists I particularly admire include Sinead O’Connor, Björk, FKA Twigs, Laurie Anderson, Little Simz, Lauryn Hill and Kate Bush.

How do you balance creative work like composing / arranging and practicing for a concert or a recording? What would your ideal day look like? 

Where possible I like to block out chunks of time for a particular project. So I might say to myself “this month is for preparing my upcoming concerts with a bit of composing on the side”, or “this month is for completing a composition with a bit of practice on the side”. But it can be difficult because sometimes all the projects come in one go! I quite enjoy the fact that often my working days look very different from each other, depending on whether I am travelling for concerts or going for a rehearsal, or whether I’m at home composing. It’s a juggling act, because in some ways I benefit from routine, but I also like novelty and change!

If a young classical guitarist, would ask you how to start being creative on the instrument, what would you say to her/him? 

I would say to absolutely not worry if you find that you don’t like what you are creating initially. I come up with a lot of stuff that I really don’t like! To me, that is all part of the process, and the key is to keep going. One thing that could be nice is to choose somebody who is close to you and who genuinely encourages your creativity, and to write them a short piece, maybe just a one minute piece, eg for their birthday. It might take the pressure off having to compose some big “grand” piece, and the recipient might be really touched by it! I think sometimes people feel they need a certain amount of theory or knowledge to be “allowed” to start composing – I really don’t think so myself! I believe instinct is a powerful tool. And you learn by doing it!

More about Laura Snowden:
https://www.laurasnowden.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/laurasnowdenguitar

GUITAR AND…Harp
Duo Multicorde
play Cavatina by Stanley Myers

At the end we stay spherical. Guitar and harp. What a beautiful, mutually enriching combination.

The duo Multicorde play “Cavatina” by Stanley Myers, with the harp opening up such a vast expanse that you are simply beamed away. The piece is probably the best known by Stanley Myers and is much remembered from the theme of the movie Deer Hunter (played there by John Williams). This version with harp is also just wonderful.

OUTRO

We hope we were able to take you along for the ride. Once again, it was a great pleasure to discover so many different artists and listen to lots and lots of music. 

See you in two weeks!

All the best,

Stefan & Willi

New Classical Guitar is a newsletter by Willi Leinen and Stefan Degel from TMBM. You can find our music and more information about our journey at http://t-m-b-m.com/.

On Spotify, we curate a playlist with our favorite pieces. Feel free to follow our New Classical Guitar Playlist at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZwxJRAsW9Zs2JiS2eLy6a?si=9b2a737f01c043a4 and recommend new additions.