Hey!

Welcome to issue 6 of our newsletter. We are super happy with your feedback on the last issue and are delighted to see the community growing. This issue will be about multitasking, among other things. Singing and playing at the same time, for example, as in our YouTube Find of the Week with Alexandra Iranfar-Vilateau. Moreover, we could get Reto Weiche for an interview, a young musician who has delved deep into the realms of new music. For us, this is one of this issue’s highlights. The Album of the Week comes from Thibaut Garcia, a veritable Barrios firework, and … of course there's sheet music to download again, this time from David Holleber. If you want to find out what that has to do with Harry Potter, keep reading… 

Enjoy,
Stefan & Willi

YOUTUBE-FIND OF THE WEEK
Alexandra Iranfar-Viloteau sings and plays a song by John Dowland

What’s special about John Dowland's songs is that they sound timeless and also work perfectly in a modern context. And this despite the fact that they are already several centuries old. Just think of the finale of Benjamin Britten's Nocturnal, in which Dowland's "Come Heavy Sleep" overcomes the previous insomnia, or the Dowland album "Songs from a Labyrinth" (2006) by pop star Sting with lutenist Edin Karamzov.

Our YouTube Find of the Week sticks out, however, since Alexandra Iranfar-Villoteau, as a guitarist, needs no Sting, and, as a singer, no Karamazov: she plays and sings at the same time, which is rare, if not very rare, in a classical context. And she does both at a very high level, with an incredible amount of feeling and playful ease. Our recommendation of the week!

SHEET MUSIC
David Holleber - Der verbotene Wald

New horizons: young folks discover the world of New Music. We’re trilled.

Today’s sheet music is exciting. With reference to this issue’s Know-How interview with Reto Weiche, we have chosen a piece that is specifically aimed at your students, as well as all curious and experimental guitarrer@s. What an amazing idea. Indeed, New Music compositions that make use of extended playing techniques and are dedicated to the experimental use of sound and noise material are often not the easiest ones to access. Not least because the music doesn’t come across as “harmonically beautiful” (how do you define that anyway?) in the traditional sense. But discovering, being challenged and trying things out is great fuel.

Maximilian Mangold has published a series of sheet music editions for new guitar music for young people that are specially tailored to the level and needs of young musicians. How cool is that! The composers he chooses must be sensitive and adaptable to offer an inspiring musical experience to the students. To give young people the opportunity to explore new musical horizons and express themselves creatively. We second that! From this series, the publisher Verlag Neue Musik has made the piece “Der verbotene Wald” by David Holleber available to us, and therefore to you. David Holleber is a composer and pianist with a focus on working with amateur and youth ensembles. He also works as an arranger for various ensembles and his works have been performed at various festivals and concerts.

What is it about?

The Forbidden Forest is a mysterious place from the “Harry Potter” books by J.K. Rowling. The students of Hogwarts are not allowed to enter it, yet they need to do so several times. The forest is full of dangers and magical creatures such as bowtruckles and giant spiders. We cross the impenetrable thicket of the forest in the dark of night. The magic of the forest is omnipresent, trees whisper and strange noises fill the air. An eerie atmosphere surrounds the forest, which casts a spell over visitors and warns them of danger.
New Music can therefore be a rewarding challenge that allows young musicians to grow not only musically but also personally. Our rating: “very valuable”

Have fun trying it out and broadening your horizon (together with your students!).

David Holleber:
davidholleber.com

Maximilian Mangold:
maximilianmangold-gitarre.de

Verlag Neue Musik:
www.verlag-neue-musik.de/verlag

Verlag Neue Musik – “Der verbotene Wald”:
www.verlag-neue-musik.de/verlag/product_info.php?info=p3316_Der-verbotene-Wald.html

ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Thibaut Garcia - “EL BOHEMIO” (2023)”

For all those who want to treat themselves to an extra dose of Augustín Barrios Mangoré, "El Bohemio" by Thibault Garcia is a warm recommendation. With 23 pieces, the album contains a remarkable collection of works by the Paraguayan composer. 

Did you know that, in addition to his numerous original compositions, he also arranged the Adagio from Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata or the “Träumerei” from Schumann's Kinderszenen? Listening to these pieces, we realize once again what beautiful music Barrios has left behind. This beauty is more than underlined by Thibaut Garcia's elegant interpretations. As a little tidbit, the last track is "Caazapá", an original recording by the master himself.

Take your time and let yourself get carried away into this special soundscape!

Listen to the album: https://lnkfi.re/albumoftheweek

KNOW-HOW 
New Music with Reto Weiche

It is a broad field that includes the most diverse styles and constellations. Yet sometimes it is difficult to find access to it, which is probably why some guitarists have a rather distant relationship to it. We would like to try and reduce this distance somewhat. Therefore, we are delighted that Reto Weiche will be giving an insight into his path to New Music and his current work. It is hard to imagine the younger generation of New Music without him. With a love of detail, he is always looking for new and unconventional formats to bring New Music to a wider audience. Composers have written works for him and he has also taken part in numerous world premieres in various ensembles. 

Exciting artist and a great guy! Enjoy the Know-How interview with Reto.

How did you get into New Music? Was there a key moment?

I don't think there was one key moment, but lots of little ones, and it kind of developed naturally for me. I only know that the first moment when I didn't perceive more recent music as bullshit was thanks to my then girlfriend's mother. In addition to her New Music concerts and projects, she occasionally asked me a few "why not" or "what is it actually" questions. After that, all stigmas towards contemporary music were gone and what remained was a huge field of experimentation that gradually absorbed all my attention and interest. I couldn't really do anything about it, I was just always totally fascinated by the wild sounds people got out of their instruments and the wild things people have done with the concert format today. Today, I can no longer imagine listening even to older music without having some kind of "current music glasses" on.

What has been your most exciting concert in an experimental context?

That’s hard to tell. It's all such an incredibly broad field and many concerts are super exciting in so many different ways and perhaps incredibly boring in other ways at the same time. I remember a solo performance by a drummer in Basel who managed to develop sounds that were completely new and super interesting to me, with the simplest of ideas. At the same time, he arranged everything in a totally impressive visual way. For example, he had installed microphones in large water containers that were illuminated from below. He then gradually threw effervescent tablets in different colors into the water, the dissolving of which sounded super big and exciting over the microphones (I'm also like a huge fan of those granular sounds). So simple, but the sound and visuals were just brilliant. At the end, he threw bang snaps at a miked tam-tam in complete darkness. That was also totally simple, but it sounded great and was of course very spectacular with this mini pyro interlude. Or my first live experience of John Cage’s “4min33”. Before that, I thought it was a brilliant gag, but live it was a totally surprising experience to see what happens to the audience's perception and mood when there is suddenly silence. Everyone knows these uncomfortable moments of silence and experiencing them together was really exciting. And the change in acoustic perception was exciting, too: you suddenly hear things you’ve never noticed before. The hum of a spotlight, for example, can be so differentiated and suddenly becomes music. Also a super simple concept, but simply ingenious.

Which piece took the longest to prepare and why?

Of course, I've never really kept a record of how long such preparations take, and usually very long preparation phases are not only due to the piece, but also to the external circumstances and what you want to make of it. In any case, I performed a piece at the beginning of May whose sheet music I first looked at 18 months ago: Vinko Globokar's "Elegie Balkanique" (perc., flute, git.). Although the piece is also 30 years old (so it is actually old music), it is tragically still very topical. In the foreword, he writes that he can't help but musically vomit out his disgust at humanity in the face of the Yugoslavian war. After 2022, we felt the same way and wanted to perform it again. We already knew there were some difficult parts, but the more we rehearsed, the deeper this piece went. Starting with the research for the piece, working out the three characters that he explicitly defines, right through to putting the setup together and finding technical/artistic solutions. Above all, sharpening the message and finding the right tone for the content of the piece ended up being very difficult. And then you hadn't practiced your own voice yet, which also added to the challenge. On top of that, organizing an event and so on, it was suddenly 18 months before it was finally on stage. Also, because we all have a lot of other projects going on all the time, we could only rehearse in phases and then the preparations for the performance of a single piece suddenly become super lengthy. In general, it also feels like most of the time spent preparing for concerts after the graduation is actually non-musical work and organization. And since I never learned how to do that and am simply very bad at it, it takes me forever and costs a lot of time and nerves. In fact, the project is still not over and the preparations are still going on: we will now commission a new work and dedicate an entire evening to this theme and build it around the "Elegie Balkanique". And then, of course, we don't just want to organize one concert, but several. So if you also feel like puking in the face of humanity due to all the wars and violence, write to me and let's organize it together ;)

What new things would you like to try out as a guitarist that you haven't tried yet?

Well, my job, and to a certain extent my life, actually consists of constantly trying out new things. In other words, if I knew something I wanted to try out, I would be doing it right now. And the nice thing is that you usually don't yet know what the muse has in store for you and then an idea comes along or a piece falls into your hands where you look at something from a completely different angle, and then I usually go for it and try it out straight away. Right now I'm trying my hand at a wild feedback system between the pickups of the electric guitar and transducers that feed the signal back into the pickups. That's super exciting! A composer has written a piece for me based on this system, and it's just so crazy to dive into this new soundscape.

What new things would you learn in life that you don't know yet?

Wow, that could be quite a long list. Starting with being better at soldering, sound engineering and becoming more proficient in MAX MSP, to becoming better at self-promotion, being able to cook more delicious food and being able to answer interview questions more accurately. I'm currently in the process of teaching myself to cut my own hair. I don’t know how to do that yet or was always too vain to give it a try. I'm still practicing, and I hope that I might learn it one day.

You can find out more about Reto and his projects on his homepage: https://reto-weiche.de

GITARRE AND…
“Techno” – Eos Quartett plays Jürg Kindle

That's right, this time it's about a guitar quartet. More precisely, it's about the Eos Guitar Quartet and a style of music that you wouldn't initially associate with the guitar: techno. The eponymous piece by Jürg Kindle is really fun to listen to and it's quite obvious that the four guitarists also have a good time playing it.

Repetitive loops, percussive elements, build-up, thinning out, continuous pulse. Four to the floor. All elements that you would expect from techno, but not from four guitars. Whether the track is suitable for the club is doubtful at this point (winking smiley), but that's not what this is about. We think it puts you in a great mood! Watch it, get carried away and enjoy. A large portion of playfulness is added on top and you wonder why there aren't more genre disruptions like this towards electronic music.

OUTRO

We hope you enjoyed this issue. As always, please send us your feedback and suggestions by e-mail in response to this newsletter. We look forward to hearing from you!

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 informationen about our journey on t-m-b-m.com.

On Spotify we curate a playlist with our favorite pieces. Feel free to follow our New Classical Guitar Playlist via https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZwxJRAsW9Zs2JiS2eLy6a?si=9b2a737f01c043a4&nd=1&dlsi=cd5e59bc6b764954