Autumnal for Guitar Orchestra
Principal Investigator:
Matthew Halper
Abstract:
Autumnal is an elegiac work for guitar orchestra that conjures up and alludes to the delicate fading beauty and the quiet wistfulness of summer’s transition to winter. Poets have often used autumn imagery—falling leaves, the colorful “letting go,” the longer shadows and shorter days—to represent life’s impermanence, the ephemeral nature of all things. Autumn is a canvas painted with both nature’s abundance and its evanescence.
Written for and dedicated to Jayson Martinez and the New Jersey Music Educators Association (NJMEA) Honors Guitar Ensemble as part of an 2023-24 RTR Award, it will receive its premiere at the 2024 Long Island Guitar Festival, and an NYC performance by the New Jersey Guitar Orchestra at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall.
Description of Research:
Over the course of my compositional career, I have had several periods that have focused on and revisited the classical guitar. Most recently, I have been drawn into the world of the guitar orchestra, a unique ensemble comprising 25-30 classical guitarists. Recent compositions include my Memento Mori, commissioned by and dedicated to the New Jersey Guitar Orchestra, and premiered at the Long Island Guitar Festival. Memento Mori will receive its west coast premiere at the University of Southern California (USC), Thornton School of Music by Grammy-winning guitarist William Kanengiser and his guitar ensemble in April 2024.
My latest work in this genre, Autumnal, is an elegiac work for guitar orchestra that conjures up and alludes to the delicate fading beauty and the quiet wistfulness of summer’s transition to winter. Poets have often used autumn imagery—falling leaves, the colorful “letting go,” the longer shadows and shorter days—to represent life’s impermanence, the ephemeral nature of all things. Autumn is a canvas painted with both nature’s abundance and its evanescence.
Autumnal was written for and dedicated to Jayson Martinez and the New Jersey Music Educators Association (NJMEA) Honors Guitar Ensemble as part of a Kean University 2023-24 RTR Award. In addition to its premiere at the 2024 Long Island Guitar Festival, the work will receive an NYC performance by the New Jersey Guitar Orchestra at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall and has been chosen by the Virtual Guitar Orchestra (Europe) for its VGO24 project with support from the Augustine Foundation.