Product Description
Recognized at a young age for his virtuosity and technical finesse as both a flatpicking and fingerpicking guitarist, Tony Ferrizzi-now 33-has matured into a musician capable of great feats in both jazz and classical arenas. Recognized nationally for his improvisational ability and adventurous graphical scores, Tony was the recent recipient of a generous private grant, which allowed him the opportunity to-for the first time-contribute fully composed, traditional scores to the art music idiom.
"Rhapsody No. 1" represents the efforts of a talented creative musician in a compositional space that many such musicians avoid. It positions itself quite clearly in the theoretical line extending from late romanticism though Stravinsky, Debussy, and Ravel, into Schoenberg, and then through the harmonic inventions of Bartók and Messiaen. It does that while also attempting to find a voice for the solo guitarist in atonal and polytonal contemporary classical music.
The theoretical aim of this music has to do with a synthesis of polytonal harmony and modern jazz musical structures. It is as indebted to 60s era Miles, the later Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Anthony Braxton as it is to Ravel, Stravinsky, and Schönberg (and the implicit claim is that there is in the end quite a lot relating the fields that those composers worked in).
The graphic notation on the piece, which is not represented in the audio sample provided, necessitates improvisation on the part of the performer. Where the score is obscured, a choice must be made. The content of the painting describes the character of that improvisation, much the way traditional dynamics, articulations, and tempo markings do.
In the final moment, this piece is about freedom, it is about creation-it is sure to excite and to challenge even the most advanced guitarist.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.