Summary of the impact

The University of Surrey has established the International Guitar Research Centre, led by Prof. Steve Goss and Dr. Milton Mermikides, a central strand of which experiments with the innovative use of acoustic resonance.

Practice-based research outcomes (compositions) have created impact as artworks, having been recorded on Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Telarc, Naxos, and Virgin Classics. CD sales emerging from the project are in excess of 200,000. The compositions have been performed internationally by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Barcelona Symphony Orchestra.

The new techniques developed at Surrey are utilised by renowned musicians, such as John Williams, Xuefei Yang, Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Russell, and Miloš Karadaglić.

Underpinning research

A key element of Surrey's International Guitar Research Centre's work explores innovative approaches to the use of acoustic resonance in writing for guitar. The research dates back to 2003 and from its start integrated partnerships with national and international collaborators in music and composition studies, such as Jonathan Leathwood, Denver University; Michael Partington, University of Washington; Xuefei Yang, EMI Classics; Craig Ogden, Royal Northern College of Music. It took its departure from exploring new techniques and approaches to playing the guitar (such as composing a piece for two guitars to be played simultaneously by one player) and developing new notational strategies to clarify the musical intentions. From here, the project went on to explore, through projects on the solo guitar, specific aspects of guitar resonance, which are at the heart of the presented case study. Research investigated the use of resonance in various Chinese and Japanese forms of traditional music, or ways of simulating, through idiomatic guitar writing, the effect of the sostenuto pedal of the piano on the guitar. This research has been undertaken through practice-based projects — compositions and concerts — which continue to further the understanding of this new approach to resonance, through music scores, articles, papers and academic writing. Several of these pieces feature guitar in a chamber music setting where the sound of the guitar's resonance is coloured by other instruments in the ensemble, thereby developing a new approach to guitar writing within specific chamber music settings. Techniques developed through this research are specifically in the areas of campanella, laissez vibrer textures, scordatura, slurs, innovative right hand fingering patterns and extended rasguaedo techniques. A recent project (The Flower of Cities) explored the possibilities of using these new techniques in the combined resonance of two guitars, within the context of a mixed chamber group (3).

To date, the innovative research in guitar composition undertaken at Surrey has been referred to in a number of Masters, DMA, and PhD submissions, in the UK and the US (Colorado State University, Arizona State University, California State University, Royal Northern College of Music, City University London, Peabody Institute Baltimore).

As an example, the Portuguese guitarist Rui Mourinho completed a Master's degree at Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa in 2011 focussing on the subject of resonance in the solo guitar pieces, El Llanto de los Suenos, The Chinese Garden and Sonata.

References to the research

Details of the impact

The compositions that have resulted from this research project exploit the techniques and notational strategies developed through the exploration of resonance. As musical compositions which are available as published sheet music, they have made a contribution to the cultural life by pushing the boundaries of practice and playing on the instrument.

The resulting works are available as commercial recordings, and have been performed in many hundred concerts and broadcast internationally (Cf. list of key performances and broadcasts with relevant dates: www.stephengoss.net/perf_past.html; www.stephengoss.net/performances.html)

This impact is evidenced through complementing reviews in broadsheet newspapers and the Classical music press, and further corroborated through sales figures in large numbers. Recently, in 2012, the research has reached an even wider audience through the inclusion of the Albéniz Concerto in Virgin Classics and EMI's Classical 2012 compilation album, and the commissioning of various arrangements for Miloš Karadaglić's new album Latino on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Karadaglić's last album won two Gramophone Awards and sold over 200,000 copies. The work with Karadaglić and Andrew Lloyd Webber on Stephen Ward (ITV, Deutsche Grammophon 2013) brought these research outputs to an even wider audience.

The research has also advanced and influenced contemporary practice by some of the world's most prominent guitarists, who have commissioned pieces that use these resonance techniques, and they have collaborated on the research as instrumentalist: John Williams, David Russell, Xuefei Yang, Jonathan Leathwood, Miloš Karadaglić, Carlo Marchione, and Craig Ogden. Composers have used and adapted the procedures that have been developed further in other contexts, while the notational strategies have also been adopted by several composers when writing for guitar: Roland Dyens, Chris Malloy, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Rob Keeley, Colin Thurmond, and Marek Pasienczny.

The music that has so far emerged from this ongoing research project is beginning to become part of the established canon of modern guitar repertoire. Other professional performers and also students have taken up the pieces and played them in concerts and examinations
(www.stephengoss.net/perf_past.html)

The pieces have featured on examination syllabuses and have been set as test pieces in international guitar competitions, for example the 2012 London International Guitar Competition
igf.org.uk/London_International_Guitar_Competition.html).

The music is now regularly performed in final Master's and Doctoral recitals in many of the most prestigious universities and conservatoires in the world. Since 2009 these have included: The Julliard School, The Manhattan School of Music, The Mannes School of Music (New York), Yale University (CT), University of Southern California, San Francisco Conservatory, University of Colorado (Boulder), Denver University, Robert Schumann Hochschule (Germany), Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing), Royal Academy of Music (London), Grieg Academy (Bergen), Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Sources to corroborate the impact

a) The Albéniz Concerto : Guy Traviss, Classical Guitar Magazine January 2011, 6pp. International Record Review, February 2011, Gramophone Magazine, February 2011

b) El Llanto de los Sueños: Editor's Choice, Gramophone Magazine, July 2009

c) The Autumn Song: The Independent, June 10th 2011, The Strad, May 2010

d) The Chinese Garden Editor's Choice, Gramophone Magazine, July 2008

e) Guitar Concerto: Graham Wade, Classical Guitar Magazine, August 2012, pp 26-27

f) `To-ing and Fro-ing: collaboration in the music of Stephen Goss', cover article, Classical Guitar Magazine, May and June 2008, 12pp

Uneasy Dreams: compositional process in the music of Stephen Goss
Filmed interview 60 mins (Kingston University, FMR DVD004-0310, June 2009)

Individual users/beneficiaries who could be contacted to corroborate claims Independent reviewers

g) Chair of Conservatory Program, University of Denver, CO, USA (contact details provided)

h) Chair of Guitar, Arizona State University, AZ, USA (contact details provided)

i) Music Departmental Chair and head of the International Guitar Research Archives (IGRA)
California State University, Northridge, CA, USA (contact details provided)

j) Chair of Guitar, Yale University, CT, USA (contact details provided)

Collaborators

k) John Williams (contact details provided)

Miloš Karadaglić (contact details available)

David Russell (contact details available)

Xuefei Yang (contact details available)

Craig Ogden (contact details available)

Andrew Lloyd Webber (contact details available)