Instrumentation: two electric guitars
Duration: 10 minutes

Commissioned by: Guerrilla Composers Guild for Ignition Duo
World Premiere: February 27, 2015. Ignition Duo. Center for New Music, San Francisco, CA.

Score:
Preview/Purchase Score

Audio:

Recording available on Ignition Duo’s album Ablaze Amidst the Horns.

Program Note:
Coming out of rock music as an electric guitarist, I am very interested in music that transforms the sound of instruments through a highly personal and idiosyncratic approach. Even when, as in Reverie, this approach involves eliminating virtually all references to a traditional “rock” guitar style. By removing the attack sound of individual notes with volume pedal swells and extending the sound through (nearly) endless delay loops, the piece becomes a gradually shifting soundscape of harmony and color with very few recognizable landmarks for the listener to grab onto. Despite this (or because of it) the music is very strictly structured; based on a progression of seven chords that gradually increases in speed through the course of the piece. One guitar is responsible for playing these harmonies, while the other elaborates on them by adding additional colors and playing long slow melodies on top of them.

Video:

Live performance by Ignition Duo, February 27, 2015.