Beyond the range of established chords are countless indefinable harmonies within reach of the guitar. Unique to the instrument, these are combinations of tones from open-sounding strings and those stopped at various frets. The practice of spread-eagling chords and melodies across open and stopped strings reaches back to the 17th century. Called by guitarists then, ‘campañellas’, this is a Spanish term for ‘bells’. A fitting expression, given that the tonal overlaps resulting from cross-stringing do indeed evoke the shimmers of superimposed chimes. Soft-hued, sonorous in traditional idioms, they can also sound resonant nowadays, enlivened with dissonances.
Certain of the ‘Miniatures’ and other numbers from this album embody campañellas. Where open-string tones are intended to ring on while stopped-string melodic passages or chords are superimposed, string numbers and lefthand fingerings are accordingly entered. Even so, an accomplished technique isn’t required since most fingerboard changes entail few overstretches. In the main the Miniatures are fairly short, of a page or so. Likened to studies, a selection of them can also be played as a suite. With this in mind they follow with contrasting tempos and moods.
Regarding the contents and motions of this collection, traditional chords with their familiar push-pull bearings seldom hold sway. Phrase reciprocations nevertheless take place between the surges and lapses of consecutive passages. To enhance these exchanges, projections, retreats, accelerations and lulls can be brought to bear at will.
Of the Miniatures, the 1st, 5th and 7th are ballad-like in tone and character. Similarly reflective are the 4th and 5th, for all their brevity. Against these the 2nd, 6th and 11th are fairly brisk. Under way their part-movements conflict from time to time, and in the case of the 2nd noticeably so. Exotic in tone, the 8th, ‘Yashma’ has something of an Eastern-like air imparted by bared intervals of 4ths and 5ths mingling with semitone inflections. Following a quiet introduction the 9th, ‘Lotus Pool’ then breaks out playfully, and ultimately homes on its first-heard theme shadowed in the bass. Also harking of music from distant parts is the 1oth Miniature, ‘Organdie’. Stemming from a pseudo-Eastern scale, A, B-flat, C-sharp, D, E, F, G-sharp, A, this sequence sideslips here and there from its axis note A to focus on E. To close the set, the 11th Miniature stems in essence from a diminished triad, A-sharp, C-sharp, E, in various arrays and extensions.
Onward, ‘A Prelude’ is composed for the most part of arpeggiated ‘quartal’ harmonies. Comprising 4th intervals, the hitherto components of early music, when strung out they do indeed recall Medieval chant. Yet animated and charged with dissonances, quartal harmonies radiate. In perpetual motion here, they flank a reflective interlude. ‘A Portrait of Two Scallywags’ came about through doodling with the whole-tone scale, A, B, C-sharp, D-sharp, F, G, A. At speed, melodies springing from whole-tones are apt to be jagged, their harmonies piquant. What I like to think of as a depiction of two agile rascals, the lines cut and thrust through seven action shots.
For ‘Zonus’ campañellas again come into play. As one fanciful impression its diffuse tunes and counterparts could summon to mind a kind of nebula transforming in form and flux. Then again, by twist of imagination, another vision may well flit across, of some infernal machine in the throes of its final contortions. ‘False Relations’ is so named for its sparring linework. With a hint of bitonality, two keys vie: the upper line hinting of B minor strikes at odds with its bass inclined to A minor. Distanced by just one tone, but quite mismatched keys, they come to blows at barline accents. Venturing afield ‘Savanna’ slips into the pulse of a samba. Open-ranging, a theme sets the course for several on-running episodes. Detouring, departing anew, a waltz-like interlude some way on then leads to a recollection of the announcement, resurfacing and submerged in the bass.
A Jazz Miscellany. Opening this series ‘Notturno’ is a bossa nova. These ‘new things’ or revamped sambas from the 1960s appealed for their jazz-tinged harmonies and syncopated Latin rhythms. Fringing side-shifting chords the melody here turns at mid-point to retrace its steps, then swerves outwardly to a coda. With a samba lilt too, ‘Another Time Around’ similarly veers to its opening phrase and ascends to a pitch peak before tapering to rest. A jazz waltz, ‘Cerise’ receives its characteristic triple-time sway through chordal uplifts and swoops of the melody.
Side by side with campañellas, no end of newly-formed chords have since taken root in recent guitar music. Mellow, radiant, abrasive, they come in all shades and varieties. In addition to these, countless others await discovery at the fretboard. Those for ‘Changes’ were unearthed through just such fingerboard explorations. With shifting and inflected tonalities, its opening theme sets to from D major to engage the first episode from E major. A further episode spurred from B major leads to a ‘Rhapsody’ led in A major Rounding off the opening theme is recalled now transposed. In the same vein ‘A Jazz Fantasie’ unfolded as if at the beck and call of these self-conceived harmonies. Finally, and raising dust ‘Giles Jig’ begins in slow motion then swings into action over a bass riff. Incidentally, this jig springs from a modal scale, the Dorian with its compass of all-natural notes from D. In this case the Dorian is transposed to begin on A. Quite a romp for Giles, it would prove the very thing to excite (or extinguish) his ardour.

Lance Bosman 2021