David Kraus: The Listening Room
For Karen
David Kraus ~ an over-dubbed duet;Buy the Album
acoustic steel string on finger picked
chords and nylon string on melody
lines and solos
Written for a good friend, I play both parts of this guitar duet with the steel string acoustic heard in the finger picked chord progression, and the nylon string playing the melody and solo. Though the tune is in the key of Gmajor, it begins on the sub-dominant Cmajor. The song rests on a four measure repeating cycle using eight chords of two beats each. The sequence is Cmaj-Gmaj/B-Amin-Gmaj-B7b9/F#-Emin-Amin-D7sus. One complete cycle introduces the tune alone. On beginning the second cycle the melody comes in and the progression repeats for the melody and solos and the final melody refrain. A two measure coda is introduced of Cmajor to Dmajor/add4&9, one measure of each. Over this is a free solo climaxing to the end. The song form is really very simple in that it has no "B" section, relying instead on the constant motion of a "chord cycle" which maintains a subtle tension which is never relieved until the end. The twelve bar blues is exactly this kind of form, a twelve measure cycle in a specific harmonic layout that contains infinite possibilities within it. Northern Indian music relies on the same principles in the cyclical motions of their ragas. Besides my grounding in jazz and by default the blues, my study in Northern Indian music strongly influences my composition even in classic Western music models. A well known American composer who uses repetitive cycles to great success is Philip Glass whose music I enjoy alot and has had a strong influence on me. It is also interesting to note that one of Glass's most profound musical influences is none other than sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar. They have also been musical collaborators since the early 60's and have produced several wonderful recordings together. The concept of cycles can be heard in much of the music I have written during the past twenty years whether in an ensemble setting or the solo guitar.
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