Rock Meets Spectralism: Cultural Associations of the Electric Guitar in Tristan Murail’s Vampyr!

An important strand in the rock music of the 1980s was a resurgence of guitar

virtuosity, characterised by innovations in playing techniques, theoretical

knowledge and even instrument design. The guitar heroes of the 80s often

supplemented the blues based approaches of earlier rock with language from

historical Western ‘art’ music styles, and aspired to ideals of virtuosity

associated with this repertoire. In 1984, spectralist composer Tristan Murail

wrote Vampyr! for solo electric guitar, a piece that seems to reverse this pattern

of influence, as Murail (a composer squarely within the notated concert music

tradition) clearly draws upon elements of contemporary rock guitar. A piece that

engages so openly with popular idiom is somewhat unusual within Murail’s

oeuvre of often ‘abstract’ spectral compositions.