Panel 07 - The Culture and Aesthetics of the Electric Guitar in Rock Music
Rock Meets Spectralism: Cultural Associations of the Electric Guitar in Tristan Murail’s Vampyr!
Start Date
28-3-2015 4:00 PM
Description
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.
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.