Da Chara (flute and guitar)  (1984)   [6’]
Air (flute and guitar) (1982)    [4’]
Guitar Quartet No. 8  (Cuatro Canciones Melancólicos) (soprano and four guitars) (1996)   [14’]
Guitar Quartet No. 7  (Civil Guard) (for low voice and four guitars) (1996)  [12’]
Labyrinth (On A Theme of Led Zeppelin) (AKA Guitar Quartet No. 5) (1994)     [23’]
Portrait of a Young Woman (1993) (two guitars)   [13’]
Folías (AKA Guitar Quartet No. 4) (1993)    [14’]
Bulerías (AKA Guitar Quartet No. 3)  (1989)    [15’]
Antique Suite (AKA Guitar Quartet No.2)  (1976)    [15’]
 
 

Da Chara (flute and guitar)  (1984)     [6’]

Commissioned and premiered by Objet d’art (Valarie King, flute, Anisa Angarola, flute) 1984.

First recording by Objet d’art, ‘Pastorale’, James Mars Productions, released 1986. (Cassette only, out of print.)  CD release coming soon from Lissadell.  Second recording by Jim Walker, flute, Scott Tennant, guitar, ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’, Delos DE 3207, released February, 1998.

Published by Peer-Southern Music.

Program notes and performance history:

Da Chara, Gaelic for "two friends," one of a growing series of pieces written in the traditional Irish style, was commissioned by guitarist Anisa Angarola and flutist Valarie King.  Written in a form largely inspired by Paddy Maloney of the Chieftains, it begins with a flute air in free style, followed by another air in 3/4 time, played first by the guitar alone, then with the flute.  Next, the original air returns as a march, which gradually picks up energy until it bubbles over into a wild reel.  At the end of the reel, the first air returns one last time as a cantus firmus, as the flute continues to spin wild variations above.  Though all the melodies are "original" in the sense that they were not lifted from traditional sources, they were intended to be taken for authentic Irish melodies.  Guitarist Juan Carlos Laguna with flutist Marisa Canales, as well as guitarist Scott Tennant and flutist James Walker, among others, have also performed the piece.
 
 

Air (flute and guitar) (1982)  [4’]

Arrangement by the composer of a piece originally for guitar solo.  Premiered by flutist Valarie King and guitarist Terry Graves, October, 1982.

First recording by Objet d’art, ‘Pastorale’, James Mars Productions,  1986. (Cassette only, out of print.)  CD re-release on Lissadell.

Score available from the composer. P.O. Box 117, 23705 Vanowen Street, West Hills, CA 91307

Score       $8.00

Program notes and performance history:

Written for the composer’s first wife Laurie Jeffs, the Air draws two of its most important mottos from the letters of her name.  Though it was intended ideally to be played by an Irish band, it has most often been performed in an arrangement for solo guitar, and, in that form, has been championed by guitarist Scott Tennant.
 
 

 
Guitar Quartet No. 8  (Cuatro Canciones Melancólicos) (soprano and four guitars) (1996)  [14’]

Un-premiered.  Score and parts available from the composer. P.O. Box 117, 23705 Vanowen Street, West Hills, CA 91307

 Score:       $19.00
 Parts:        $38.00

 
 

Guitar Quartet No. 7  (Civil Guard) (for low voice and four guitars) (1996)   [12’]

Premiered by the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet with Tom Speckhard, baritone, Sundin Music Hall, Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota, March 6, 1999.

Score and parts available from the composer. P.O. Box 117, 23705 Vanowen Street, West Hills, CA 91307

Score:       $19.00
Parts:        $63.00

Program notes and performance history:

The Ballad of the Spanish Civil Guard is a concert arrangement, for guitar quartet and low voice, of a scene from my opera Lorca, hijo de la luna.  The Minneapolis Guitar Quartet premiered this version with American baritone Tom Speckard at Sundin Music Hall, Hamline University, in St. Paul, Minnesota, on March 6, 1999, and has subsequently performed it several times.

In the opera it is sung by a mezzo-soprano and baritone soloist with chorus, and is intended to be richly and powerfully choreographed, as it was by Mari Sandoval in the 1997 Los Angeles Production by the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts.  I remember feeling rather daunted by the density and power of the text, to say nothing of the length.  (Prior to this point I had never before set such an ambitious text.)  In the end, under great time pressure, I wrote the first two-thirds of the piece very quickly, having settled upon the rhythmic figure that starts things off. The final section of the piece was written after a lapse of a year or so.

 The piece also exists in an arrangement for low voice and piano, a version that has been performed many times, mainly by mezzo-soprano Suzann Guzman, who premiered the role of ‘La Gitana’ in the opera, and for whom the concert version was made.
 
 

Labyrinth (On A Theme of Led Zeppelin) (AKA Guitar Quartet No. 5) (1994)   [23’]

Requested and premiered by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, John Dearman, William Kanengiser, Scott Tennant, Andrew York, Mechanics Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, October 21, 1995.

First recording by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, ‘Labyrinth’, Delos, DE 3163, May, 1995.

Score and parts available from the composer. P.O. Box 117, 23705 Vanowen Street, West Hills, CA 91307

Score       $38.00
Parts        $63.00

Reviews:

"The most successful is Krouse’s tongue-in-cheek admixture of rock & roll with his classical compositional ingenuity – there are many surprises to be found."

John Schneider, GFA SOUNDBOARD, Fall, 1996
 

"On fresher turf, Ian Krouse’s "Labyrinth" takes, as a conceptual springboard, the Led Zeppelin song "Friends."  Rather than using the chamber-rock angle as a novelty, a la the Kronos Quartet’s "Purple Haze," the composer pays respects to Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page – one of rock’s great exotic riff-makers – by extending the harmonic language of the original tune. Extra-classical guitar effects abounded, with the use of picks, slides and open tuning, and a blues chord progression inserted in the middle seemed irrelevant.  But, in the main, this was a gutsy attempt to bridge different musical worlds."

Josef Woodard, LOS ANGELES TIMES, January 20, 1996
 

"The disc’s cynosure is the mammoth Labyrinth by Ian Krouse.  Officially the composer’s Guitar Quartet No. 5, Labyrinth uses Led Zeppelin’s exotic song "Friends" as a cantus firmus of sorts.  Artificial, Middle-Eastern sounding scales, bottle-neck slide, string bending, flat picking, microtones, scordatura, improvisation, and singing, all cast a new light on what the classical guitar can do.  By appropriating the tools of rock and folk music, Krouse has added colors to the art guitar’s palette.  For once, here’s an adventurous highly crafted work that insults neither high nor low musical camps.  Bravo!"

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, November/December, 1995
 

"…Ian Krouse’s remarkable mulling over of a Led Zeppelin tune.  They not only pick, pluck, and strum in a variety of manners, but they also retune the guitars, bend notes, improvise, knock on wood, and sing a lot…truly adventurous."

STEREO REVIEW, October, 1995
 

"…a fascinating six-movement work that successively reproduces, reinvents, and reassembles Zep’s "Friends," is but one highlight of this extraordinary recording.  Listen and marvel."

GUITAR PLAYER, October, 1995
 

"Ian Krouse’s ‘Labyrinth’ is inspired by Led Zep, and at 20 minutes does seem to hit the marathon runner’s famous "wall."  In seven sections of varying rock and blues orientated passages, it sometimes has a nostalgic charm – I particularly liked the slow, moody blues of the fourth part, and the fragmentary nature of the second with its stabbing motifs fighting for elbow room…"

Chris Kilvington, CLASSICAL GUITAR, October, 1995

Program notes and performance history:

Labyrinth, my fifth effort for four guitars, was written at the request of my ‘friends’ the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, and represents the fulfillment of a long-held desire to do something personal and substantial with rock and roll materials.  For at least a decade I had mused over the possibility of composing a rock/blues piece utilizing a full battery of classical and modern compositional techniques.  Inspired by the unique musical and technical qualities of the LAGQ I finally mustered the courage.  The result is Labyrinth. I based my work on the song Friends by Led Zeppelin because its complex, exotic qualities resonated perfectly with my own compositional language.  The song became a kind of ‘portal’ between the often diametrically opposed worlds of rock ‘n’ roll and contemporary classical music.

 The unusual scale upon which this work is based (C – D-flat – E – F# - G – A – B) is drawn from the ‘ritornello riff’ of the Led Zeppelin song, which is chanted near the outset of the piece.  I decided to use this melody as a kind of ‘cantus firmus.’  Furthermore, by rotating the seven-note scale upon which it is based, I created six other related modes that account for the majority of the melodic and harmonic materials in the work.  For instance, the ‘Boogie’ section (Part III) is based on the fifth rotation (A – B – C – D-flat – E – F# – G) while the "blues" (Part IV) is derived from the first, (D-flat – E – F# – G – A – B – C) and so on.  The large-scale structure is created by turning each of the nine notes of the ‘row’ into a lengthy harmonic region, establishing a giant labyrinth which must be successfully traversed before the final return to the original key of C!  This arrival home is celebrated by a manic fugue based upon another important motive of the Led Zeppelin song (C – E-flat – D – F – E – G – F#, etc.), which gradually transforms itself into a massive coda and a return to the song ‘Friends’.

 In order to evoke accurately the world of acoustic rock and blues, the normal palette of classical guitar techniques has been expanded to include pitch-bending, micro-tonal inflections, de-tuned unisons, bottle-neck slides, unusual tunings (two of the players are tuned C – G – C – G – C – E), capos, improvisation, singing, and, most importantly, extensive use of flat picking.
 
 

Portrait of a Young Woman (1993) (two guitars)   [13’]

Commissioned and premiered by Julian Gray and Ronald Pearl, Shenandoah Conservatory, Oct. 6, 1996.

 Score available from the composer. P.O. Box 117, 23705 Vanowen Street, West Hills, CA 91307

 Score:       $25.00

Reviews:

"The most remarkable piece…was an Ian Krouse work, "Portrait of A Young Woman"…based on the "Frog Galliard" by John Dowland, although the tune does not become recognizable until the middle."

GFA SOUNDBOARD, Summer, 1997

Program notes and performance history:

Portrait of A Young Woman was commissioned and premiered by Julian Gray and Ron Pearl.   It is largely made by "deconstructing" Dowland’s famous lute solo, the "Frog Galliard"  as an elaborate canon for two guitars.  Although I don’t think it is possible – or reasonable – to hear the piece as a canon,  given the vast distance in time between the "leader" (Guitar 1) and the "follower" (Guitar 2), both guitarists play essentially the same part.  I remember musing as I wrote the piece, over the very reasonable possibility of the two players practicing their parts in unison!  The "Frog Galliard" is one of those unusual pieces in the western canon which has no accidentals – not one – using only the notes of an E-major scale.  I had often wondered whether or not it would be possible to "pull off" a larger work which remained in one scale throughout, without that fact being noticed, or worse, becoming tedious.  The Portrait afforded me the chance to give this a try.  Thus, for 13 minutes or so, the piece proceeds, like the Dowland upon which it is extracted, entirely in the key of E-major, though its modal orientation does "modulate" to G#-Phrygian for a long stretch in the middle, before concluding back in E.
 
 

Folías (AKA Guitar Quartet No. 4) (1993)    [14’]

Requested and premiered by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, John Dearman, William Kanengiser, Scott Tennant, Andrew York, St. Louis, Missouri, October 4, 1992.

First recording by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, ‘Evening in Granada’, Delos, DE 3144, Winter,1994.

Published by Peer-Southern Music.

Reviews:

"Ian Krouse’s "Folías" is a variation set that quotes Renaissance and Baroque versions of the "Folías" theme between more adventurously modern expansions."

Allan Kozin, NEW YORK TIMES, May 28, 1994
 

"What follows is Folías, a heated contemporary piece by guitarist Ian Krouse that begins where Boccherini’s flamenco strums end.  Boisterous rasgueado jump starts the 15-minute set of variations which travel back in time as each new treatment of the theme gets closer in language to the original Spanish Renaissance dance; by the fade-out finish, the players have exited one by one, as in Haydn’s Farewell Symphony, giving Folías a ghostly ending that sweeps away the music like so much desert sand and collective memory"

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, September/October, 1994
 

"This remarkable 15 minute piece is an absolutely compelling work, which only reveals its famous theme halfway through and moves in a circle of ‘time travel’ as the composer puts it.  Commencing with a sort of minimalistic whispering alternated with powerful chords, it journeys backwards in style from today to the Baroque and Renaissance, with guitarists sure to recognize Gaspar Sanz en route.  I loved its prolonged motifs changing by voice, tonal sounds occasionally becoming dissonant, and then gradually evolving majestically with strong themes coming and going against a backwash of murmuring arpeggio.  Folías concludes by the disappearance of each player in turn, gradually becoming nothing.  A terrific composition."

CLASSICAL GUITAR, June, 1994
 

"Krouse’s Folías leaps into the 20th century, only to commence a journey back to the popular Renaissance dance theme known to students of baroque music through Corelli’s famous Op. 5, No. 12 variations.  Krouse’s intricate development of the old melody extends the concept of variations well beyond Corelli’s simple musical geometry, and we are almost relieved to hear the familiar theme directly stated after 8 ½ minutes of ingenious exploration and extrapolation.  There is anticipation in this piece, and maybe a little frustration, but the purposeful motion of the music keeps us involved and always waiting for the next note."

CD REVIEW, February, 1994
 

"Ian Krouse’s "Folías" takes one of the most famous tunes of all times – there are more than 1,000 settings – and makes a fantastic set of variations on it."

Glenn Giffin, DENVER POST, November 19, 1992
 

 "The [L.A. Guitar Quartet] surprised the crowd with the world premiere of Ian Krouse’s set of variations based on "La Folia," a popular harmonic pattern used in baroque music.  The harmonic pattern is obscured here, used with prominence only in a reference to Corelli’s famous version.  At the end, a la Haydn’s "Farewell Symphony," the musicians leave the stage while playing the closing four guitars."

Sue Taylor, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, October 5, 1992
 

Program notes and performance history:

 In ‘Folías’, which was composed at the request of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, the composer set out to add a work evocative of Spanish style to a distinguished tradition of "folias" that includes over 1,000 compositions, including versions by Marais, Bach, Vivaldi, Corelli, Paganini, Rachmaninoff, Ponce, and Lutoslawski.  About his own Folías the composer writes:

"The folia was popular in Spain as a sung dance accompanied by guitar and sonagas – metal disks attached to a wooden ring.  The word folia means "mad" or "empty-headed,"  for the dance was so fast and noisy that the dancers seemed out of their minds.  My version is set in the usual form of the variations, but with two twists.  First, the theme itself is not presented until almost halfway through the piece – and even then – it is stated in several forms.  Second, the variations start out quite long and gradually become shorter…they continue to accelerate until they move so fast that each takes only a few beats to complete.  The piece concludes with a festive series of variations based on a form of the folia which was popular in the late Renaissance."

The compositional style of Krouse’s Folías is an eclectic circle.  It is described by the composer as a kind of  "time travel," beginning with improvisatory, neo-minimalistic murmurings reminiscent of flamenco style.  The music develops backward in time, stylistically, to a statement of the them in Baroque style, then back further to neo-Renaissance style, and finally comes full circle back to the present.  One hears the theme emerging gradually until its full statement at the gravitational center of the piece, designated by the composer "Follia after Corelli" [at 8:25].  Shortly thereafter [at 10:31] the theme is stated in minor, this time quoting the "Folías of Sanz."  As the variations draw to a close, the score indicates that the players should, each in turn, leave the stage, in an elaborate visual, as well as aural, diminuendo.
 
 

Bulerías (AKA Guitar Quartet No. 3)  (1989)    [15’]

Requested and premiered by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Anisa Angarola, John Dearman, William Kanengiser, Scott Tennant, Second Guitar Congress, Wake Forest University, June, 1989.

First recording by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, ‘The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet’, GHA – 126.016, released Winter, 1992.

Published by Peer-Southern Music.

Reviews:

"Ian Krouse’s "Bulerías" explores the obsessive side of flamenco in sweaty volleys of iterative chords, building impressively…It lives on rhythmic interplay, and the collisions of granitic harmonies and primal motivic fragments, all fiercely projected here."

John Henken, LOS ANGELES TIMES, March 23, 1991
 

"Accented with dissonant, crashing passages, sometimes rhythmically at odds, the work gradually evolved into beautifully harmonic, layered patterns, performed with great spirit."

Karen Knutson, ARKANSAS GAZETTE, February 21, 1990
 

"…Bulerías, a piece with fabulous textures…is absorbing, brutal, beautiful, and harsh, all at the same time."

GFA SOUNDBOARD, Winter, 1989-90
 

"Bulerías has to be mentioned in a separate breath, for it was quite literally breath-taking.  Firmly footed in its Spanish origin, this item provided a challenge to the members of the quartet.  The difficulties of this marathon piece may not have been readily evident, since they were mostly based on rhythmic intricacies between the four guitarists.  Bulerías was tailor-made for the L.A. Guitar Quartet, or so it seems.  Using a number of minimalist devices and techniques, the piece very quickly transported the listener beyond the state of ordinary excitement into a realm of hypnotic suspension.  As the piece came to a close, I had a sense of exhausted exhilaration over having been returned to earth in one piece.  I shall not forget this experience any time soon."

GFA SOUNDBOARD, Fall, 1989
 

Program notes and performance history:

The idea for Bulerías came to me while listening with awe and fascination to the multiple guitar improvisations of the touring show Flamenco Puro.  This single movement virtuoso work is neither "flamenco" nor "pure."  But it is solidly rooted in the characteristic 12-beat rhythmic patterns of the "soleares" and its festive cousin the "bulerías," and is imbued throughout with the spirit and actual techniques of the flamenco guitar.  After an impressionistic and improvisatory opening section marked Quasi cadenza – senza misura, the work becomes gradually more rhythmically clarified, leading to an intense Tempo di Soleares and finally culminating in a riotous final (and longest) section – Tempo di Bulerías.  The piece makes extensive use of antiphonal effects, all based on the improvised clapping   –  palmas  – of flamenco.
 
 

Antique Suite (AKA Guitar Quartet No.2)  (1976)     [15’]

Premiered in its revised version by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Anisa Angarola, John Dearman, William Kanengiser, Scott Tennant, Bovard Auditorium, USC, Los Angeles, California, April 18, 1987.

First recording by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, ‘El Amor Brujo’, GHA 126.001, released Winter, 1987.

Published by Peer-Southern Music.

Reviews:

"Ian Krouse’s ‘Antique Suite after Neusidler’ is based on pieces by 16th century lutenist Hans Neusidler, and is a dynamic, often unsettling,  fusion of 20th  century and Renaissance musical languages."

GUITAR PLAYER,  April, 1990
 

"…the astonishing and beautiful ‘Antique Suite’ …was inspired by themes of the German Renaissance.  Although the work is a difficult one the four guitarists rose to the occasion brilliantly.  The first two movements each began with sustained effects produced by drawing a bow across all six strings."

CORDOBA LOCAL, July 24, 1987
 

"[Antique Suite] is an interesting work where colorful Renaissance harmonic progressions are given modern resolutions.  The use of the bow in the manner of a viola da gamba and the percussive effects produced by the fingers on the bridge add richness and variety to the work.  The L.A Guitar Quartet gave us a colorful and seductive version of the work."

GRENOBLE LOISIRS, July 8, 1987
 

Program notes and performance history:

The original version of the Antique Suite was written in 1976 while I was an undergraduate composition major at Indiana University at South Bend, and premiered by myself with several friends on the occasion of my senior recital.  It was composed in a burst of enthusiasm over hearing Stravinsky’s Pulcinella for the first time.  (I could not have known at the time, that this ‘recreational’ little piece would be a harbinger of my mature style.)  Several years later, while a graduate student at the University of Southern California, I decided to re-visit this piece, as I wanted something to give my friends the Los Angles Guitar Quartet, who, at that time, were still largely unknown.  I quickly realize that the piece, as it stood, had several problems!  I tossed out two of the inner movements, wrote one new one, tightened up the seams, and polished up the counterpoint.  The result worked out quite well, and I have left it alone ever since.

The work assumes the form of a suite-like series of re-constructed lute dances by the prolific German lutenist-composer Hans Neusidler.  At first I recall being somewhat ‘intimidated’ by the material and somewhat cautious in my arranging.  I also remember being frustrated by this unintended conservatism.  As I got deeper into the piece I found it easier and easier to treat the material as my own, and wondered, with some chagrin, what Neusidler would have thought of my efforts.  In fact, when I returned to "repair" this piece after a lapse of about ten years, it was primarily the first movement – the first to be composed – which received the most radical revision.  It appears as if I shed some of my reticence in the intervening years!