CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THIS ALBUM

---

---

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THIS ALBUM

---

Album: New Renaissance Artist: Los Angeles Guitar Quartet Contains: Music in Four Sharps (On Dowland's 'Frog Galliard') Label: LAGQ 0135 Released: March 2015
_______
“Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, “New Renaissance” (LAGQ). More connections between Renaissance and contemporary music. In this case the LAGQ plays contemporary arrangements of “Music from the time of Cervantes” and…two contemporary works with variations on Renaissance music, Dusan Bogdanovich’s “Six Ricercars on a Theme of F. da Milano” and Ian Krouse’s “Music In Four Sharps” (On Dowland’s Frog Galliard.)” Jeff Simon, THE BUFFALO NEWS, April 5, 2015 “The rest of the music on this disc is less intriguing but scarcely uninteresting. Second longest and second only to the Cervantes in its attractiveness is Ian Krouse’s Music In Four Sharps (On Dowland’s “Frog Galliard”). Based on a popular piece by Dowland, Shakespeare’s nearly exact contemporary (1513-1616), Krouse’s work builds up to the full galliard and then marches away from it, eventually ending with wisps of sound. Its exploration of a full range of guitar effects makes it particularly interesting to hear.” INFODAD, April 9, 2015 “There is also a lengthy work by Ian Krouse based o a lute piece by Dowland, The Frog Galliard.” John Sunier, CLASSICAL CD REVIEWS, April 24, 2015 “Then, there's Music in Four Sharps (on Dowland's "Frog Galliard") by the modern composer Ian Krouse. Again, LAGQ mix new with old, while maintaining the Renaissance style. I enjoyed the Krouse piece with its enchanting, almost mystical variations.” John J. Puccio, CLASSICAL CANDOR, August 2, 2015 “The pair of new pieces by Dusan Bogdanovic and Ian Krouse each take a single Renaissance work, an unnamed theme by lutenist Francesco Canova da Milano and Dowland's Frog Galliard, respectively, as material for a new composition. Each has variation-like aspects, but is not a set of variations. Composers have done this with Renaissance music before, but an effort on this scale, tailored to specific performers and making up such a major part of the program, is something new and exciting.” James Manheim, ALL MUSIC REVIEW, March 17, 2015 “Ian Krouse, in his 14-minute “Music in Four Sharps” (on Dowland’s ‘Frog Galliard), Deconstructs Dowland’s popular work bit by bit. Beginning with the bass line passed around the quartet antiphonally, the work slowly opens up, gaining momentum, adding rhythmic activity between the bass line, accompaniment voices, and high register melodic snippets. Three-plus minutes in, we hear Dowland’s familiar running 16th note melodies Over jaunty strummed chords and later, minimalist arpeggio figures. Rasgueado chords morph into quietly brushed chords before the meditative ambiance of the opening returns and all fades to silence.” Mark Small, CLASSICAL GUITAR MAGAZINE, September 16, 2015 “The second half started with what for me was the high point of the evening, a composition by Ian Krouse after John Dowland’s (c 1600) Frog Galliard entitled Music in Four Sharps. Tennant played the original lute piece beautifully on the guitar in order to show us what was to be the subject; then the quartet played the Krouse piece which consisted of a confluence of sounds flowing together and pertaining to the Galliard, sometimes like birdsong, sometimes like Messaien and through echoed rasgueados evoking the slight melancholy of late Elizabethan music. This composition was a masterpiece, beautifully rendered. John Dowland himself would have thoroughly enjoyed it.”

~ Mike Jones, ROYAL GAZETTE, February 9, 2015
“Ian Krouse's "Music in Four Sharps" was a set of variations in search of a theme, which proved to be John Dowland's "Frog Galliard"…by nature somewhat conservative in [its] harmonic language but extremely modern in [its] rhetoric, and the subtle polytonality that arose from the intricate counterpoint wove[n] for the four players.”
~ Mark Satola, CLEVELAND.COM, March 23, 2015 “Ian Krouse had set himself the task of writing a piece based on Dowland’s Frog Galliard that never ventured out of the twelve pitches available in the key of E Major. That’s more difficult than it sounds, for most pieces that last fourteen minutes or more, as Music in Four Sharps does, depend on venturing away from the home key and finding a convincing way to return at the end. Krouse developed a clever passacaglia-like format of variations over a recurring pattern borrowed from Dowland. When that idea ran out of steam, he turned to Philip Glass-like repetition, which kept things fresh — and safely in E Major — to the end. LAGQ helped hold everyone’s attention with their rapt, concentrated playing.” ~CLEVELAND CLASSICAL.COM, March 24, 2015

---

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THIS ALBUM

---

COMING SOON! OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE: UNKNOWN Artist: Minneapolis Guitar Quartet
Contains: StarWaves Released: February 16, 2019 Premiered: May 6, 2017 For more information, visit the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet's website. _______ “The other piece on the disc is a commission from American composer Ian Krouse called Starwaves (On a Song of Nick Drake). The “Song” on which Krouse based his work for the MGQ is called “Hanging on a Star” which was one of the last tunes Drake recorded, and didn’t appear on an album until a 1987 release of outtakes and rarities. (Dare to be obscure, Ian!) But it’s a cool song and Krouse and the MGQ use it as a springboard to inventive extrapolations on the original’s brooding rhythmic thrum and haunting melody, and, needless to say, over the course of close to 15 minutes, it goes far, far astray from Drake’s 2:49 version—touching on all sorts of musical moods, from delicate introspective passages to clashing rhythmic bursts. It’s a very compelling, multi-layered piece; a truly unique portrait of a troubled but gentle artist.” Blair Jackson, CLASSICAL GUITAR, April 17, 2019 _______ After Krouse's StarWaves was first commissioned by the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet back in 2017, it was promoted on Classical MPR. "The Minneapolis Guitar Quartet are preparing for a summer tour of China. There's a send-off concert Saturday, May 6, at Sundin Hall at Hamline University. The MGQ's performance will include the world premiere of a new work, "StarWaves," written especially for them by guitar great, Ian Krouse." Staruch, Steve. "Regional Spotlight: Minneapolis Guitar Quartet introduces a new work." 04 May 2017. Classical MPR. https://www.classicalmpr.org/story/2017/05/04/minneapolis-guitar-quartet-introduce-a-new-work “An original work written for the quartet by the UCLA composer Ian Krouse. The
tenth of his eleven guitar quartets, it is entitled Starwaves (On a Song of Nick
Drake). Nick Drake was an English singer/songwriter who committed suicide in his
mid-20s. Krouse has not dealt with suicide directly in Starwaves; rather, he
imagines the emotional roller coaster the suicidal person lives through in his
everyday life. This work is very close to my heart. I survived a suicide attempt in my
late teens, and currently suffer from Bipolar Disorder and anxiety. I have been
dealing with suicidal ideation from day to day for 28 years. Krouse has given
expression to what my emotional life feels like on a daily basis.
"He is not averse to the fact that there can be great beauty in the tristesse one
feels from the fragility of human existence. Even though Starwaves at times builds
to almost unbearable peaks of psychic desolation, the humanity of the suffering soul
never escapes Krouse. There are wonderfully unquiet soft passages that portray the
absence of calm even in silence for the suicidal personality, with a slightly edgy
sense that the music is emotionally a tilt. Even though this is an ensemble piece,
Krouse conveys the isolation the suicidal individual feels and often physically
craves. It is no accident that the two relationships with women Nick Drake had as
an adult apparently never were consummated. Krouse appreciates the terror of
intimacy for the suicidal, and how personal contact can be dangerously unnerving.
Starwaves ends with a feeling of all passion spent, the emotional exhaustion such a
life yields—only to be swept away on the roller coaster once again. As emotionally
draining as Starwaves is, truthfully there should be a da capo after the last note.
The MGQ play this work, which they premiered, with immense sensitivity and
artistry. It only goes to show that there are new vistas and topics for composition
opening up in our generation.”
Dave Saemann, FANFARE, October, 2019 "On this disc, the new work is Ian Krouse's StarWaves, which is tribute to English
singer and songwriter Nick Drake, who took his own life in 1974. StarWaves is
based on Drake's song Hanging On A Star and, in fact, begins by quoting it
literally. Music continues where words leave off, however, and Drake's intimate
vocal style is replaced by the guitar quartet. Over the course of 14 minutes (making
it the longest single-movement work on this CD) Krouse explores the wavelike
ebbing and flowing of Drake's mental state during the period leading up to his
suicide—the period in which he wrote the song. In essence, this is a classical work
based on a rock/pop idea, and it is quite successful, as well as emotionally
involving."
Raymond Tuttle, FANFARE, Summer, 2019 “Starwaves is a new piece by Ian Krouse, commissioned by the MGQ in 2017. It is typical of
Krouse’s music – shifting colors and textures that move back and forth, leading to a
glorious climax. It is built on a recent popular song, Nick Drake’s ‘Hangin’ on a Star.’ But it
stands on its own, and the journey he takes you on is the whole reason for the piece – an
exhilarating 15 minutes.”
Ken Keaton, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, June, 2019

---

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THIS ALBUM

---

---

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THIS ALBUM

---

---

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THIS ALBUM

---

Album: New Renaissance Artist: Los Angeles Guitar Quartet Contains: Music in Four Sharps (On Dowland's 'Frog Galliard') Label: LAGQ 0135 Released: March 2015
_______
“Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, “New Renaissance” (LAGQ). More connections between Renaissance and contemporary music. In this case the LAGQ plays contemporary arrangements of “Music from the time of Cervantes” and…two contemporary works with variations on Renaissance music, Dusan Bogdanovich’s “Six Ricercars on a Theme of F. da Milano” and Ian Krouse’s “Music In Four Sharps” (On Dowland’s Frog Galliard.)” Jeff Simon, THE BUFFALO NEWS, April 5, 2015 “The rest of the music on this disc is less intriguing but scarcely uninteresting. Second longest and second only to the Cervantes in its attractiveness is Ian Krouse’s Music In Four Sharps (On Dowland’s “Frog Galliard”). Based on a popular piece by Dowland, Shakespeare’s nearly exact contemporary (1513-1616), Krouse’s work builds up to the full galliard and then marches away from it, eventually ending with wisps of sound. Its exploration of a full range of guitar effects makes it particularly interesting to hear.” INFODAD, April 9, 2015 “There is also a lengthy work by Ian Krouse based o a lute piece by Dowland, The Frog Galliard.” John Sunier, CLASSICAL CD REVIEWS, April 24, 2015 “Then, there's Music in Four Sharps (on Dowland's "Frog Galliard") by the modern composer Ian Krouse. Again, LAGQ mix new with old, while maintaining the Renaissance style. I enjoyed the Krouse piece with its enchanting, almost mystical variations.” John J. Puccio, CLASSICAL CANDOR, August 2, 2015 “The pair of new pieces by Dusan Bogdanovic and Ian Krouse each take a single Renaissance work, an unnamed theme by lutenist Francesco Canova da Milano and Dowland's Frog Galliard, respectively, as material for a new composition. Each has variation-like aspects, but is not a set of variations. Composers have done this with Renaissance music before, but an effort on this scale, tailored to specific performers and making up such a major part of the program, is something new and exciting.” James Manheim, ALL MUSIC REVIEW, March 17, 2015 “Ian Krouse, in his 14-minute “Music in Four Sharps” (on Dowland’s ‘Frog Galliard), Deconstructs Dowland’s popular work bit by bit. Beginning with the bass line passed around the quartet antiphonally, the work slowly opens up, gaining momentum, adding rhythmic activity between the bass line, accompaniment voices, and high register melodic snippets. Three-plus minutes in, we hear Dowland’s familiar running 16th note melodies Over jaunty strummed chords and later, minimalist arpeggio figures. Rasgueado chords morph into quietly brushed chords before the meditative ambiance of the opening returns and all fades to silence.” Mark Small, CLASSICAL GUITAR MAGAZINE, September 16, 2015 “The second half started with what for me was the high point of the evening, a composition by Ian Krouse after John Dowland’s (c 1600) Frog Galliard entitled Music in Four Sharps. Tennant played the original lute piece beautifully on the guitar in order to show us what was to be the subject; then the quartet played the Krouse piece which consisted of a confluence of sounds flowing together and pertaining to the Galliard, sometimes like birdsong, sometimes like Messaien and through echoed rasgueados evoking the slight melancholy of late Elizabethan music. This composition was a masterpiece, beautifully rendered. John Dowland himself would have thoroughly enjoyed it.”

~ Mike Jones, ROYAL GAZETTE, February 9, 2015
“Ian Krouse's "Music in Four Sharps" was a set of variations in search of a theme, which proved to be John Dowland's "Frog Galliard"…by nature somewhat conservative in [its] harmonic language but extremely modern in [its] rhetoric, and the subtle polytonality that arose from the intricate counterpoint wove[n] for the four players.”
~ Mark Satola, CLEVELAND.COM, March 23, 2015 “Ian Krouse had set himself the task of writing a piece based on Dowland’s Frog Galliard that never ventured out of the twelve pitches available in the key of E Major. That’s more difficult than it sounds, for most pieces that last fourteen minutes or more, as Music in Four Sharps does, depend on venturing away from the home key and finding a convincing way to return at the end. Krouse developed a clever passacaglia-like format of variations over a recurring pattern borrowed from Dowland. When that idea ran out of steam, he turned to Philip Glass-like repetition, which kept things fresh — and safely in E Major — to the end. LAGQ helped hold everyone’s attention with their rapt, concentrated playing.” ~CLEVELAND CLASSICAL.COM, March 24, 2015

---

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THIS ALBUM

---

---

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THIS ALBUM

---

Album: New Renaissance Artist: Los Angeles Guitar Quartet Contains: Music in Four Sharps (On Dowland's 'Frog Galliard') Label: LAGQ 0135 Released: March 2015
_______
“Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, “New Renaissance” (LAGQ). More connections between Renaissance and contemporary music. In this case the LAGQ plays contemporary arrangements of “Music from the time of Cervantes” and…two contemporary works with variations on Renaissance music, Dusan Bogdanovich’s “Six Ricercars on a Theme of F. da Milano” and Ian Krouse’s “Music In Four Sharps” (On Dowland’s Frog Galliard.)” Jeff Simon, THE BUFFALO NEWS, April 5, 2015 “The rest of the music on this disc is less intriguing but scarcely uninteresting. Second longest and second only to the Cervantes in its attractiveness is Ian Krouse’s Music In Four Sharps (On Dowland’s “Frog Galliard”). Based on a popular piece by Dowland, Shakespeare’s nearly exact contemporary (1513-1616), Krouse’s work builds up to the full galliard and then marches away from it, eventually ending with wisps of sound. Its exploration of a full range of guitar effects makes it particularly interesting to hear.” INFODAD, April 9, 2015 “There is also a lengthy work by Ian Krouse based o a lute piece by Dowland, The Frog Galliard.” John Sunier, CLASSICAL CD REVIEWS, April 24, 2015 “Then, there's Music in Four Sharps (on Dowland's "Frog Galliard") by the modern composer Ian Krouse. Again, LAGQ mix new with old, while maintaining the Renaissance style. I enjoyed the Krouse piece with its enchanting, almost mystical variations.” John J. Puccio, CLASSICAL CANDOR, August 2, 2015 “The pair of new pieces by Dusan Bogdanovic and Ian Krouse each take a single Renaissance work, an unnamed theme by lutenist Francesco Canova da Milano and Dowland's Frog Galliard, respectively, as material for a new composition. Each has variation-like aspects, but is not a set of variations. Composers have done this with Renaissance music before, but an effort on this scale, tailored to specific performers and making up such a major part of the program, is something new and exciting.” James Manheim, ALL MUSIC REVIEW, March 17, 2015 “Ian Krouse, in his 14-minute “Music in Four Sharps” (on Dowland’s ‘Frog Galliard), Deconstructs Dowland’s popular work bit by bit. Beginning with the bass line passed around the quartet antiphonally, the work slowly opens up, gaining momentum, adding rhythmic activity between the bass line, accompaniment voices, and high register melodic snippets. Three-plus minutes in, we hear Dowland’s familiar running 16th note melodies Over jaunty strummed chords and later, minimalist arpeggio figures. Rasgueado chords morph into quietly brushed chords before the meditative ambiance of the opening returns and all fades to silence.” Mark Small, CLASSICAL GUITAR MAGAZINE, September 16, 2015 “The second half started with what for me was the high point of the evening, a composition by Ian Krouse after John Dowland’s (c 1600) Frog Galliard entitled Music in Four Sharps. Tennant played the original lute piece beautifully on the guitar in order to show us what was to be the subject; then the quartet played the Krouse piece which consisted of a confluence of sounds flowing together and pertaining to the Galliard, sometimes like birdsong, sometimes like Messaien and through echoed rasgueados evoking the slight melancholy of late Elizabethan music. This composition was a masterpiece, beautifully rendered. John Dowland himself would have thoroughly enjoyed it.”

~ Mike Jones, ROYAL GAZETTE, February 9, 2015
“Ian Krouse's "Music in Four Sharps" was a set of variations in search of a theme, which proved to be John Dowland's "Frog Galliard"…by nature somewhat conservative in [its] harmonic language but extremely modern in [its] rhetoric, and the subtle polytonality that arose from the intricate counterpoint wove[n] for the four players.”
~ Mark Satola, CLEVELAND.COM, March 23, 2015 “Ian Krouse had set himself the task of writing a piece based on Dowland’s Frog Galliard that never ventured out of the twelve pitches available in the key of E Major. That’s more difficult than it sounds, for most pieces that last fourteen minutes or more, as Music in Four Sharps does, depend on venturing away from the home key and finding a convincing way to return at the end. Krouse developed a clever passacaglia-like format of variations over a recurring pattern borrowed from Dowland. When that idea ran out of steam, he turned to Philip Glass-like repetition, which kept things fresh — and safely in E Major — to the end. LAGQ helped hold everyone’s attention with their rapt, concentrated playing.” ~CLEVELAND CLASSICAL.COM, March 24, 2015

---

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THIS ALBUM

---

COMING SOON! OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE: UNKNOWN Artist: Minneapolis Guitar Quartet
Contains: StarWaves Released: February 16, 2019 Premiered: May 6, 2017 For more information, visit the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet's website. _______ “The other piece on the disc is a commission from American composer Ian Krouse called Starwaves (On a Song of Nick Drake). The “Song” on which Krouse based his work for the MGQ is called “Hanging on a Star” which was one of the last tunes Drake recorded, and didn’t appear on an album until a 1987 release of outtakes and rarities. (Dare to be obscure, Ian!) But it’s a cool song and Krouse and the MGQ use it as a springboard to inventive extrapolations on the original’s brooding rhythmic thrum and haunting melody, and, needless to say, over the course of close to 15 minutes, it goes far, far astray from Drake’s 2:49 version—touching on all sorts of musical moods, from delicate introspective passages to clashing rhythmic bursts. It’s a very compelling, multi-layered piece; a truly unique portrait of a troubled but gentle artist.” Blair Jackson, CLASSICAL GUITAR, April 17, 2019 _______ After Krouse's StarWaves was first commissioned by the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet back in 2017, it was promoted on Classical MPR. "The Minneapolis Guitar Quartet are preparing for a summer tour of China. There's a send-off concert Saturday, May 6, at Sundin Hall at Hamline University. The MGQ's performance will include the world premiere of a new work, "StarWaves," written especially for them by guitar great, Ian Krouse." Staruch, Steve. "Regional Spotlight: Minneapolis Guitar Quartet introduces a new work." 04 May 2017. Classical MPR. https://www.classicalmpr.org/story/2017/05/04/minneapolis-guitar-quartet-introduce-a-new-work “An original work written for the quartet by the UCLA composer Ian Krouse. The
tenth of his eleven guitar quartets, it is entitled Starwaves (On a Song of Nick
Drake). Nick Drake was an English singer/songwriter who committed suicide in his
mid-20s. Krouse has not dealt with suicide directly in Starwaves; rather, he
imagines the emotional roller coaster the suicidal person lives through in his
everyday life. This work is very close to my heart. I survived a suicide attempt in my
late teens, and currently suffer from Bipolar Disorder and anxiety. I have been
dealing with suicidal ideation from day to day for 28 years. Krouse has given
expression to what my emotional life feels like on a daily basis.
"He is not averse to the fact that there can be great beauty in the tristesse one
feels from the fragility of human existence. Even though Starwaves at times builds
to almost unbearable peaks of psychic desolation, the humanity of the suffering soul
never escapes Krouse. There are wonderfully unquiet soft passages that portray the
absence of calm even in silence for the suicidal personality, with a slightly edgy
sense that the music is emotionally a tilt. Even though this is an ensemble piece,
Krouse conveys the isolation the suicidal individual feels and often physically
craves. It is no accident that the two relationships with women Nick Drake had as
an adult apparently never were consummated. Krouse appreciates the terror of
intimacy for the suicidal, and how personal contact can be dangerously unnerving.
Starwaves ends with a feeling of all passion spent, the emotional exhaustion such a
life yields—only to be swept away on the roller coaster once again. As emotionally
draining as Starwaves is, truthfully there should be a da capo after the last note.
The MGQ play this work, which they premiered, with immense sensitivity and
artistry. It only goes to show that there are new vistas and topics for composition
opening up in our generation.”
Dave Saemann, FANFARE, October, 2019 "On this disc, the new work is Ian Krouse's StarWaves, which is tribute to English
singer and songwriter Nick Drake, who took his own life in 1974. StarWaves is
based on Drake's song Hanging On A Star and, in fact, begins by quoting it
literally. Music continues where words leave off, however, and Drake's intimate
vocal style is replaced by the guitar quartet. Over the course of 14 minutes (making
it the longest single-movement work on this CD) Krouse explores the wavelike
ebbing and flowing of Drake's mental state during the period leading up to his
suicide—the period in which he wrote the song. In essence, this is a classical work
based on a rock/pop idea, and it is quite successful, as well as emotionally
involving."
Raymond Tuttle, FANFARE, Summer, 2019 “Starwaves is a new piece by Ian Krouse, commissioned by the MGQ in 2017. It is typical of
Krouse’s music – shifting colors and textures that move back and forth, leading to a
glorious climax. It is built on a recent popular song, Nick Drake’s ‘Hangin’ on a Star.’ But it
stands on its own, and the journey he takes you on is the whole reason for the piece – an
exhilarating 15 minutes.”
Ken Keaton, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, June, 2019

---

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THIS ALBUM

---

Album: New Renaissance Artist: Los Angeles Guitar Quartet Contains: Music in Four Sharps (On Dowland's 'Frog Galliard') Label: LAGQ 0135 Released: March 2015
_______
“Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, “New Renaissance” (LAGQ). More connections between Renaissance and contemporary music. In this case the LAGQ plays contemporary arrangements of “Music from the time of Cervantes” and…two contemporary works with variations on Renaissance music, Dusan Bogdanovich’s “Six Ricercars on a Theme of F. da Milano” and Ian Krouse’s “Music In Four Sharps” (On Dowland’s Frog Galliard.)” Jeff Simon, THE BUFFALO NEWS, April 5, 2015 “The rest of the music on this disc is less intriguing but scarcely uninteresting. Second longest and second only to the Cervantes in its attractiveness is Ian Krouse’s Music In Four Sharps (On Dowland’s “Frog Galliard”). Based on a popular piece by Dowland, Shakespeare’s nearly exact contemporary (1513-1616), Krouse’s work builds up to the full galliard and then marches away from it, eventually ending with wisps of sound. Its exploration of a full range of guitar effects makes it particularly interesting to hear.” INFODAD, April 9, 2015 “There is also a lengthy work by Ian Krouse based o a lute piece by Dowland, The Frog Galliard.” John Sunier, CLASSICAL CD REVIEWS, April 24, 2015 “Then, there's Music in Four Sharps (on Dowland's "Frog Galliard") by the modern composer Ian Krouse. Again, LAGQ mix new with old, while maintaining the Renaissance style. I enjoyed the Krouse piece with its enchanting, almost mystical variations.” John J. Puccio, CLASSICAL CANDOR, August 2, 2015 “The pair of new pieces by Dusan Bogdanovic and Ian Krouse each take a single Renaissance work, an unnamed theme by lutenist Francesco Canova da Milano and Dowland's Frog Galliard, respectively, as material for a new composition. Each has variation-like aspects, but is not a set of variations. Composers have done this with Renaissance music before, but an effort on this scale, tailored to specific performers and making up such a major part of the program, is something new and exciting.” James Manheim, ALL MUSIC REVIEW, March 17, 2015 “Ian Krouse, in his 14-minute “Music in Four Sharps” (on Dowland’s ‘Frog Galliard), Deconstructs Dowland’s popular work bit by bit. Beginning with the bass line passed around the quartet antiphonally, the work slowly opens up, gaining momentum, adding rhythmic activity between the bass line, accompaniment voices, and high register melodic snippets. Three-plus minutes in, we hear Dowland’s familiar running 16th note melodies Over jaunty strummed chords and later, minimalist arpeggio figures. Rasgueado chords morph into quietly brushed chords before the meditative ambiance of the opening returns and all fades to silence.” Mark Small, CLASSICAL GUITAR MAGAZINE, September 16, 2015 “The second half started with what for me was the high point of the evening, a composition by Ian Krouse after John Dowland’s (c 1600) Frog Galliard entitled Music in Four Sharps. Tennant played the original lute piece beautifully on the guitar in order to show us what was to be the subject; then the quartet played the Krouse piece which consisted of a confluence of sounds flowing together and pertaining to the Galliard, sometimes like birdsong, sometimes like Messaien and through echoed rasgueados evoking the slight melancholy of late Elizabethan music. This composition was a masterpiece, beautifully rendered. John Dowland himself would have thoroughly enjoyed it.”

~ Mike Jones, ROYAL GAZETTE, February 9, 2015
“Ian Krouse's "Music in Four Sharps" was a set of variations in search of a theme, which proved to be John Dowland's "Frog Galliard"…by nature somewhat conservative in [its] harmonic language but extremely modern in [its] rhetoric, and the subtle polytonality that arose from the intricate counterpoint wove[n] for the four players.”
~ Mark Satola, CLEVELAND.COM, March 23, 2015 “Ian Krouse had set himself the task of writing a piece based on Dowland’s Frog Galliard that never ventured out of the twelve pitches available in the key of E Major. That’s more difficult than it sounds, for most pieces that last fourteen minutes or more, as Music in Four Sharps does, depend on venturing away from the home key and finding a convincing way to return at the end. Krouse developed a clever passacaglia-like format of variations over a recurring pattern borrowed from Dowland. When that idea ran out of steam, he turned to Philip Glass-like repetition, which kept things fresh — and safely in E Major — to the end. LAGQ helped hold everyone’s attention with their rapt, concentrated playing.” ~CLEVELAND CLASSICAL.COM, March 24, 2015

---

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THIS ALBUM

---

---

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THIS ALBUM

---

---

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THIS ALBUM

---

Album: New Renaissance Artist: Los Angeles Guitar Quartet Contains: Music in Four Sharps (On Dowland's 'Frog Galliard') Label: LAGQ 0135 Released: March 2015
_______
“Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, “New Renaissance” (LAGQ). More connections between Renaissance and contemporary music. In this case the LAGQ plays contemporary arrangements of “Music from the time of Cervantes” and…two contemporary works with variations on Renaissance music, Dusan Bogdanovich’s “Six Ricercars on a Theme of F. da Milano” and Ian Krouse’s “Music In Four Sharps” (On Dowland’s Frog Galliard.)” Jeff Simon, THE BUFFALO NEWS, April 5, 2015 “The rest of the music on this disc is less intriguing but scarcely uninteresting. Second longest and second only to the Cervantes in its attractiveness is Ian Krouse’s Music In Four Sharps (On Dowland’s “Frog Galliard”). Based on a popular piece by Dowland, Shakespeare’s nearly exact contemporary (1513-1616), Krouse’s work builds up to the full galliard and then marches away from it, eventually ending with wisps of sound. Its exploration of a full range of guitar effects makes it particularly interesting to hear.” INFODAD, April 9, 2015 “There is also a lengthy work by Ian Krouse based o a lute piece by Dowland, The Frog Galliard.” John Sunier, CLASSICAL CD REVIEWS, April 24, 2015 “Then, there's Music in Four Sharps (on Dowland's "Frog Galliard") by the modern composer Ian Krouse. Again, LAGQ mix new with old, while maintaining the Renaissance style. I enjoyed the Krouse piece with its enchanting, almost mystical variations.” John J. Puccio, CLASSICAL CANDOR, August 2, 2015 “The pair of new pieces by Dusan Bogdanovic and Ian Krouse each take a single Renaissance work, an unnamed theme by lutenist Francesco Canova da Milano and Dowland's Frog Galliard, respectively, as material for a new composition. Each has variation-like aspects, but is not a set of variations. Composers have done this with Renaissance music before, but an effort on this scale, tailored to specific performers and making up such a major part of the program, is something new and exciting.” James Manheim, ALL MUSIC REVIEW, March 17, 2015 “Ian Krouse, in his 14-minute “Music in Four Sharps” (on Dowland’s ‘Frog Galliard), Deconstructs Dowland’s popular work bit by bit. Beginning with the bass line passed around the quartet antiphonally, the work slowly opens up, gaining momentum, adding rhythmic activity between the bass line, accompaniment voices, and high register melodic snippets. Three-plus minutes in, we hear Dowland’s familiar running 16th note melodies Over jaunty strummed chords and later, minimalist arpeggio figures. Rasgueado chords morph into quietly brushed chords before the meditative ambiance of the opening returns and all fades to silence.” Mark Small, CLASSICAL GUITAR MAGAZINE, September 16, 2015 “The second half started with what for me was the high point of the evening, a composition by Ian Krouse after John Dowland’s (c 1600) Frog Galliard entitled Music in Four Sharps. Tennant played the original lute piece beautifully on the guitar in order to show us what was to be the subject; then the quartet played the Krouse piece which consisted of a confluence of sounds flowing together and pertaining to the Galliard, sometimes like birdsong, sometimes like Messaien and through echoed rasgueados evoking the slight melancholy of late Elizabethan music. This composition was a masterpiece, beautifully rendered. John Dowland himself would have thoroughly enjoyed it.”

~ Mike Jones, ROYAL GAZETTE, February 9, 2015
“Ian Krouse's "Music in Four Sharps" was a set of variations in search of a theme, which proved to be John Dowland's "Frog Galliard"…by nature somewhat conservative in [its] harmonic language but extremely modern in [its] rhetoric, and the subtle polytonality that arose from the intricate counterpoint wove[n] for the four players.”
~ Mark Satola, CLEVELAND.COM, March 23, 2015 “Ian Krouse had set himself the task of writing a piece based on Dowland’s Frog Galliard that never ventured out of the twelve pitches available in the key of E Major. That’s more difficult than it sounds, for most pieces that last fourteen minutes or more, as Music in Four Sharps does, depend on venturing away from the home key and finding a convincing way to return at the end. Krouse developed a clever passacaglia-like format of variations over a recurring pattern borrowed from Dowland. When that idea ran out of steam, he turned to Philip Glass-like repetition, which kept things fresh — and safely in E Major — to the end. LAGQ helped hold everyone’s attention with their rapt, concentrated playing.” ~CLEVELAND CLASSICAL.COM, March 24, 2015

---