ONE-TWO-THREE-GO!
Concert #3
Sunday, November 4, 2001 at 4:30 PM===================================================================================
DOMINIC FRASCA
techno-funk-minimalist performs on 6-, 10-, &
13-string acoustic and electro-acoustic guitars===================================================================================
--- program ---
Dominic Frasca
Forced EntryMarc Mellits
Dark Age MachineryPhilip Glass
Two PagesMarc Mellits
Lefty's ElegyMarc Mellits
Metaclopramide--- interval ---
Dominic Frasca
DeviationsMarc Mellits
Dometude===================================================================================
DOMINIC FRASCA began playing electric guitar at the age of 13. By the age of 17 he began studying classical guitar. Between the years 1986-1993 he attended and was thrown out of some of the finest academic institutions in the United States including Univ. of Akron, Univ. of Arizona and Yale Univ. During this time he studied guitar with Steve Aron, Tom Patterson and Philip Rosheger and composition with Daniel Asia, Jack Vees, Anthony Davis & Marc Mellits. Over the years, Frasca has become known for his unorthodox and original guitar technique as well as his technically and musically demanding transcriptions of minimalist works by Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Anthony Davis.
It is in his original composition where Frasca's exploitation of the guitar is most apparent. His concept of the instrument as a complex percussion source, which has endless possibilities, prompted G.F.A. Soundboard Magazine to write, "A guitarist of original and rare genius, Frasca's compositional style exhibits a seamless integration of multi-colored percussive technique and metric modulation within traditional guitar vocabulary." Not limiting himself to the restrictions of the conventional classical guitar, Frasca plays on multiple string guitars, which he designed, that employ both steel and nylon string with the use of amplification. Often times these guitars will be designed and built to play just one piece. Recently Dominic has come full circle and began playing electric guitar again most notably on the premiere recording of the Steve Reich piece Electric Guitar Phase (which Frasca arranged) for Nonesuch Records.
Equally as concerned with the visual aspects of performance as with the audible, Frasca's concerts often contain multi-media works, which employ the use of such things as video, power tools, erotic dancers and even lawn care equipment. The Oberlin Press wrote of one performance "a guitar was destroyed by means of a wood chipper while a sucession of horrifying graphic images were flashed on TV screens ... his performance amounted to an assault on the audience ... Frasca should not be invited back." All of which goes with Frasca's philosophy: "You can excite an audience, you can anger an audience, you can even scare an audience, just don't bore an audience."
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FORCED ENTRY - Dominic Frasca (1993) for solo 6-string guitar. Inspired by his studies with Anthony Davis, Forced Entry is a study in playing stacked mixed meter. Built on a motive in 5/16, the piece stacks ostinatos of different meters on top of each other. For example, at the end of the piece ostinatos in 5/16 , 3/4 and 4/4 are played simultaneously creating a cycle that repeats every 60 measures.
DARK AGE MACHINERY - Marc Mellits (1995 arr. by Frasca for 10-string guitar from 11 Miniatures for Baroque Ensemble) Written using only 4 notes, Dark Age Machinery examines just how much melodic interest and information there is in one small 6/8 pattern. It is also a prime example of Mellits' monstrous compositional technique.
TWO PAGES - Philip Glass (1968) This spartan piece consists of a single five-pitch musical line from which are generated cells (modules) which elongate or contract in length. The rhythm, a rapid torrent of eight notes, never changes, the dynamic is unremittingly static, the texture an unadorned unison, and there is no harmony of which to speak. Of all of Glass' works, these from this early period are more radical than any minimalist music to date.
LEFTY'S ELEGY - Marc Mellits (1995 arr. by Frasca for 10-string guitar from 11 Miniatures for Baroque Ensemble) A piece written by Mellits on the passing of his father based on a theme by Lefty Frisell.
METACLOPRAMIDE - Marc Mellits (1995 arr. by Frasca for 10- string guitar from 11 Miniatures for Baroque Ensemble) Named after Mellits' cat's anti-vomit medicine, this piece is just plain cool.
DEVIATIONS - Dominic Frasca (1995-1998) for solo 6-string guitar. This is the longest and most difficult piece in Frasca's repertoire coming in at just over 23 minutes.
DOMETUDE - Marc Mellits (1995) for solo 10-string guitar. This is the shortest and second most difficult piece, coming in at just over 1 minute. It was written for Frasca as part of a set of Chanukah Etudes that Mellits wrote for each member of Frasca's family.
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the sTRANGEmUSIC
Other loves may sink and settle,
other loves may loose and slack,
But I wander like a minstrel
with a harp upon my back,
Though the harp be on my bosom,
though I finger and I fret,
Still, my hope is all before me;
for I cannot play it yet.In your strings is hid a mUSIC
that no hand hath e'er let fall,
In your soul is sealed a pleasure
that you have not known at all;
Pleasure subtle as your spirit,
sTRANGE and slender as your frame,
Fiercer than the pain that folds you,
softer than your sorrow's name.Not as mine, my soul's annointed,
not as mine the rude and light
Easy mirth of many faces,
swaggering pride of song and fight;
Something stranger, something sweeter,
something waiting you afar,
Secret as your stricken senses,
magic as your sorrows are.But on this, God's harp supernal,
stretched but to be stricken once,
Hoary time is a beginner,
Life a bungler, Death a dunce.
But I will not fear to match them
- no by God, I will not fear,
I will learn you, I will play you
and the stars stand still to hear.G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)