The Giant Guitar

"The Giant Guitar is a short overture-like work inspired by Andean folk idioms. Having lived the first twenty years of my life in South America I can't think of a guitar without associating its music to my early memories. I often view South America as a "giant guitar" ... friendly, sentimental, nostalgic, and yet concealing a great powerful secret, only suggested by occasional "rasgueado" chords or historical revolutions. Unfortunately, I can't think of this "giant guitar" without remembering conflict and the dramatic political events of the 1970's. Thus this work starts in a somewhat nostalgic mood, beginning with a theme based on the six open strings of the guitar (E A D G B E).  After these few introductory bars the flutes re-introduce the guitar theme now in a very rhythmic pattern resembling an Inca-Andean flute chant. The strings accompany the melody through rhythmically complex pizzicati, imitating a giant guitar or South American charango. The drama begins almost unnoticed as the originally delicately strummed chords turn into violent bass drum and timpani hits. A final chord, a third higher then the rest of the piece, offers a last note of defiance as it confronts a police siren, only to be quickly crushed by the overwhelming percussion." 

-Miguel del Aguila