Concerto for Guitar and American Gamelan

Guitar, Javanese gamelan (pelog)

Duration: 22 min.

This concerto, written for guitarist John Schneider, takes advantage of Schneider’s guitar built by Walter Vogt. On this instrument, Vogt built an invention he called a Fret-Mobile system, which allows the frets to be individually adjusted under each string by means of a track along which they slide. In this work they are adjusted to match the pitches of the HMC American Gamelan, a collection of metallophones and gongs from central Java, Indonesia. The “American” of the title refers to the fact that the group plays new American works such as this one, works respecting the accumulated wisdom found in many techniques of Indonesian practice but also descended from traditions of the West, North America, and California.

Recorded on Guitars & Gamelan .