"KERTSOPOULOS AESTHETICS" methodology: Guitars & Strings: AMALIA RAMIREZ IS IN ATHENS...7 Feb. 2009

Thursday, March 4, 2010

AMALIA RAMIREZ IS IN ATHENS...7 Feb. 2009

On Feb. 7, 2009, the Museum of Greek Popular Instruments “Foivos Anogianakis” Research Centre for Ethnomusicology, presented at the Museum Benaki in Athens, a tribute to the history and tradition of the classical guitar, “forms & strings”: "Honorary tribute to Amalia Ramirez and the tradition of her family", with honored guests: Amalia and Cristina Ramirez. A guitar recital was presented and the guitarists played six different historical types of instruments as they are revived by the modern constructional methods of “Kertsopoulos Aesthetics”, soloists: Yorgos Kertsopoulos and Smaro Gregoriadou – "reinventing guitar"!

After the event Amalia Ramirez was interviewed by Dionysia Blazaki and commented on “Kertsopoulos Aesthetics”, Y.Kertsopoulos and the interpretational capabilities of the instruments heard and also the interpretation of S.Gregoriadou, “reinventing guitar"!

Below is the full text of the interview:

Dionysia Blazaki: Mrs. Ramirez, today you had a live experience of this particular proposition named: “Kertsopoulos Aesthetics”. What is the opinion you concluded for the musical result and how would you comment on the interpretational involvement, which Smaro Gregoriadou gives through these “aesthetics”?

Amalia Ramirez: I am very surprised, dazzled, because what I managed to observe is that every instrument has a very different personality.
It is as though every instrument constitutes a different path of expression.
They are very different from the usual guitars of the rest of the world.
Maybe there is one guitar, the first played by Smaro, which resembles the usual known guitar.
These guitars possess antique sounds, sounds with an ancient charm.
I believe Smaro is very talented and plays with a lot of sentiment. She is clear, Clear…

D. Blazaki: Thank you…would you like to say something else?

A. Ramirez: I would continue to comment…Yes; I would like to say some things more.
I think that Yorgos is a genius. All these are a miracle. He is a revolutionist; he is extremely original, extremely authentic. I was thinking as I was listening, something my father used to say when he met something exceptional.
He was saying: “when you see someone in a parade to march with a different step, this happens because he hears other drums playing”…drums…other drums.
He is not part of the mass.

D.Blazaki: Thank you so much.

All of us thank you from heart Amalia, for giving us the honor and the happiness to present an “honorary tribute to you and the tradition of your family” with you and Cristina being with us and I also thank you from heart, for your kind and very important comments, concerning my work. We wish you and all your family and staff happiness and to keep us always inspired with your wonderful, superior and fascinating instruments.
Y.Kertsopoulos

For a video of the interview please see below on this blog.

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Excerpt from: Album Review – Reinventing Guitar, Performed by Smaro Gregoriadou by Contrapuntist

The most interesting arrangement is the Lute Suite in G minor, BWV 995 by Johann Sebastian Bach. Cellists will recognize this work as the Cello Suite in C minor, BWV 1011. Bach arranged the work for the lute. Normally guitarists transpose the piece from G minor to A minor. By contrast, Gregoriadou’s arrangement is in C minor and is performed on a triple-double-single course guitar. From the first plucked note, the instrument projects a harpsichord-like quality with a brighter, yet round tone. The interpretation maintains the stylistic nuances of the period by effectively using ornamentation and embellishments to convey the character of each movement. I especially like how the use of courses brought out harmonic textures in the Prelude, Courante and Gigue. Classical guitarists will likely debate about the authenticity of the interpretation, but this may very well represent a more accurate depiction of what Bach intended.

by Contrapuntist on March 30, 2010 in Classical Music, Sonic Perspectives

Excerpt from: Album Review – Reinventing Guitar, Performed by Smaro Gregoriadou by Contrapuntist

Domenico Scarlatti never wrote music for guitar. Despite this fact, many of Scarlatti’s pieces fit nicely on the guitar. Sonata K.380/L. 23 is commonly performed by guitarists, but not on an instrument with scalloped frets and movable back with high tuning. As a whole, the performance is crisp and the tone is very close to replicating a harpsichord. The use of scalloped frets presents some interesting technical challenges because the fingers “float” above the frets instead of touching the fingerboard as they press down on the strings. The sound is much brighter than the typical classical guitar. According to the booklet, the moveable back “alters the air cavity while playing,” which likely influences the way the instrument vibrates and resonates sound.

by Contrapuntist on March 30, 2010
in Classical Music, Sonic Perspectives

Smaro Gregoriadou: Reinventing Guitar on “Kertsopoulos Æsthetics”

..."What I found remarkable about the new instruments is the way they allow for a much more detailed separation of the treble and bass voices, of the different musical lines within each piece. One guitar almost sounds like two separate instruments! "... CLASSICAL MUSIC SENTINEL of Canada, July 2010

“Kertsopoulos Æsthetics” consist of a 30-year continuous research in guitar’s retrospective history and tradition accomplished by George Kertsopoulos, Greek guitarist and instrument-maker with international acclaim, which has ended in numerous achievements on the fields of guitar’s and strings’ construction and technology. It is a series of innovations and intelligent solutions aiming:

a) to connect contemporary guitarist with obsolete forms and sounds of guitar, that nevertheless determined the instrument’s rich evolution from early centuries until today, since the so-called “guitar” instrument has during its long history undergone enormous changes in form, construction, tunings, number and materials of strings, dimensions etc, and

b) to expand modern guitar’s technical limits and offer potential solutions to its undesirable complexities (small volume, imbalance in the transmission from 3^rd to 4^th string, dullness of trebles, pure tone-color etc).

Kertsopoulos’ innovations include:

1. New materials and types of strings that, when applied on an ordinary guitar, offer such interesting possibilities as:

double/triple-course and re-entrant stringing,
wide range of tunings from down a third lower to up an octave higher than the usual one in e’,
multi-timbre exploration and tone-color diversity,
bigger volume and sound projection,
access to unexplored tonalities up to now totally out of use for modern guitar.

2. Complex applications of evolved specifications (right-hand and movable-back pedal mechanisms, scalloped fingerboards, soundboards of diverse various etc) with indisputable reinforcement of guitar’s sound.

“Kertsopoulos Æsthetics” have achieved:

1. Creation of guitar family and complete guitar ensembles with unlimited potential in frequency range and tone-color,

2. Credible, historically coherent, convincing interpretations of renaissance and baroque guitar repertory (music for solo guitar or ensemble music with guitar), as well as reliable guitar transcriptions of works originally written for instruments like lute, harpsichord, mandolin, violin etc,

3. New sound horizons for contemporary composers to explore giving a guitar sound that meets at last today’s concert hall demanding standards,

4. Creation of personal styles and aesthetic preferences that encourage diversity.

Smaro Gregoriadou exclusively promotes the researching, artistic and educational part of “Kertsopoulos Æsthetics” and in no way is she connected with them or represents them for any profit-bearing purposes.

DESCRIPTION

Smaro Gregoriadou interprets renaissance, baroque, romantic and contemporary music on several guitars different in type, number and material of strings and tunings. They feature Kertsopoulos’ Æsthetics (guitars, strings, acoustic applications of evolved specifications), a 30-year research on history and æsthetics of guitar, accomplished by Greek guitarist-maker Yorgos Kertsopoulos and involving numerous suggestions on interpretation of old and new guitar repertoire. Since Æsthetics’ first presentation in Athens, 1994, by their inventor, numerous astonishing innovations have enriched inventive guitarist’s sound, recreating 500-years of beautiful guitar tradition: high-pitched, transitive and re-entrant tunings up an octave higher than the ordinary, double and triple-course stringing, tone-colour’s diversity, access to unexplored tonalities, pedal mechanisms! Smaro has championed first world presentations of several innovations included in Kertsopoulos’ Æsthetics.

HISTORIC EVIDENCE

Long time before modern guitar was established as a six-string concert instrument with tenor to bass disposition, tuned in the modern interval pattern and bearing single nylon strings introduced by Segovia and Augustine in the 1940s, our favourite instrument had during the centuries undergone enormous modifications in shapes, proportions, tunings, stringing, number and materials of strings, playing techniques and social role. From Renaissance to 19th century, many types of guitar no more known to us today have extensively influenced the instrument’s evolution and are respectfully considered as genuine branches of guitar’s tradition: renaissance four-course guitar and six-course vihuela, baroque five-course guitar (the so-called “Spanish”) and chitarra battente with five triple strings, six-course guitar (which emerged in Spain around 1770 and survived there for approximately 70 more years as a transitional stage before six-string guitar of 19th century), all these samples of astonishing craftsmanship were high-pitched and bared double or triple courses of gut or metal strings, their tunings being re-entrant and non-standardized. These early instruments, once flourishing in the hands of remarkable interpreters all over Europe, now obsolete, contributed nevertheless to the creation of guitar’s unique sound identity, fundamental features of which have always been unconsciously registered and freely incorporated in the experience of anyone involved with playing the guitar ever since.

As time goes by and research deepens our response to the music of the past, modern guitar’s unsuitability to perform renaissance, baroque and classical repertory convincingly is more and more emphasized by specialists and demands flexible alternatives. Transcribing old music onto 20th century guitar, a practice in which generations of guitarists were and still are so keenly involved, deserves a re-evaluation under the light of new historical-æsthetical evidence on guitar’s tradition, a lack of which might seriously abuse this music’s spirit. Kertsopoulos’ Æsthetics, with numerous inventions-interventions into the domains of guitar and strings’ construction, have much to contribute to this aim.

RECENT REVIEW CONCERNING SMARO GREGORIADOU AND KERTSOPOULOS AESTHETICS

Magazine: JAZZ & TZAZ

Country: Greece

Issue number: 199

Month of release: October 2009

Page: 56

Department: RECORDS REVIEWS

Writer: Thomas Tamvakos

Title: SMARO GREGORIADOU: Reinventing Guitar! (Delos)

In my previous written references about the talented musician Smaro Gregoriadou, I had already stressed how positively would contribute to her artistic prevalence her impending cd edition Reinventing Guitar! released by the world famous Californian recording label Delos. The quality of the final outcome, nevertheless, goes far beyond any expected target. Reinventing Guitar! is a reference recording of multiple importance and intentions. I personally enlist it in the group of such guitar editions that change the flow of the history of the instrument, as far as musical composition and interpretation are concerned.

First, it is the originality at a universal level that dominates. By using instruments and tunings that occur for the first time in discography, made by the guitarist, composer, researcher and maker George Kertsopoulos and representing Kertsopoulos Aesthetics, Smaro Gregoriadou expands in a unique way the sounding horizon of the guitar and achieves the desirable proximity in the interpretation of early repertoire, such as D. Scarlatti’s Harpsichord Sonata L23 and J. S. Bach’s Baroque Lute Suite BWV995 in g minor based on the authentic Brussels manuscript. Both arranged by Smaro Gregoriadou, these compositions find a new triumphant determination, with main characteristics the excellence in performance and the –almost “pagan”- delight of hearing. The straight comparison with colossi of guitaristic art in the same repertoire (P. Galbraith, L. Orlandini, J. Williams) only positively can count for Smaro Gregoriadou.

From 18^th c. the great artist approaches the rather underestimated Spaniard Antonio José. The Sonata for guitar of 1933 is maybe his greatest work and the interpretation of Smaro Gregoriadou is straightly analogue to this quality and undoubtedly superior of the one given by Frank Bungkarten.

From this formidable recording Greek creation could not be missing. It is represented by two masterly works. The first, Some Colour’s Rhythms by G. Kertsopoulos, although of short duration (4 min) reflects the whole spectrum of the philosophical – scientific research of the composer. The second, Balkan Dances by Smaro Gregoriadou, confirms her great ability to transform in a masterly way traditional musical motives into modern forms, offering to her audience wonderful aspects of personal interpretation; which, in combination with the generally exquisite production, establishes Reinventing Guitar! as the recording master work of the decade.

Thomas Tamvakos, writer/researcher/archivist/critic - Emeritus Member of Greek Composers Union

www.tamvakosarchive.blogspot.com

http://www.eem.org.gr/members_detail_g.asp?id=210

A RECENT REVIEW ON THE FEATURING OF KERTSOPOULOS AESTHETICS BY SMARO GREGORIADOU

Magazine: DIFONO

Country: Greece

Issue number: 166

Month of release: December 2009

Page: 116

Department: CLASSICAL MUSIC - RECORDS REVIEWS

Writer: Liana Malandrenioti

Title: SMARO GREGORIADOU: Reinventing Guitar! (Delos International)

The guitar soloist and composer Smaro Gregoriadou, with her present novel interpretations, gives to the listener the opportunity to come in contact with a universally acclaimed Greek invention that concerns classical guitar. It is about Kertsopoulos Aesthetics, a pioneer musical proposition of the guitarist, constructor and researcher George Kertsopoulos, concerning the revival of different historic types of guitar, as well as the expansion of its acoustic potential. It aims to connect the interpreter of today as closely as possible with the authentic sound of the original works. Smaro Gregoriadou, participating in the effort of this revival interprets works by Bach, Scarlatti, José, Kertsopoulos and herself, playing three instruments of Kertsopoulos’ invention and construction. A triple-double-single stringed guitar in re-entrant tuning (first world recording), a high-tuned guitar in scalloped frets and a classical guitar in ordinary and low tunings…

Listening carefully to Scarlatti’s Harpsichord Sonata L23 on a high-pitched scalloped guitar with movable back, I concede that the reliable representation of the timbre and punctuation of the original composition immediately gained my enthusiasm… The revival of the authentic sound of Bach’s Lute Suite BWV995 by a triple-double-single stringed guitar in re-entrant tuning, consisting of a very ambitious and difficult attempt, yields to a result that will definitely fascinate the listener. This innovative approach made a passionate follower of the great cantor’s sound like me, to listening to the album again and again. The title of the cd is entirely justified. What Smaro Gregoriadou is hereby presenting is exactly the essence of the word “reinventing”: a redefinition of the sound and technique of the classical guitar.

In the collection we also hear the Sonata para guitarra by Antonio José, a short but quite characteristic work by George Kertsopoulos entitled Some Colour’s Rhythms, and Two Balkan Dances by Smaro Gregoriadou, a composition with many virtues, that exhibit the sound qualities and possibilities of the guitar at their very best.

This album definitely consists of a pioneering aesthetic suggestion and I wish it enjoys the universal acceptance that it deserves.

Liana Malandrenioti, writer/critic