PRINCIPIOS GENERALES] [DIRECTRICES] PARA LA ADICIÓN DE NUTRIENTES ESENCIALES A LOS ALIMENTOS

Firstly, I would like to make it known that I did not compose any sections of Georges Lentz’s composition, Ingwe from ‘Mysterium’ (“Caeli enarrant ...” VII) for solo electric guitar (2003–2009). As the performer of Ingwe, I worked very closely with Lentz as a technical advisor and collaborator throughout the main part of his

compositional process (2005–2009) as well as the subsequent recording, promotional and international performance process (2008–2012). In the following sections of this dissertation I will endeavour to give a detailed account of the entire creative and collaborative process, so as to provide future non-guitarist composers and performers

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with a successful model for creative collaborations involving the electric guitar. At no stage during this section do I attempt to speak on behalf of Georges Lentz. I may quote him where appropriate but this account is entirely from my own perspective.

When I first contacted Lentz, I knew nothing of his artistic intentions except for the fact that it involved the electric guitar. At the time, my only experience of

performing contemporary art music on the classical guitar was the compositions of the Cuban composer, Leo Brouwer (b. 1939). During this stage of my musical education I was heavily immersed in performing classical guitar transcriptions of Bach’s sonatas for unaccompanied violin while also taking history classes in Early Music. I was, however, open to contemporary music but as a young guitarist had not had many opportunities to perform a great deal of new music repertoire as either a soloist or chamber musician.

The prospect of contacting such a well-established European/Australian composer and potentially helping him to better understand the electric guitar was daunting but also very exciting, especially knowing that it may result in a new composition, which I could possibly be asked to perform. When I phoned Lentz for the first time he told me of his intention to write an unaccompanied electric guitar work that would be roughly an hour in length. He informed me that his compositions were usually quite rhythmically challenging and that I would need to be a strong reader to be able to decipher the composition he had in mind. After a short discussion regarding my reading ability, we met in order to talk at length about Lentz’s creative vision and listen to recordings of different well-known electric guitarists. I also suggested that we could examine electric guitar transcriptions and experiment with my electric guitars, pedals and amplifiers as Lentz had mentioned he was unfamiliar with the electric guitar and rock/pop music in general.

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Lentz related he had an epiphany while in the Australian outback and felt that his next composition needed to be for solo electric guitar. He informed me that he had bought a recording of Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock concert (1969), which he had been listening to frequently, however, he had many questions about how to achieve and notate the sounds and techniques that Hendrix was creating. In preparation for our first meeting, I made a compilation of electric guitarists who represented a variety of different genres. The aim of this was to give him an idea of the wide range of sounds and techniques which can be achieved on the instrument. I found that supplying Lentz with this material was of great benefit to our collaboration as these recordings opened his eyes to some of the sonic possibilities of the electric guitar.264

Our first meeting began with a more in-depth discussion regarding Lentz’s vision for his composition. He informed me of his fascination with the diversity, beauty and harshness of the Australian landscape, as well as his love for traditional Aboriginal art and it was at this point that he outlined in detail how he came to want to write a very substantial unaccompanied work for the electric guitar. Lentz was born in Luxembourg in 1965 and as a child received a very thorough European classical musical education, which focused on violin, piano and composition. He furthered his musical studies at both the Paris Conservatoire (1982–1986) and Musikhochschule Hannover (1986–1990) before obtaining a position in the first violin section of the Sydney Symphony in the early 1990s.265 When we first met, Lentz gave me two of his commercial recordings

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For collaborations in which I have been involved I (post Ingwe) that involve composers who are unfamiliar with the electric guitar, I always supply a Powerpoint slideshow prior to our first collaborative session which contains essential information about the technical, performative and notation aspects of the electric guitar as well as includes a recommended listening list.

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featuring his compositions Birrung, Nguurraa266, Ngangkar and Guyuhmgan267 and it was after listening to these that I became instantly captivated by his compositional style. However, on first listening I could immediately tell that his quest to write for the

electric guitar would mark a major artistic and aesthetic departure from what he had previously written.

At this initial meeting Lentz expressed his previous disdain for the electric guitar and elaborated on his radical change of heart regarding his interest and respect for the instrument. In February 2011, I interviewed Lentz as part of this dissertation and he rearticulated what he had said to me about the electric guitar when I first met him: he stated that the electric guitar created an ‘ugly, dirty, horrible, whining, vulgar sound’.268

These deep-seated views changed in the course of one evening in December, 2004. On his website Lentz published this statement regarding the inception of Ingwe.269

The initial idea for ‘Ingwe’ came to me during a car trip to the Outback in 2004. One evening at the “Royal Hotel,” a pub in northern N.S.W. a man sat alone tuning up his guitar before that nights rock gig. I was working on a piece for solo cello at the time but knew immediately that I should write something for the guitar instead – the whole loneliness and desolation of the place (and indeed my own loneliness) seemed to be encapsulated in that man’s sound. Sitting in the pub late that evening, I could see the whole work before my mind’s eye, a kind

266 _{"Caeli Enarrant...Iii & Iv: Birrung - Nguurraa, Ensemble 24 and Mathew Coorey," (E.C.: Naxos,}

2001).

267

"Mysterium: Ngangkar - Guyuhmgan, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Edo De Waart," (Sydney: ABC Classics, 2002).

268

Personal correspondancewith Georges Lentz, 16/2/11.

269 _{Should one wish to view the scenery which inspired Ingwe as well as the monastery where Lentz wrote}

the first complete draft, I recommend watching Nick and David Smith’s 2010 documentary, The Night

Within: On the Tracks of Ingwe. The part documentary is a available on Youtube: Nick. Smith, Smith,

David, "The Night Within: On the Tracks of Ingwe," (Australia: Australian Albatross and Nick Smith Productions, 2009).

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of intuitive flash. I left the pub in a hurry and wrote some extensive initial sketches that same night sitting in my car in the middle of the desert (in Old Mission Road).270

Once we had discussed at length Lentz’s background and compositional aim, we moved on to the selected recordings, scores271 and an electric guitar notational chart featuring regular and extended techniques. Lentz eagerly listened while closely

examining the scores and seemed thrilled to actually find out how to notate the sounds he had been hearing. My demonstration of the techniques a guitarist uses to create these sounds further fascinated Lentz. This was also a perfect opportunity to explain how the electric guitar works once plugged in to an amplifier and effect pedals. Lentz was a very eager participant in this demonstration. Instead of sitting at a distance and observing like an examiner, he stood the entire time, looking very closely at how I played the guitar and noting the function of the dials and tone controls of the guitar, amplifier and pedals particularly when placed on various settings. Lentz asked how Hendrix achieved particular sounds, and he would mimic the sound until I played what he had heard. Then he would say, “Yes, yes, that’s it, what is that? What is it called? Can you play it again? [While watching even more closely] How would I notate that?” He also asked me to play some melodies and phrases on which he had been working. Lentz would sing a couple of notes and ask to hear it played with distortion or wah-wah, while at other times he would ask to hear a passage played with a clean, dry tone or ‘tremolo picked’. We did not work through a great deal of melodic material at this first meeting: the

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Georges Lentz, "About 'Ingwe' from 'Mysterium' ("Caeli Enarrant..." Vii) for Solo Electric Guitar (2003–2009)," http://www.georgeslentz.com/ingwe.html. Accessed on 28/5/12

271 _{The ‘scores’ were transcriptions of well-known guitar recordings. Each transcription was notated in}

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material we did experiment with used many different tones, timbres, effect pedal manipulation and techniques.

The thing that initially struck me about Lentz was his interest in fine detail. He wanted to know and see how everything worked. I could see that Lentz did not just want to be acquainted with the electric guitar; he wanted to become an expert in terms of its capabilities. It also became apparent that despite our twenty-three year age difference, we had very compatible personalities and many mutual interests. In 2008, Lentz

released his only public statement about our 2005 meeting, “2005 – countless sketches, incorporating bits from the rejected cello piece, which I had been working on since 2003. First contact with the performer of the premiere, Zane Banks, with whom I have been working closely ever since.”272 I never saw any of the ‘extensive sketches’ which Lentz refers to in this statement. I presume that he had written the bulk of these sketches before we met.