for guitar & oboe (2021) 🔊

An unashamedly tonal piece. Unusually for me, it has no programmatic conception and therefore no real title, a format which I would follow for subsequent guitar duets. I'm still surprised by this… genuinely no background at all… it was all purely improvisation that I just notated. I mean, sure, there must have been something there in the subconscious, but who knows…

The year before, I had written a fairly atonal piece so I found it funny to return to such a "conservative" language. I've come to realise, however, that I'm quite content weaving in and out of styles and ultimately, this piece, in its completely tonal form, needed to come out, so who am I to argue with my own inner compulsions?

I'm aware that the second oboe solo is maybe too fast at 110bpm, so it could certainly be slowed down slightly for a live performance. Hopefully it wouldn't lose its springiness though…

This duet was arranged for clarinet and piano and received its premiere in 2022 by the Leto Ensemble.

for two guitars (2013) “The Peacock” 🔊

A short and light-hearted duet from many years ago. I don't think I ever notated this one so I had to transcribe an old recording.

for two guitars (2022) “oblivion” 🔊

An improvisatory piece that tries to capture one's state of mind in the aftermath of the death of a loved one. I really like the clusters that result from the chords in the guitars and I experimented with similar ones in The sunset from Sandviksfjellet.

This duet made me realise how complicated it is to notate guitar music. It really is the Wild West… How do you notate it when you want specific notes to ring? Do you simply tie the notes? That can get really messy… Do you write every single note in a separate voice with its corresponding value? Up to 6 different voices with white, black and dotted notes and rests? Notes and rests for each of the 6 voices on a single stave?! Do you use two staves for the different voices? Do you just write "let ring"? Do you treat it like a harp? Do you let the interpreting guitarist figure it out? It seems to be common to write the bass note in a separate voice and "imply" that the other notes are to ring but, technically, if you want to be pedantic, that's incorrect… so what are we supposed to do? Also, there doesn't appear to be a standardised way of notating harmonics (there are none in this piece, but still). Argh!

For this one, I opted for the "let ring" option, although I do deviate from this. I'm aware this results in inaccurately notated sections, such as bar 18 in Guitar I: the high C and A will not sound simultaneously; you could play the C on the B string but that's not what I want. Bar 35 in Guitar II and bar 64 in Guitar I are just some of many more examples. As guitarists, we develop a good sense of when notes should ring and when not, and very often this can be inferred from the music and how it's written, or from what chord voicings are used, or from the fingering indications. But is "inferred" good enough? Is it clear enough?! Maybe I'll end up re-writing it in the future…