BRITISH INVASION

“I’m thrilled that the British Invasion is coming! This collaboration with the Alexander String Quartet pulls together many musical styles that I’ve loved for years: rock, pop, jazz, blues, even Renaissance lute. My friends Duśan Bogdanović, Leo Brouwer and Ian Krouse transformed popular works by Sting, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and John Dowland into serious chamber works for guitar and string quartet, creating a totally new perspective on their classic tunes. These pieces pushed me to re-discover my inner rocker, to let loose with a pick and bottleneck slide, but also to explore intricate and nuanced chamber music, and challenging contemporary styles. I hope you find as much fun and discovery in this project as I have.” - William

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The Alexander String Quartet and guitarist William Kanengiser form a dynamic collaboration that explores the music of Sting, Led Zeppelin, John Dowland, and The Beatles by way of contemporary composers Ian Krouse, Dušan Bogdanović, and Leo Brouwer.

In this project, William Kanengiser and the Alexander String Quartet pay tribute to a group of English musicians who conquered the musical world with their revolutionary explorations. From the Elizabethan lutenist John Dowland to the pop/rock icons Sting, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, these artists made a lasting impact far from the shores of their small island. Their music served as inspiration for a set of compositions for guitar and string quartet by the talented composers Ian Krouse, Dušan Bogdanović and Léo Brouwer. It is especially appropriate that the guitar sits squarely at the center of these works, as the plucked string was the primary musical voice of these British innovators.

Led Zeppelin still stands as one of the most emblematic and innovative rock groups in history, and the guitar stylings of Jimmy Page puts him firmly in the pantheon of “Guitar Gods” alongside Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. But while they’re most known for their commercial hits Stairway to Heaven and Whole Lotta Love, they experimented quite a bit with world-music elements, complex rhythms and innovative structure, redefining what rock music could be. A “deep track” from their Led Zeppelin III release was Friends, a Moroccan-inspired blues filled with odd meters, bent pitches, and exotic scales. This tune served as the starting point for one of Ian Krouse’s most ambitious guitar works, Labyrinth on a Theme of Led Zeppelin. Originally composed for LAGQ in 1994, it was rearranged for solo guitar and string quartet in 2019 expressly for this collaboration. Krouse, a Distinguished Professor of Composition at UCLA, is a prolific and lauded composer of symphonies, chamber works and song cycles (he is most recognized for his magnum opus, Armenian Requiem, op. 66). But as a guitarist himself, he is most associated with that instrument, and particularly through his long and fruitful collaboration with William Kanengiser’s group the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ).

The piece begins with a note-for-note transcription of the original Friends track, complete with strummed open-tuned chords on the steel-string guitar and microtonal bends evoking Robert Plant’s bluesy vocal line. After a rousing cadence, the texture becomes ominous, with rapid string passagework punctuated by a bottle-neck slide statement of the theme. This gives way to a furious exposition of the octatonic scale, in a “call-and-response” blues form, culminating in a chorale-like recapitulation of the theme. Part 3 begins by introducing an up-tempo rock-style blues, which become increasingly raucous and is punctuated by an improvised slide guitar solo. Without warning, a sudden stop ushers in Part 4, a slow and haunting passacaglia over the blues progression. The cello then begins Part 5 with an austere statement of the theme, as the subject of what will become a full-blown fugal exposition. Previous elements interrupt the imitative texture with increasing intensity, until the opening theme returns, this time informed by the transfigurations of the previous material. A final swelling crescendo erupts in the finale, as the Labyrinth returns to the open C major chord where it began.

John Dowland was the undisputed master of the Elizabethan lute, and through his vast catalogue of compositions and frequent travels abroad, could be said to be one of the first “rock stars” of the plucked string. One of his most popular pieces is his “Frog Galliard”, which may have been written in reference to one of Elizabeth I’s French suitors, the Duc d’Alençon; Dowland also set the piece to text in his lute song “Now, O Now, I Needs Must Part”. (The triple meter and cyclical harmony of the piece have suggested to some that Herr Pachelbel might have lifted it for his famous “Canon in D” theme.) The Ian Krouse (see above) used this theme as a springboard for a major work, first written for two guitars under the title “Portrait of a Young Woman”, and then re-cast for solo guitar and string quartet (it was later re-arranged for four guitars and recorded by William Kanengiser and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet on their “New Renaissance” album).

In setting the Frog Galliard, Krouse created a two-part work that deconstructs, reconstructs, and reimagines the theme both melodically and harmonically. Krouse also used the conceit of limiting himself to the seven notes of the key of E Major, to see how much contrast and formal development could be achieved within that constraint: hence the title Music in Four Sharps. The first half of the piece owes a debt to Benjamin Britten’s masterwork for solo guitar, Nocturnal after John Dowland, op 70, which also happens to be a setting of a Dowland theme (Come, Heavy Sleep); like the Nocturnal, Music in Four Sharps presents a set of variations that reveals the theme at the end, rather than at the outset. While the statement of the theme was the endpoint for Britten’s setting, for Krouse it marks the middle point. From then on, the piece becomes a quasi-minimalistic fracturing and rhythmic overlay of snippets of the tune that gradually builds to a searing climax. As the dust settles, the theme returns as a faint echo, fading out a niente.

Sting has re-defined what a pop artist can be over his multifaceted career; he is a rock star, a jazz musician, a world-music advocate, an early music aficionado, an actor, and most recently, a Broadway playwright and headliner in his musical The Last Ship. Along the way, he created a catalogue of songs that have become anthems for a whole generation. The contemporary Serbian composer Dušan Bogdanović undertook the project of adapting, extrapolating and re-composing a set of tunes that traverse the stylistic and emotional range of Sting’s songwriting, composing Prisms: Six Songs by Sting for solo guitar and string quartet. The genesis of the collaboration was through Sting’s exploration into Elizabethan lute and the music of John Dowland in his project Songs from the Labyrinth. There he worked with the Croatian lutenist Edin Karamozov, who is a frequent performer of Dušan’s music. Edin commissioned Prisms in 2013, and with Sting’s blessing, the pieces have been performed and recorded.

Bogdanović stands out as one of the most unique and eclectic composers working today; he is equally comfortable in styles as diverse as Indian raga, jazz, gamelan, African, 16th century polyphony, and music from his native Balkan region. In setting Sting’s music, Dušan’s iconic style comes through clearly, with a penchant for odd-meters, rich harmonies, polymeter and jazz textures, making it a perfect foil to Sting’s pop-infused multistylistic approach. The simplest of the settings is Every Breath You Take, with the time signature set to a more Balkan 7/8, and a cello ostinato reminiscent of the Prelude of Bach’s Cello Suite #1. Next is Message in a Bottle, churning with an African-inspired polyrhythm, which climaxes in a highly syncopated 12/8 groove. Shape of My Heart is a duet for cello and guitar, with a mournful, bluesy setting of this lovely ballad. Fields of Gold is a dialogue between guitar and the string quartet, with luscious harmonies over the hymnlike melody. Next is the rock anthem Roxanne, here set as a passacaglia that becomes increasingly complex, polytonal and polyrhythmic, culminating in a frenetic post-modern bebop coda. The final movement, Desert Rose, begins with a short guitar solo in a North African style, which unfolds into the ostinato of the tune, characteristically reset by Bogdanović in 7/4 time.

Born in Havana in 1939, Léo Brouwer is now regarded as the preeminent contemporary composer for the guitar, although he has also written extensively for orchestra, choir and chamber ensembles, and has composed over 50 film scores. Coming of age in post-Revolutionary Cuba, he was entranced not only by classical and avant-garde music, but also by the popular music of the day; The Beatles, in particular, were an important influence on his musical personality. When a Cuban Minister of Culture undertook a program of avoiding “Western” influence, Léo found his music, as well as his beloved Beatles, banned in his homeland. As a reaction, he arranged seven Beatles classics in 1987, grouping them as “Beatlerianas”, which have been scored for guitar duo, guitar with chamber orchestra, and the present version for guitar and string quartet.

ASQ and Kanengiser have chosen four of these settings, each of which contain enough new and extrapolated material to straddle the distinction between pure arrangement and new composition. The songs also share a commonality in theme: they were all written in The Beatles’ mature period, capturing memories of their early years growing up in Liverpool. Eleanor Rigby is a heart-breaking character study of the loneliness of anonymity and old age, and Brouwer interjects brisk passagework and a quasi-fugal exposition of the tune before the more familiar setting emerges. She’s Leaving Home captures the poignant moment of a daughter leaving the nest, from both her and her mother’s perspective; Brouwer begins it with a fluid introduction and a swinging coda in his delicate treatment. Penny Lane gives a vivid portrait of a day in the life on the bustling streets of Liverpool; Brouwer captures the energy of the scene with a vibrant syncopated introduction and crisp rhythmic countermelodies to the jaunty tune. As an epilogue to the whole project, Yesterday concludes the set of Lennon/McCartney tunes. This plaintive and captivating song captures the impermanence of love, a meditation on the fleeting nature of happiness. Brouwer casts it as a chorale-like dialogue between soloist and quartet, finishing with delicate plucked arpeggios over fading string sonorities.