David Kraus: The Listening Room

"Qasaid ul Qitara"~Poems for Guitar~

This latest recording is made up of twelve pieces composed specifically for the solo classical guitar and a project that I have wanted to do for many years. I have always played with themes and musical ideas between my other commitments, but during the last two to three years I began to dedicate more time to working with melodies and harmonies I kept hearing inside almost constantly. I've always felt when playing as a soloist that the classical nylon string guitar is the most versatile of the guitar family because so many styles can be performed on the instrument with great tone and authenticity. Western classical from Bach and Chopin through Debussy and Villa-Lobos, jazz from Duke Ellington and swing through Charlie Parker and bebop and beyond, the Brazilian samba and bossa nova of Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim, many "world music" forms, blues whether delta or Chicago , the ragtime guitar of Blind Blake or rich folk tunes of Elizabeth Cotten, the flamenco of Paco de Lucia and Paco Pena, and by using percussive techniques with the fingers and palms a good player can even make use of the complex and energizing rhythms of funk or Classical Indian musics.

I have a natural musical affinity for pancultural textures in much of my music writing and playing even outside the context of a group such as Some Sort of Angel. Melodies and rhythms of times and places known and not known dance and play at once in various guises at times alone, then suddenly in a complex tonal tapestry. So it is that these guitar works draw naturally from my background and experience with many artistic and musical styles. But no matter what the context, the music is always grounded in the knowledge and honesty of being oneself. It is with my best intentions that I offer up these songs for the guitar wishing you the satisfaction of listening (if I've done my job well:) as much as I have had in writing them.

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