Delta score now available

(Guitarist Dan Sumner with Composer Chris Becker, January 2009)

The score for my classical guitar piece Delta is now available for purchase. Delta was commissioned by Dan Sumner and the Bloomington Classical Guitar Society. Additional funding for the score came from a grant from the American Music Center. Dan premiered Delta January 10, 2009 at the John Waldron Arts Center, Bloomington, Indiana. Dan was extremely helpful with suggestions throughout the compositional process - the guitar poses more than a few challenges for a non-guitar playing composer like me. And he played the piece beautifully.

Running approximately 11 minutes, Delta consists of three movements: a slow free associative introductory movement that explores triads generated from a two bar melody (appearing in the bass) and its harmonic relationship to the triads, a second rock influenced movement in 5/4, and a mysterious third movement where chords informed by rural blues are accompanied by a thick prerecorded texture of cicadas and crickets. I recorded the insects last August at midnight along the Tangipahoa river in Louisiana (Thank you to Grant Curry for the microphone loan).

I want to give a shout to guitarist Christopher Davis at his Classical Guitar Blog. Thanks for posting news about the score! I'm enjoying your blog.