Guitar Recital

The Italian-born guitarist-composer Carlo Domeniconi has written many concertos, chamber and solo works for the guitar. Since 1969 he has lived in Berlin but from 1977-1980 he taught at the Conservatory of Music in Istanbul, an experience that has had a lasting effect on his work; the influence of Turkish music in many of his later compositions is strong. Koyunbaba is one such work. The title can be interpreted in two ways; first as "shepherd" (Koyun = sheep, baba = father) or secondly as the name of a thirteenth-century holy man who lived in South-west Turkey, an area that now bears his name. The two are brought together in Domeniconi's concept, that a shepherd is uniquely given both the time and insight to contemplate and understand the vastness and immense power of Nature. The area of Koyunbaba, with its spectacular and contrasting land- and seascape, is particularly conducive to such profound thoughts, mirrored in the eponymous music. Each of the four movements develops a separate mood in the hypnotic fashion of eastern music and on a time-scale that reflects the unhurried life of both shepherd and mystic, using a wide range of the guitar's available devices and tex1ures.