{"id":10727,"date":"2018-08-20T14:39:38","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T21:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=10727"},"modified":"2021-02-04T13:39:31","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T21:39:31","slug":"music-to-play-kevin-j-copes-spare-mysterious-pneuma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/music-to-play-kevin-j-copes-spare-mysterious-pneuma\/","title":{"rendered":"Music to Play: Kevin J. Cope\u2019s Spare, Mysterious \u2018Pneuma\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
FROM THE FALL 2018 ISSUE OF CLASSICAL GUITAR<\/a><\/h6>\n

Kevin J. Cope is the current president of the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society and a graduate of the University of Delaware, where he earned master\u2019s degrees in music composition and guitar performance.\u00a0The former rock\/metal guitarist and songwriter shares more about himself and this issue\u2019s piece:<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Kevin-J-Cope-playing-Douglass-Scott-Guitar-credit-Brian-Mengini\"
Kevin J. Cope playing a Douglass Scott guitar. Brian Mengini Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first classical-guitar pieces that truly altered my path were the compositions of Roland Dyens and Nikita Koshkin.\u00a0Their harmonic language and style of composition\u00a0welcomed the influence of my many other musical\u00a0loves and\u00a0was the inspiration that guided me to be free to utilize whatever musical knowledge I acquired along the way in my own compositions. My personal goal since has been to write music that is always enjoyable, even if it is built upon the most esoteric of musical concepts. I believe that the first time a piece is heard it should have an impact, but if listeners choose to look more deeply into it, they will find more that will increase their enjoyment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pneuma<\/i> is no exception. The concept behind the piece is entirely harmonically based, but not from a music theory\u2013class perspective.\u00a0In my guitar practice, there are two exercises that totally enrapture me: a stretching exercise and a finger-independence exercise. In practicing these one day, I decided to combine them and I was absolutely enthralled by the harmonic progression it created. This had<\/i> to become the basis for a piece, and Pneuma<\/i>\u00a0is that piece.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ideally, performing Pneuma<\/i>\u00a0should be an extremely freeing experience. While it is notated like any other piece, pay attention to the \u201cBreathing gently\u201d tempo marking\u2014it is to be performed with less rhythmic strictness. Pneuma <\/i>in Greek translates as \u201cbreath\u201d or \u201csoul,\u201d and this should be the one thought in a performer\u2019s mind when playing the piece. It should not have a rigid beat, nor\u00a0should it\u00a0be constrained by the exact rhythms on the page. The notation is simply a guide. The tempo and phrases should\u00a0ebb and flow with the performer\u2019s long and thoughtful inhalations and exhalations.\u00a0Be free and sit back to enjoy the ride.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pneuma<\/i>\u00a0and many of my other compositions can be found on my recently released recording Destination Unknown<\/i><\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0For more compositions, recordings, and sheet music, please message me at kevin@kevinjcope.com or visit kevinjcope.com.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"pneuma\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FROM THE FALL 2018 ISSUE OF CLASSICAL GUITAR Kevin J. Cope is the current president of the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society and a graduate of the University of Delaware, where he earned master\u2019s degrees in music composition and guitar performance.\u00a0The former rock\/metal guitarist and songwriter shares more about himself and this issue\u2019s piece: The first classical-guitar pieces that truly altered my path were the compositions of Roland Dyens and Nikita Koshkin.\u00a0Their harmonic language and style of composition\u00a0welcomed the influence of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[46],"class_list":["post-10727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-musictoplay","post_format-post-format-video"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Kevin-J-Cope-playing-Douglass-Scott-Guitar-credit-Brian-Mengini.jpg?fit=900%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}