{"id":4080,"date":"2016-04-26T14:47:04","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T21:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=4080"},"modified":"2021-04-29T10:47:55","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T17:47:55","slug":"hilary-fields-premieres-collects-unrecorded-pieces-by-contemporary-composers-from-all-over-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/hilary-fields-premieres-collects-unrecorded-pieces-by-contemporary-composers-from-all-over-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Hilary Field\u2019s ‘Premieres’ Collects Unrecorded Pieces by Contemporary Composers from all Over the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Spring 2016 issue of Classical Guitar magazine.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

BY BLAIR JACKSON<\/h5>\n

One of my favorite classical guitar CDs of 2015 was Hilary Field\u2019s Premieres<\/a><\/i><\/strong>, which was exactly what its title promised\u2014first recordings of ten pieces by contemporary composers from all over the world, including Argentina, Chile, Poland, Russia, Greece, Australia, Brazil, and the US. Among the best-known names are Jorge Morel (who has two works on the disc), Richard Charlton (whose four-part Suite Latina<\/i> is a highlight), the Brasil Guitar Duo\u2019s Douglas Lora, and the prolific Gerard Drozd. It\u2019s always something of a risk to hit an audience with an entire program of new music, but the Seattle, Washington-based Field chose the pieces carefully over a long period and made sure they reflected her own aesthetic, which has always leaned toward more lyrical and accessible works.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do love a good melody,\u201d she says by phone from her home. \u201cI also appreciate more abstract music on some levels, but not as much inside my heart. In my heart I appreciate more lyrical music; that\u2019s what speaks most to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Field has had a particularly long relationship with the music of Jorge Morel, the brilliant Argentine composer\/guitarist who has lived in New York for decades. All four of her instrumental albums since her 1992 debut, Music of Spain and Latin America<\/i>, have included pieces by him: On that disc, his popular five-part Sonatina<\/i>; the follow-up, Ballad Stories<\/i>, included Suite del Sur<\/i>, Danzas Para Emiko,<\/i> and the world premiere of \u201cBerceuse for Guitar and String Quartet\u201d; her 2013 duo project with viola player Gwen Franz, Airoso<\/i>, featured Morel\u2019s \u201cHomage to a Dance,\u201d among works by Piazzolla, Bach, Telemann and others; and now Premieres<\/i> has two lovely Morel works, Suite for Olga<\/i> and Echoes del Sur<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Field credits Morel with helping shape her path as a guitarist. Growing up in Rosalyn and Brookville, Long Island, New York, she took violin lessons in early elementary school, but soon shifted to guitar. Once she discovered classical guitar in the sixth grade, Field decided she wanted to study the instrument seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved playing and the sound of the guitar,\u201d she says. \u201cI loved that you play it with your hands and there was nothing between your hands and the strings and the music. I felt a very close connection to it. I was already reading music, so I picked up that aspect of it pretty quickly. And then I found teachers who encouraged me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beginning in high school, Field was shepherded by two exceptional and well-known teachers\u2014Pasquale (Pat) Bianculli and Jerry Willard\u2014whom she followed to the State University of New York at Stony Brook. \u201cI learned the music that Pat and Jerry loved, which was a broad range,\u201d she says. \u201cJerry\u2019s done so many transcriptions and editing and fingering, and I got to watch him go through that process when I was growing up, with all the books he was developing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her late teenage years Field was particularly fond of playing Bach and other Baroque music, but says, \u201cwhen I got a little older I heard the music of Jorge Morel for the first time and I was just blown away; I couldn\u2019t believe what I was hearing. It was the kind of music where I just thought, \u2018I wish I wrote that; I have <\/i>to play this music!\u2019 That was my instant reaction. So that was a strong pull for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cMorel combined the beautiful South American harmonies and soul with the structure of classical and sometimes Baroque music,\u201d Field adds. \u201cI also liked the way it was structured like classical music but it still sounded so free<\/i>. It sounded like you were creating a story as you were playing this music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through the years, as Field championed Morel\u2019s work, she got to know him personally, so naturally she approached him for her Premieres<\/i> project. \u201cI had learned his [unrecorded] Suite for Olga<\/i>, which he wrote for his late wife,\u201d she says. \u201cI went to visit him with my family, and I didn\u2019t have my guitar, so he gave me his guitar to play and I was playing his pieces for him. He had never really heard Suite for Olga<\/i> played. He had written it, of course, but he doesn\u2019t play all the music that he writes, and he writes it by hand. So as I was playing, it was the first time he\u2019d ever heard it played back to himself, and I remember this rush of energy I got from this\u2014\u2018Here I am in Jorge Morel\u2019s apartment, playing his guitar, playing his piece on his guitar for him.\u2019 It was a very exciting moment.\u201d A few weeks after that encounter, Morel wrote the two-part Echoes del Sur<\/i> specifically for Field\u2019s Premieres<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Two other works on the disc are dedicated to Field. She had met the Chilean composer, guitarist, poet, and filmmaker Alberto Cumplido a few years ago when she played in Chile and Peru on a tour sponsored by the US Embassy. Cumplido contributed the gorgeous \u201cRetrato Antiguo (a la memoria de John Dowland)\u201d to Premieres<\/i>. \u201cWhen I told him about the project,\u201d Field says, \u201che said, \u2018I will write music for you\u2014for your hands.\u2019\u201d In the case of Premiere<\/i>\u2019s closing meditation, \u201cReluctant Farewell,\u201d by Rick Sowash, \u201cI actually met him by e-mail through a mutual friend,\u201d Field says. \u201cHe had composed some music for a friend, but he wanted the piece to be recorded, so they approached me. He\u2019s the only composer on this CD that\u2019s not actually a guitarist. He often writes chamber music and I think this piece came out beautifully well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other pieces on Premieres<\/i> came through various channels. For instance, in the case of Charlton\u2019s marvelous Suite Latina<\/i>, \u201cPasqaule [Bianculli] gave me a CD of flute-and-guitar music he and [his wife] Kathleen McDonald put out, and that had a Richard Charlton piece on it that I really loved, so I wrote to Mr. Charlton and he was very happy to have me look at some pieces he\u2019d written that had not been\u00a0recorded. My favorite was Suite Latina<\/i>, which is so beautiful\u2014it was like I\u2019d heard it before, but it was still brand-new.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for \u201cNortheastern Lullaby,\u201d by Douglas Lora, \u201cHe\u2019s in the Brasil Guitar Duo and he comes to Washington State often to do classes, so I had met him, and I had heard him play that piece and I loved it. However, he had not written the music down, so I videotaped him playing it, he gave me some instructions about it, and then I took the video home and spent a long time hitting the \u2018play\u2019 and \u2018pause\u2019 buttons until I figured it out, and then I wrote it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there is Field\u2019s lone writing contribution, \u201cDonzella: Fantasia on a Sephardic Lullaby,\u201d which is a creative extension on a traditional tune called \u201cDurme Hermosa Donzella,\u201d which Field included on Siente: Night Songs from Around the World<\/i>, a CD she recorded with singer Patrice O\u2019Neill and a chamber ensemble. \u201cI don\u2019t write as much as I would like,\u201d she comments.<\/p>\n