{"id":5261,"date":"2016-09-30T16:07:06","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T23:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=5261"},"modified":"2016-11-03T09:36:21","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T16:36:21","slug":"catching-up-with-roland-dyens-a-2009-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/catching-up-with-roland-dyens-a-2009-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Catching Up with Roland Dyens: A 2009 Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Ana Mar\u00eda Rosado <\/strong><\/p>\n

(From the June 2009 cover story of Classical Guitar<\/em>)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the guitar world the old tradition of the composer-performer is alive and well, more so than in any other instrumental category of the classical realm. We may actually be in a new Golden Age of guitarist-composers to rival those of the early 19th century, when the likes of Mauro Giuliani, Fernando Sor, and many others roamed the earth. Among this current crop of creative artists, one that particularly stands out for his prolific output, quality of music, and communicative powers is Roland Dyens. He has made a name for himself with a host of beautiful pieces and continues to add to this legacy with arrangements of popular music from France, Brazil, and beyond, and with virtuosic versions of jazz standards for solo guitar.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>The idea for this interview came about in a conversation with Roland at the Newark Liberty Airport, where I visited with him while he was in transit from the US back to Paris, in October 2008. We touched upon his new projects, played guitar in this unusual setting, and he shared the news about a series of new developments in his work. For instance, there was the recent \u00a0publication of <\/em>La Guitare: H\u00f4tel de la guitare bleue, a CD\/book about the guitar for children from four to six years old. Dyens was chosen by Editions Gallimard Jeunesse to write and interpret the score for this text. Many styles of guitar music meet in the project, from rock to Gypsy. A new Dyens CD on the American GSP label (Guitar Solo Publications) is devoted to the music of the Brazilian genius of ch\u00f4ro, Alfredo Da Rocha Vianna Jr, aka \u2018Pixinguinha\u2019 (1898-1973). These arrangements for solo guitar by Roland will also be published by GSP. A ravishing version of several of Fernando Sor\u2019s studies arranged by Dyens for guitar and string quartet has also recently made it into a CD and a published score.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>I took this opportunity, at this intense juncture in Roland\u2019s\u2019 life, to ask him a few questions about his motivations and his ideas about the guitar and its future.<\/em><\/p>\n

CLASSICAL GUITAR:<\/strong> When I first heard your Sor and Giuliani CD, with the arrangements of Sor studies with added string quartet, there was a magical moment for me when the strings come in and transform the familiar into something new. What motivated you to add a string quartet to those Sor studies? In the preface to the published score to the Sor arrangements you state that this was a long-term dream of yours.<\/p>\n

ROLAND DYENS<\/strong>: I always wanted to treat the Sor studies my way, but it was Study No.19<\/em> that unleashed this mental process several years ago. I dreamed of this study exactly the same way as I later arranged it, with this enchanting tapestry of strings insinuating itself at the reinstatement of the famous arpeggio. This was so evident musically for me that other studies soon followed [nos. 1, 5, 6, 13, 17, and 20 in Segovia\u2019s numeration]. It must be noted that it was the fact of playing with the Arthur-Leblanc String Quartet at Domaine Forget in 2005 that definitely pushed me into this adventure of a rereading of these perennials, or \u201cevergreens\u201d of the guitar repertoire.<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> What other pieces from the standard repertoire would you consider ready for this treatment, if any?<\/p>\n

DYENS:<\/strong> Obviously there are many other guitar pieces that, in my opinion, would deserve the same fate as \u201cmy\u201d Sor Studies. Imagine the splendid results that Villa-Lobos\u2019s Preludes or some of Francisco T\u00e1rrega\u2019s gems could yield with added string quartet, for instance. Let\u2019s stop while we are ahead; I could get dangerous ideas\u2014but maybe one day\u2026<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> Your approach to rhythm is that of an ensemble player, in that you play as if a drummer were behind you. Actually, in one of your arrangements of jazz standards, in Night and Day<\/em>, you have added a vibraphone to the arrangement. Are these arrangements based on your idealized sound of a jazz ensemble, or is there a particular version on which you based your arrangements?<\/p>\n

DYENS<\/strong>:<\/strong> No, I did not refer to any pre-existing arrangement to write them. These solo guitar versions are meant to suggest or evoke other instruments, from the jazz quartet to the big-band; the only arrangement for duo was written for the sumptuous combination of guitar and vibes, which I had explored for a long time before. By the way, it\u2019s the same approach in my recent work on Pixinguinha\u2019s music\u2014I do not wish to refer to any version whatsoever of these pieces when I make my own. This is my way of preserving a total freshness. Of course, you can find certain traits that hail from historic versions of the pieces, but those are integral parts of the standards, a kind of musical signature, or DNA. When I start an arrangement project, whichever it may be, I look first and foremost to harvest the melody in its purest and most naked form. Then I begin to \u201cdress\u201d it; a good arranger must be like an inspired grand chef or a high-fashion designer.<\/p>\n

I \u00a0have a short anecdote to finish with this subject. The editor of one of the most important Jazz magazines in France, Jazz Hot<\/em>, wrote a review of my CD upon its launch. Although in general terms it was very complimentary he could not help concluding the article with these words: \u201cIt is nevertheless a pity that Roland Dyens did not avail himself of the services of double-bass player or a drummer to make this recording.\u201d He definitely did not get it.<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> Pixinguinha\u2019s music is enjoying a renaissance in Brazil. Is that how you became interested in arranging his ch\u00f4ro music for solo guitar? You seem to have a strong instinct for Brazilian music, as evidenced by your early 3 Saudades<\/em>. Is that a personal preference?<\/p>\n

DYENS<\/strong>:<\/strong> I used to claim that I was Brazilian in one of my previous lives. I deeply feel as if I were a Brazilian artist and citizen. Popular Brazilian music is definitely one of the two most sophisticated popular musics in the world, together with Indian music. So it is not because of the current Pixinguinha revival that I decided to work on this music. The project was very probably sleeping in my heart for years and years. And it woke up on a day in September 2007, all of a sudden, in the middle of a \u201cpixtune\u201d played by a Brazilian student at a workshop in Lisbon, Portugal. After he played, I stood up and hugged him like crazy. He probably thought it was because of his interpretation, but it was not only because of that. Then I thanked him for being the small click that was needed in order to start my \u201cpixwork.\u201d. This student, Virgilio Gomes, is actually a great Brazilian bass guitar jazz player. Later, he was the one who sent me the huge PixRealbook<\/em>, which includes over a hundred tunes from which I\u2014with much difficulty, because all of them are pure jewels\u2014selected the eleven \u201cwinners\u201d that I came to arrange.<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> It is very difficult to reach the mainstream of music through the guitar, either as a performer or as a composer? Is writing music just for the guitar or guitar-based pieces a completely satisfying compositional venue for you?<\/p>\n

DYENS<\/strong>:<\/strong> Well, you\u2019re tackling an important issue here. Writing for the guitar is the most challenging issue I actually know. And that is why it is completely suited to my temperament\u2014that of a crazy risk-taker. Is it the guitar which has made me a risk-lover, and hence a little crazy, or was I crazy already? That is the <\/em>question.<\/p>\n

Certainly it is particularly tricky to write or arrange well for the guitar. It requires a perfect knowledge both of the history and the geography of the instrument. But isn\u2019t that precisely what forces us, come what may, to go deep into thought, to search for clarity, for evidence, and to search for the essence? Iisn\u2019t that what forces us to find viable solutions in difficult contexts, solutions that come to the rescue of this or that musical idea that is worth saving? Excessive freedom, in my opinion, kills creativity. And that is the reason why I love the guitar and its limits<\/em>. Paradoxical? Maybe a bit.<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> Have you written pieces without guitar in them?<\/p>\n

DYENS<\/strong>:<\/strong> Not yet. I\u2019ve always thought that it is better to forge ahead in a field that I master and for a music sphere where my name is established, rather than to venture into a universe where I do not have a real media presence. I think to myself, \u201cWhat oboe player is going to want to play Roland Dyens when, after decades of work, I have a beautiful audience of guitarists and guitar aficionados?\u201d My belief may not be the general consensus; for example, the saxophone and the accordion professors at the Paris Conservatory are encouraging me to write for their instruments. My mind is not closed to the possibilities\u2014absolutely not, and I rather like the idea.<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> Your guitar music is very intricate and challenging to play. Lately you have produced easier music, in the case of the 20 Letters<\/em> and, I imagine, the children\u2019s book. Is that harder for you to do\u2014to write easy music?<\/p>\n

DYENS<\/strong>:<\/strong> Yes, extremely hard. When I finished writing the 20 Letters <\/em>eight years ago, I honestly thought I had never written anything easier and that they were, in fact, very easy. Truth be told, they require at least four years of guitar study to be able to approach the easier ones. That fact has only increased my desire to tackle that real challenge again. To write very simple and <\/em>very \u201csexy\u201d\u2014that\u2019s the thing!<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> How many of your published compositions may have started as improvisations in your concerts, other than the Valse des Loges<\/em>?<\/p>\n

DYENS<\/strong>:<\/strong> It is not quite that, my dear friend. The truth is, first of all, that my compositions are never <\/em>born from improvisations on stage, but hail instead from an intense and thorough effort at my desk. They may sometimes be born in a theater or a concert hall, but within the green rooms of these\u2014I find them very inspiring\u2014which is a very different proposition. What happened with that piece is that I had finished composing it a few minutes before going on stage, and the risk- and the danger-lover in me could not resist the temptation of giving its premiere that same night. That\u2019s the real story behind my Valse des Loges.<\/em><\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> You are in a noble tradition with Debussy and Ravel, Chabrier and Rimsky-Korsakov in writing \u201cnationalistic\u201d music from an outside perspective: 3 Saudades<\/em>, Valse des Anges<\/em> [Angel\u2019s Waltz<\/em>], Tango en Ska\u00ef<\/em>, to mention just some, with a very organic approach to Brazilian and Latin music. Do you study the rhythms and then recreate them in your music, or do you let your musical instinct go with it?<\/p>\n

DYENS<\/strong>:<\/strong> I never really studied any of these rhythms as ethnomusicologists do. On the other hand, I\u2019m a real living and listening witness of the musics of the world. Look at Valse des Anges, <\/em>for instance. That piece, dedicated to my friend Russ De Angelo, was pretty quickly composed in a green room in Dana Point, California. It\u2019s rather a map of Latin America, than a waltz, I think. Rather than being a nationalistic musician, I feel like a sponge actually. And I feel more like a nationalistic musician for others than for my personal use, let\u2019s say. Have I written any French-flavored pieces? Well, maybe. What about my 26 arrangements on French songs? Then it\u2019s unconsciously.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>