Tim Sparks is an award-winning
guitarist whose blending of musical styles
has won him extensive praise from all
corners of the music world. Guitar Player
Magazine has called his music "Fresh,
exotic, and totally cool.", Acoustic
Guitar Magazine calls it "rich and
sensuous", and guitarist Leo Kottke simply
says "He's really one of the best
musicians I know." From the early
traditional country blues and gospel music
he learned in the Blue Ridge Mountains to
the Jazz, Be Bop, classical and world
music from his varied career across the U.
S. and Europe, Tim has thrilled and
inspired audiences and musicians
world-wide.
This activity is made
possible in part by a grant provided by
the Minnnesota State Arts Board, through
an appropriation by the Minnesota State
Legislature from the Minnesota arts and
cultural heritage fund with money from the
vote of the people of Minnesota on
November 4, 2008.
Tim's acclaimed recording of Tchaikovsky's
Nutcracker Suite has been reissued for
it's 20th anniversary. The CD is now
available for $12 and also available in
combination with a PDF file of the
transcription and tab for the special
price of $20.
With funding from the Minnesota Legacy
Fund and the Lakes Region Arts
Council, I've been working on
an exciting new project creating
arrangements for solo guitar of various
works by Prokofiev, Stravinsky and
Shostakovich, three Russian masters
of 20th century composition. It is my
hope that these transcriptions will be of
value to Classical, Jazz and Fingerstyle
Guitarists.
Dance Russe, from the Ballet Petrushka,
by Igor Stravinsky
Petrushka is
a ballet set to music –
composed in 1910–11 and revised in
1947 – by the
Russian composer Igor
Stravinsky.
Petrushka is the story of a Russian
traditional puppet, Petrushka,
who is made of straw and with a bag of
sawdust as his body, but who comes to life
and develops emotions.
Stravinsky composed the music for
Petrushka during the winter of
1910–11 for Sergei
Diaghilev'sBallets
Russes. It was premièred in
Paris at the Théâtre
du Châtelet on 13 June
1911. The title role was danced
by Vaslav
Nijinsky. The work is
characterized by the
so-called Petrushka
chord (consisting of C major and
F? major triads played together),
a bitonality device heralding
the appearance of the main character.
The Petrushka chord combines two major
triads whose roots are spaced by a
tritone. For instance, a C major triad
combined with an F# major triad creates
the Petrushka chord. This was a
revolutionary innovation for music in the
early 20th century.
"Petrushka" Chord Scale
for guitar
Here is a nice voicing on
guitar
of the "Pretrushka"
chord
Jazz musicians typically think of the
Petrushka chord as an altered 7th chord,
for example, C 7 with flat 9 and flat
5.
This solo guitar version was created for a
project funded by the LRAC with a MN
Arts Legacy Grant.
In 1921, Stravinsky created a piano
arrangement for Arthur
Rubinstein entitled "Trois
mouvements de Petrouchka", which the
composer admitted he could not play
himself for lack of adequate left hand
technique.
The Prelude no 8, op 34, by Dmitri
Shostakovich, is a good representation of
the “bi-tonal” language
associated with these Russian innovators.
This piece has many tonal shifts or
“derailments”, as Shostakovich
liked to call them. The fingerings are
quite tricky to execute at first because
the tonal center of gravity is
always changing. This is one quality which
attracted me to the idea of attempting a
guitar adaptation of this music in the
first place. The original is in F sharp
minor. For my version, I have
transposed the key to D, with the 6th
string tuned to D, because this seems the
best key on the guitar for this piece.
The links below connect to a copy of my
guitar transcription, an audio recording
of the guitar version, a YouTube video of
a performance of the guitar version, the
original piano score and a recording of
Shostakovich playing the original
composition. This is a work in progress
and any comments, questions or suggestions
are welcome. I will periodically update
this page with new renditions.
According to historian Debra G
Andrescchio, “Shostakovich was 26
years old when he composed the Preludes Op
34. He composed one Prelude nearly every
day between December 30th, 1932 and March
2nd, 1933. He commenced them just a couple
of weeks after completing his
opera, Lady Macbeth, only weeks
after the suicide of Stalin’s
wife. Shostakovich described it as a
satiric, tragic opera. It exhibits signs
that he was at odds with Communism in his
mind as well as his heart. Shostakovich
was reprimanded after Stalin saw this
opera. Consideration of these political
and social upheavals are paramount in
understanding the underlying meaning of
Shostakovich's musical texts.
Shostakovich reportedly called these
Preludes a "series of psychological
sketches". Therefore, when studying the
Preludes, a performer is obliged to
understand the psychology of his musical
texts. The Preludes are miniatures - one
to three pages in length. They are
intimate and personal. They combine satire
and tragedy and reflect
Shostakovich’s musical fantasy - his
inner freedom to express his response to
his repressive surroundings.
One frequent technique Shostakovich used
when improvising and composing, was to
include sudden interruptions, reflecting
the unpredictability of life under the
Communist regime.
Shostakovich was referred to as
a yurodivy - the Russian
equivalent to the English court jester.
The yurodivy had the gift to
see, hear and reflect many things that
some others may know but because of
political fear, are unable to say. This
was significant in the era of the Tzars,
then inherited by Shostakovich and
reflected in his own visions of
reality.”
New DVD
Release
Tim Sparks also brought along a priceless
gift for we students of guitar -- a
veritable Sistine Chapel of fingerstyle
instruction; Post-Modern Fingerstyle
Blues, which features enough insight and
fretboard wisdom to sustain a lifetime of
study.
Sparks cleverly utilizes eight fingerstyle
masterpieces as a framework for presenting
his curriculum. In the end you will add
your own version of these eight tunes to
your playlist. The real educational
firepower of Post-Modern Fingerstyle Blues
are the key learnings found within the
series of breakdowns for each of the eight
tunes. It's there that Sparks demonstrates
a wide variety of mesmerizing techniques,
mind-blowing voicings, innovative
fingerings, creative harmony, elegant
performance nuances and so much more.
ANNOUNCEMENT:
There's no shortage of Top Guitarist lists
that purport to represent the "best" or
"greatest" guitarists in the land. You'd
likely agree that there's really no such
thing as a "best" guitarist, nor is there
any way to quantify such a list. At best,
the lists only represent the most popular
and/or commercially successful guitarists
and are not necessarily based on talent or
musical achievement. More disappointing,
they're always packed with the usual
suspects.
A year ago, TrueFire set out to compile
a list of players that clearly deserve
wider recognition because of their
extraordinary talent and musical prowess.
Thanks to the input, nominations and
consensus of the TrueFire community, which
is comprised of thousands of players from
hundreds of countries, Tim was nominated
and confirmed.
"An exhilarating, odd-meter
minefield inspired by Near
Eastern music. An important
recording from a gifted composer,
arranger and performer." - Guitar
Player Magazine
"Little Princess is not only a
unique look at Brandwein's legacy
but a major addition to the world
music canon." - Elliott Simon,
All About Jazz - New York
Tim's acclaimed recording of Tchaikovsky's
Nutcracker Suite has been reissued for
it's 20th anniversary. The CD is now
available for $12 and also available in
combination with a PDF file of the
transcription and tab for the special
price of $20.
