L'Histoire D'Une Capture -Slave Story
by Apostolos Paraskevas
Classical Guitar - Digital Sheet Music

Solo Guitar - Digital Download

SKU: A0.942096

Composed by Apostolos Paraskevas. 20th Century,Contemporary. Individual part. 7 pages. Silver Sickle Publications #6099413. Published by Silver Sickle Publications (A0.942096).

Slave Story (1992) is one of the first pieces where the composer’s experimentation with novel guitar sounds becomes evident. In the words of Mr. Paraskevas, "with this piece I wished to give the listener as many unconventional and new sounds on the guitar as possible." In order to understand the function of the sounds used one has to be aware of the programmatic elements hidden behind the music. The story is that of a slave; first we hear the chains, represented by scratching of the nails on the strings, while immediately afterwards the leitmotiv of the slave is introduced. As the music grows faster, the slave is caught in a dream, where he is being pursued (musically illustrated by the strikes on the wood and other techniques that produce percussive sounds). This hectic effect culminates in the emancipation of the slave’s mind, whereby he recalls sounds of the timpani that he used to hear when once free in his homeland. In order to achieve these different timpani-like sounds, the player has to cross the strings of the guitar in pairs, thus forming six different sounds of timpani, and improvise rhythmically on them. As the sound gradually fades out, the opening scratching of the string returns, bringing the slave out of his illusions and back to reality. The sound of the lowest note is not enough to lament on the slave’s fate, so the performer has to start untuning the lowest string, until a very low and uncertain pitch is heard. At this point he lays the guitar flat, and, with the use of a Ping-Pong ball that he slides between the fourth and the fifth strings of the guitar he creates a sound that represents a dream, an escape from the reality. At the same time, however, the lamenting bass persists - that proves to be the only reality.

 

Slave Story has been recorded by the composer on a Centaur Records CD bearing the title Visions of Azure  CRC 2378/USA.  It was premiered in Boston at TSAI Performance Center in 1992 and had its New York premiere at Weill Hall (Carnegie Recital Hall/USA) by the composer on the guitar in May 1995.

Duration: approx. 8 minutes

 

Apostolos Paraskevas is a classical guitarist and composer as well as an award-winning film director and producer. He has received multiple international awards for his compositions and was nominated for a Grammy Award. He is the only guitarist ever to have a major orchestral piece performed at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Lukas Foss––and the only musician who has performed there in a Grim Reaper outfit. He was the founder and served for 16 years as the artistic director of the International Guitar Congress-Festival of Corfu, Greece.  He is a voting member of the Recording Academy (Grammys).

 

After his undergraduate music studies in Volos he pursued advanced studies in classical guitar with Costas Cotsiolis (diploma, 1990) and Leo Brouwer (Havana 1984, 1988), as well as postgraduate studies in composition with Lukas Foss and Theodore Antoniou (DMA in composition, Boston University, 1998). Paraskevas embarked on a successful career as a guitar soloist and contemporary composer, achieving distinctions in both disciplines: Grammy nomination for Chase Dance (Bridge Records, 1999); first prize for Night Wanderings (Lukas Foss Composition Competition, 2000); first prize for Phygein Adynaton (National Composers Conference, 1997); and numerous prestigious commissions, performances, and publications. Following teaching posts at Northeastern and Boston Universities, Paraskevas has taught since 2001 at the Berklee College of Music in Boston (professor of composition and classical guitar). 

 

His eclectic compositional style arises as an idiosyncratic integration of seemingly conflicting influences – from avant-garde approaches to harmonic structure, form, and timbre, to p.