Duarte: Homages, Works for Guitar Solo

Over the course of a career as a composer spanning 66 years, John W. Duarte made many friendships with performers and other composers. This recording documents the history of those relationships, as enshrined in the many musical tributes Duarte dedicated to others, and in three homages to Duarte, dedicated to him by other composers. The only homage by Duarte not included on this recording – Canción y Danza (Homage to Ruiz-Pipó) Op.117 – already featured in Volume One of this series (Brilliant Classics 96184).

For Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco:
The Sonatina Lirica, in three movements, was commissioned by the Guitar Weeks in Zwolle (Netherlands) Foundation and was written very quickly in the summer of 1971. Duarte described it in a letter to the Italian composer’s widow as an ‘homage to Castelnuovo-Tedesco, since I thought it matched the spirit of his music’.

Angelo Gilardino for John W. Duarte:
Italian guitarist and editor Angelo Gilardino was introduced to Duarte by Clara Castelnuovo Tedesco in September 1969. Duarte would supply Gilardino with 19 original compositions and 14 books of arrangements for the latter’s guitar sheet music series with Edizioni Musicali Bèrben, and the two exchanged hundreds of letters. A Quiet Song, written at the request of the
American guitarist David Norton and dedicated to the memory of John W. Duarte is ‘actually an essay of counterpoint upon (the tune) Barbara Allen, a song which Jack liked.’

For Wes Montgomery:
In late 1971, Gilardino wrote to Duarte suggesting he should write ‘a sort of Tombeau, if you like, a commemorative piece for Wes Montgomery’, who had died in 1968. Sua Cosa has a predominantly jazz character and, in its middle section, quotes from Montgomery’s own composition, Mi Cosa. In a letter to Duarte, 22 May 1972, Gilardino commented, ‘You should have been a medium between the sky (where I hope Wes will be) and the globe!’ In 1986 Duarte suggested this may be his favourite of his own works (for solo guitar), with its many associations and unique character.

For Antonio Lauro:
Duarte visited Venezuela for the first time in October 1979 to adjudicate the Alirio Diaz Guitar Competition. Some two months later Duarte wrote, ‘having just returned from Venezuela, where I met Antonio Lauro for the first time, and having had several Venezuelan students, I thought I would try to write a Venezuelan vals. In fact, I wrote three, within one day.

Mark Houghton for John W. Duarte:
The British guitarist/composer wrote his Elegy (Habanera) on 26 December 2004, just three days after Duarte’s passing. Houghton chose the habanera style because of Duarte’s editing of Manuel de Falla’s Homenaje pour le Tombeau de Claude Debussy, originally published in 1920 (one year after Duarte’s birth) and still a seminal piece for guitarists.

For Manuel Ponce:
Terence Usher’s and Duarte’s Epitaphs form two movements of one piece. Manuel Ponce was a great influence on Duarte’s early compositions. Written in 1948 and first printed in Guitar Review’s 1949 memorial edition for Ponce, who had died the previous year, the Epitaphs are based on the sentence ‘We mourn the loss of a friend – but his Music restores him to us’. The first movement, taken by Usher, reflects the first half of the statement, while Duarte’s piece embodies the second, using a fragment of Usher’s piece and intertwining it with one of Ponce’s last compositions, Rondino (Matinal).

For Frank Martin:
Partita II (Relazione) Op.104 was started in late 1986, at the request of the Swiss guitarist Deborah Mariotti, who also gave its first performance. The second movement, Plainte (lament), is a tribute to the Swiss composer Frank Martin, referencing the third movement of his Quatre
Pièces brèves.

Other information:
- Recorded March 2024 in Weston, England
- Booklet in English contains liner notes by the composer’s son, Christopher Duarte, and a profile of the guitarist
- Daniela Rossi plays a guitar by Walter Verreydt (2019)
- The works by Houghton, Bogdanović and Usher, as well as Duarte’s Epitaph for Manuel M. Ponce appear in their first recordings

- John Duarte (1919-2004) was one of the foremost and most influential guitarists and guitar composers of the 20th century. His work shows an exceptionally wide range of styles. Some works reflect the Renaissance style of court lutenists such as John Dowland other works alternate in style between aleatory, atonal and graphic, contained within a conventionally notated framework and allowing spontaneous reaction between the performers. In many other works he employs a tonal language, often coloured by the folk music traditions of various nations, and romantic in mood.
- Over the course of a composing career which spanned 66 years, Duarte made many friendships with performers and composers. This recording documents the history of these relationships, as well as incorporating three homages from other composers to Duarte. The composers on this new recording include Dušan Bogdanović, Terence Usher, Mark Houghton and Angelo Gilardino.
- Played with great command and feeling by Italian guitarist Daniela Rossi, described by the composer/guitarist Leo Brouwer as “…a performer with a very rare combination of energy, expression and perfect technique”.