The Art of Modern/Primitive Guitar
Shawn Persinger is Prester John
Innova 610
1. What is Modern/Primitive Guitar?
A world of content musical paradoxes:
· Dark yet playful · Sophisticated yet
naïve
· Technically demanding yet sloppy · Haphazard
yet exact
Modern/Primitive Guitar is a style of guitar music that is
the aural equivalent of the visual Modern/Primitive art form explored and
developed by such painters as: Jean DuBuffet, Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, William
Henry Johnson, Paul Klee and Karl Appel. All of these artists were highly
skilled yet worked with a more visceral approach, technique and vision. The
same attitude and ideas are found in the Modern/ Primitive Guitar style.
Sonically, M/P Guitar combines the radical musical styles of
avant-garde musicians such as Eugene Chadbourne, Fred Frith and John Zorn with
the more traditional leanings of guitarists such as Leo Kottke, Michael Hedges
and Larry Coryell. The vocabulary and form found in the music of such
"concert works" composers as Leonard Bernstein, Astor Piazolla and
Igor Stravinsky also play a role in the M/P sound.
Modern/Primitive Guitar derives its name from both the
Modern/Primitive visual arts (also known as Outsider Art and L'Art Brute) and
as an evolution of the American Primitive Guitar sound developed by musician
John Fahey.
2. What are the Key Elements of Modern/Primitive Guitar?
As the name implies, a major element of the Modern/Primitive
Guitar style is contradiction. Mixing genres and themes that seem radically
dissimilar yet coexist happily by building off each other's differences.
Examples of this are the musical paradoxes mentioned at the beginning of this
introduction. Other characteristics that are not necessarily contradictory, and
certainly are not exclusive to any one genre, include:
·
Dissonance ·
Nontraditional song structure · Animated
· Brevity ·
Rhythmic invention ·
Repetition
· Large
Interval Leaps (Octave Displacement) · Angular Melodies · Odd Meters ·
Aggressiveness
· Abrupt
changes in tempo, key or meter
· Sound effects
using extended techniques, e.g.:
1. Using the guitar body as a percussive instrument. 2. Playing notes behind the nut.
3. Bending the headstock and guitar neck. 4.
Scraping the strings in a coarse manner.
5. Preparing the guitar with items such as slip rings, pencils and foam rubber.
Ultimately there are no hard and fast rules for
Modern/Primitive Guitar, only elements of style. I am not interested in
limiting myself (or anyone else) to only these components. Nevertheless, these
are the main ingredients that create the foundation for the M/P Guitar sound.
Interestingly enough when different, specific, audiences are
presented with a workshop on M/P Guitar what is "modern" and what is
"primitive" can have altered meaning. What is new and unusual in one
genre of music is often viewed as standard repertoire in another and vice
versa. When giving a talk and demonstration at an academic-based composers
conference in Washington D.C. I found that audience members thought the idea of
extended technique to be conventional in the world of "concert"
music. Whereas in the world of the mainstream music listener, extended
technique is often a new and eye opening concept. By contrast, what most 20th
century composers consider to be standard "modern" musical vocabulary
i.e.: the use of dissonance and pantonality (or atonality as it is more
commonly known) and extreme rhythmic syncopation, is still very foreign,
shocking and "primitive" sounding to commercial audiences. It is the
unification of these two distinct worlds of music I am interested in.
3. Who plays/composes Modern/Primitive Guitar?
As far as I know, I am the only musician/composer to have
used this term to distinguish a style of music. But I would NOT dare to claim I
am the only person playing the guitar in this manner. There are far too many
guitarists on the planet for such a statement to be valid. In my search I have
found other guitarists who have hinted towards similar leanings but, to my
knowledge, have not produced an extended body of work or given it a
classification. Composers I consider influences of this genre include: Janet
Feder, Marc Ribot and Don Van Vliet, as well as all of the previously mentioned
artists.
I should mention that the Cuneiform Records Compilation CD:
"156 Strings" (which includes one track by Shawn Persinger is Prester
John) features several guitarists working in a similar style, though most with
strictly avant-garde and experimental slants. There are many excellent
performances on this CD. If anyone reading this knows of other guitarists or
composers working in a similar style I would love to learn about them, I have
no interest in flag planting.
- Shawn Persinger, Winter 2003
All songs composed, performed and produced by Shawn
Persinger
© 2004 by Shawn Persinger
Published by Prester John Music ASCAP
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Shawn Persinger at
6 or 7 Records
• New Haven, CT. • November 2003
CD art and design by Martin Stephenson
A transcription book of this album written in both standard
notation and guitar tablature is
available from Quixotic Books. If you are interested in
purchasing a copy please contact:
E.H.P. Productions
post office box 1338 • new haven, CT 06505 usa •
www.persingermusic.com
Contact E.H.P. for any and all correspondence and booking
information.
Shawn Persinger plays Elixir Guitar Strings and Taylor Guitars
Director: Philip Blackburn
Director of Artist and Product: Chris Strouth
Innova Assistant: Chris Campell
Innova is supported by an endowment from the McKnight
Foundation
and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.