ANU School of Music PhD student releases debut album

Spanish guitar music and music with a connection to Spain comprise the tracks on ANU School of Music PhD student Andrew Blanch’s debut album.

 

The album was recorded in December 2014 shortly after Andrew had completed a tour through NSW, ACT and VIC. He says that he had been playing some of the pieces for up to six years prior to the recording, and others for less than six months.

 

“The opening two pieces in particular have some sentimental meaning to me as they were among the first pieces I studied with my teacher Timothy Kain shortly after moving to Canberra just under 6 years ago,” Andrew says. “When I play them and think about them, it brings me right back to my first year when I was 18, living away from home, studying with a new teacher and making new friends – very fond memories.”

 

He describes the album as being: “a very mixed program in a lot of ways: some pieces are composed by guitarists but others are arrangements of keyboard works, orchestral works, and traditional Catalan folk songs.”

 

“The oldest pieces were composed over 250 years ago by Domenico Scarlatti, a keyboard player and composer born in Italy but living in Spain at the time. The newest works were completed in 1961, and are Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Caprichos de Goya, inspired by the great Spanish artist Francisco Goya's 'Los Caprichos' etchings.”

 

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco immigrated to the United States in 1939, writing the scores for around 200 Hollywood films and, notably, tutored John Williams. His piece, No. 18 El sueño de la razón produce monstrous, is Track 5 of Andrew’s album. Andrew mentions that this is a notoriously difficult piece to play.   

 

“I’m not just saying this, it’s literally unplayable on the guitar,” he says. “So as a guitarist you have to be kind of a bit judicious over what notes you choose to keep and what notes you choose to get rid of. And I guess that’s quite a personal thing and you can do it to suit your own technique and your ability, but also what you’re trying to say with the music.”

 

Andrew is continuing work on his PhD, which seeks to understand how it is that some classical guitar teachers manage to bring out the talents of a greater portion of their students than other teachers. 

 

He cites his own teacher, Timothy Kain, as being one of these people.

 

Timothy, Andrew says, taught at the School of Music for thirty years. 

 

He continues, “In that time, his students won more than… pretty sure it’s more than 45 first prizes in national and international music competitions. And that’s spread across at least 15 different students.”

 

“He’s not the only teacher in the world who’s managed to do that. But there are a reasonably small number who get that sort of success out of their students.”

 

“I wanted to investigate how they’ve done that, what’s going on that makes their teaching stand out from the pack. So I’m undertaking case studies on what I think are some of the world’s most successful teachers in that regard.”

 

Andrew’s PhD will take him to Paris in January 2016, where he will study renowned guitar teacher, Judicaël Perroy for three months. 

 

Preview Andrew’s new album for free on Bandcamp.