Preface 5

Preface

Asking general questions had always led only to limited answers. By contrast, asking limited questions turned out to provide more and more general answers.

F. Jacob, Of Flies, Mice and Men1

We reprove him (J. S. Bach) for having hitherto made many curious variationes in the chorale, and mingled many strange notes in it, and for the fact that the Congregation has been confused by it.

Bach reprimanded for improper playing, Arnstadt, February 21, 17062

In my past efforts at creating theoretical texts I have consciously avoided the subject of harmony for guitar. Since there is such a wealth of material on the guitar harmony, I felt there was no need to add yet another text to an otherwise overfilled shelf of overweight and over-elaborated-on subjects. My work with both classical and jazz players however, has often revealed gaps in certain areas of harmonic praxis: as much as fluid chord manipulation is common in jazz, clear contrapuntal thinking is not always a given; the classical guitar approach, on the other hand, mostly relies on the written word and in general lacks application of the theory.

This work, I hope, will remedy this situation a little. Although the examples given here are primarily from the classical guitar repertoire, the methodology, I think, is logical and general enough to encompass several idioms simultaneously. The harmonic sequences, for example, are applicable to both figured bass and improvisation covering several historic periods and harmonic languages; the Appendix no.1 shows different types of seventh chords in inversions and in several different positions and fingerings that have general application too. Finally, given examples and exercises can be practiced and understood by either classical or jazz musicians.

Despite some glaring biases3 in choosing material for this book, I have made an effort to give enough stylistic and aesthetic variety in order to make it both informative and interesting for guitarists of diverse orientations and tastes. In addition to the better-known works from the guitar repertoire, I have also occasionally included quirky transcription and arrangement examples such as fragments from W.A. Mozart’s Lacrimosa, J.S.Bach’s organ works, piano Preludes by C. Debussy or jazz pieces by M. Leviev. This is partially due to my affection for this music and partially due to my attempt to expand what seems to me a somewhat limited harmonic content of the usual guitar repertoire.

In the late seventies and early eighties I was very much involved in what, at the time, seemed like pioneering work of expanding stylistic boundaries and synthesizing new aesthetic amalgams. At the present moment, however, the worlds of classical, jazz and ethnic (world) music appear on the road to becoming an aesthetically incongruous blend, and what seemed at an earlier time an attractive proposition, looks to me less and less interesting and satisfying. Consequently, asking limited questions at this point might be one of the most useful contributions towards constructing a solid musical ground out of which other flightier and more imaginative creative adventures can be built.

My heartfelt thanks to Samuele Pellizzari, Laura Moro and Edizioni Curci for publishing this book. Also, my gratitude to Maarten Vandenbemden for his great help in editing this work.

Dusan Bogdanovic Geneva, 2008

1 Jacob F. 1998, Of Flies, Mice and Men, Harvard University Press, Cambridge. 2 The Bach Reader, 1972, edited by H. T. David and A. Mendel, W. W. Norton & Company, New York. 3 Examples from music by J.S. Bach make up almost a quarter of the whole index and G. Regondi is not far behind.

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