Rajalla

by Ilkka Hammo

On the boundary

for solo guitar

Description

Rajalla (On the Boundary) has a special meaning to me in the sense that it is my first solo work for my own instrument guitar. The threshold for writing the work was high for a long time precisely because of the familiarity of the instrument. Thousands of practice hours with guitar took my thoughts in the early stages of the work primarily to player’s perspective whenever I thought of guitar. Finding a composer’s mindset was a challenge particularly in composing a solo guitar work for a long time. After crossing the threshold as the work progressed, my experience as a guitarist was of considerable benefit.

Rajalla (On the Boundary) is composed for Aleksi Rajala. The title refers primarily to Aleksi, but it can also refer to being on different borders. During the composing process, I often found myself in the middle ground between an improvising guitarist and a composer. Many ideas were born precisely through practical improvisation, where intuition and physical touch to the instrument dictated the nature of the ideas. On the other hand, I composed a considerable amount of the piece without guitar. At times, it even felt detrimental to try all the compositional ideas right away on the guitar because I felt it limited my imagination and analytical thinking. Finding a balance and navigating the interfaces of player-composer identities were the most important challenges in composing the work.

The metaphor of moving on both sides of the border also refers to the textures of the work. There is a lot of percussive energy in the piece, but also contemplative lyricism as well as balancing on the border of these extremes.

Instrumentation

guit

Category

Works for Solo Instrument

Premiere

Aleksi Rajala, December 1, 2016, Helsinki

Commisioned by / dedications

Commissioned by Aleksi Rajala

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Archive number

MF33670

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