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Mertz was a tall man, about 50, neither fat nor thin, very modest and with no hint of a pretense to greatness about him. I had already become well acquainted with him through a large number of his published compositions and especially through his transcriptions of famous opera music for the guitar. However, with little exception, his music, and in particular, his transcription, was uninteresting. It seemed quite dull to me, rather hurriedly composed without proper attention, simply to satisfy the guitar amateurs of his time. Aware of this, I did not expect anything unusual from his playing. He spoke little French -- my wife assumed the role of translator.

As soon as it was feasible, I offered him my guitar and asked him to play something. He took it readily and immediately began to play. It was a fascinating large work.

"By me," was the answer. "It has not been published yet." Then he played another piece, and still another. Each one better than the last -- all magnificent. I was dumbfounded with surprise and admiration. I felt like a Columbus discovering a new America, for here was the great guitar composer I had long given up hope of finding. I had been searching for him everywhere, among the countless pieces of music I bought throughout Russia and Europe. Afterwards, I had thrown them away in despair, finding them worthless rubbish, cooked up by talentless modern composers such as Padovetz, Carcassi, Bobrovich, Bayer, Soussman, Kuffner, Pettol [Pettoleti?], etc.

In contrast, the music played by Mertz, to which I listened with ever-growing rapture, contained everything -- rich composition, great musical knowledge, excellent development of an idea, unity, novelty, grandeur of style, absence of trivial expression and multiplicity of harmonic effects.

At the same time, there was the clear basic melody, which kept surging above the surface of arpeggios and chords. The effects were brilliant and daring. Basic to all this, he had a deep understanding of the instrument with all its possibilities and hidden secrets. In his full-hearted compositions, I liked the finales and introductions especially well, because they were unusual and were wonderfully developed. They could be removed from the rest and played separately without losing their power and musical significance. Thus, they could give full satisfaction to any listener.

After each piece, I asked him the same question and received the same answer -- "Not published."

"Why don't you publish them? Why keep this wonderful music from your admirers? Why do you allow the guitarists to feed on the tasteless compositions of Bobrovich and Padovetz and constantly remain hungry for want of musical beauty?"

"I will tell you," said Mertz. "First, on seeing these, the publishers would say it was too difficult, that I would have to rearrange them. That would spoil the compositions. Second, as long as these compositions remain in my briefcase, they remain new; and are mine for my own concerts. Within six months after publication, they would become old. Further, they would become distorted and mutilated by those miserable guitarists who can only scratch the strings of the guitar."

"Please do not imitate him and spoil the music by rewriting it to make it less difficult."

"Oh, no, I respect you and myself far too much for that. I will write them for you note by note, exactly as they are."

He kept his word. Within a week, he brought me five compositions written with great care and attention to detail.

As a performer, Mertz was without doubt, the best of the German guitarists I had heard. His playing was marked by power, energy, feeling, clarity and expression. However, he had the defects of the German school -- the buzzing of basses, the smothering of very rapid passages at times. With respect to the embellishment and polishing of musical sentences and periods, Mertz was not on a par with Zani de Ferranti, or Shultz. This was also true in respect to tenderness and softness of tone. As a performer, Shultz was much superior to Mertz. However, as a composer, Mertz ranked immeasurably higher than Shultz. He surpassed in originality, in aspiration and particularly in the understanding of the guitar as an instrument with all its possibilities and qualities.

I began work on Capriccio at the request of my good friend and colleague Patrick Kearney, who was then commissioning new works for this recording. The theme was to be an collection of virtuostic romantic pieces, both new and old, focusing around the "diabolico" theme and the caprices of Niccolo Paganini. It was from that which I started sketching my own capriccio, which was intentionally romantic in language and requires a good amount of virtuosity from the performer to play. The piece is entirely constructed from three basic melodic fragments which, upon a close examination, are present throughout the entire work. The use of limited melodic material, upon which a large scale work is based, so common to the music of Beethoven, inspired me to include a rather mysterious quote from the Op. 31 #2 Sonata for piano solo. This piece, subtitled, The Tempest is considered one of the earliest works of his second period, when he broke away from Haydn-influenced classicism and became the leader in a new romantic movement in music. The inclusion of this quote also mirrors the work Capriccio Diabolico of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco whom quotes "La Canpanella" by Paganini at the very end of the piece. Capriccio has been to date one of my most accepted works and it was possibly the easiest to produce. Having finished it in less than a day, it took longer to typeset than compose. - Andrew Zohn

Collage was my first composition for solo guitar. I had written a few "studies" as a student while studying in Paris, but they all, for the most part, ended up in the trash.

The year was 2001, the season was fall. My new Simon Marty guitar was just starting to seriously "open-up" and out came Collage. It being my frist ever composition I was highly doubtful of my own work so I decide to tell the people around me, such as friends and students, that I was editing a new piece by "some" young guitar composer in Europe (which was often the case). Some of my students liked the piece so much that they begged me to tell them once the piece was published so they could purchase it. Of course, it was a shock to them once I admitted, only months later, that the piece was my own, and that it was to be published in days to come, with Les Productions D'OZ. For the publication of the piece some "things" had to be left out, here they are:

Measures 1 to 6 should be played: ...a la Alberto Ponce

All trill like ornaments are to be played...like Andrew Zohn

Measure 62 should read: cantabile e dolce a la Daniel Boyer.

Measure 66 should read: suave en hommage a Daniel Boyer.

Measure 75 should read: Agitato e groove a la Claude Engel.

Measure 75 should read: Impulsivo comme Rafaël Andia.

Measure 101 should read: con fuoco a la Rafaël Andia.

Measure 152 should read: cantabile et nostalgique. - Patrick Kearney

Tabea is Norbet Dams' daughter. Tabea at first glance seemed, when I first met her and her family back in 1999, like a very shy, tall, blonde haired, blue eyed, intelligent young girl. However, at times she would surprise you by coming in from the garden with worms crawling all over her mud soaked arms and look at you and say, "...look are they not beautiful, are they not neat!?".
Norbert Dams is an extremely busy man - too much so I think. But to keep himself and his family affloat he must, on top of his other "jobs", play concets. This pulls him away from his comfortable family and onto "the road" for numerous recitals. When he leaves, Tabea like most loving children, gets sad and angry...but this only lasts until Dad comes back and when he does and enormous burst of energy rushes through the air to greet the tired old father.
The recitals that Norbert Dams offers to the public are full of variety and one aspect of his shows is the inclusion of period instruments. One such instrument may at times be the vihuela, and / or the music of Luis Milan. This was my inspiration for the scordatura of the piece and for the main motive. The rest of it is purely inspired by Tabea!

Since the publication of the score to Tabea's Fancy, some have found mistakes in the score. Here are the erratum:

Measure 16, 7th eighth note should have finger 1 (not 4).
Measure 18, 7th & 9th eighth note should be A# (not D and B).
Measure 26, should have the musical term loco.
Measure 27, the term loco does not apply (and poco metallico should be moved to the left).
Measure 31, 1st, 6th & 10th eighth notes should be D natural (not C#).
Measure 32, 1st, 6th & 10th eighth notes should be C# (not C natural).
Measure 33, the 7th & 8th eighth notes should be reversed, hence reading F#, D# (and not D#, F#)
Measure 65, 1st beat, the arrow should point up.
Measure 73, 4th & 8th eightth notes, the chords should read (top to bottom): C#, A natural, E (not B, F#, D#).
Measure 75 to 78 all the chords should be played on strings 4, 3, 2.
Measure 76, beat 3 dotted eighth chord, top note should be F# (not F natural)
Measure 80, beat 3 bass note should be played with finger 4 and be A# (not A natural). - Patrick Kearney

In 1985 Carlo Domeniconi published "Koyunbaba", which since then has been performed and recorded by a number of world class classical guitarists. Koyunbaba apart from being a region in Turkey is also a compound word: koyun, meaning sheep and baba meaning father. Also, according to John Duarte it's the name of a 13th century monk. My personal experience with Domeniconi's Koyunbaba wasn't until 2001. I decide to prepare it for a concert tour in Europe and I became immediately spellbound by it. My experience with the piece since then has been profoundly spiritual and I thank you, Carlo Domeniconi, for offering Koyunbaba to the world.
Once I returned from my concerts I immediately continued my work with a composition I was working on, Tabea's Fancy, dedicated to Norbert Dams. In this piece I decided to use a techinique inspired from flamenco guitar. That technique is the back and forth movement of the thumb as if using a plectrum (pick). Once finished with this piece I realized that this technique had much potential, especially for musical motives of the "perpetual" kind. What better perpetal motion than a train!
I was sixteen years of age when my family decided to undertake it's last "family" summer vacation. The return trip home to Montreal from Vancouver was to be done on a train; that's a four day journey! In the train's close quarters and peacefulness of it's setting, the bond between my father and I became much closer. At night we would spend countless hours in the dome car staring out at the stars and talking about various subjects. This, in essence, was the birth of Train to Koyunbaba.
There are two musical motives in the piece that I describe as "characters" . In the opening of the piece the train station is described in sixtuplets, following this we have a motive of europeen flavour, and a little later, a more eastern "flavoured" motive. Many more "characters" can be seen or rather heard but I will leave the rest up to your own imagination. Enjoy, and as my maestro used to say, "La musique avant tout!" -Patrick Kearney

Source: Classical Guitar Alive!: http://guitaralive.org/playlist_10_9.html.

This week's edition of Classical Guitar Alive! features music and an interview with Italian guitar composer Carlo Domeniconi (b. 1947).

Born in Cesena, Italy, Carlo Domeniconi studied music in West Berlin. He visited Turkey and became enamored with its people and its culture. He was a professor of guitar in Istanbul, and much of his music shows a Turkish influence.

In this exclusive interview, Carlo Domeniconi relates the meaning behind his Turkish-inspired solo guitar composition, "Koyunbaba" (pronounced with accent on the second syllable), and his astonishment at the enormous world-wide popularity of his mysterious and hypnotic work.

"Koyunbaba" literally means "sheep-father", or "shepherd", but also refers to many different things, including: a 13th Century mystical saint-like figure whose grave is decorated with colored bits of cloth by Turkish villagers seeking his help with family problems. "Koyunbaba" is also the family name of his descendants, who still reside in the area. "Koyunbaba" is the name of a wild, dry area in SouthWest Turkey. Domeniconi relates the story of how the area is seemingly cursed- numerous people who have attempted to rent or purchase the land from the Koyunbaba family have died or been stricken ill. Domeniconi tells of two persons: one was a German woman who wanted to keep the area in its natural and unspoiled state, but was soon stricken with cancer. The other was one of three sons of the Koyunbaba family, who suddenly sold some of the land, but then hung himself.

Ms. Li, astonishingly never had a career in music. Born in China in 1906, her family eventually found it's way to Paris, France. Where at around the age of 11 she began some basic musical studies at the Conservatoire du 21e arrondissement in Paris. Later in life Natasha made her living from, non-music related means, but still had a deep passion for music especially of the experimental kind. It was in the late 1940's early 50's that Ms. Li's passionate hobbiest interests in avant-garde music lead her to experiment with electronic and pre-recorded sounds. An incomplete score, dated 1963, found by Parisian musicologist, Préantcy K. Réak in 1992 immediately caught the attention of Mr. Kearney because the “score” if we can call it so, contains references to a pre-recorded classical guitar sound (what we would today call an electronic/digital sound sample), and an overall frequency of C# minor! (the same key as Train to Koyunbaba and C.Domeniconi's Koyunbaba). So through the help of Mr.Kearney's musical intuition and the talents of sound engineer Mr. F. Collette, Postlude , taken from Talihansa, has been brought from the page to your ears! Enjoy. -Dr Nigel Tüfnël

It was thanks to Norbert Dams that I first made contact with Atanas Ourkouzounov. I was in Paris preparing to record Stringendo, when while talking with Norbert on the phone he asked me, "...have you ever met Atanas?". I replied that I had not and he then gave me his phone number and urged me to contact him ASAP. I did and the rest as they say is history. Atanas is an amazing individual and an extremely prolific composer. His recent concerto for guitar, which premiered in Japan, won him great acclaim. Like Andrew Zohn, I approached Atanas with this diabolical idea back in 2001, and as you can hear his take was quite diabolico!- Patrick Kearney