On June 16, 2023 guitarist Ben Verdery releases a new album with the award-winning Ulysses String Quartet. “A Giant Beside You” (ReEntrant/New Focus Records) features works by Bryce Dessner, Bernstein, Javier Farías, and Verdery himself. Nearly all are world premiere recordings. We spoke with the guitarist & composer about the forthcoming release, working with Dessner, composing, the future of recorded music, and more.
Guitar and string quartet is not such a common combination of instruments. What is it like performing with, and composing for that combo?
My first experience playing with a string quartet was as a student playing Vivaldi’s Divine D Major Lute Concerto. From then on, I was hooked on the experience and the sound of a string quartet and guitar.
The patron saint of Guitar Quintets has to be the wonderful Luigi Boccherini who wrote 12 guitar quintets. Four of them are unfortunately lost. There isn’t a concert guitarist who has not played his brilliant D Major Quintet (or the Vivaldi for that matter) with the famous Fandango. We all bow to that piece and praise and thank him for writing it!
Paying attention to articulation is critical. The guitar’s attack is so immediate as opposed to the strings. The Ulysses had great instincts on deciding on the proper bowings for any given passage. While composing I found myself wanting to both blend the guitar with the quartet but also feature the contrasts between the guitar and string quartet.
Tell us about your connection and relationship with the Ulysses Quartet. How did you get to know the group, and what about them prompted you to record this album with them?
It was a serendipitous event of our managers being friends. I initially met Tina, loved her energy and willingness to consider the repertoire I was proposing. Then the quartet and I met over dinner, and it was clear we were meant to be! I just love them and adore how they play. I am pretty much their father’s age, and they allow me to be the whacky old guitar player! If only we could release some of our banter during the recording! Hilarious!
One of the album’s highlights is Bryce Dessner’s Quintet for High Strings, which he wrote for you. What was the process like working with him on this composition, and in what other ways have you collaborated with Bryce over the years?
Bryce walked into my Yale studio 30+ years ago. It was clear that we would be dear friends for life. One of the perks of teaching is forming these kinds of enduring and profound relationships.
Through Bryce’s early professional years, we performed some of my music and Bach’s Trio Sonata in G Major. Later he wrote me a gorgeous solo piece serving as the Yale School of Music annual guitar audition piece entitled Portbou.
More recently, I was compelled to ask Bryce for a largescale work to be premiered at a concert I was scheduled to give at the 92Y in 2018. I remember it vividly. We were in a Le Pan Quotidien near Lincoln Center. He had just had a success with his CD Aheym with the Kronos quartet and felt that a string quintet and guitar as opposed to solo guitar would be the most exciting for him.
Out of all the pieces I have had written for me over the years this had to be the easiest in terms of the composer giving me artistic freedom. Bryce is a brilliant classical guitarist in his own right. It is something he downplays. On the electric guitar he has developed a recognizable sound that I hear people emulating left, right and center. So, his guitar writing was impeccable from the outset.
He chose a scordatura which makes the guitar sound quite unique. The last 4 strings of the guitar are up an octave. This is a tuning Bryce said he had used in a few songs of his band the National. It is called by many, Nashville tuning. The result is that the guitar cuts in a manner it would never do in standard tuning. At times it can sound a like a hybrid of a guitar- banjo…. A guitarjo!!!
Bryce’s own liner notes in the digital CD booklet are well worth reading.
Electric guitar and acoustic guitar are basically the same instrument, on the one hand. On the other, they are completely different. As a composer, how do you determine which instrument to write for, and how does your approach to the composition differ?
Writing for the classical guitar and the electric guitar present different possibilities and obstacles. The electric is wonderful in the upper register as well as creating unusual sonic landscapes. With the electric one must be more discerning when writing accompaniment figures.
The classical guitar of course has a great intimate/lyrical quality which lures the listener in and for that matter the quartet players. It can play thicker chordal textures more clearly at a fast tempo. One hears this in Javier Farias’ piece particularly.
In About to Fall and A Giant Beside You, I was just more excited to write a piece for the Ulysses in which I was seriously playing the electric guitar. I delighted in the various colors the electric presented. Matt LeFevre, the engineer and I worked tirelessly seeking various sounds we wanted for different sections. In addition, I thought the sound world of the electric would be a fresh experience for the quartet.
Tell us about the title work, your composition A Giant Beside You.
I decided to re-orchestrate a work that I was commissioned to write for the wonderful Australian guitar quartet, Guitar Trek. The commission specifically stated that the work be inspired by a popular song. My choice was Stand, by Sly and the Family Stone, the groundbreaking band of the late 60’s and early 70’s.
The song’s harmonic progression (including the surprise shift in tonality), funky riff, hand clapping, and final melody all inspired me. These elements found their way into my piece, although perhaps not in an obvious manner.
For the first few minutes of the piece, it is almost like the guitar is just sitting in with the quartet. Then the quartet gives the guitar the green light to join in, full on. It is a joyful piece, full of surprises emanating from both the quartet and the guitar. I tried to channel a few of my guitar heroes, most notably, Jimi, Jeff and Duane!
The title of my work is taken from the lyrics of Stand with a slight alteration: there’s always a giant next to you -- and you might be a giant yourself!
How did you decide of all pieces to arrange Leonard Bernstein’s much beloved Clarinet Sonata for classical guitar and string quartet?
While listening to Derek Bermel play the orchestrated version of Leonard Bernstein’s Clarinet Sonata with the American Composer’s Orchestra in Zankel Hall, I turned to my wife, Rie, and said “This might make a terrific guitar piece.” Thus began a challenging and gratifying artistic journey. I have always loved the creative endeavor of arranging music from a variety of genres for the classical guitar, and this piece was no exception.
It was evident from the outset that the clarinet part simply played on the guitar would not be musically satisfying. I would have to make other artistic choices, primarily because of the clarinet’s dynamic range and ability to sustain. The idea of arranging it for string quartet and guitar seemed optimal.
Different solutions became clear. In double forte passages, I often had one of the violinists play in unison with the guitar. When a passage had low sustained notes, I passed it to the cello or the viola. To my utter delight, several of the right and left-hand piano passages played beautifully on the classical guitar. This allowed different members of the quartet to be featured playing some of the beautiful melodic passages with guitar accompaniment.
Javier Farias’s work is the only non-world premiere recording on this disc. Tell us about why you chose this work for this project. What were the challenges?
Javier is a composer I greatly admire who over the last few years has become a dear friend. In our first meeting with the quartet, I suggested Javier’s marvelous Andean Suite and they loved it from the get-go.
What may not be evident to the listener is that each movement features one or two guitar techniques from different countries in South America. Most of these techniques concern strumming and/or percussion. They are evident in Javier’s recording but are difficult to properly notate. The last movement contains passages that are very particular to Chilean folk guitar playing. It is a technique of strumming a chord and directly after muting the strings creating a subtle percussive attack.
I was lucky to take a couple of lessons with Javier on these techniques as well as some of the phrasing. These did not come naturally to this guitarist from Connecticut!!! I needed some schooling and got it from the composer. Luckily, Javier has approved of the recording! Trust me, I celebrated when he gave me kudos!!!
After recording so many CDs throughout your career, what compels you to make another one?
What are your thoughts on where we are today in the world of recorded music?
I, like thousands of other artists, feel the artistic need to record music that moves me emotionally at certain periods of my life. It’s part of who I am as an artist. These pieces, although they came together slight haphazardly, they nonetheless form a coherent statement.
“Giant” is a reflection of my artistic being at this time in my life. I am compelled to want to share it with whomever may seek it out or hear by chance. If just one person is moved/inspired in any way by even just one piece, part of a piece or movement on this CD it makes it all worthwhile.
I am aware that very few listen to a recording from beginning to end. That said, I found “Giant” has an architecture I would never have imagined. The sequencing of the pieces works in a mysterious way. The sequence of works was decided upon after much listening as well as discussions with the engineer/producer Matt LeFevre and Dan Lippel, the label’s head. Dan is a truly great guitarist/ musician himself so his input concerning the sequencing was critical.
Artists will always record. The format will always change. Those of us who have been around a while laugh at the various formats that have come and gone and come back again like vinyl! I find it exciting and a bit dizzying depending on my mood!
Finally, joy and love have to be key in the process of creating whatever it is one is creating. This record was a joy to make on so many levels. I must thank our brilliant engineer Matt LeFevre, the insanely wonderful Ulysses Quartet and of course the composers. I never got to meet Lenny (as my father-in-law used to always refer to him) but I like to think that he would approve of both my arrangement and the CD in general.
