Lost And Found:
Guitar Manuscripts In
The Library of Congress
B
y nature, guitarists are always
researching and digging for
music, ranging from out of
print recordings of Mississippi blues musicians to the lost works of well-known
and obscure composers of art songs alike.
I first heard about the American composer Ernst Bacon (1898-1990) when I
attended Shenandoah Conservatory in
the mid 1990’s (Visit www.ernstbacon.org
for complete bio, photos and colorful history). His grandson Guy Bacon (son of Joseph Bacon) was on the guitar faculty and I
studied with him for a semester as my regular professor was on sabbatical. During
my time there, Guy performed an edited
or arranged version from a very confusing
manuscript of his grandfather’s called Coon
Hollow. This performance was two guitarists reading the notation scored with two
treble clefs later to be realized, was a solo
work and not duo. Later down the road I
came across a published Ernst Bacon piece
called “Parting” which I performed once
in a master class. This piece was a favorite
of mine and became a part of my repertoire for a period of time. Recently during
a move to a new town I found this work in
my collection. After a renewed interest, an
up to date Google search brought up the
name Bradley Colton. This article focuses
on Colton’s musicological research into
the guitar works of Ernst Bacon which is
a milestone achievement for the instrument. Here is what we discovered for the
readers of TEMPO and their students. I
hope this article initiates further interest and performances of this little known
American composer.
Thomas Amoriello
Fleminton Raritan School District
tamoriel@frsd.k12.nj.us
What circumstances led you to investigate the music of American composer Ernst Bacon?
About four years ago I gave a recital in
a small New Hampshire town called Tamworth. It was an intimate house concert
and afterward, I had several conversations
with audience members – each casual and
lovely. One conversation was with a woman who asked if I knew any music by Ernst
Bacon. A longtime friend of hers, Bacon
died in 1990 and was virtually unknown
in the guitar world. However, it so happens that as an undergraduate at the New
England Conservatory, I fell in love with
Bacon’s single, published guitar piece,
Parting. And so, we chatted for a few minutes and that was that.
Except that I had a long ride home
and after some time my mind wandered
back again to this one conversation. I began to wonder why, after such a remarkable piece like Parting, Bacon never returned to the guitar. When home, with
no intention of finding anything, I started
poking around online for information on
Ernst Bacon.
TEMPO 24
That night, I bumped into the Library of Congress website and found
several non-cataloged scores listed, some
marked ‘for guitar’. That was very exciting. So, on a whim, a friend and I decided
to take a road trip down to DC and visit
the Library.
There, in the bowels of the Library of
Congress, I found a treasure trove of Bacon guitar music – 8 or 9 pieces in exquisite, un-edited, manuscript form. Needless
to say, I was thunderstruck. Almost immediately I realized that this discovery was
immensely important for the guitar community, as there is a dearth of American,
20th century music written for the guitar.
Ernst Bacon’s works almost single-handedly fills this whole in the repertoire.
I was, and am, amazed that history
left these works un-found for so long and
am grateful to be a part of their re-discovery and story.
So, while it was the post-concert conversation that got things rolling for me,
the Library of Congress discovery and visit
set everything in motion in a major way.
More research and discoveries followed,
lots of investigation and tons of editing,
analysis, practice, and writing came next.
On a radio interview you mentioned the work “Parting” as one of the
only published guitar works that led to
your further investigation?
That’s right. I fell in love with Parting
as an undergraduate student. It was published by G. Schirmer in 1968 as part of a
motley collection of works and transcriptions put together by the innovative guitarist, and composer Theodore Norman.
Through my research I have discovered
OCTOBER 2016