{"id":503,"date":"2013-10-14T12:08:22","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T16:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aaronlc.com\/blog\/?p=503"},"modified":"2013-10-15T14:02:57","modified_gmt":"2013-10-15T18:02:57","slug":"the-legend-of-hagoromo-by-keigo-fujii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/alcguitar.com\/blog\/the-legend-of-hagoromo-by-keigo-fujii\/","title":{"rendered":"The Legend of Hagoromo by Keigo Fujii"},"content":{"rendered":"

A heavenly maiden, who comes form a place where there is an absolute eternal world, flies again to the heavens from the earth.<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Keigo Fujii, The Legend of Hagoromo<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Written in 1992,\u00a0The Legend of Hagoromo\u00a0<\/i>is a single movement tour-de-force for solo guitar. \u00a0I first heard it in 1998 at the International Festival of Guitar in Cordoba, Spain. \u00a0A young woman performed it to close the student concert, and I was blown away. \u00a0Never had I heard such sounds come out of the guitar, nor a piece of 20+ minutes. \u00a0Upon my return to the US, I ordered a score, and I quickly realized that this piece would take time. \u00a0Written on two staffs and in a different tuning, I was out of my league, though I vowed it would be done.<\/p>\n

I carried the score for years and I actually had to order the score twice as I always kept it close at hand, but when fire ravaged my home in 2007, my first score was lost. \u00a0After realizing my family and I would survive this chaotic part of our lives, I decided that I needed to finally learn and perform the piece, as life is short and I would regret not sharing my thoughts on\u00a0The Legend of Hagoromo<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Hagoromo<\/a>

Hagoromo by Charles Schweigert
www.cjschweigert.com<\/p><\/div>\n

I learned most of the piece in the summer of 2012, but had to put it down when the 2012-2013 Season began. \u00a0I picked it up again in June 2013 and practiced and practiced. \u00a0I began touring the work as part of my ‘Music of the East & West’, on my Hwy 101 Tour\u00a0<\/em>in August and September of this year through Oregon and Northern California; the response was awesome.<\/p>\n

After the opening concert in Astoria, Oregon, a visual artist, Charles Schweigert, invited me to a gallery to see a work that he created also inspired by the Hagoromo Legend. \u00a0I was very moved by his painting, and he by my performance that he gave me the rights to use it on programs and elsewhere. \u00a0 The painting represents the moment just after the young heavenly maiden finds and puts on her magical robe of feathers (hagoromo) and is about to return to the heavens.<\/p>\n

\"Legend<\/a>

Legend of symbols for Hagoromo<\/p><\/div>\n

The guitar work requires a scoradatura<\/em> (alternate) tuning of D-A-D-G-A-D, pronounced dad-gad<\/em> in guitar circles. \u00a0This tuning is very popular in folk music, but reading music notation in it is not typical. \u00a0The piece also requires an immense amount of extended techniques\u00a0<\/em>(techniques for creating sounds beyond the standards), including brushing the strings with the right hand while playing a left hand melody, reverse rasqueado, scratching the string in a koto-like manner, left hand strumming, Bartok pizzicatto. \u00a0See the diagram at right.<\/p>\n

Here’s an impromptu video with a camera on my head of the end of the work:<\/p>\n