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8 - Technique vs Virtuosity in the Instrumental Gesture: From Classical to Rock and from Rock to Contemporary Creation

from Part III - Musical Style and Technique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2024

By
Philippe Gonin
Edited by
Jan-Peter Herbst  and
Steve Waksman
Jan-Peter Herbst
Affiliation:
University of Huddersfield
Steve Waksman
Affiliation:
Smith College, Massachusetts
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Summary

In The Segovia Technique (1972), Vladimir Bobri describes what a guitarist’s hand gesture must be to lean toward virtuosity. This search for the perfection of the “classical” gesture was, however, called into question by another virtuosity: that of rock music. The greatest guitarists of this genre never ceased to break the rules of this ideal gesture. In the first part of the chapter, this study briefly covers the electrification of the guitar and its consequences on guitar manufacturing and the development of the effects dedicated to guitar playing. I will then focus on the possible range of crossbreeding the classically inspired instrumental gesture before addressing Eddie Van Halen’s contribution. Finally, I will consider the influence that the rock virtuosos’ legacy, from Jimi Hendrix to Van Halen, brought to the instrumental gesture, and the tones used by composers of contemporary repertoire whose knowing use of technique has furthered the hybridization of genres.

Keywords

virtuositytechniqueinstrumental gesturerockclassicalcontemporary music
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to the Electric Guitar , pp. 134 - 149
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Selected Bibliography

Bennett, Andy and Dawe, Kevin (eds.), Guitar Cultures (Berg, 2001).Google Scholar
Bobri, Vladimir, The Segovia Technique (Macmillan, 1972).Google Scholar
Coelho, Victor Anand (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Guitar (Cambridge University Press, 2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di Perna, Alan, “Burning Ambition (Hendrix at Monterey),” Guitar World 28/12 (2007): 56–64 and 106–110.Google Scholar
Fripp, Robert, The Guitar Circle (Panegyric Publishing, 2022).Google Scholar
Grunfeld, Frederic, The Art and Times of The Guitar (The Macmillan Company, 1970).Google Scholar
Hendrix, Jimi, Starting at Zero: His Own Story (Bloomsbury, 2013).Google Scholar
Hill, Matthew W., “The Hidden History of the Electric Guitar,” in Quand la guitare [s’]électrise, edited by Navarret, Benoît, Battier, Marc, Bruguière, Philippe, and Gonin, Philippe (Sorbonne Université Presses, 2022), pp. 33–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walser, Robert, Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music (Wesleyan University Press, 1993).Google Scholar
Waksman, Steve, Instruments of Desire: The Electric Guitar and the Shaping of Musical Experience (Harvard University Press, 1999).Google Scholar
Waksman, Steve “Contesting Virtuosity: Rock Guitar since 1976,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Guitar, edited by Coelho, Victor Anand (Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 122–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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