I have a graduation of descriptive terms that go from contrived and pedestrian to sublime and interesting.

Bad=Bad=Unlistenable
Nice=Listenable but not saying much of anything interesting.
Pretty=A variant of "nice" but can be used for dinner music or in my ideal world in an elevator when I am not in it.
Beautiful=Contains bits of true expression that is personal and more or less an individualistic statement even though it might be in the prevailing style of the day and somewhat derivative.
Sublime=Beyond beautiful into the realm of transcending its constituent parts to form wonder. Can be channeled from the collective of music that is completely organic, doesn't necessarily need a careful listening. It is there like Yosemite Valley.
Interesting=With features that are beyond the constituent parts like "sublime" but in need of thoughtful listening. From composer to composer this is about the highest compliment.

This is a review about two very different approaches to the grand electric guitar and orchestral escapade. From Deep Purple's silly and late sixties stupid and self inflated band and orchestra embarrassment to Yngwie Johann Maslmsteen's equally goofy "Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra In E Flat minor Op. 1," I have been yawned-out enough from pretensions of the R&R "composer." Please don't hate me young spiffy. I say things that I eventually regret but I'm talking now and I have done my electric guitar and orchestra escapade too. It is common to old guitarists and some younger ones.

Michael Nicolella's Ten Years Past is a full blown live experience with all if its attendant problems in balance and recording with Anthony Spain conducting The Northwest Symphony Orchestra. David Chesky's, Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra was realized by The Silicon Implant Compacted Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Skippy, actually the music publishing software, Sibelius, controlling orchestra samples and designed sounds realized this work.

Presumption reigns in both of the pieces I am reviewing. From a non-guitarist as David Chesky is; he presumes that if he is treating the electric guitar as a linear instrument he is recalling Jimmi Hendrix and not feigning violin in his Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra. Does Nicolella presume that he can use an electric guitar in a neo-romantic orchestral setting while it might me more appropriately done with a band? There's no law against it as far as I know but decorum may suggest something else. That sounds mighty silly but we all have our own tastes.

Michael Nicolella's Ten Years Past is casted in one movement and not necessarily a "concerto." It almost, after the midpoint, works backwards towards the opening but that is rejected with an ending that makes me feel that no doubt he has heard the great contemporary Finnish composer, Einojuhani Rautavaara but Michael only speaks of John Adams and Igor Stravinsky as his influences this time. It doesn't register as a formally casted piece; just a kitchen sink of like material, in other words the material is allied but casted in a way that is not structural to a form. Dark leading to light, hard leading to soft is not a form to me.

The opening also makes one think of the Russian mystic and composer, Alexander Scriabin and his "Prometheus, Poem of Fire" or the tremolando strings recall a Bruckner opening in his late symphonies. This leads to a dark and ponderous section with a distorted guitar theme of great energy and beauty. It is quite memorable and I believe done with the Les Paul he spoke of as a secondary instrument, noble and romantic. Terraced and of higher levels of dissonance, across this large chorale type progression, are interjections of a less primary color that act to undermine the tonality and brown orchestration. You might call this orchestration chocolate with ice. Nice! I wasn't disturbed; know what I mean? I've heard this before but not with an electric guitar, which changes the whole thing. You see we of guitar are okay to "discover" a guitar application in an approach that is old in generic classical music. And this is a romantic piece, with all the attendant virtuosity of the solo instrument! I really enjoyed the guitar work of high uniqueness!

Michael said of the recording:

I decided to opt towards a more lush sound (it was recorded in a large church) at the expense of some clarity. I was very concerned with the manner in which the electric guitar sound worked with the orchestra. I find that the electric guitar can very easily end up sounding like a toy next to acoustic instruments. So I tried for a very organic guitar sound and I felt that the overall lush acoustics lent towards the general sonic effect I was pursuing.

I get that but the guitar is "in your face" and the orchestra sounds under the stage. There is a muffled sound to the orchestra and the guitar sounds like it was overdubbed. This may be a result of certain reverbs in his amps but the orchestra is disembodied from the electric guitar. This bothered me instantly about the recording but it is attractive enough to enjoy.

There is little doubt that Nicolella's guitar in most clean-guitar sections is a Fender Stratocaster. The use of the middle/bridge and middle/neck single coil pickups is very cogent; you can hear the wood. Using what I call cubbyhole playing, a fingered chord-like configuration with open notes and fingered notes higher than the first three frets, is highlight of the development of the guitar's thematic material. This could be solo acoustic guitar or even classical guitar in these parts, but is successful on the three pickup-single coil guitar. Michael went through quite a few different amps and also a Gibson Les Paul for his piece. The sound of the guitar is extremely varied.

Michael said of the amplification for the electric guitar:

... no processing, in fact it's a pretty retro electric guitar concerto, as electric guitar concertos go. A Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Stratocaster through old Marshalls, Fenders and Vox amps. In this piece, as far as the guitar is concerned, I was trying for as organic a sound as possible to better meld with the orchestra. I don't know how hard it is to engineer this type of session but it is not bad. There is enough to hear but clarity has been sacrificed, to paraphrase Michael, to get a homogeneous sound but this doesn't seem to happen for me.

There are no such moments of varied guitar sound in Chesky's piece and as I stated above, the guitar is a surrogate violin but it IS a guitar. There are some moments of real guitar writing but in essence there is one sound being used. We have, in musical language, a work more based on licks and the structural rhythm of a funk piece, with the orchestral punches of a horn section circa 1975 but language wise is dissonant and harsh. The piece is through composed, both pieces discussed are mostly through composed, but tight and limited to the material at hand which sounds like a lick also from about 1975, but what is done with these multiple licks, and there are multiple levels of rhythmic stabs of glassy and crystalline color, thick lower brass bass parts and percussion, is a sassy funk armored tank. Chesky's concerto is full of verve. The clarity of the orchestration is a feature of software. There is beautiful use of pitched and non-pitched percussion, screeching clusters of clear color and adherence to material type as only a gifted composer can use. It impresses me as a Neo-Classical work in the acerbic nature. The flushing out of the basic funk chord to encompass a high degree of structural dissonance with stratified planes of harmony makes this a very interesting piece.

The composer states that it is a "New York" work. It could be a Chicago work in that an urban setting is somewhat depicted but you know you can't do an exact "lick" for The Empire State Building at 5:30 A.M. but I see it. The music is not "nice" and this should not deter an orchestra from programming this piece with public interest on the wane for this institution. And furthermore, have both pieces programmed if you want to try a more "pop" concert because the electric guitar has its sociological baggage.

Neo-classicism takes a cosmopolitan language that is objectively dealt with and probably the composer thinks that I may be leading you astray but there is a certain terseness that reminds me of Stravinsky's neo-classical works and as well Serge Prokofiev with added goofy electric guitar. The opening movement sets the stage for a delightfully pulsating drive, replete with humor and a certain non-reverence for demarcations of fun versus edification in Chesky's concerto. This may be the quality referenced to "Zappa of the 21st Century" from a particular reviewer although I don't really hear it except in a certain preference for modal "licks" in thematic material and the humorous way it is presented.

To compare the sensibilities in the two pieces, Ten Years Past is more of a romantically striped piece. The opening is dark and mysterious. The harmonic pallet is more limited than the Chesky and maybe there is the obsession of the younger multi-guitarist/composer, born in 1963, which would lead to this wonderful bombast. Here's to the obsession that brings forth this work! Chesky was born in 1956 so of my generation. I think that there is a difference between the music of a 47 year old and a nearing 60 year old. What I feel about the Nicolella piece is that it is a preparatory piece as he is a younger man; Chesky is looking at a culmination maybe but still coloring his hair (dunno for sure but I'm feeling that he's using old pictures or he is way too well preserved).

Nicolella's electric guitar use is far more extensive in that a non-finger and strictly pick player would have to woodshed this for a long time. Clean guitar is much more difficult to execute linear passages since distortion is the great forgiver but this is not to say that Bryan Baker is a slouch in his linear exposition; I just greatly enjoy Nicolella's use of the electric guitar more.

The Chesky piece is almost purely linear for the guitar and this is easy enough for a generic composer to do and let the soloist finger it. From knowing the guitar I strongly feel that Nicolella's writing is far more detailed and difficult. In comparing these two pieces and the full use of the solo instrument I'd have to say there is a clear difference. Nicolella's use is full to the brim in the sonic capabilities of the generally unaffected electric guitar. Chesky's is limited to a distorted guitar, distorted guitar with echo for short passages and uses the vertical in the opening of the first movement and limited to octaves and small verticality here and there in all movements. So the obvious nature of Chesky's work is from the non-initiated into the mysteries of the guitar. Being a fledgling work for this instrument should only illicit thanks for the kick it provides.

The orchestration or recording in Ten Years Past is questionable. It is muddy brown with light blue in terms of orchestra color. The sound is unclear sometimes, particularly during the perennial, "let's get all 'Rite of Spring' on it with distorted guitar," which the first section ends with. The piece has an imbedded minimalist figure that as the main body of the orchestra melts away we are left with a shimmering iced shifting metrical motive and this is where the clean guitar sound takes off in spectacular fashion. It is really quite beautiful and engaging although, as with the orchestra, the recording of the electric guitar loses a bit of the clarity.

From a musical standpoint Chesky's language is far more engaging than Nicolella's. Both works are in an extended tonality scheme; Chesky is a more rigorous composer and there is a wealth of textural variety; Nicolella is a guitarist and this shows in the care and treatment of the electric guitar but musically limited in textural variety. This is not to say that there is a superior work here. I love Ten Years Past but don't like it, in that I am deeply grateful for Michael Nicolella's care and skill with the electric guitar; I don't love but like Chesky's Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in the clear and deep orchestral writing but is one-dimensional in electric guitar writing. Both are pieces to remember and both are highly recommended listening.