"Contrapuntal cycles for the guitar (whether solo or duet) are rare but not unheard of. Castelnuovo-Tedesco wrote 24 preludes and fugues for guitar duet in the 1960s. Igor Rekhin composed a solo cycle in the later 1980s. Paradoxically it seems only in the 21st century that we've had guitarists taking up the challenge of writing polyphonic cycles but better late than never.

We guitarists too often assume that B flat minor is too unwieldy a key to write in and not worth the struggle. In a post-tonal century why bother writing fugues for guitar in keys like C minor and D flat major? Because it's fun! I drew inspiration from composers ranging across the Western tradition such as Byrd, Bach, Handel, Haydn, Beethoven, Bartok, Hindemith, Shostakovich, Messiaen and Ellington."

Artwork courtesy of Giampaolo Macorig on Flickr http://tinyurl.com/zp6fg94

1. Prelude in C sharp minor (Jeremiah Lawson)
2. Fugue in C Sharp minor (Jeremiah Lawson)
3. Prelude in E Flat Major (Jeremiah Lawson)
4. Fugue in E Flat Major (Jeremiah Lawson)
5. Prelude in C Minor (Jeremiah Lawson)
6. Fugue in C Minor (Jeremiah Lawson)
7. Prelude in F Major (Jeremiah Lawson)
8. Fugue in F Major (Jeremiah Lawson)
9. Prelude in E Flat Minor (Jeremiah Lawson)
10. Fugue in E Flat Minor (Jeremiah Lawson)
11. Prelude in G Major (Jeremiah Lawson)
12. Fugue in G Major (Jeremiah Lawson)
13. Prelude in F Minor (Jeremiah Lawson)
14. Fugue in F Minor (Jeremiah Lawson)
15. Prelude in E Major (Jeremiah Lawson)
16. Fugue in E Major (Jeremiah Lawson)
17. Prelude in F Sharp Major (Jeremiah Lawson)
18. Fugue in F Sharp Major (Jeremiah Lawson)
19. Prelude in E Minor (Jeremiah Lawson)
20. Fugue in E Minor (Jeremiah Lawson)
21. Prelude in D Major (Jeremiah Lawson)
22. Fugue in D Major (Jeremiah Lawson)
23. Prelude in D Flat Major (Jeremiah Lawson)
24. Fugue in D Flat Major (Jeremiah Lawson)
25. Prelude in C Major (Jeremiah Lawson)
26. Fugue in C Major (Jeremiah Lawson)

Listen to: the entire album.

Release date: 08/23/2016
Daniel Estrem lives in Minnesota USA

Tagged as: Classical, Contemporary, Instrumental, Composer: Jeremiah Lawson, Classical Guitar

1. Patrons of the Lute by Daniel Shoskes: A feast of Baroque lute
2. Toccata - Touched by Alex McCartney: Reflective, historically-informed performance on the lute
3. Fantasia Incantata by Ensemble Libro Primo: A fantastic classical violin and lute duo interpreting Baroque composers
4. Elizabeth's Lutes by Alex McCartney: Reflective, historically-informed performance on the lute
5. La Superbe by Thomas Walker: Lute music of 17th century France and Italy
6. Third Annual Concert of Music by Bill Robinson: New Music in the Classical context
7. Under the Sacred Tree by Koshanin: Piano Tales, Ancient Dreams
8. Suites en do mineur et fa mineur de Sylvius Leopold Weiss by Mauricio Buraglia: a marvelous classical spiral of lute sounds
9. Pasquale Pericoli - Sei Sonate a Violoncello e basso by Vito Paternoster: cellist extraordinaire
10. Orpheus by Federico Moscogiuri: Original and evocative lute music

• MP3: High quality MP3 variable-bit-rate files. Most people download these: they are audiophile files that play everywhere.
• ALAC: Perfect quality Apple Lossless format files. If you use iTunes or an iPod, get these. They're an exact audio copy of the original CD, and include the CD artwork and artist info. This is the same format as High Definition audio provided by the iTunes store.
• AAC: High quality Apple Audio Codec files. If you use iTunes or an iPod, these files sound great and include CD art and artist info. This is the standard format provided by the iTunes music store.
• WAV: Perfect quality WAV files. This format works everywhere, and is an exact audio copy of the original CD. It sounds fantastic. Album art and artist info is unfortunately not possible with this format.
• FLAC Perfect quality open source FLAC files. This is an open source audio format. It is an exact copy of the original CD, and includes CD artwork and artist info. Works great on Linux, VLC and many audio players based on open source.
• OGG: High quality open source OGG files. This is an open source audio format. It is a compressed (smaller file size) version of the original CD, and includes CD artwork and artist info. Works great on Linux, VLC and many audio players based on open source.
• 128k: Medium quality 128K MP3 files. These are medium audio quality MP3 files that will work on every device. The audio quality is good enough for most uses. These files are intended for cases where you want to conserve disk space.