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Program Notes
Composer-performers who write primarily for their own instruments plow furrows narrow but
deep. Paganini pushed back the technical limits of the violin, gaining for the instrument a new range
of musical possibilities. Chopin's music unleashed the expressive potential of the piano to the great
profit of later composers. The ambition of the Russian composer-guitarist Nikita Koshkin in
writing music for his instrument has been twofold: to expand the vocabulary of effects on the
guitar; and, more importantly, to develop means to incorporate these into musical expressions.
Born in Moscow in 1956, Koshkin recalls liking the music of Shostakovich and Stravinsky at age
4. His parents planned a diplomatic career for young Nikita, however, and until he was 14, rock was
his only musical interest. That year, his grandfather gave him a guitar and a recording by Segovia,
and his life was changed. Composing for and playing the guitar became his double passion, and he
went on to shrdy guitar with George Emanov at the Moscow College of Music, and with Alexander
Frauchi at the Gnesin Institute (Russian Academy of Music), where he also studied composition
with Victor Egorov. Koshkin's composing profile gained international stature in 1980, when
Vladimir Mikulka premiered his suite for guitar, The Prince's Toys. Koshkin's music, which
includes scores for guitar ensembles and works for guitar with other instruments and the voice, has
since been performed by artists such as John Williams, the Assad Duo, and theZagreb and
Amsterdam Guitar Trios. Koshkin is also an active concertizer, with tours of Russia, Central and
Western Europe, Great Britain and the United States to his credit. His first CD was made in
Arizona through Soundset Recordings while he was in the United States in 1991 as a featured artist
of the Guitar Foundation of America International Convention in southem California.
The composer calls hrs Prelude and Waltz: Homage to Segovia "a light remembrance" of the
master. Written in the year of Segovia's death (1987), the two-movement form derives from early
examples of paired movements, especially pavanne-galliard. The brooding prelude leads easily to
the whimsicalwaltz by way of motific relationship: the theme of the waltz mirrors the prelude's fivenote motto.

An early example of Koshkin's desire to exploit "the impressionistic possibilities" of his
instrument is Rain, composed in 1974. As with many Koshkin pieces. it is programmatic. The
program here depicts a gentle rain that becomes a torrent, then a major storm, and then a few
vestigial drops. Koshkin had in mind as vague models some of the water-oriented piano pieces of
Debussy and Ravel, but his approach is wholly idiomatic to the guitar. Freely structured, written
without barlines, Rain conjtnes the initial muttering of its subject matter by playing on a
combination of closed and open strings, and goes on to press the guitar dynamically and texturally.
"It was my first attempt to make a cinematic effect," the composer recalls.
The Elves was inspired by fairy-tales as were many of Koshkin's other early guitar works.
According to the composer, "Five movements reflect diff-erent states of those mystical creatures
who could be lovely and angry, friendly and frightening, funny and ugly. Merrily stumbling
Gavotta opens the cycle. It is followed by easy flying Valse, clumsy March and extremely lyrical
Melody. The final Galop, fllled with a dark grotesque and ruthless rhythmical pulse, is what I
imagine to be an Elves'par-ty."

"From the very beginning," says Koshkin, "I felt that the guitar could express itself in many
various styles while still being a classical instrument. That's why I like very much to tum from one
style to another reaching diversity within my only touch of the instrument. Three Stations On One
Road expresses my interest in jazz music on classical guitar. It is ballad-like with a fast middle
section, typical jazzy octaves, wide chords and closed strings'rhythm. In recent years I have also
collected many impressions from folk and popular music. My suite, The Ballads, appears as a
reflection of all these impressions, supported by the experience of my youth when I was a rock

guitarist. Notwithstanding the popular style in which I've written on this occasion, I consider this
work to be absolutely one of my very best"'
Begun tn I974 and flnished in 1980, The Prince's loys.had at one point c.ontained l2 movements'
Its lenesis was a desire to achieve the integration of technical and coloristic effects with musical
exp"ression. To do that, Koshkin needed an aesthetic excuse, an artistic reason to include q vgry
broad range of effects both standard and newly invented. -Once more, he found his-linchpin ina
"*The
title actually came before the program," Koshkin says..The idea of a prince yhosg
program.
toyr".u*" alive and "fought back," playing with him-in the.same mischievo-us yay^ he had. played
with them, flowed naturaily from thb tiile and suited Koshkin's purpose- perfec-tly. Suggesting
somewhat the singing andlancing toys of Ravel's L'Enfant et l.es sortilege.s, the four toys of
Koshkin's prince ire actually more demonic for seeming more innocent. The movements are:
Mischievous Prince. The title character is portrayed by a short, aggressive piece filled
with parallel ninths and other stacked dissonances. Percussive, unpitched arpeggios on all six
strings (on the bridge behind the saddle) punctuate the end.
1. The

2.TheMechanical Monkey. The slapping of strings and drumming of fingers on the-guitar's
body suggest the angular motions of a toyhonkey who has an eerie agenda: revenge on the prince
who has abused him.

Blinking Eyes is an East Indian doll, the likeness of a beautiful yo.ung woman'
the siimovements," according to the -composgi, T!9 Doll contains several
of
"The most mystical
a sitar-like buzzing produggd by pulling and.holding. the sixth string off to
including
unique effecti,
Indian drum called-the tabla is also imitated, by striking the bridge'
guitar.
T[e
the iide of the
3. The Dolt with

4. Playing Soldiers. Although translated as "Tin Soldiers" in the published music, this
movementls oiiginal Russian title emphasizes the process of interaction with toy soldiers more than
the material froir which they're made. In the course of the movement, th-e toy sgldiers become real'
This is made musically palpable by what Koshkin calls "a developed effect." The movement
begins with the sound oi a ioy drum and trumpet, but as- the soldiers become real, the effect
befomes "real as well," and a more sonorous-drum-and-trumpet is conveyed. At one point in the
development, the guitarist must play an extensive left-hand solo while the right hand crosses over
the lefiin u pe."uitiue dialoguebefween thumping drums (hand near the bridge) and tinkling bells
(the sectionbf tfre strings between the tuners and nut, strummed).
5.The Prince's Coach. The blissful theme of the prince's escape is heard above the running
pattern of the coach's wheels. At first, it seems the prihce.will make it, but something goes terribly
*.ong and the horses begin to gallop with such ferocitythat they break away from the coach,
leavin'g the prince strandld. treir glttoping is depicted by the tapping of fingers on the side of the

instrument.
6.The Grand Toys' Parade is "a suite within the suite," Koshkin says. A^set of variations on a
melancholy theme that represents the chastised princg, it al.so recalls subjects from the previous
movementi. The movement and the suite end with a long, thumbnail glissando;the prince, defeated,
has been turned into one of the toys.
Kenneth LaFave

Frank Koonce