The Bricoleur - (The art of bricolage in new music for classical guitar) by Michael Knopf

The Bricoleur was composed and premiered in 2009 as part of my creative practice component of my Doctoral research at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in 2009 .
This work was constructed using a "bricolage of the innate", a term for the gathering together of different musical influences from the inner musical personality of a composer or performer into a piece of music.

In this composition I combine different styles and genres which are all part of my musical experience : of course classical guitar techniques and ideas but also clear elements of flamenco, rock, jazz, bluegrass musics. Each of these styles emerge in the piece via musical elements that characterise the genre. The trajectory of the music is much like an improvisation using themes and interjected stylistic bridges of chords, ostinati and such.

It starts with a minimalists descending minor third figure interspersed with lightly dissonant chords leading to heavy rock chords of the 5th and octave and then the main theme using bluegrass influenced banjo-like riffs. Each following mini-section includes such things as flamenco arpeggiated chords , more bluegrass riffing, consonant jazz-like chords over an ostinato and so on.

It makes for a wild showpiece. I hope you enjoy it and please...
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(Please Note: the score for this piece is available by messaging me on YT or FB)