John McCabe - Canto for guitar (1968) - A. Hatzinikolaou

From NMC's CD Music of Memory (Antonis Hatzinikolaou) NMC D184

This relatively early addition to McCabe’s synoptic output was commissioned for the Cardiff Festival of Twentieth-Century Music and premiered at Cardiff Castle by William Gomez in April 1968. The composer writes: ‘The work is in five sections. The opening and closing parts, an introduction and coda respectively, are very brief, the introduction serving to set the overall mood of the work and to introduce most of the thematic material, and the coda serving to bring the work back to the opening mood and to recall, as if in a confused memory, events from

the previous sections. The main body of the work is provided by two quicker, more rhythmic sections and the central Lento (subtitled ‘Serenade’) which they frame. In the Lento, snatches of a serenade and a lament are heard, as if wafted to the listener on an evening breeze, though neither tune is heard in its entirety.’ Of all the pieces in this recital, Canto most openly exploits the nocturnal and Mediterranean associations of the guitar.

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