viridian: an album for guitar and ronroco
Viridian is a series of guitar and ronroco duo pieces, and studio album collaboration, between composer and ronroco player Zygmund de Somogyi and classical guitarist Oli Kinsella.
Originally conceived as a 2020/21 bubble project between the composition and guitar departments at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, the bulk of the record was written over Zoom, with Zygmund and Oli working collaboratively from Rheinland-Pfalz (Germany) and Devon (UK) respectively.
Drawing from classical guitar repertoire, ambient music, post-rock, and video game soundtracks, Viridian is a record that aims to recontextualise ronroco and classical guitar outside of the Bolivian and Spanish Romantic environment, help establish a rock-influenced compositional context for classical guitar, and bring to life the ambience of the two instruments working in tandem.
The full collection of Viridian consists of the following pieces:
* solo guitar
† solo ronroco
Reverie
A Quiet Howling
Viridian
Rainy Night in Budapest
Like Wolves We Run
Salmstraße*
Wishbone
Ghosts on the Breeze
Seasons Change But We Are Still Here†
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III.
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VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
Six pieces from Viridian - 'Reverie', 'A Quiet Howling', 'Rainy Night in Budapest', 'Viridian', 'Wishbone', and 'Like Wolves We Run' - were premiered at CODA Festival 2021 at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
Pieces from Viridian can also be played by two classical guitars - get in touch for scores!
Performers:
Guitar - Oli Kinsella
Ronroco - Zygmund de Somogyi
World premiere at CODA Festival 2021 on 16 June 2021.
Interested in performing these works or perusing a score? Get in touch!