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Good Karmon

Composer Michael Karmon brings orchestral understanding to his guitar music

January 30, 2007

Orchestras as diverse as the Cincinnati, Minnesota, and Berlin Radio Symphonies have performed Michael Karmon’s music, but he is quickly becoming known as a composer for a much smaller instrument. In addition to compositions for several duos (Cavatina, Newman & Oltman, Pearl/Gray, Goldspiel/Provost, and Elgart & Yates Duos), he has also worked with GFA competition winners Martha Masters, Denis Azabagic, and Joseph Hagedorn. This spring Karmon’s composition, Caught in the Headlights will be released on a recording by the Newman and Oltman Guitar Duo. I asked Michael about the origins of the piece.

Urban Guitar: Why did you decide to write for the Newman and Oltman Guitar Duo?

Michael Karmon: Michael Newman and Laura Oltman have been really wonderful to me. Quite a while back, while I was still a student, I sent them a 9-minute sextet called Frets Vs. Fretless for guitar duo and string quartet. They liked it, and so I kept in touch. A few years later, when I was putting together a grant application to fund a new piece for guitar duo, I asked if they wanted to be a part of the project, and they agreed. (There were also three other guitar duos- Pearl/Gray duo, Goldspiel/Provost duo, Elgart & Yates duo- involved with Caught in the Headlights.) I didn't know Michael and Laura well before I wrote the piece, but things worked out very well. In addition to really "getting" the piece and doing a terrific job with it, they've played it several times around New York and in Europe. They also recorded it for my promotional CD, and will include it on their MSR Classics CD, which due out in early 2007. (By the way, this CD has a very impressive lineup of composers who wrote music for the duo: Augusta Read Thomas, Dusan Bogdanovic, Lowell Liebermann, and Roberto Sierra.)

Urban Guitar: Can you tell me about Caught in the Headlights?

Michael Karmon: It's a 20-minute guitar duo in four movements. The title alludes to the ensemble's pairing of identical instruments, that like a pair of car headlights work together to create something larger but can also function on their own. The titles of the movements continue the car metaphor: I. High Beams is energetic and emphatic, II. Battery's Dead is moody and slow, II. Turn Signals is short and angular, and IV. Big Fuzzy Circles features the two guitars really working together, just as car headlights do on a dark road at night.

This was actually a pivotal piece for me. It came after a couple of pieces that really didn't turn out well, and I wanted to experiment with some new things. I changed some aspects of how I work, and I also embraced jazz harmony more fully. (I don't think of my music as sounding "jazzy," but much of my harmonic language is derived from jazz.) I also just wanted to enjoy the process of writing, which I did, and I think this resulted in a piece that's a bit more sprawling than usual for me. Often when I'm done with a piece there's a lot of music left over that I like, but that just doesn't fit in. With "Caught in the Headlights," if I really liked an idea or a passage I found a way to keep it.

Urban Guitar: The titles of your pieces are often very catchy and whimsical - Where do you find your influences and inspiration?

Michael Karmon: I think of titles as a friendly gesture toward the listener, and also as a bit of a hint about what kind of piece it is. Coming up with titles is actually not easy for me, but I try to even name movements when I can. Some titles come at the very beginning and actually affect the nature of the piece, like Caught in the Headlights, and And The Rhythm Is Just A Little Bit Off, which is an orchestral piece based on a "poem" a drummer friend of mine performed once: "I wrote this song, And it's kind of funny, Cause the words don't rhyme, And the rhythm is just a little bit off." Other titles come at the middle or even near the end of the piece. I think When the Sheep Won't Come: A Sleepless Nocturne for Guitar came pretty late in the game, as did Frets. Vs. Fretless.

Actually, I've gotten into a bit of trouble once or twice because of my titles. Some people expect a literal connection between the title and the music, but for me the title is just a gateway to the piece. I think after the Caught in the Headlights premiere someone said they didn't hear the automotive connection between the title and the music. I did my best to make them understand, but it's like having to explain a joke: it doesn't really work.

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