The Guitar: extending and developing the instrumental idiom through composition and collaboration.

In this project, my compositions will explore and extend the timbral range of the guitar through the combination of new extended techniques and a radical approach to tone production. I shall be collaborating with guitarists John Williams, David Russell, Zoran Dukić, Aniello Desiderio, Lorenzo Micheli, Matteo Mela, Michael Partington and others, in order to create bespoke music that matches and extends the individual player’s idiomatic and technical idiosyncrasies. Many of the composition outputs will be published in a three-CD boxed set, scheduled for release by Deux-Elles Classical Recordings in September 2024.

Researcher: Stephen Goss

The planned portfolio represents the culmination of long-term collaborative partnerships with many of the world’s leading guitarists. I shall focus on exploring novel left-hand fingering patterns to maintain and enhance resonance from the instrument. Additionally, I aim to extend the timbral range of the instrument, through the combination of new extended techniques and a fresh approach to right-hand tone, touch, and voicing. Drawing on the work of Jonathan de Souza, my research focusses on body-instrument interaction, treating the guitar as a creative prosthesis at the intersection of technique and technology. In my collaborative work, I shall tailor idiomatic writing to the idiosyncrasies of each individual guitarist’s technique.

Despite the popularity of the guitar, its myriad stylistic disciplines have largely operated in myopic isolation with minimal cultural exchange, shared knowledge, and symbiotic collaboration. In contrast and in response, this research project is characterised by a wide stylistic pluralism, and a rich diversity of creative approaches.

I use quotations and stylistic references to help to shape my pluralist musical language, which is characterised by abrupt stylistic gear changes. As Kimberly Patterson (2016) has observed, ‘Goss’s compositional interests are in the continuum that lies between transcription and composition and in the ways in which pre-existing material can be used to create unusual and interesting music’. I don’t see interpretation, transcription, arrangement, improvisation, and composition as different disciplines with distinct boundaries between them. I would suggest that the distinctions can be useful, but are artificial, rather like the colours of the rainbow. Jonathan Leathwood has proposed that my music ‘denies traditional expectations of originality’ and that ‘the listener is drawn into a maze of referents’ (2019).

The project timeline began in January 2021 and is designed to finish in 2027. It is carried out across two institutions, here at the Academy, where I am Professor of Guitar, and the University of Surrey, where I am Professor of Composition and Director of the International Guitar Research Centre (IGRC).

My practice comes out of the research context of the IGRC. The community comprises academics (Professor Milton Mermikides, Dr John McGrath, Dr Bill Thompson), 25 postgraduate researchers, and strategic partnerships with other Higher Education Institutions, industry partners, and individual academics.

Existing Outputs

Recordings

David Russell, Cantigas de Santiago (Azica, 71335 ©2021)

Zoran Dukic, Black Bile (Guitar Coop, GC02ZOR-21 ©2022)

Guitar Trek, On Song (ABC Classics, ABCL0069D, © 2023)

Francisco Correa, Winterbourne (Deux-Elles, DXL1200 ©2023)

Planned Outputs

Recordings

Various artists, Caught Between (Deux-Elles, 2024)
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Asaka Quartet, SoloDuo (Lorezo Micheli and Matteo Mela), John Williams, Aniello Desiderio, Zoran Dukić, Tatiana Berman, Bobby Chen, Fiona Sampson, Thomas Carroll, Graham Caskie, Anthony Hewitt, Matthew Wadsworth, Stephen Farr.

Correa-Andrews duo, Goss - Collected music for Flute and Guitar (Deux-Elles, 2024)

Eastman Wind Ensemble and Nicholas Goluses, A Concerto of Colours (Albany, 2024)

Russian National Orchestra, Histoire du Tango, arr. Goss (Prima Classic, 2024)

Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra, Landscape and Memory (Naxos, 2024)

Related Book Chapter

Dingle & Fallas (eds.) Proactive or reactive? The collaborative process between Julian Anderson, Laura Snowden, and Julian Bream (Boydell and Brewer 2025)

Funding Received

National Endowment for the Arts USA
Arts Council England
Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts
Canada Council for the Arts
Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
Guitar CoOp Brazil
ABC Australia
Primavera Foundation, Armenia
D'Addario, USA
Eastman School of Music, USA
Koblenz International Guitar Festival, Germany
GuitART Festival, Miami, USA
Colorado University, Boulder, USA
Festival Homenaje, Padua, Italy
University of Mebourne, Australia
Altamira Foundation, China