Biblioteca de la Guitarra y Cuerda Pulsada

The French composer Roland Dyens (1955-2016) wrote many original works for guitar that make reference to Brazilian music. According to Canadian musicologist Enrique Robichaud, Roland Dyens was the most recorded living composer of guitar music. His popularity among guitarists is closely related to his Brazilian-based works, but a majority of the performers and audiences many not realize that such pieces derive from Brazilian music and culture. Dyens has also borrowed other musical traditions including elements from Tunisian, Turkish, Swiss and Italian music. In order to fully understand Dyens’s music, it is necessary to understand how multicultural elements are present in Western concert music.

This study will address the issue of multiculturalism in Western guitar music in general as the foundation to the study of Dyens’s Brazilian based works. Dyens expressed his interest in Brazilian music in three different forms; first, as a composer who creates original works based on Brazilian elements, second as an arranger of Brazilian music, and third as a concert artist devoted to the performance and recording of Brazilian repertoire. Such a study will provide information that may guide performers and listeners to better understand how to approach multicultural works in a stylistic manner.

http://hdl.handle.net/2022/21133  Indiana University

A study of multiculturalism in 20th century guitar music and the the Brazilian elements in the music of  Roland Dyens