Preludes for Guitar

What happens when a composer “discovers the possibilities inherent in the guitar” (Trygve Madsen) and writes music that “does not need to follow a set musical form” (Bjørn Bolstad Skjelbred)? And how can one offer a “glimpse of something that could have been bigger” (Kjell Marcussen)? With this as a point of departure, the three composers have written 23 preludes that give us insight into their musical universe. While revealing significant variation in compositional devices and playing techniques, the preludes featured here truly challenge the possibilities and limitations of the guitar. The pieces can be experienced as small stories: lovely, stimulating, gruesome, dynamic, tonal, contrastive, expressive, melancholy, mechanical, and much more. They are never bland and meaningless!