Zachary Johnson

The Solo Guitar Works of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett: a Theoretical Analysis of Impromptus and Sonata for Guitar Zachary Johnson

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (b. 1936) is one of Britain?s most versatile and celebrated composers of the twentieth-century. It is guitarists? great fortune that he has written two works for the solo guitar. He composed Impromptus in 1968 to prepare him for writing a guitar concerto for the English guitarist, Julian Bream, and he later composed the Sonata in 1983 as a personal exercise to see how far he could expand upon what he had already set forth in the Impromptus. This book presents a study of the two solo guitar works of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett. This study offers a brief survey of previous writings on the two works, the reception of each work, an exploration of his musical language and style, and a discussion of the influences on his style. It also offers an in depth theoretical analysis of Bennett's use of twelve-tone serialism in the Impromptus, and how he departs from strict serialism in the Sonata. In addition to exploring pre-compositional techniques, this study presents analysis of form for each movement and the phrase structures in both pieces. It also brings to light some errata discovered in the Impromptus.