Black Falcon | by Frank A. Wallace

Black Falcon is a guitar solo written for Cuban guitarist Edel Muñoz, who I first met at the 2011 St. Joseph Guitar Festival. Edel had returned to St. Joseph to perform his competition winner’s concert. We met again at Classical Minds in Houston in June 2012 at which point we got to hear each others’ concerts. Edel is one of the most suave and subtle yet powerful players I have ever heard. I was thrilled that he asked me to write a piece for him.

At the time of composition I generally used various techniques for generating musical ideas developed over the previous years. But I tossed those ideas out the door and wrote from pure inspiration. The result is my first piece that uses the octatonic, or diminished scale. It alternates between dramatic chordal outbursts and flowing bass melodies. Black Falcon is in two sections: Larghissimo in 4/2 and Allegro in 12/8. This is a pattern I have used in several solo works and one duo that I call my Raptor Series.