A Distant Wind | romance for solo guitar by Frank A. Wallace

A Gift to Bo and Chris

I wrote A Distant Wind as a gift for Bo Isholm, his wife Hanna and Connecticut guitarist Christopher Ladd. Bo and Hanna live in Torshavn, Faroe Islands and Chris traveled there in July of 2018. They performed new works by Kristian Blak and myself with Ragnar Olsen, guitar and Angelika Nielsen, violin at the SUMMARTÓNAR 2018 Festival.

Bo is a guitarist, lutenist, teacher and former music school administrator. I met him in the summer of 2011 on a tour he helped organize in the Faroe Islands. The region is a small wonder of nature—home to grass, sky, ocean, humans, sheep and birds! The appearance is stark, but the amazing variety of color and light through clouds and mist is captivating.

Chris is a long time friend who teaches at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford CT. He and I share a deep love of chamber music, Chris performs in various ensembles with other guitars, flute, violin and more. I have written music for Chris in the past and he has performed several of my solo works as well as ensemble pieces, most notably As It Could Be, commissioned by the Hartt School for their 50th Anniversary commemoration of the guitar department and its founder Richard Provost.

Click on image to watch Nancy Knowles’ photo slide show of the Faroes during a 2011 concert tour.

Romance with the past

The term romance has many meanings: excitement in love; a dream come true, a ballad in ancient literature, lush music or painting. I refer to A Distant Wind as a romance for all these reasons. The distant wind refers to the past coming back to life with new meaning for now. The piece develops from a starkly medieval style to a romantic ending. Bo and I share many paths on the course of life, and one is a romance with ancient music as well as modern. We have had romances with both lute and guitar at various periods in our lives. And so the transformation in the music represents our own love of all life and times.

Bo and I also have romances with our wives. Recent struggles with health issues for all four of us have made those relationships even deeper and more important. I pray for Hanna and Bo in their difficult time, and I hope this small offering may be of spiritual delight to them. I will mention as well that I know Chris also shares a deep connection with his wife and family.

Romance with the Islands

Having performed there in 2011, I was invited to return to the Faroes in the fall of 2017 to play with Bo and present music of fellow Faroese musician Kristian Blak and myself. Kristian is the director of Sumartonar Festival, a summer long celebration of life, art and music in the Faroes. The deep spirituality of the people is evident from the minute one sets foot in a home. Walls are covered in art, couches adorned with homemade wool weaving and pillows. Everyone seems to be an artist and the festival reflects this deep connection to human creativity.

Life interrupted my plans. Serious illness forced me to cancel my trip. Bo told me then that major health issues were effecting a close member of his family. But the show goes on, and so I completed Gryphon for violin and guitar this past winter. I finished my arrangement of an earlier song for three guitars and violin called Woolgathering and I found a dear friend to substitute for my presence—Christopher Ladd of the Hartt School in Hartford CT. The second movement, is dedicated to Chris in thanks for his loyalty and adventuresome spirit.

The music

A Distant Wind hearkens back to medieval times with the use of parallel fourths and fifths. These open harmonies were the harbinger of polyphony about a thousand years ago. I performed this music in the 1970’s and 80’s with Trio LiveOak. in the Middle Ages beautiful resonances were achieved by very simple harmonic means with two or three voices and the same approach is vibrant on the guitar. I enjoy working in this archaic style and have done so before, most notably in Fünf Kleine Stücke, which I wrote while visiting Basel Switzerland in spring 2017. In the past I penned Cunctipotens Genitor and Nuevas Cantigas.

Two movements

I have written several solo works for both guitar and mandolin in two sections, always with a dramatic slow first movement and a fleet presto to follow. Each has been named after an iconic bird: White Albatross, Blue Heron, Caracara, Black Falcon. This piece fits the mold and so I name each movement for two great sea birds of the Faroes.

I) Tjaldur  The Eurasian oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus). Their annual arrival on about 12 March is celebrated by the Faroese people as the start of spring. For this reason, the tjaldur (pronounced [?t?ald??]), is recognized as the national bird of the Faroes.

II) Drunnhvíti  The European storm petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus), or drunnhvíti, can be best observed in Nólsoy in the biggest colony of the species in the world.

Copyright ©2018 Frank A. Wallace
Cover photography and design by Nancy Knowles
All rights reserved.