Guitarist entertains with eclectic set
Mick Moore
Issue date: 4/8/09 Section: The Edge
Sitting center stage in the College of Fine Arts and Communication Recital Hall with a unique split-toned classical guitar, Tom Clippert opened his April 6 performance with three incredibly diverse selections from Benjamin Verdery's "Some Towns and Cities."
The song's separate sections were inspired by different locations around the country, and it was an excellent opener for the performance, preparing the audience for the incredible range of pieces that were to come.
Clippert is a graduate of the Yale School of Music, and has been playing and studying guitar for about 20 years. First interested in music because of groups like The Beatles, Chuck Berry and Eric Clapton, he considered music as a career while in his high school jazz band. Since then, he has gone on to study, perform and teach courses and workshops all over the country.
After a Milwaukee-styled bluegrass piece and Hawaiian-inspired slide number, Clippert swapped guitars and dove into a radically different series of movements by Cuban composer Leo Brouwer titled "Preludes Epigramticos" and "Elogio de la Danza," or "Praise of the Dance." Slow, haunting melodies of a vaguely Latin-sounding origin were embellished with harp-reminiscent chord strums and plucked harmonic tones.
Western Illinois University music department's Dr. Matt Warnock joined Clippert on stage for Fernando Sor's "2 Duos, Op. 55." They played a traditional classical guitar, and Warnock switched between a classical nylon string and a Fender Telecaster, bringing an interesting blend of sounds to the pieces.
Again playing solo, Clippert performed Stanley Myers' "Cavatina," a piece that avid film buffs will recognize as the signature theme in the classic Vietnam War film, "The Deer Hunter."
Denis Poliquin's "Hommage à Keith Jarrett," an homage to the works of composer and jazz legend Keith Jarrett, a musician Clippert remarked as being an influence early in his studies of jazz.
Warnock rejoined Clippert for a brief but enjoyable piece by a man who may have been the world's first rock star - a medieval work by John Dowland, who actually toured and played a lute, a predecessor to the guitar. "My Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home" was a sprightly and formal sounding duet that invoked images of the Bristol Renaissance Fair.
The song's separate sections were inspired by different locations around the country, and it was an excellent opener for the performance, preparing the audience for the incredible range of pieces that were to come.
Clippert is a graduate of the Yale School of Music, and has been playing and studying guitar for about 20 years. First interested in music because of groups like The Beatles, Chuck Berry and Eric Clapton, he considered music as a career while in his high school jazz band. Since then, he has gone on to study, perform and teach courses and workshops all over the country.
After a Milwaukee-styled bluegrass piece and Hawaiian-inspired slide number, Clippert swapped guitars and dove into a radically different series of movements by Cuban composer Leo Brouwer titled "Preludes Epigramticos" and "Elogio de la Danza," or "Praise of the Dance." Slow, haunting melodies of a vaguely Latin-sounding origin were embellished with harp-reminiscent chord strums and plucked harmonic tones.
Western Illinois University music department's Dr. Matt Warnock joined Clippert on stage for Fernando Sor's "2 Duos, Op. 55." They played a traditional classical guitar, and Warnock switched between a classical nylon string and a Fender Telecaster, bringing an interesting blend of sounds to the pieces.
Again playing solo, Clippert performed Stanley Myers' "Cavatina," a piece that avid film buffs will recognize as the signature theme in the classic Vietnam War film, "The Deer Hunter."
Denis Poliquin's "Hommage à Keith Jarrett," an homage to the works of composer and jazz legend Keith Jarrett, a musician Clippert remarked as being an influence early in his studies of jazz.
Warnock rejoined Clippert for a brief but enjoyable piece by a man who may have been the world's first rock star - a medieval work by John Dowland, who actually toured and played a lute, a predecessor to the guitar. "My Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home" was a sprightly and formal sounding duet that invoked images of the Bristol Renaissance Fair.
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