frank wallace

2012.01.28

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

New work written for Lynn McGrath - this is a midi rendition without the narrator - just to give you an idea.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

New chamber work for flute, cello and two guitars.

2011.12.17

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

New works by me - Frank Wallace…have a listen.

2011.11.03

I just discovered the Arce/Meneghello Duo on YouTube.  Nor did I know that Tórroba wrote songs.

2011.10.17

Nancy  Knowles and Frank Wallace will perform original songs at this wonderful series dedicated to spoken word  and music.  FREE ADMISSION. Concert in Manchester, CT on Thursday.http://www.mcc.commnet.edu/faculty/spoken.php
Mishi-maya-gat Spoken Word & Music Series at Manchester Community College, CT

Nancy Knowles and Frank Wallace will perform original songs at this wonderful series dedicated to spoken word and music. FREE ADMISSION. Concert in Manchester, CT on Thursday.
http://www.mcc.commnet.edu/faculty/spoken.php

Mishi-maya-gat Spoken Word & Music Series at Manchester Community College, CT

2011.10.03

This video by my son Adam Wallace uses Prayer #3, Reverence, from Six Prayers on Six Strings, available at www.gyremusic.com

2011.09.30

The Tenri Institute in Manhattan, just before Pedro de Alcantara entered for his concert of new compositions and improvisations for cello, piano and voice.

The Tenri Institute in Manhattan, just before Pedro de Alcantara entered for his concert of new compositions and improvisations for cello, piano and voice.

2011.09.28

Soundboard Review - September , 2011

Frank Wallace: Song of Albin. Antrim: GYRE Publications, 2011.  16 pp.  No Price Marked. (Soundboard magazine - September , 2011)

    Guitar composition in the 21st century stretches from neo-Renaissance compositions to pieces showcasing specialized tricks of the composer, and from beautiful simplistic melodies to the delights of 12-tone.  In attempting to captivate those who want to walk away humming and those who want to hear innovations, composers must walk a delicate tight rope.  Frank Wallace strides across that rope with his six movement solo guitar suite Song for Albin written in honor of Wallace’s Scottish ancestors.  These are rich, intricate concert works that would work well as a set or individually.  Embedded within these works are fascinating, dense harmonies; complex contrapuntal textures; several extensive shifts; and some challenging slur techniques.

The set begins with “Reviresco” where the simple, lilting, rhythm gradually gives way to intricate rhythmic sequences and scale passages as it passes through 7 different time signatures.  “My Trust” introduces the slur technique in which the second note of a descending slur is accompanied by another plucked note.  This technique takes some advanced hand and finger independence and is not easily accomplished at a rapid tempo.  This second movement will push the player’s interpretive chops to new heights as it weaves long shifts, rhythmic schemes, slurs, and modern harmony around gorgeous melodic lines.  In the third movement, “The Glen of Ellersly,” Wallace develops a three-note motif over rhythmic displacement, octave displacements, adds harmony at varied times to the beginning, middle, or end of the motif, creates counterpoint lines, and transcends the fretboard in the process.  “Birling” is the simplest and shortest movement in the set and a magnificent piece to introduce a young player to Wallace’s beautiful sense of melody while giving a player who takes on the entire suite a breath to relax.  The fifth movement, “Cuthon,” maintains a fairly constant rhythmic theme throughout while adding drama through harmony and the use of specific single strings for widely spaced melodies.  “Red Lion” concludes the suite with quintuplet and sextuplet arpeggios, no time signature, and a breadth of atonal harmony with resolution in the final two bars.            

    In addition to the wonderful music contained on these pages is the beautiful physical presentation that comes from GYRE.  An original piece of artwork, often a photograph from Wallace’s wife Nancy Knowles, graces each cover, the music is well-organized, it is easy to read, and contains plenty of essential left hand fingerings.  The back cover lists the mountain of varied publications available from GYRE which deserve to be explored. 
-David Isaacs

Current program

Frank Wallace
guitarist / composer / baritone
University of Dayton, October 1, 2011

Preludes 1, 3                                Heitor Villa-Lobos, 1887-1959
Omaggio                                      Manuel de Falla, 1876-1946 
Homage a Tárrega                        Joaquín Turina, 1882-1949
    Garrotín
    Soleares

from Nuevas Cantigas                  Frank Wallace, b. 1952
Montserrat                                      FW
Imperayritz                                    14th Century, Llibre Vermell
Loor                                               FW
Cantiga                                          FW
Santa María Valed                          Alfonso el Sábio, 13th Century
Estampie                                       FW

Two Fantasías                               Luys de Narváez, 1538
Isabel                                           Alonso de Mudarra, 1546
I have loved (1999)                       Frank Wallace
Fantasía                                        Luys de Milán, 1536
Tan buen ganadico                       Cancionero de Palacio, c. 1500
                   
Intermission

from Speak Love (2005)                Frank Wallace, b. 1952
Song                                      poetry by Henriette de Saussure Blanding
Isolation
Twilight
Dawn

The Elements (2006)                    Frank Wallace, b. 1952
Fire
Earth
Air
Water

Nana                                            Federico García Lorca, 1898-1936
Café de Chinitas
   
guitar by Aaron Green, 2011
Frank Wallace is supported in part by a grant from the NH State Council on the Arts.

2011.09.19

LUNA, a tragicomedy written and performed by Nancy Knowles with original score by Frank Wallace Two artists.  Mother and Daughter.  Loss and Survival.
When:  October 8 & 9 at 9pm, October 10 at 6pmWhere:  Seacoast Fringe Festival, Moffatt-Ladd House, 154 Market Street, Portsmouth NHWho:  Singer/actress Nancy Knowles, with live accompaniment by Frank Wallace on 10-string guitarLUNA is a multidimensional solo performance, a transformative story told through the eyes of singer/poet/photographer Nancy Knowles.  It is a window into her mother Phoebe’s final years––a woman who has painted her way through multiple tragedies with spirit and humor well into her nineties.  As her life shrinks, their whimsical and intimate letters, journals, and conversations on space and grace, loss, love, aging, art and madness tug at their masks, transcend taboos, lay bare their secrets.  With video projections and live music.— Nancy Knowlessinger/poet/visual artist

LUNA, a tragicomedy
written and performed by Nancy Knowles with original score by Frank Wallace

Two artists.  Mother and Daughter.  Loss and Survival.

When:  October 8 & 9 at 9pm, October 10 at 6pm
Where:  Seacoast Fringe Festival, Moffatt-Ladd House, 154 Market Street, Portsmouth NH
Who:  Singer/actress Nancy Knowles, with live accompaniment by Frank Wallace on 10-string guitar

LUNA is a multidimensional solo performance, a transformative story told through the eyes of singer/poet/photographer Nancy Knowles.  It is a window into her mother Phoebe’s final years––a woman who has painted her way through multiple tragedies with spirit and humor well into her nineties.  As her life shrinks, their whimsical and intimate letters, journals, and conversations on space and grace, loss, love, aging, art and madness tug at their masks, transcend taboos, lay bare their secrets.  With video projections and live music.

Nancy Knowles
singer/poet/visual artist