DCD34029-CD

Eddie McGuire: Music for flute, guitar and piano

Over the past 40 years Eddie McGuire, British Composer Award winner and Creative Scotland Award winner, has developed a compositional style that is as eclectic as it is concentrated. This disc surveys a selection of his solo and chamber works, written for his home instruments – flute, guitar and piano. The writing, whilst embracing tonality, focuses on texture and aspects of colour, drawing on a myriad folk influences. The listener cannot help being drawn in to McGuire’s evocative sound-world, at once bold and playful.

"…McGuire writes in a tonally based, folk-inflected style that seems effortlessly to conjure up those emotions he wishes to evoke without recourse to cliché or glib sentimentality - this is quite simply beautiful music."

"The clarity and perfect intonation of Nancy Ruffer’s flute playing is a real bonus on this disc, and McGuire, knowing the instrument as he does, gives it full expression and a wide range against the softness of the guitar in Fountain of Tears, and leaning solidly against the more robust sonorities of the piano in Caprice."

"Eddie McGuire is one of the most modest voices in Scottish music. But, as this captivating disc shows, he is also one of the most distinguished and eloquent composers of his generation. Every one of these solo or ensemble pieces...is a gem...Rarely does new music come over so beautifully."

"a must-have collection…exquisitely crafted…An important collection.”

"A recognised master and winner of a British Composer Award, Eddie continues his highly impressive career. This album of solo and chamber works will simply add to his reputation as an artist of sensitivity, skill and emotional depth. Stunning."

MUSICIANS' UNION MAGAZINE

"The music is frequently of a serious nature, but is never heavily depressing or overly symbolic – it can always be enjoyed on its own terms, whatever the original inspiration or message. I sincerely hope this recording will bring Eddie McGuire’s work to a wider public – this is surely what it deserves."

"There is plenty of interest and variety here and the music is well worth investigating."

PAN MAGAZINE

Release Date: 1 September 2006
Catalogue No: DCD34029
Total playing time: 1:13:22
 
Recorded on 19-20 June 2005 at Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh
Producers & Engineers: Paul Baxter & Adam Binks
24-bit digital editing: Adam Binks
24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter & Eddie McGuire
 
Design: Margareta Jönsson
Cover image: Resistance Landscape, Eddie McGuire December 1968
Photography: Paul Baxter
 

Album Booklet

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