es there. In the 20th century, the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok
and the Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich each built their own
catalogues of demanding, ground-breaking works that expanded the
boundaries of performance techniques and pushed for a reconsider-
ation of what the musical conversation between the players them-
selves, and between the music and listener, could be like.
The genesis of Phillips’ commissioning project grew from an inability
to choose just one of his favorite local composers to write a new piece
for him when he got itchy for one. He’d worked with Troy Gifford
before. Gifford is a talented guitarist and composer and is the Chair
of the Music Department at Valencia College. Rex Willis, another gui-
tarist and composer at the State College of Florida in Sarasota, was
another potential candidate. As guitarist-composers, both Gifford and
Other instruments do not have the same depth of historical repertory, Willis have accessible compositional styles that are heavily infl uenced
either because they didn’t attract the attention of big name composers by Spanish dance music. The legendary Argentinian guitarist and com-
or because those instruments are simply newer. The saxophone was poser Jorge Morel, whose performing and recording career exploded
invented in 1840. Percussion instruments, generally speaking, have in New York in the 1960s, is now based in Orlando.
been in existence prehistorically, but when considering the percussion
family as a potentially virtuosic participant in the classical tradition, It dawned on Phillips that he didn’t need to choose just one compos-
it’s a 20th century phenomenon. Similarly, precursors to the classical er—he could think big and commission a whole concert’s worth, a
guitar emerged roughly 5000 years ago, but the modern classical gui- whole CD’s worth of pieces at once, from multiple composers. He cast
tar didn’t emerge into broad popularity until the 19th century, during a wider net by being open to the idea of working with non-guitarist
which masterworks for the instrument emerged, but at nowhere near composers. Phillips began a search for composers with some criteria
the rate or scope of traditional ensembles like the string quartet.
in mind: they had to have an accessible musical voice, they had to be
open to composing a piece based on dance rhythms, and they had to
That is good news for composers. Musicians of these instruments are be local enough to make collaboration simple. He found his composers
hungry for serious repertory, and some of them go out of their way and set tentative agreements. He launched a Kickstarter campaign to
to midwife new repertory into being by actively commissioning living help fund the process, which garnered support from over 60 people.
composers to write for them. They get the added thrill of having input
into the creative process and being able to provide feedback.
Rex Willis composed Rondo Diabolico, a fi ve-minute fun and quirky