During the first movement, I play the guitar as a lap-steel. Although this is similar to traditional american folk styles, my right hand fingernail technique is actually much closer to classical nylon playing, and I am using the slide on individual strings in a way that is often used in North Indian Classical music.

For my first performance of this piece, I adapted the fretboard of my National Estralita guitar by gluing on miniature “fretlets” to achieve the correct intervals.

“Scenes from Nek Chand” by Lou Harrison
for just intonation National Steel String Guitar (2002)

     I have always been enamored with Lou Harrison’s unique and gorgeous music. My first serious studies of classical repertoire began while attending the University of California in Santa Cruz, a weird and wonderful beach town whose thriving contemporary music scene owed a lot to the nearby presence of Harrison and his colleagues. Learning several of his original and transcribed compositions for guitar, I was privileged to be exposed to his music in a community that revered him. 

     “Scenes from Nek Chand” is the final composition that Lou completed before he passed in 2003. The title refers to the Indian artist Nek Chand, and the three movements, “The Leaning Lady,” “The Rock Garden,” and “The Sinuous Arcade with Swings in the Arches,” each describe a different feature of his historic property in Chandigarh. The piece was written for a custom-made National tricone guitar, a steel string acoustic with three metal resonators which is often associated with blues and folk music. The fretboard of the guitar is adapted to create a just-intonation scale based on the sixth through twelfth harmonics of G. To well-tempered ears, the intervals of this modal scale sound gloriously flat and exotic.

     I think both the instrument and the music Lou wrote for it are a testament the unique combination of American and Eastern influences that is prevalent in his music. In interpreting the piece, I explored styles and techniques associated with traditional American folk music, as well as slide guitar styles that have been developed by North Indian classical musicians.

     I am grateful to guitarist John Schneider and to National Resophonic Guitars for their help in bringing this piece to life for me!