Ooooh, guitar!

I have often complained about the low regard given to the electric guitar, which I truly consider a new musical instrument with enormous sound potential, by contemporary composers. The fact is that you can't expect people who in the boom years of this instrument, the roaring '60s, were already adults and in their careers, to suddenly realize this. At the same time, it is also necessary to train instrumentalists capable of interpreting complex scores such as contemporary ones and, what's more, non-standard ones, because there is still no shared semiography dedicated to this instrument.

Fortunately, today there are active composers born in the 50s/60s for whom the electric guitar is a given and there are also soloists who have tried to enhance the instrument with a work of sound research that goes beyond traditional genres (let's mention Fred Frith or Henry Kaiser, among all).

Here is Trash TV Trance, a piece by Romitelli available on the internet in various interpretations, which struck me because, in addition to the compositional qualities that were already known, it reveals a notable knowledge of the instrument and its possibilities also in terms of effects, naturally assuming that everything is prescribed in the score and not left to the performer.

I would like to point out that I don't know the score, but comparing the various performances, all quite similar, reveals that there are precise indications, both on the musical material and on the effects.

Not having the score, I don't feel like judging the quality of the performances, however that of Gilbert Imperial is my favorite, if only because it seems to me the best recorded.

Update: now I found a video with the score.

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