The Guitar Player by Jan Vermeer (c. 1672)

Après vous (2003)
for
Solo Guitar

by
Robert Morris

Program Notes

Après vous was written in the Summer of 2003 for William Anderson. The title has many meanings. First, the piece is canonic throughout, although the canons are often hidden in various ways. The use of French refers to the fact that Après vous comes after my composition, Tête-à-Tête (1999), for two guitars, which is recorded on Open Space (14) by William Anderson and Oren Fader. That piece was based on yet another duet of mine with a non-English title, Abuh Abuh Tenun (1996) (the language here is Indonesian).

Après vous lasts about 12 minutes and is in the form of linked variations, each getting a little more intricate as the piece unfolds. The opening was designed to sound a little like a Sarabande or Pavan theme, something that would be subject to variations in the late Renaissance or early Baroque periods. This effect is heightened since all the canons in the work permit only traditionally consonant intervals to sound at once. However the music gets more rhythmically and tonally complicated as it proceeds.

Below are the first and last pages of Après vous.