Tim Brady’s “Symphony” for Electric Guitar

Tim Brady with his electric guitar (courtesy of Starkland)

Tomorrow Starkland will release its latest CD. It presents an electric guitar solo performance by Tim Brady of the composition he has entitled “Symphony in 18 Parts.” Amazon.com has created a Web page for MP3 download or streaming, but the Bandcamp Web page provides for both physical and digital releases. Since the album includes an eight-page booklet, which, in turn, includes the notes that Brady prepared for his composition, it is unclear whether or not Amazon will include that booklet with its download. As a result, it would be fair to say that Bandcamp is (as usual) the better provider!

That Bandcamp Web page also includes a generous account of background information. This includes a statement by Brady justifying his use of the “symphony” label:

Each movement has its own world, its own unique way of proceeding, but together they are kaleidoscopic. This is a piece that is designed to feel that it can hold everything within it. That sounds symphonically ambitious to me… The architecture, the ambition, the big ideas – it turns out they are all here.

It strikes me that “architecture” is the key noun in this account. The fact is that the individual movements of this composition are likely to strike many listeners as exercises in miniaturist practices. All of the movements are shorter than five minutes in duration, and the shortest is slightly longer than 90 seconds.

Having read the booklet notes, I have no trouble allowing Brady to call this music anything he wants to call it. However, rather than dwell on the concept of symphony, I found myself more drawn to the track listing, which assigns an imaginative title to each of the eighteen movements. Thus, whatever Brady has to say about “architecture” and “big ideas,” I find that my own listening is drawn to those miniaturist practices and the imaginative phrases of text associated with each movement.

Taken as a whole, Brady’s album definitely provides the listener with a journey. However, I am not sure that the journey aligns with how we would approach a symphony composed in the nineteenth century as a journey. Anyone familiar with that earlier repertoire should have no trouble taking that approach, but Brady’s journey is qualitatively different in many ways. Indeed, I might even go as far as to say that each individual movement is qualitatively different, and Brady’s titles provide hints as to what constitutes difference as he progresses through his eighteen movements.

From my own personal point of view, this music strikes me as a fun listening experience; so I should probably just pull away from trying to intellectualize the listening experience and enjoy the ride!