McGillicuddy's Rant (Classical Guitar) - Programme Notes
(1980-2003; 15')
Click button to view or download the score (please let me know if you decide to perform this!)
Variations on McGillicuddy’s Rant was composed in sections over a twenty-three year period, and I only heard
a performance of the complete set for the first time around 2003.* The theme was written in 1980,
around the time I started taking composition lessons. Before it had a name, I played it for my guitar teacher,
who, for no apparent reason, said, "Why don't you call it McGillicuddy’s Rant?"
I suppose I could have asked why it should be given this quirky title
(I know no McGillicuddys, and I don't believe he did either, so where did that name come from? And what the heck is a musical "rant?"),
but I found it phonetically pleasing, so I used it.
I also arranged the theme for piano, which can be found in “11 Short Piano Pieces.”
According to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., it turns out that a musical "rant" is
“a lively country dance… a variety of the polka step in an anacrusic 6/8 or 2/4 rhythm which is hopped or skipped.”
Calling my slow and meditative theme a "rant" is therefore an egregious error on my part, at least if one insisted on following the above definition,
but by the time I learned this I had become too fond of the title to change it. Besides,
a phonetically-pleasing title seems a terrible thing to waste.
The ten variations are all short character-pieces:
(Theme), Jig, Wistful and Nostalgic, Scherzo, Bluesy, Arabesque, Bluegrass, Folk Dance, Chorale, Prelude, and a (modified) Reprise.
It is the kind of theme that lends itself easily to variations, so more may follow in the future.
©Clark Winslow Ross
