MASTER CLASS - MUSIC COMPOSITION
Jose Luis Merlin

Can you learn how to compose music?

DURATION: 2 Hours

PARTS:
part 1: Illustrated dissertation with images and sound. Duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes
part 2: Questions from attendees. Duration: ½ hour.

CONTENT:
1. Define the task and method: Virtuous circular interaction Perception-Emission: Ear - voice - instrument - brain.
2. The melody.
3. Why study Counterpoint before Harmony?
4. The importance of bass.
5. Form and content. Organization of the elements
6. What is the use of analyzing works by other authors and periods? Define the Method. Language evolution.
7. Listening to student works.

Time:           10:30h - 12.30h
Place:          Guitarras de Luthier
Price:           No cost; limited places
 
LIMITED PLACES: Booking to guitarrasdeluthier@yahoo.es

BIOGRAPHY:
José Luis Merlin is guitarist, professor, and composer, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

His compositions are played and recorded by a lot of guitarist around the world: Jan Wouters (Bélgica), Etienne Plasman (Luxemburgo), Antigoni Goni (Grecia), David Tanenbaum (USA), Jasón Vieux (USA), Yang Xuefei (China), Michael Nigro (USA), Lisa Schroeder, Willam Simcoe (USA), Louis Johnson (USA), Wang Zhen (China); Bruce Paine (Nueva Zelandia), Máximo Pujol (Argentina), Eduardo Martín (Cuba), Lee Khee Gan (Japón), Eric Cabalo (USA), Danny Shoemaker (USA), Stanley Yates (Inglaterra), Elliot Frank, Allar Õunapuu (Estonia), Matthew Hornbeck (USA), Dietmar Oliver Kunzler (Alemania), Adam Holzman (USA), Robert Guthrie (USA), Luis Andrés Campos Yépez (Ecuador), Marcelo Coronel (Argentina), Théan Slabbert, Roma Sprung, Victor Celis, etc.

He worked as an orchestrator and arranger with the composer Jorge Drexler in performing the soundtrack of the movie "City of Your Final Destination" by James Ivory with Anthony Hopkins as one of the protagonists.

He has made an adaptation for string quintet with guitar, choir and soloists from the opera Orpheus and Euridice by Glück at the request of the company, "The Sea of Puppets" and recorded and distributed on DVD by the label "Sello Autor". 

He has composed the music for "Water" for the "Expo Zaragoza" 2008 recorded and distributed on DVD by the label "Sello Autor".

He has composed the music for "Rimas infantiles par alas estaciones del año" with the poet Cristina Alvarez Puerto.
His compositions are included in the studio's programs of a lot of universities and conservatories around the world.

Merlin`s biography was published in the Who's Who in Music (London), 14th and later editions, together with the world's most distinguished musicians. Since ten years ago he received many students of Guitar and Composition from different countries.

He has been a concert artist, composer and guitar teacher since 1967, as well as a researcher and teacher of instrumental technique. He studied guitar, theory and sol-fa for five years with Vicente Degese, continued for eight years with Abel Carlevaro, and studied harmony, counterpoint, musical form and instrumentation with Leónidas Arnedo (Tchaikovsky Conservatory).

He has made more than thirty international tours: Mexico, Ireland, Spain, Austria, USA (over 200 concerts), Canada, Cuba, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Brazil and Uruguay. He has given concerts in such renowned halls as the Centro Cultural de la Villa (Madrid, Spain), the United Nations (New York, USA), the Meridian House Who's (Washington, D. C., USA), the Museums of Art in Dallas and Detroit (USA), the Teatro Juan Bravo (Segovia, Spain), the Teatro Nacional Cervantes (Buenos Aires), as well as on public radio and television in Ohio, Michigan, Oregon, California, Texas (USA), and on the international channel of Deutsche Welle (Germany).

He has been invited on five occasions to give classes and lectures at universities in the US and Germany. He has played as a soloist with the Symphonies of Rosario and San Juan (Argentina), and has performed chamber MUSIC with the following chamber ensembles: Frolov Chamber Orchestra, Cuarteto Sudamericano, Buenos Aires, Sudamérica, Sudamericano, Musicámera, del Plata, and the Grupo Merlin.

He was co-founder and first president of the Association Integración Guitarrística Argentina. He was the founder and Director of the Centro de Estudios Musicales in Buenos Aires (a school of MUSIC for all levels). Actually he is co-founder and first president of the "Club de la Guitarra" Cultural Association in El Escorial, Spain.

He composed the music for "Travesia, the guitar witness to five centuries", an oratorio for recititative, singing voice, mezzo-soprano and chamber orchestra (texts by José Tcherkasky). Has also composed works for solo guitar, guitar and violoncello, guitar and string quartet, piano and voice, etc.

He has arranged and adapted works by Beethoven, Scarlatti, Bach and Piazzola, and has set to music the poetry of Nicandro Pereyra and Antonio Esteban Agüero.

He has published more than 12 recordings in USA, Japan, Austria and Argentina.