Everything Leads to Something Else for guitar quartet or ensemble (2024)

$20.00

Everything Leads to Something Else for guitar ensemble was commissioned by Treasure Coast Classical Guitar Society in Stuart, Florida. It is the second piece I have had the honor to compose for this society, the first being Seaglass for guitar quartet (2022). This work takes its name from a line in Lady Bird Johnson’s diary, written around the time when the 1965 Highway Beautification Act was nearing its passage in Congress : Getting on the subject of beautification is like picking up a tangled skein of wool. All the threads are interwoven -- recreation and pollution and mental health, and the crime rate, and rapid transit, and highway beautification, and the war on poverty, and parks -- national, state and local. It is hard to hitch the conversation into one straight line, because everything leads to something else. (Lady Bird Johnson’s diary, January 27, 1965)

Everything Leads to Something Else for guitar ensemble was commissioned by Treasure Coast Classical Guitar Society in Stuart, Florida. It is the second piece I have had the honor to compose for this society, the first being Seaglass for guitar quartet (2022). This work takes its name from a line in Lady Bird Johnson’s diary, written around the time when the 1965 Highway Beautification Act was nearing its passage in Congress : Getting on the subject of beautification is like picking up a tangled skein of wool. All the threads are interwoven -- recreation and pollution and mental health, and the crime rate, and rapid transit, and highway beautification, and the war on poverty, and parks -- national, state and local. It is hard to hitch the conversation into one straight line, because everything leads to something else. (Lady Bird Johnson’s diary, January 27, 1965)

Rhythmic accuracy is most important in this groove-based piece. If no tempo change is indicated, keep the eighth note value steady as time signatures change. One of the musical characteristics of this work is the interaction of different metric groupings that sometimes conflict with the prevailing meter. My beaming indicates desired metric accents, regardless of the overall meter of each section. The bass guitar part is suggested but optional, based on instrument availability.