As a performer and composer, classical guitarist David Leisner, above, has a good vantage point on where music is headed. Here's what he recently told Guitarra magazine:
"I believe that contemporary guitar music, like contemporary music in general, is neither progressing nor static," Leisner said. "It's in a state of transition, just what you would expect around the turn of a century. We're finding our way into a new era of expression, just as the romantic style evolved into the so-called modern style. It always takes a while before we find ways of expressing in music our feelings and thoughts about the world and era we live in. Guitar composers keep getting more and more clever about writing idiomatically for the instrument. There's a clear progression, for example, from the writing of 19th century guitar composers to that of Villa-Lobos, Gilardino, Bogdanovic and myself. The guitar writing gets more and more sophisticated in its idiomatic use of the guitar."
Leisner has a recital at 8 p.m. Friday at Hillsborough Community College, in the Student Services Building auditorium on the Dale Mabry campus, 4001 Tampa Bay Blvd. (across Dale Mabry Highway from Raymond James Stadium). $7. (813) 988-2734.
On the program are works by Stephen Pratten, Mertz's transcriptions of Schubert songs, Villa Lobos' Twelve Studies and four of Leisner's compositions.
More fun with Loesser
Frank Loesser was that rare Broadway composer, one who, like Irving Berlin and Cole Porter, wrote both music and lyrics for his shows, including Guys and Dolls, The Most Happy Fella and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. "A genius melodist and a supergenius lyricist, only he would ever rhyme "pelts' with "else' (Take Back Your Mink) or "India' with "been to ya' (They're Either Too Young Or Too Old) while simultaneously combining a crackling intellect with a heart as big as the moon," says composer-lyricist Maury Yeston.
Perfectly Frank is a revue of Loesser songs, and it is being performed this weekend by the MAD Theatre of Tampa, with shows at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Friday Morning Musicale, 809 Horatio St., Tampa. $12-$15. 813 884-6500; www.madtheatre.com
A handsome coffee table book recently published, The Complete Lyrics of Frank Loesser (Knopf, $49.95), edited by Robert Kimball and Steve Nelson, demonstrates the versatility of Loesser's work. The nearly 700 lyrics range from juvenile numbers to ditties he wrote to his wife, but all the classics are there, too, including songs from his Hollywood years that many people may not realize he wrote, such as Baby, It's Cold Outside and Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year.
