- Classical Guitar Magazine recently reviewed Dan's composition Waltz Triptych. Read the review below:
WALTZ TRIPTYCH for 4 guitars by Dan Cosley
“Commissioned by the Guitar Ensemble Association of Japan, this is a big piece, with the part scores running to eight sides of paper. The outer sections of the work are jazzy and light, whereas the centre section begins slowly in an almost classical four-part harmony. The opening is brisk - one-bar-a-second - and much of the writing is in quavers (eighth notes), so we’re proceeding at six-notes-a-second. The texture is light, with frequent changes of tone and volume, and the palette of dynamics and Italian terms that the composer uses is both extensive and expressive. Some of the harmonies are dark, with closely spaced notes quite low in the guitar’s register, and some of the imitation is astringent but very effective. But there is also some writing that is light and sweet and the contrast is all the more effective. The concept of a waltz being in 3/4 gives way to some 7/4 and 6/4 writing, and an increase in the note density and volume.
The central section is almost chorale-like with extended harmonic passages, and a tempo that’s one-third of the opening theme. The challenge here is in keeping the parts in step as the passage moves from one-note-per-beat to two, then via triplets to three, then four, then five and finally six-notes-per-beat.
The closing section reprises the opening, but the harmony is thicker and darker. Although the forces are broadly assembled in order of pitch, Guitar Four does venture high up the neck, and even when underpinning the other parts, has a line that is satisfying. It’s a big and competent piece of writing aimed at Grade 8 standard, and it’s an interesting listen.”
-Derek Hasted (Classical Guitar Magazine)
- Classical Guitar Magazine recently reviewed Dan's composition Water Strider. Read the review below:
WATER STRIDER for 4 guitars by Dan Cosley
Written in homage to Roland Dyens (who speaks highly of Mr Cosley in a quote in the foreword). This is a complex and rhythmically taxing piece that is in some ways above Grade 8. It is pleasing to see a few paragraphs from the composer setting the context for the piece and explaining that this piece contrasts the tranquillity and the brutality of nature.
Set in irregular time, but with the opening predominantly in 7/8 time, a growing wall of harmonics opens the piece, and a not dissimilar sequence closes the piece in an almost mirror image. The piece stabilises into 6/8 time, and once settled in this metre the composer constantly pitches three against two. The dissonances that look so strident on the page are frequently deliciously open and spacious. The centre section moves to 4/4 time and the pace is relaxed. There is no key signature but all of the many accidentals are flats giving a warmth to the sound that is contrasted here and there with a punctuation of staccato notes. The final section, although ending the piece as it began, is markedly different again, with aggressive writing, Bartok pizz. and a palette of tonal contrasts preceding the coda.
Although the composer notes the limited dynamic range the guitar offers, he does nonetheless go from a single guitar playing pp in harmonics to a tutti with strummed chords marked fff, so he does not constrain his ideas to fit the constraints of the guitars, he pushes the boundaries a little.
In terms of agility and general complexity of fingering, this is not hard, and the music lies on the paper without threatening the reader. The rhythm though, requires coolness and precision to succeed; or a miracle. If you need to rely on a miracle to play difficult rhythm, fear not; the ability to walk on water, like the water strider, would probably be included in the same miracle.
- Derek Hasted (Classical Guitar Magazine)
- The April 2010 issue of Gendai guitar magazine contains a very favourable review of Dan's guitar duo entitled Ensō (円相).
- The March 2010 issue of Gendai Guitar magazine includes a positive review of Dan’s composition Water Strider.
- The Portland Press Herald recently released a glowing review of Dan’s new CD with Nathan Kolosko entitled Ensō (円相). Read the review below:
February 25, 2010
Classical guitarists take their listeners far with the exotic 'Ensō'
By MIKE OLCOTT
Portland is a rocker's town. Sure, there are viable artists of all varieties around, but the Port City's got a hard-blues, Elvis Presley obsession. Stroll through the Old Port on a weekend night, and gnarled power chords rule the soundscape.
For as deeply gratifying as 3-minute, 30-second pop-song structures can be, folks forget this is only one use of music through the ages, and these Kelly Clarkson catharses are a dime a dozen nowadays. Enter well-traveled classical guitarists Nathan Kolosko and Dan Cosley, whose searching Zen marvel ''Ensō'' offers a listening experience all its own.
First, the rough premise. Ensō is an ancient Zen Buddhist painting practice that involves brushing the perfect circle. How your circle is brushed fully reveals your character as an artist. As music unfolds over time, a musician practices his circles as long as his improvisation carries him.
''Ensō,'' the album, recorded in Japan, is a subtle but deliberate wanderer. Performed solely on two classical guitars with some alligator clips, tin foil and wood sticks affixed to the instruments for textural percussion, this concept is as honest and time-tested as it gets.
Kolosko's opening, two-part piece, ''Yangisse Jarabi,'' is inspired by vocal music of the Aka Pygmies and the luscious sound of the Malian kora, an escapist's dream of an instrument. The sparse, elegant bounce of the second movement in a strange way reminds of Vince Guaraldi's ''Peanuts''-based jazz piano themes. It's light on the brain and perfect to work along to, and you can't help but perceive the joy these two guys are having along the way.
Cosley's original piece, ''Ensō,'' is similarly evocative and unpredictable, with slow, sporadic pulses and spider-web scales. Somehow, amidst the high-minded artistic pursuits, both contributors make the stories in the song easy to follow.
The exercise itself is meditative, so it's hard to resist the heart of the album: five improvisations that achieve ghostly peaks by cruising in and out of Middle Eastern plucking, European classical motifs and crunchy American jazz moves. Because the guitars themselves have such a honeyed tone, Kolosko and Cosley are free to use all the tricks they'd like, going any which way musically.
Most notably, as a conversation between two artists both trying to paint the perfect circle, the project is a success because of the multi-colored dynamic of two patient players.
- Mike Olcott, Portland Press Herald
- Critic Alan Fark wrote “Meditative and virtuosic, the music on Ensō is both beautiful and haunting.” in his recent review for Minor7th:
Ensō is a form of Zen Buddhist painting wherein a circle is drawn extemporaneously and definitively -- an improvisational emblem of the aptness of the imperfect in art and life. Nathan Kolosko and Dan Cosley, two classical guitarists, lay hold of that same spirit of irretrievable daring in their five-movement "Improvisations." On the first movement, guitars adorned with matchsticks, tin foil, bobby pins and other household objects are used to create a rhythmic drama, improvised down an irrevocable musical path whose outcome is known even to the players only in retrospect. Three other tracks are composed rather than improvised, duos drawing from African and Japanese musical traditions. Meditative and virtuosic, the music on Ensō is both beautiful and haunting.
- Minor 7th, © 2010 Alan Fark
- The February 2010 issue of Gendai Guitar magazine contains an overview of Dan’s musical activities as well as detailed information regarding the premiere of Water Strider at the 20 Anniversary Gala Concert of the Guitar Ensemble Association of Japan.