Tarot Cards is a musical exploration of the Tarot for Classical Guitar.
Stream Or Download Tarot Cards Here
Tarot Cards is a work for Classical Guitar
Tarot Cards is a collection of 22 short pieces for Classical Guitar. Each composition represents the 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot deck. When listening to the work, you will be reminded of a voyage you once took through a far away country. You will hear foreign sounding melodies blending pleasingly with traditional harmonies.
With this suite for Classical Guiar, I hope this music can lead you towards new forms of inspiration from the Tarot de Marseille.
What Are Tarot Cards Anyway?
Tarot cards have been around since 1450 and were originally used by Italian fortune tellers called cartomanti. They are used to tell stories and predict the future. The work explores the mystical universe of the Tarot de Marseille.
Representing Tarot Cards With Music
After searching for inspiration for my next musical composition, I finally found it. This composition draws inspiration from the 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot deck.
The first half of Tarot Cards consists of human characters and deities. First up is the quick and witty Juggler. Next we move to the more serious and imposing figures of the Emperor and the Pope. The middle characters of Tarot Cards are of a more dark and serious nature. The characters that we find in the middle include the Hermit and the Hanged Man.
The latter half of Tarot cards transitions from characters to objects. You will hear the celestial objects like the moon and the star. In these compositions I use the full gamut of sounds that are playable with the Classical Guitar. You will hear techniques ranging from percussive guitar to the flute-like sounds of guitar harmonics.
How I Wrote Tarot Cards
Tarot Cards is a suite for Classical Guitar which I originally started composing back in 2015. However, I only started serious work on the suite in 2017. I finished composing the entire suite and recorded the whole work in 2019.\
The Juggler
The Juggler is the first piece in the Tarot Cards suite for Classical Guitar. When I first wrote Tarot Cards, the Juggler was not the one that I started with.
The Emperor
When I was composing Tarot Cards, one thing was clear to me at the outset: The Emperor commands authority, power, and control. The Emperor is the personification of the masculine archetype. But with the figure of The Emperor, I also had in mind a benevolent and wise leader who does not use this power for selfish reasons.
In this scenario it is easy to consider a military march. For instance, The Emperor's Theme is a quick march composed by John Williams for the Star Wars series.
However I wanted something more ponderous and imposing. I wanted to represent The Emperor as a symbol of worldly might, who rules over his subjects with an iron fist. With classical guitar, I found the best way to be imposing in a musical sense was to use plentiful percussion and slap harmonics, all across the range of the guitar.
You will also hear harmonics used in The Star, another piece from Tarot Cards. This is not a coincidence as The Emperor is occasionally represented as wearing, in addition to his personal insignia, the stars of the constellation of Leo on his chest or shoulders.
The Chariot
Usually depicted on the card is a powerful, princely figure sitting in a large chariot, pulled usually by two sphinxes or horses. To show this, I had to do something unusual to my guitar.
I tried to give this composition an exotic Middle Eastern feel by tuning the first string of the guitar a quarter tone flat. In my mind this evokes the Arabic scales or "maqam" which are commonly found in music all over Northern Africa and even in Turkey.
This piece starts off with some strong chords, showing how the Chariot announces the arrival of a victorious leader. The strummed chords are quickly followed by a flowing foreign-sounding scale that rises up and down the middle register of the guitar.
The Wheel Of Fortune
My idea of depicting the Wheel of Fortune with the guitar is as a Wheel that turns around and around in an endess fashion. The piece begins quitely with a repeated pattern of two notes which expands into a flowing wave from the bottom of the guitar to the top. Retrospectively, the introduction gives you hints at the themes that will be repeated again later on in the piece. I want you to imagine the wheel continuing to turn faster as the energy continues to flow into it.
The piece makes continual use of harmonics which give the guitar a flute-like and otherworldy sound. The technique, called ‘cascading harmonics’ will inspire you to think of a water wheel, where the water cascades down along the cogs and into the pool below.
After the inevitable climax the piece fades into a different theme, also played with guitar harmonics. The piece ends with the guitar harmonics fading away into the distance and the repeated patter heard again which reminds us of the beginning of the piece.
The Hanged Man
Although the piece appears originally played on Classical Guitar, I created a version with Steel String Guitar because this type of guitar is most often used when playing DADGAD music. The difference being that the steel string guitar offers a brighter sound than the softer or gentler sound of the classical guitar.
DADGAD is a type of guitar tuning which is different from standard tuning, or EADGBE. This type of tuning is very popular in Celtic music where guitarists favour the use of open strings.
Unfortunately, I don't find it sounds particularly Celtic, somewhat to my dissapointment. But I am happy with how it turned out altogether and I find it makes an excellent addition to the Tarot Cards suite.
Temperance
The short piece Temperance from Tarot Cards has two main parts. In Temperance you will hear the shining sun and flowing water, interrupted in the middle by the arrival of the angel.
The piece starts with the guitar playing rapid flowing arpeggios in a bright sounding key. This is the sun shining on the Earth with flowing waters below.
Suddenly the music slows; an Angel appears. Dramatic plucked chords sound as we see the Angel more clearly. We notice that the Angel is not male or female and is winged, with one foot in water and the other on land. This Angel has come to show us balance and eternity.
The pace of the music gradually picks up and becomes more confident as we understand the message proclaimed by the Angel. The Angel will show us the way for balance and eternity.
The music in the slow part may sound familiar to listeners familiar with a piece by the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz, the Suite Española.
Finally the Angel departs. We once again hear the fast rustling from the guitar but the piece quickly draws to a close on a final note.
The Star
I wanted to give the feeling of warmth and comfort in this piece so The Star from Tarot Cards features the bright sound of open strings and guitar harmonics. Since this card is rather mysterious, the piece starts with airy flute-like guitar harmonics and the edgy sound of an augmented chord.
After the introduction, the piece progress into the flowing melody before quickly being interrupted once again by the harmonics.
The eight pointed, shining star also has the image of a naked female. The music reflects this in being quite conservative, almost naive and shrinking away from the harsh sounds of dissonance.
At the end of the piece I used the guitar technique called cascading harmonics. This mixture of flute-like harmonics with bright open strings is an effect I used for both the Moon and the Star endings, as it seemed to suit both endings well.
The Sun
In depicting The Sun, number 19 Tarot Cards, I was interested in the imagery that goes with the Sun. This lead me to think of hot countries and the music that represents these hot, sunny climates. Since the guitar is Spanish in origin, I started daydreaming of Andalusia and the Flamenco tradition. That was it: the Sun had to make the listener think of hot and sunny Spain.
So in order to get a Flamenco or Spanish sound in this composition I was inspired by the dance rhythms of Flamenco. One of the characteristic dance rhythms of Flamenco is the Bulerias. This lively dance is unique in that the placement of the accents in a spot that is not in the usual location for Western occidental music. So I wanted to highlight this unusual accentuation with the strumming at the beginning of the song.
For this Tarot Card's music video I went to Old Montreal and set up in front of the Pointe-à-Callière Museum. There happened to be some exotic plants and I thought that would add a nice touch to the exotic sound I was aiming for in this particular work.
Album Credits
- Composed and performed by Brett Vachon, solo guitar
- Recorded and Produced by Brett Vachon
- Mixed and Edited by Brett Vachon
- Mastered online by Landr
- Album Design and Layout by Brett Vachon
- Photography by Vanessa Beaumont
