Abstract
Tom Armstrong’s Diversions 3 (2015) is the latest stage in a process of revision dating back to 2009 when Divertissements (2002), scored for electric guitar and harpsichord, was revised for piano trio. Each piece has been documented with increasing care and yet the connections between the medium of the electric guitar and the musical ideas and materials remain obscure. This lacuna matters because the decision to turn an electric guitar and harpsichord piece into a piano trio was, in part, motivated by a sense that the latter was better suited to the musical content of Divertissements. In returning to the original instrumentation at Sergio Sorrentino’s request Tom has had to address the problem of the electric guitar’s relation to the music of Divertissements but, once more, the existing documentation proves inadequate to understand this, concentrating on the performer but not their instrument. Tom Armstrong and Sergio Sorrentino will bring their perspectives as composer and performer to bear on the story of Diversions 3, showing how the medium of the electric guitar threads its way through the genesis of the piece. Tom will reconstruct the process of revision that led away from and back to the electric guitar using extracts from his journals and memory data, whilst Sergio will demonstrate how he has responded to the openness of notation in Diversions 3 through the medium of his instrument. In doing so they will show how both perspectives are essential for a full understanding of the products of the compositional process.