Works for Guitar, Vol. 2 - Dominique Phillot

Dominique PHILLOT: Antin’s Funny Dance – Clear Source – De glace et d’eau – Two Times Five Tones – Abstraction – Viva Leovigildo – Hiver obscur – Another Kind of Path – Über Bachs Name – Dream – Elégie – Berimbau.

Dominique Phillot, Guitar

Dominique Phillot is a Swiss guitarist and composer. A graduate of the Institut de Ribaupierre (Lausanne, Switzerland) with a Concert Performer’s Diploma, he furthered his studies in Spain under Jorge Cardoso and José Tomás. He has performed in some twenty countries, presenting the Spanish and Ibero-American repertoire as well as works by contemporary Swiss composers. In the field of improvised music, he has developed the projects “Route de la Soie” and “Transatlantic Path.”

Dominique Phillot has directed major guitar festivals in Switzerland, Portugal, and Spain. He currently co-directs the Río Negro International Guitar Festival in Argentina.
He has recorded five albums and written some thirty compositions for guitar. In 2027, he will premiere his Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra.
In 2025, he also composed a “Fantasy for Guitar Orchestra.”

Since 2020, following the release of the album “Works for Guitar,” he has focused primarily on his work as a composer. The album was well received by leading figures in the guitar world, including Jorge Cardoso, Eduardo Martín, Christoph Jäggin, Ahmed Dickinson, and Lucio Núñez.
Starting in 2022, he has had the opportunity to present his compositions at the National University of Costa Rica, the Prague Conservatory, the Maria Luisa Anido Festival in Buenos Aires, and the Second Río Negro Guitar Festival. Other projects are planned in Switzerland, the United States, Argentina, and Cuba.

Presentation of Works

Antin’s Funny Dance • Tonal composition based on a succession of pentatonic scales punctuated by jazz chords. The middle section is quieter and more dissonant.

Clear Source • A piece based on an old French song: À la claire fontaine. For this piece, I used the spectral technique.

De glace et d’eau • Tonal piece in three parts: arpeggios, toccata and chord succession.

Two Times Five Tones • Composition based on bipentaphonic scales. The second part is treated in the manner of a Gregorian chant.

Abstraction • Abstract, atonal piece: small dissonant phrases punctuated by consonant chords. The work is inspired by the widespread serialism of the 1950s-1960s.

Viva Leovigildo • A tribute to Leo Brouwer, a fundamental composer of the modern guitar. The piece has three parts: a rapid toccata, a romantic arioso and a suite of arpeggios in an Ibero-American mood.

Dark Winter • After an introduction of chords generated by an Indian scale, the piece develops into an arpeggio section around the tones E, F#, G, F#, G.

Another Kind of Path • Spectral composition alternating modal melodies and big jazz chords.

Über Bachs Name • J. S. Bach’s initials correspond to the notes B, A, C, B♭. As did Franz Liszt and other composers, for example, I wrote an impetuous piece composed with these four notes.

Dream • A very quiet atonal piece, also inspired by widespread serialism (Boulez, Stockhausen, Nono or Babbitt).

Elegy • Dissonant piece based on a series of twelve notes repeated with increasingly dense harmonic support.

Berimbau • Reference to a primitive instrument from Africa used by the Brazilian natives. The first part and finale are impetuous, while the lyrical middle section takes the form of a song.

Dominique Phillot

CD-1765 Booklet.pdf