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David Grimes was first introduced to the guitar when he was a junior math major at Caltech and heard a recording of Andrés Segovia. He completed his degree in mathematics and subsequently worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena for several years while he pursued his guitar studies with Guy Horn and Oscar Ghiglia.
As a soloist he has performed extensively throughout North America and Europe, and recent concert tours have taken him to Mexico, Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, Denmark, France, Malta, Belarus, Serbia and Montenegro. He is also in demand as a conductor and as a competition judge.
David's interest in the guitar's predecessors led to his edition of Luys Milan: the Complete Fantasias and the celebrated series, Treasures of the Baroque, published by Mel Bay Publications. At the other end of the spectrum, he encourages and works actively with contemporary composers to create new guitar works. Many composers have been inspired to write pieces for guitar after hearing a David Grimes performance. His own compositions are now being performed by prominent guitarists throughout the world.
Highly respected as a teacher and coach, David is presently Director of Guitar Studies at California State University, Fullerton, where he has developed one of the nation's leading centers of guitar instruction. He is past President of the Guitar Foundation of America and remains as Reviews Editor for the journal Soundboard.
In the early 1990s I composed a few small pieces, some of which were published in Classical Guitar. One of those was a miniature Preludio in E major. Years later, in the fall of 2005, I happened to write another piece of about the same size, this time in e minor, and, shortly afterward, still another in F major. I think that key sequence was completely coincidental, since at that time I had not thought about compiling an extended series of preludes. Nevertheless, I soon felt impelled to write something in f minor to round out the initial group, and then I found it increasingly difficult to stop before completing the full cycle of twenty-four keys. I did include one other piece from the earlier period; Prelude 18 was written in 1991 (originally called Chorale), and it also appeared in Classical Guitar. Several of the later preludes were written during summer travels in 2006, and their locations of origin have been noted.
The first Preludio was inspired by a melodic gesture in a composition by Andrés Segovia (measures 1 - 4 from his Estudio, published by Columbia Music, 1975), and so I dedicated the piece "to the memory of Andrés Segovia." As the series of preludes evolved, I decided to dedicate each to some figure from earlier generations - to people related somehow to the guitar who have influenced me significantly and whom I have admired. A few of the preludes have slight internal references to their dedicatees, but most of them are purely abstract tributes.
These pieces are all miniatures, mostly single-idea pieces, without formal structure. The harmonic language is entirely tonal, and the overall style is decidedly Romantic. In that regard, the entire set owes a considerable debt to the exquisite miniature preludes of Francisco Tarrega.
The presentation here is by key, progressing chromatically from E major and e minor to E flat major and d sharp minor. This is not intended to impose or even to suggest a performance order. Anyone wishing to play the set - or any subgroup - would surely want to customize the selection and the order.
David Grimes, 2007
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