Vampyr!

Weekend:
How some of Woodstock’s most famous Rock idols
may have influenced Murail’s Vampyr!

Ryan w Garvey
Nov 2020
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Introduction
“I don’t know much about it [rock music] and I’m afraid I don’t like it

very much, but I’m interested by a few aspects of it. Sometimes the sound itself is

very interesting… but of course the language of it is so simple.” – Tristan Murail,

BBC Radio 1

Although Murail claims that he is not much of a fan of Rock music, his interactions with

the Rock community speaks to an interesting relationship that he develops with his cycle Random

Access Memory. This cycle works through music for solo instruments including arguably the most

famous piece from it, Vampyr!, written for guitarist Claude Pavay at Angers Festival 1984 2. While

in Murail’s preface to the piece he states “The sought-after sound is that of the guitar solos of

Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton Etc.” where he follows up with "The musician must put in his

interpretation of Vampyr! all the energy of rock music, and that implies the right number of

decibels!” 3 While Tristan name drops some of the famous ‘Guitar Gods’ of the 70s such as

Santana and Clapton, I believe some of the source material might run a bit deeper in popular

music to include artists such as Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen. As Deleuze and Guattari

claim principles of connection and heterogeneity naturally rhizomes can be connected to

anything and must become connected through chains, so would it be impossible these

influences are also present 4? Through the rhizomatic 5 connection of Santana’s performance at

1 Music in our Time, BBC Radio 3, Oct 13 1988

2 “Ressources.ircam,” accessed November 29, 2020, http://brahms.ircam.fr/works/work/10719/.
3 T. Murail, Vampyr! pour guitare électrique, Paris: Henry Lemoine, 2004, 3.
4 Deleuze, Gilles, and Guattari Félix. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of

Minnesota Press, 1983. P.7

5 Deleuze states multiplicity through proliferation of rhizomatic connection. Meaning, Murail’s connection to Santana

could have proliferated to connect Murail to Woodstock and all other artists present.
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Woodstock 69’ I will discuss the possibility that the music from the festival’s documentary film

“Woodstock” might have influenced Murail’s Vampyr!.

Murail x Jimi

Probably one of the most famous recordings of the Star Spangled Banner would belong

to Jimi Hendrix’s performance at Woodstock 1989 6. This recording was made quite popular to

the public which included TV interviews and features in documentaries of Woodstock. Due to

the popularity, there are possibilities of rhizomatic connections which could connect Murail to

Jimi Hendrix. Although Jimi used this piece as a statement against the Vietnam War 7, it

implements many techniques present in the composition Vampyr! by Murail. I am not implying

that Murail used this piece as a political statement of any sorts, but I will draw parallels to

techniques present, See footnotes for recording 8.

At 00:01 Jimi starts his solo performance

of Star Spangled banner with this long glissando

Figure 1
up the guitar’s neck, he draws this motif out and uses this

as a developmental technique throughout his performance, similarly this technique is present in

Vampyr!, figure 1 9. Jimi uses this for a few seconds hits the note G and ends on a pitch around

E/Eb. In Vampyr!, Murail deploys a short burst of tremolo picked glissandi that moves up the

neck until it hits a double stop near the notes of Eb/D quarter flat. At 03:16 of Jimi’s recording

6 Woodstock, Woodstock Festival, 1970.

7 Cavett, Dick. “Jimi Hendrix.” Episode. The Dick Cavett Show. ABC, September 9, 1969.
8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKAwPA14Ni4
9 T. Murail, Vampyr! pour guitare électrique, Paris: Henry Lemoine, 2004, 7.
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another interesting parallel to this section occurs. Jimi starts to play between the notes E and

Eb, he then builds up a long drawn out vibrato on his tremolo bar on the note Eb that

eventually pulls out higher partials of the

guitar’s natural tuning and cancels out the

fundamental. In figure 2 10, Murail employs that

exact technique but with a bit more restraint,

Figure 2
however he does state to make the piece your

own in the performance notes 11. This motif theoretically could last if the performer decides

necessary to let the vibrato ring, theoretically you could achieve the same effect that Jimi plays at

03:16.

Murail x Jefferson Airplane

Out of the many artists who performed at Woodstock, only a select few were chosen to

be featured on the 1970 film “Woodstock”, included alongside Santana and Jimi would be one

of the most famous artists from the Summer of Love 12, Jefferson Airplane 13. Jefferson Airplane,

another anti-war hippie band from the 60’s San Francisco also could have provided influential

material in Murail’s Vampyr!, see footnotes for referential recording 14.

10
T. Murail, Vampyr! pour guitare électrique, Paris: Henry Lemoine, 2004, 7.
11
T. Murail, Vampyr! pour guitare électrique, Paris: Henry Lemoine, 2004, 3.
12
Patti Smith, “Jefferson Airplane Ushered Us Through the Summer of Love,” Medium (Cuepoint, December 23,
2016), https://medium.com/cuepoint/patti-smith-jefferson-airplane-ushered-us-through-the-summer-of-love-
614348cc7e46.
13 Woodstock, Woodstock Festival, 1970.
14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbWSlKALV0M
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At 03:34 of Jefferson Airplane’s rendition of Oran “Hot Lips” Page’s Uncle Sam’s Blues, I

discovered thematic material like what occurred in

Vampyr!, see figure 3 15. This ascending arpeggiated

phrase structure with wide vibrato on the final note Figure 3

occurs multiple times and in different iterations during Jefferson Airplanes performance which

at point even occurs during interruptions between the melody acting as a call and response.

Similarly, Murail deploys his use of arpeggios in different phrases and lengths ending on varied

final notes in which he instructs the performer to play with very wide vibrato.

Another example of similarities between Jefferson Airplane’s performance and Murail’s

Vampyr! occurs at 00:45 in the rhythm guitar stop time figure. The heavily distorted and almost

palm-muted timbre occurs as a main theme in Vampyr!. This technique does occur in Blues

music quite frequently, however Murail does state that he is not

much of a fan of rock and would naturally discover this timbre and

technique through guitarists and blues music. Through the said Figure 4

connection of Santana, through Jefferson Airplane there is a chance Murail stumbled upon the

inspiration for this thematic element.

Conclusion

In the performance notes of Vampyr! Murail cites, “Santana, etc.” as influential figures in the

formation of this work, this left me wondering who else could have informed this piece? After I

15
T. Murail, Vampyr! pour guitare électrique, Paris: Henry Lemoine, 2004, 6.
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started my research for this piece, I began to wonder who could have inspired him to compose a

rock guitar composition in addition to the artists he mentions. As stated in Murail’s BBC radio

interview, he was not the biggest fan of Rock and Roll music, but the thematic material that is

very rock guitar centered and very guitaristic in nature did not appear from thin air. Considering

one of his sources of inspiration was Carlos Santana, you could rhizomatically connect

important events in which Santana was a featured performer, this would include Woodstock.

What better place to discover how to write guitaristic music for a Rock inspired piece than

listening to one of the most famous festivals in Rock Music, Woodstock. Half of me hopes that

Murail was listening to “Woodstock” on his couch in France as he worked through writing this

piece.
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Bibliography

Music in our Time, BBC Radio 3, Oct 13 1988

“Ressources.ircam,” accessed November 10, 2020,http://brahms.ircam.fr/works/work/10719/.

T. Murail, Vampyr! pour guitare électrique, Paris: Henry Lemoine, 2004.

Deleuze, Gilles, and Guattari Félix. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1983. P.

Woodstock, film, Woodstock Festival, 1970.

Jimi Hendrix The Star Spangled Banner American Anthem Live at Woodstock 1969,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKAwPA14Ni4, 04:03; Sep 18th, 2014

Cavett, Dick. “Jimi Hendrix.” Episode. The Dick Cavett Show. ABC, September 9, 1969.

Patti Smith, “Jefferson Airplane Ushered Us Through the Summer of Love,” Medium
(Cuepoint, December 23, 2016), https://medium.com/cuepoint/patti-smith-jefferson-
airplane-ushered-us-through-the-summer-of-love-614348cc7e46.

Jefferson Airplane - Uncle Sam Blues at Woodstock HD,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbWSlKALV0M, 04:28; Oct 23rd, 2011