The Last Waltz in Boston for Guitar solo by John Gordon Armstrong Commissioned by William Beauvais with the generous support of the Ontario Arts Council FQ oce iJohn Gordon Armstrong John Armstrong, born in Toronto in 1952, studied composition at the University of Toronto, the University of Michigan in the U.S.A. and the Ecole d'arts Américains in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. He has won prizes in both the William St. Clair Lowe and Sir Ernest MacMillan competitions sponsored by Composers, Authors and Publishers Association of Canada and has received commissions from the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, Alberta Culture and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. His work has been performed and broadcast in both Canada and the U.S.A. His principal interest is in the writing of chamber music, with a special focus on the guitar and the voice. His style ranges from the lyric and expressive (Songs for Lyra, Wind-Earth-Sea, Circles End ) to the ironic (An die Musik II, The Last Waltz in Boston ) to the more abstract (Ghosts, Abstracts ). Having taught theory and composition at the University of Western Ontario, Queen’s University, McMaster University and the University of Alberta, he is currently and Associate of the Music Department at Harvard University and a part-time teacher at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. The Last Waltz in Boston The Last Waltz in Boston was written for my friend William Beauvais, with the support of the Ontario Arts Council. It is a free set of variations and "tropes" on an original waltz in the style of Chopin. The waltz gradually emerges over the course of the piece but is. never fully achieved. At the end of the piece, the waltz theme is shrouded by its own first variation. This is not necessarily a metaphor.The Last Waltz in Boston d John Gordon Armstrong = 160 Dark, evocative (1988) pizz. rr ord. Jet all notes ring % te is i. — — > pmi pmipmpmpimpimpimpmi pmi pp 000 @ ——_—_—__—__—_ x12 pizz. ord. at pp i ote @3 mf dim... palm 300 l. uae a stow (e250) ib—S mani _ejd— oy" oe of—_ Of on pmi Peary, P 000 9 oO (accel. e cresc.) ——— tempo @ 00 00 : 2| 3 pomipami S dim... Occ.” a Copyright © 1988 byJohn Gordon Armstrong