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Alexei Alexandrovich Agibalov was born in Tashkent in 1940. He
began studying the guitar at a young age, using the methods by Alexander
Ivanov-Kramskoi for the six-string guitar and by Vladimir Sazonov for the
Russian seven-string guitar. He received his first lessons from a Western
guitarist during the 1963 concert tour in Tashkent of the Argentinian guitarist
Manuel Lopez Ramos. That experience has convinced him to seek formal musical
education, and in the same year, he enrolled in the Gnesin State Musical College
in Moscow, working under the tutelage of the well known teacher of the
seven-string guitar Lev Menro. He graduated in 1969. Shortly after graduation he
was appointed as a professor of guitar and music theory at the Music College in
Frunze (today Byshkek, Kyrgyzstan) where he still lives today. During the
1970s-80s, Agibalov concertized extensively in many Soviet cities such as
Kharkov, Rostov-on-Don, Moscow, Krasnoyarsk, Volgograd, Ekaterinburg. He
recorded two long-playing records for the Soviet record label Melodiya in
1987-89. In addition to being a seven-string virtuoso, Agibalov is one of the
very few artists on the territory of the former Soviet Union, searching for new
modes of expression for the Russian guitar. He composed a large number of
compositions for this instrument including 5 concerti for guitar and orchestra,
3 full scales sonatas, 5 Inventions which explore the polyphonic resources of
the instrument, many chamber music pieces, guitar duos and many Etudes. Much of
his music is based on Kyrgyz folk themes, evoking the cultural dichotomies faced
by Russian artists finding themselves in a Diaspora that was created by the fall
of the Soviet Union.
Besides his musical activities Alexei Agibalov is also a
talented jewelry designer and an artist working in the field of metal hammering,
creating interesting bas-relief images based on Kyrgyz imagery, as well as
Russian folk tales and religious themes. His jewelry and art is exhibited in
many museums world wide. The three pieces included in this volume, were composed
in the late 1970s, and they were revised and updated by the composer for this
edition, the first publication of Agibalov’s music in the West. The fingering
offered by the composer is based on the G open tuning of the Russian
seven-string guitar which is as follows:
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