The Ottawa Guitar Trio: Three Voices, One Instrument

Chamber music for guitar is one of those ideas that takes a moment to settle in. We are so accustomed to thinking of the guitar as a solo instrument, or as part of a larger ensemble in a supporting role, that the idea of multiple guitars sharing a stage as equal conversational partners can seem almost counterintuitive. The Ottawa Guitar Trio, featured in Vol. 01 No. 03 of MusiCurate, is a compelling argument for why that counterintuition is worth overcoming.

The Challenges of Guitar Ensemble

Playing in a guitar trio is a genuinely different skill set from solo performance. The challenges begin with the purely physical: three guitars in the same room can create intonation issues, balance problems, and a kind of acoustic crowding where the frequencies of the instruments compete rather than complement. Addressing these challenges requires the kind of ensemble sensitivity that is usually associated with string quartets or wind quintets, musicians who have spent years learning to listen across the group and adjust in real time. For the Ottawa Guitar Trio, developing that ensemble awareness has been a sustained project, one that requires not just individual technical mastery but a collective musical intelligence that only grows through extensive rehearsal and performance together.

Repertoire and the Question of Arrangement

One of the interesting practical realities of being a guitar trio is that the original repertoire for that specific combination is relatively limited. Unlike the string quartet, which has centuries of dedicated literature, the guitar trio must draw on arrangements of works written for other combinations as well as the original works that contemporary composers have contributed to the form. This situation is not unique to the guitar world; many chamber combinations face similar constraints, but it does create interesting creative opportunities. The ensemble that arranges thoughtfully, that selects its transcriptions with care and performs them with conviction, can make a strong case for why the combination deserves to be heard on its own terms. As discussed in Vol. 01 No. 03, the Ottawa Guitar Trio approaches this dimension of their work with seriousness and creativity.

The Social Architecture of Trio Playing

There is something worth saying about the human dimension of sustaining a chamber ensemble over time. The relationships between the players in a trio, the working dynamics, the communication styles, the shared musical values, are as important to the ensemble's success as any individual technical factor. Musicians who play together consistently develop a kind of shorthand, a shared vocabulary of gestures and responses that allows them to navigate both the rehearsal room and the stage more efficiently and more organically. Building and maintaining that kind of relationship requires ongoing investment, not just in the music but in the ensemble as a community. The Ottawa Guitar Trio represents that kind of sustained investment, and it shows in the quality of their communication as performers.

What Ensemble Playing Teaches

For guitarists who have worked primarily as soloists, the experience of playing in an ensemble is often revelatory. You discover that you have habits, rhythmic tendencies, slightly idiosyncratic ways of phrasing, that you were not even aware of as a solo player. The group holds up a mirror. But more than that, ensemble playing teaches a kind of generosity that soloing does not demand in the same way. You must subordinate your sound to the group's sound, your timing to the group's timing, your interpretation to the shared interpretation that emerges through collective discussion and refinement. That generosity, when it becomes a genuine habit of mind, makes every musician, even the solo performer, more responsive and more alive.

The Ottawa Guitar Trio offers a vision of what the guitar sounds like when it steps outside its solitary habits and enters into genuine conversation with itself. It is a sound worth seeking out.

Listen

Hear three voices in conversation: the trio performs J.K. Mertz's Tarantella, arranged by member François Lacelle.

The full feature on the Ottawa Guitar Trio appears in Vol. 01 No. 03 of MusiCurate, available as a single issue. If ensemble guitar and the wider world of classical guitar performance interest you, a subscription puts you right at the centre of that conversation: musicurate.com/products/magazine-subscription.