The Mantis and the Moon, Phillip Houghton - Contra Guitar Duo

The first of Phillip Houghton’s ’Three Duets’ for guitar duo. “Written in 1976, and in two continuous sections, The Mantis and the Moon could be a kind of existential ’Insect/Lunar Comic-Tragedy of Whimsical Proportions’! A short frenetic Scherzo depicts the life of a praying mantis, especially in its incredible movements of swaying around then darting off. The more extended Largo depicts its death in which I imagined the dying mantis ’seeing’ the moon and dreaming for the first time, before slowly curling up (represented by the slowly played tremolo fade-out) and all is still.“ - Phillip Houghton, 1994 Recorded in Friedberg in March 2019 Video and Audio: Jakob Schmidt Guitars: Lance Litchfield (Emma-Shay) and Jayson Elazzi (Hamish) Guitar Supports: Guitarlift