Since at least their formative recording on Julian Bream’s LP 20th Century Guitar (1967), Hans Werner Henze’s Drei Tentos have been recognised as a central constituent in the canon of contemporary music for solo guitar. When dealing with the compositions, however, there often occurs a certain disregard for the fact that in terms of their genesis and structure they are situated within a complex network: of others of Henze’s compositions (Der sechste Gesang, Maratona, Neapolitan Songs, and Kammermusik 1958, in which the Tentos are embedded), of their respective semantics and of Henze’s personal acquaintances who are linked to them (Ernst Schnabel, Luchino Visconti, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten, Julian Bream). The book asks how to deal with these references, after the legitimacy of a guitar-typical isolation of the Tentos as an independent work cycle and whether and how a disentangling of Henze’s networks influences the listening to, the playing and an »understanding« of his music: whether it is indispensable, or at all desirable.
