Arnaud Dumond
Les Productions D’Oz : 14 pages
This book of 12 easy studies is part of a three book set that ranges up to difficult pieces by the end. The first thing you notice is how varied the genres and techniques are that he uses and that even the ‘easy’ pieces, presented in this book, are all very interesting and lots of fun to play, whilst they are teaching the players a technique.
So, the opening piece is Blues Kebab y Danza and is in two brief sections , Blues and Danza, the first of which is in solo notes in 3/8 time and has a number of offbeat accents that crop up in numerous places whilst you play the piece , not always in the obvious places either.This then links into the Danza, where the melody line crosses from 3 / 4 to 5/8 and has occasional bass notes that again are not always where you expect them to be.
Rag Retord Pour Rota doffs its musical cap to Nina Rota, the famous film composer and is again a Blues, but completely different from the foregoing piece, And incidentally from now on you notice a few lines of description and explanation at the bottom of every piece that explain the things you might want to know. This blues is in two voices and does move around a fair bit more than the one before.
Oiseaux de Soir is a Nocturne in three mysterious voices where everything is meant to be very quiet indeed, and is full of bird calls and a number of instructions that make this not as easy as you might think at first!
La Patineuse is marked to be played sadly but also to have a forward momentum, which does give it a certain character.
Valse Slave has the occasional harmonic crunch that gives this piece a certain feel that is quite involving.
The Deux Chansons Melees are two very short but amusingly done little pieces, both in two voices, and in both cases using two well – known songs on top of one another, and so the first little piece has a top voice of J’ai Du Bon Tabac, whilst a second one of Ah! Vous dirai – je Maman , otherwise known as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, wilst the second piece has a top voice of Au Clair de la Lune, and a lower voice of Il Etait Trois Petits Enfants. These are short but lots of fun to try.
Piccola Passacaglia is a one page piece with the same bass line of 4 bars, but then varied in the top voice with a number of different note lengths to keep you on your toes. Thinking of You is in the Travis – picking style, which in a way is the sort of sound one gets when playing Ralph McTell’s Streets of London. It is split into two voices that do jump around a bit, and requires the player to play all the bass notes with the R.H. thumb.
Deux Blues de Travail, nos 9 and 10, are firstly Huguette the Blues and is full of dotted rhythms alternating bass notes and higher chords of mostly two notes, whilst the second Blues de Vache has a page full of pizzic ato basses, note bends, and plenty of hammer – ons, and pull – offs to keep you busy.
La Poupee Malade (On an idea of Tchaikovski) is marked Tenderly, but has a number of slightly odd harmonic moments , that had me wondering which Tchaikovsky piece it was referring to, because although I know a lot of his works , I couldn’t figure it out! Nevertheless, it has a number of leaps and bounds and a few unexpected harmonies that do keep you busy!
The final piece, Samba Edeo (on an idea of Baden Powell) is in semi – quavers , and occasional quavers in two voices and is a great conclusion to a book of very involving pieces that had me wanting to see the other two books ! Definitely a book that although marked ‘easy’ is both fun to play, but will also give the player a lot of instruction while it is played.
Chris Dumigan
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