Dusan Bogdanovic (arranged by Goi Ywei Chern)
Doberman – Yppan: Score and separate parts (10, 3, and 4 pages respectively)
I wondered why this piece with its title had a cover of a very sad looking frog, until I went looking for a recording of it on YouTube, only to find it was originally a piece for two guitars called No Feathers on This Frog, and that Goi Ywei Chern was the player who arranged it for Flute and Guitar as published here. The two guitar arrangements, also published by Doberman – Yppan is called by its full title , by the way!
The actual music is in a quirky 9/8 , with an occasional 5/8 bar and begins with a kind of motto theme on the guitar of a phrase that rises a fourth before falling back down again before being repeated and gradually adapted in future bars. When the flute enters at bar 5 , it has the same motto phrase but harmonised a third higher until letter A (Bar 11) where the flute begins an octave higher than the guitar, that now is inserting a number of golpes in between his motto to add to the quirkiness. At letter B , the guitar now has a solo full of bend notes whilst the flute has a staccato run up and down. This continues for a while gradually getting more accented and loud, which in turn leads to letter C, a new idea with some remnants of what has gone before, and then to letter D and E before a D.C. al Coda takes us back to the opening and then to a coda with an accelerando leading to a fortissimo final pair of Gs and a snap on the guitar.
This is far from easy but is entertaining and full of superb ideas that players will enjoy trying.
Chris Dumigan
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