Dusan Bogdanovic
Doberman – Yppan: 7 pages
Yugoslavian – born Dusan Bogdanovic is a guitarist/ composer whose music I have seen many times before over the years and it is clear to all concerned that here is a talented writer whose music is completely individual to him, and rarely sounds like anybody else’s music.
This book is a set of three short (each of two pages) sad pieces that are all set with a 6th string tuned to D. The first thing that you spot when looking at the music is how complex the rhythms are, often with 2 or 3 lines of music where the rhythms of each voice lie across one another in some very complex situations. So the first piece, a Lento Rubato (Which is indeed what they all are), has multiple time signatures of 4/4, 5/4, 10/8, 3 /4, 11/8 and 9/8, (all in a total of just 13 bars). However then the music is initially a mixture of natural and harmonic notes with usually three voices that are in very complex rhythmic patterns, involving quintuplets, sextuplets and many cross – rhythm patterns also, making the discovery and actual playing of the notes in a correct rhythm a seriously difficult thing to do. Time and again the patterns are so diverse and unusual that they literally stopped me in my tracks, and I do consider myself a really quick reader.
The second piece is again free of a key signature this time is mostly written in semi –quavers and towards the end , in demi – semi –quavers , and is again just 13 bars of some of the most complex music I have ever seen. This time 3 / 4 , 9/8, 11/8, 7/8, 5/8, 2/4, 4/4,and 5/4 are the time signatures used here, and as before there are numerous cross rhythms involving two voices, together with quintuplets, sextuplets, and septuplets.
The final Lento Rubato, continues in the same vein as the previous 2 movements, this time with 15 bars of writing with 12 different time signatures, and 2 , (sometimes 3 ) voices with multiple cross rhythmic patterns that traverse the entire fingerboard.
This would require an extremely talented player to get anything out of this music, and although I am sure that it would sound fabulous in the hands of such a player, I wonder how many people can actually manage to get their hands around this piece, when it is so complex?
Chris Dumigan
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