Eugene Den Hoed
Les Productions D’Oz: 16 pages
I have known the works of Eugene Den Hoed for quite a number of years now, after I said some nice things about one of his piece in the now defunct magazine Classical Guitar that I reviewed for. We became Facebook friends and although we have never met, I have been an admirer of just about everything I have seen of his since, and this piece is no exception.
I actually know this piece from its previous publication, as a lot of the maestro’s music was published by Evocation Music, a company that is now defunct. So he sent the works to D’Oz, and the rest is history! They , of course had no idea that I had either previously seen this work , or that I had had dealings with the composer before, but that said I have rarely, if ever, found a composer whose style is so immediately recognizable, and yet at the same time so individual in its actual music.
The opening movement of this four – movement work Orientaciones, begins with a poco rubato introduction before the Allegretto set in E Major enters with the first proper theme. The first thing that you need to know about Eugene’s music is how well it fits under your fingers, and the second thing is although utterly tonal from start to finish, it is also completely unusual in its traversing from one melody idea to the next, because he manages to place notes and chords in such a way that you really have never come across anything like it before, except in his other compositions. The movement moves along with quite a few swift hammer-ons and in two or three voices , in 2/4 , 3 / 4 and 4/4 before turning suddenly into C Major where variants of the previous ideas in Emajor continue until a Piu Mosso mostly in 3/4 and set in A Major changes the feel slightly, as the restlessness of the previous bars, now calms down somewhat. Then another Piu Mosso in D Major with yet another theme suddenly reverts to the opening idea at the original tempo but now in D Major. A new triple metre section in A Major has elements of melodies before and it then has a return via a Dal Segno to some previous moments. At the coda the music which has variants of some material before eventually takes the player to a grandiose conclusion and a cheeky and sudden pizzicato final motif.
The second movement, Una Situacion Melancolica is in A Minor and relatively short in comparison to the first. Entirely in 3 /4 the same characteristics of utter playability and yet completely fresh ideas continues here. The fluidity of the various voices here is what sets it apart. The mainly two and sometimes three voices lead the piece to a sad conclusion of a final chord with As and a seemingly random G natural, something you don’t expect to see.
Danza Ritual is an Allegro in B Major with a middle section in the tonic minor and is in 6/8 and 9/8 mostly.There are some fast moving elements here all carefully fingered so that the player cannot misinterpret how to play it.
The final Conclusiones is a relentless Allegro Vivace set in E Major in 4/4, with occasional 6/4 and some hair – raising semi – quaver moments that are easier to play than they look on the page. A new section in G Major is a variation of the theme in E Major but takes it to new places before E returns before slowing down into a new 3 / 4 Moderato in E Minor. From there on the E major and G Major sections return with some variation going eventually into a momentary glissando up to a harmonic chord on the 12th fret, and a pause. Then a final risoluto bar made up of semi – quavers ending in a slam – bang final low E brings this Sonata to a final close.
This is a great piece from a man who has written dozens of works, some easy (deliberately so, and aimed at the modest player) to full – blown concert works like this one. I have now seen dozens of pieces by Eugene, and have yet to find one I didn’t like!
Chris Dumigan
Comments