Eugenio Catina
Da Vinci Edition : Score and separate parts ( 8, 4, and 4, pages respectively)
This is the first of two pieces for flute And guitar by this Italian composer and it was written in 2013 .It is marked Sereno , con vitalita, and that really does describe how the music sounds, for it is beautiful, in its grace and serenity, and yet moves considerably the entire length of the piece.
It is set in Em in 6/8 and both players have to be very good from the outset, although the guitar does have some interesting and diverse patterns whilst it is accompanying the flautist with lots of carefully fingered parts to help out. The thing you first notice is that the writing is not at all derivative of anything you may have seen before, for it is complex, yet melodic, and always has an unexpected note or harmony that you don’t expect. It isn’t very long before the guitar is playing three parts, the top in long notes, and parts 2 and 3 in a mixture of straight quavers and duplets, which is fine when you get used to it, but initially quite tricky to handle. Meanwhile the flute has a beautiful melody that is constantly flowing up and down again in a mixture of straight quavers and duplet quavers.
There is hardly any let – up , for its ever – moving flow of music continues throughout ending after 100 bars on a loud Em .This was a nice piece, ideal for a good duo , who want to try something melodic , but different to the norm, and I can thoroughly recommend it as a piece to get to know better.
Chris Dumigan
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