Giacomo Susani
Doberman – Yppan: 15 pages
The four movements of this latest piece by Susani are very varied, and all have a great deal of imaginative writing, being both highly unexpected in much of its fingerings and musical sounds, but also very emotional too.
The opening movement is subtitled Familiar Dreams, and spends much of its time scurrying around the fingerboard in highly unusual combinations, that are very effective in their harmonies. Indeed nothing is what you might expect, although none of the music is so modern that it is atonal, far from it, it is just like nothing you have heard or played before. It has multiple time signatures although in an almost constant rush around the guitar, and mostly in semi – quavers .So we have 3 /4, 2/4, 5/8, 9/8, 7/8, 5/4, 4/4, 8/8, and 6/8, all in 64 bars of music.
The second movement Arioso, is very slow, and full of unexpected harmonic details. There are many chords, but never where you might expect, or in the usual combinations. It is almost eerie in its emotive qualities.
The Aria that follows is slightly faster at Andante Liberamente and again has much variety in its writing, and moves along a fair deal faster than the previous movement, although the speed changes a few times here. At the end a very mysterious repetitive motto leads directly into the final movement Cypresses which is an Allegro Giocoso constant rush of semi-quaver triplets and sextuplets that hurtle relentlessly around the strings that is a really exciting but very difficult piece that really tasks players to the ultimate. The whole piece finishes with a run up the fingerboard, without a ritard and a final three note chord of harmonics, destined to get an audience cheering at all the excitement.
This is a great piece of music, very difficult to play, but well worth the effort, should anyone feel they are up to it!
Chris Dumigan
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