Ken Murray
Les Productions D’Oz : Score and separate parts : 10, 7, and 7 pages respectively
This piece is a tribute to Baden Powell, and you find that out in the music from bar 1, because the piece is immediately full of cross – rhythms, and although written as 6/8 has many moments where the music looks like 3 / 4 too.
The piece begins on guitar 2 with a pizzicato bass line melody full of these cross rhythms , before Guitar 1 enters with firstly some pizzicato chords ( the second guitar’s thematic bass line is now not pizzicato) after which the 1st guitar plays a three note arpeggio idea that changes with the harmonies whilst guitar 2 continues with the bass theme. Then at bar 25, the bass theme ends and the part files around the higher register whilst guitar one continues as before. This group of ideas carries on for a considerable time, always mutating into something a little different from before, and often having one guitar in 6/8 and the other in 3 / 4 after a little while you realise that several of the particular ideas come back, but often in a different order, and so one ends up with 4 or 5 ideas that you recognise.
The piece continues for 242 bars and is quite a considerable length but always interesting, both thematically and harmonically. The players have to be quite decent guitarists, because of all the rhythmic changes and contradictions between the two of them, but this actually is a lot of fun, and I can definitely recommend it as one that will be enjoyed by many.
Chris Dumigan
Commenti