Lament and Dance
Vojislav Ivanovic
Doberman – Yppan : 12 pages
The man who gave us the Pieces de Café to great acclaim now has produced this two movement tour – de –force which receives a fine performance on YouTube from its dedicatee Sanel Redzic.
In the opening Lament the composer’s individuality of thought shows itself right from the very first notes. It beings on a solo line with an Eastern European sounding flow of notes that is then starkly harmonized , and then reaches a pause on an indefinite chord. A second attempt then leads us into three voices and some very fast trilled notes and to some harmonics that sound very church –like in their chiming. A new section heralds in a very precise but complex set of voices wherein their individual rhythms are at odds with each other. It is quite a feat of writing, but if you refer to the recording on YouTube, Redzic brings it our wonderfully. This longer section eventually dies away to more bell sounds and then straight into the Dance, an Allegro quasi Presto in 9/8, which has every grouping of notes imaginable except the three groups of three eighth notes you might be expecting. Again the music sounds very much like his homeland’s folk music and indeed there are a number of bars of 10/8, 7/8, 5/8, and 11/8 just to keep you on your toes. Numerous sorts of tambora occur here, and large amounts of strumming too. An exciting close brings to an end a virtuosic piece that only brilliant players will be able to approach successfully.
Chris Dumigan
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