Larry Cooperman
Les Productions D’Oz: 8 pages
This latest work by the Savannah, Georgia born composer/performer was inspired by the novel Being There by Jerzy Kosinski who receives the dedication on the score, and the piece was inspired by the flow of water , the many fountains in Savannah, and the childish belief that if you run fast you could walk on the water.
The opening is slow with the score allowing you to take as much time as you like and create maximum sustain so as to add to the atmosphere. The score has a requirement for string 6 to be a low C, which might give the players some problems as my guitar for one, does not like being that low and I had several moments when it had to be retuned! These opening 40 bars are almost Debussyan in their harmonies and there are as number of areas where you really have to stop and work out exactly where the various notes go, but the effort required is worth it as it is a very beautiful and utterly unusual opening .At bar 41 an Allegro con Brio of an almost consistent flow of 12 semi – quavers to the bar takes over that relies heavily on re- entrant tunings where open strings clash amongst other fretted notes in between, giving the music an almost dreamy quality So the main factor of this section which takes you right up to the end at bar 121 is that you have to be very secure in you right hand placements as it is extremely tricky to work through and yet is a beautiful resulting sound when achieved.
So this piece is definitely only for the advanced players amongst you, and yet is a beautiful and original work that needs to be played. That said, take no notice of the only performance I could find on YouTube where the player’s performance bears absolutely no resemblance to the piece I was looking at, which meant that they had a previous version of the piece that Cooperman subsequently changed, or they didn’t play it as written! But whatever the reason behind it, this piece is a most enjoyable work that will give the decent players amongst you a lot of work, but which will in the end be worth it
Chris Dumigan
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