Milcho Leviev : Arr Dusan Bogdanovic
Les Productions D’Oz: 8 pages
There is a little bit of guesswork going on here, because the music says the work is composed by Milcho Leviev, and arranged by Dusan Bogdanovic, and the front cover says composed by Bogdanovic. Not only that, there is another version of this piece by the same publisher for 2 guitars that IS headed on the front sheet as written by Leviev. Anyway, Leviev was a Bulgarian pianist and so I am gathering that it has been arranged by Bogdanovic, here for guitar solo. The other confusing fact is that the arranger’s YouTube recording is quite different from the score as presented here, so he must have had at least two goes at the arrangement!
The sheet music here begins with an very fast combination of a number of different groups of semi – quavers and demi – semi- quavers , sometimes in quintuplets, and septuplets and written in 5/4, 2/4, and 6/4.The Ad Libitum marking that covers this first page still makes this opening a complex and very technical start to this piece. After a momentary pause, the main theme enters at 98 crotchets a minute in 5/8 time with a very swift three note pull- off as one of the characteristics of the melody that although written in D Major, does have a very folk – like set of harmonies with various accidentals written in that help to bring that folk – like sound to the fore. It is largely in two voices with the occasional chord of three notes at the beginning of a number of the bars. It stays very much in the first few frets and there is no bar – work involved, but the speed and complexity of the note turns and the voice work does not make this easy by any stretch. There are a number of guitaristic techniques such as note bends here and there, and the piece is constantly on the move and so the player needs to be very good indeed to make this piece sound as it should. It closes on a sudden ponticello marking and a final sforzando open D chord.
If your technique is able to cope with the constant flow of very small notes from the start to the finish, then he piece itself is lots of fun, and with that folk – like tinge to the harmonies, an attractive piece to try out.
Chris Dumigan
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