Nelly Decamp
Editions L’Empreinte Melodique : 14 pages
Nelly is a well – known guitarist whose music crosses the borders from classical to jazz whilst taking in many other styles along the way. She is a wonderful player as any viewing of her YouTube items or a listen to her CD 24 Aout, which has this full work on it, will show you.
This latest piece is in three movements, and at 11 plus minutes is a substantial item, although you have to be a really good player to get the most out of this.
The opening movement begins with a free but very fast moving set of ideas that are full of very small notes and that dance and run around the fretboard in a most imaginative way. The jazz elements are immediately obvious, as nearly all the chords, whether arpeggiated or not are full of very exotic harmonies. Then after a brief pause a very fast Latin/jazz based idea begins which again is arpeggio based, but which places the fingers in some very unexpected shapes along the way and which then turns into a Rumba that dominates this part. Complete usage of the entire fretboard , with sometimes four – note chords above fret 12, are prevalent here, and the almost continuous use of semi – quavers tells you , at 120 crotchets a minute just how fast this section moves.
The second movement is quite the opposite. It is entirely made up of four note block chords that move in crotchets, with the piece marked Legato, avec Serenite, and the easiest section of the entire piece.
Then the final movement begins, initially a two – pager with another Libre marking, as in the first .Again the notes fly around the guitar interspersed with some exotically harmonized chords, before pausing on a long D#, and then the last section marked Theme de Louis which is perhaps where the whole piece has been leading up to. Still very Latin/jazz based in style it mixes a warm two, and sometimes three voiced theme with occasional bursts of the off – beat jazz chords that relate back to the previous sections before a final return to the opening theme, and a gradual fading away of the music lead to a coda where just some bare harmonics remain.
This is an adventurous piece, full of wonderful writing and very individual portions that really show the player how much this writer has to offer in her pieces. But beware! It is far from easy but still a great and beautifully styled piece of writing!
Chris Dumigan
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