Romuald Erenc
Bergmann Edition: 6 pages
Polish player/composer Romuald Erenc has written this piece as a tribute to what he describes in the Preface as the ‘normal Iraqis suffering during the time of war, and who don’t have any influence on political issues’.
It immediately has that sound one might associate with Arabian melodies and harmonies, and begins with a mixture of 6/8 and 2/4 playing a campanella style of writing where an open 1st string continues whilst a melody line usually on strings 2 and 3 weaves itself around the open E. Then the melody repeats, now with harmonised 6ths as it moves around the open E, before you enter a passage where that open E is also played on strings 2 and 3 in an arpeggiated fashion, with the lower octave Es underpin this. Having spent a lot of time around the E, things suddenly change and we find ourselves firstly in G, and then in Eb without any obvious modulation, so it is quite unexpected. A move through D, to C#m, to C, then brings us back to a return to E, and a repeat of the opening section. A new section marked Grave Religioso takes the player through arpeggiated octaves to a gentle moment of arpeggiation (That actually reminded me of a study of Fernando Sor’s) and then to another repeating note section but this time harmonised by a lower 2nd and 3rd, until the opening idea makes one more entrance before finally ending on the repeated Es and a quite unexpected stop on a pair of E octaves.
This was a nicely written piece, and which does give the player a moment’s pause when confronted with the campanella style, but after getting to grips with that, the piece develops into a swiftly moving work that is effective in every way.
Chris Dumigan
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