Simon Farintosh
Bergmann Edition: 2 pages
This piece by Canadian guitarist Farintosh is written for an 8 –stringed instrument, with a 7th string at C#, and an 8th at an A , an octave below the 5th, and the music is not set up in such a way that the normal 6 stringed instrument can play from this sheet music, so beware.
Like his other piece I reviewed elsewhere, the piece is slow, often almost freely rhythmed, and with a large amount of unusually voiced chords throughout the piece making for some very tricky moments. It is however beautiful sounding throughout, with many juxtapositions of chords that normally you would not consider putting one after another. That comment also goes for the melody which is very spaced out, and almost sounding at times like the soundtrack for a film or a TV documentary. The actual musical harmony is modern – friendly but with many large hand positions required to play this successfully, you need to be a very good player, but with the right instrument, and a good technique, this piece sounds quite unlike anything else you might have heard before, and as such I can say that it really does enter into musical territories that are quite different to most others. Again, there is a very useful YouTube performance by Farintosh for any interested players to listen to and watch, to consider whether to buy the music.
Chris Dumigan
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