Eugene den Hoed
Les Productions D’Oz: 31 pages
This Dutch composer’s music is always engaging, tonal, and yet unusually so, very varied in style, and yet very playable in a way that immediately makes you recognize it as his work.
This latest set of 13 pieces is every bit as varied as the many other works of his that I have seen.
So here you have a Waltz for H.V.L. marked Con Moto, with a key of Em and moments when Villa Lobos’ style really emerges, as in the moving diminished chords that slide up and down the fingerboard and the melody in the bass underneath an open Em chord, to name but two.
Mellow Changes is a kind of a variation piece where the opening block chords are gradually varied as the piece carries on.
Then there is a Rondo Sequenza, an Allegro full of dancing semi- quavers, and occasionally demi – semi – quavers , followed by a Burlesquiosa, marked Lightly but cavorting around in a most ear – catching way .
The 5th piece is a Prelude for the Universe that moves around in a continuous run of semi – quavers in two voices followed by a 7/8 Con Moto, called Not That Unusual that does task the player’s fingers and immediate sight reading facility , more than most!
River Plate Groove is an attractive two voiced Vivace set in Am that in spite of the ease of its flow, manages to sound completely fresh throughout, whilst Like A Folky, set in D , speaks for itself, in the manner of its harmonies.
The other 5 are every bit as diverse and interesting to play, and as a set this latest volume is fully up to his usual standard, and with most of the pieces being intermediate, I would fully expect that lovers of this man’s style will jump at the chance of a new book of pieces by him . Recommended!
Chris Dumigan
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