Sylvain Lemay
Les Productions D’Oz: 7 pages
In 1986 Sylvain Lemay founded this publishing house Les Productions D’Oz, and here he is 26 years later with one of his own pieces, and the first I have actually seen.
This begins with a flowing 6/8 in D minor with a dropped D 6th , and is largely split into three constant voices , the bass line, the middle voice which is usually an arpeggio pattern that moves around constantly, and the melody above it. There could of course be a danger that everything might sound the same throughout, as when a pattern is established it is easy to just stick to it and have little variance, but not here. The first thing you realize is that Sylvain Lemay moves the melody and the harmonies around so that you are never caught in a pattern which you cannot see your way out of. The voices are consistently moving, and the melody and harmonies too, so that the interest factor in the piece is high throughout and nothing too obvious throughout its journey. The piece turns then to 4/4 and a new tranquillo rubato section that then moves again into a Piu Mosso idea in 3/ 4 that moves all over the fingerboard, with an interesting set of melodic ideas, before a rallentando, finally section reverts to the opening speed and a variant of the melody. This proves to quite short in this final part, and then goes straight into the coda for a final Dm chord, and the end of what is an friendly, emotive and beautiful piece of writing, and something that is not too difficult, and therefore would please a lot of players who like their guitar music warm and likeable.
Chris Dumigan
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