Two works by Thierry Tisserand
1) Comme un Regret /Drole de Blues for two guitars
2) Spleen Songs Vol2 for solo guitar
Les Productions D’Oz: Score and separate parts (8, 4, and 4 pages respectively) and 11 pages
Reviewed 12th March 2017
Tisserand’s music immediately grabs the player with its immediacy ,whilst not being predictable , and yet is often wide – ranging in styles , doing plenty of musical border – crossing along the way .I have seen many of his works and have yet to find anything substandard.
The pair of duet pieces is aimed at the talented player, but not really for the beginners. Comme Un Regret has a Milonga rhythmed accompaniment in eighth notes and a melody line tinged with sadness. Both players get the chance to swap parts in the middle, and whereas nothing is too difficult, it is not very easy either, owing to the occasional higher positions. Drole de Blues is plenty of fun. You play straight eighths in the first part and then swing them in the next .There are many opportunities to ham up the glissandi, and the offbeat seventh and ninth chords and the piece ends with a return to the opening section and a pianissimo coda.
Spleen Songs Volume 2 , consists of five short immediate works all emotive in content and quite varied from piece to piece, from the opening Quand Il Neige , a rocking two note motif underpinning a sad little melody, to Saudade, of course with Latin overtones, and to Vendredi 13 , with its stamping bass and syncopated triad melody line above.
As usual, this French composer has written works that are fun to play, never boring and hackneyed, and full of great melodies and harmonies.
Chris Dumigan
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