Incantation and Rain

"This music is in four parts, and in the absence of performance notes, it's partly my supposition that it sounds more effective with a large number of guitars playing it and partly that Guitars One and Three have a few bars marked 'divisi'. Said bars could, at least after a fashion, be managed on one instrument or simply thirmed back to one note at a time. Although the opening Incantation looks quite simple on the page it will require a good conductor or players of confident technique in order to hold their rhythm true in the face of other notes from other players at other times, especially when playing from partscores that conceal the other lines of music. That task is made a little harder by the irregular timing at the start. Although marked 'stately', it is almost free form and there are three voices that enter one at a time, underpinned by swept chords from Guitar Four. Each part is handsomely decorated and there is some sensitively written imitation as each part enters. Well, there endeth the incantation, and now the rain. Here the form is much more tightly structured and the rhythmic issues are nothing more complex than one line playing triplets against another playing duplets. There's a harmonic in bar 50 that I don't see how to play - I get a B not an A - curious. The Rain section is a lovely mix of volumes and textures, from harmonics to loud chords, pretty much all the time supported by triplets using notes on different strings so that the music overflows onto itself - almost a cross-string trill in slow motion. Some gentle tambor chords change the texture yet again. There is a sudden crescendo followed by a bar's rest, with a pause mark. The final four bars including brushing the strings and a little rhythmic reprise of the opening Incantation. This is nicely orchestrated, and the typesetting is clear and free from page-turns. As I've noted, I think the Incantation will be harder to 'lock together' so that although technically, it looks about Grade 5-6, I suspect a little more experience in the players would make the piece more successful in rehearsal. "

Derek Hasted (Classical Guitar Magazine)