Easy music for 4 guitars - Les saisons japonaises, vol. 4 (Japon)

This serie has been conceived for the guitarists of beginner to intermediate levels. An essential teaching tool!

Octobre is just 32 bars long in 2/2 time, but that's enough time for the composer to produce some satisfyingly rich harmonies to underpin the little motifs that are echoed from part to part. The mood is contemplative, and seldom is more than one part busy over the sustained chords. Major sevenths that percolate through the piece are far from jazzy - they bring an unusual poignancy that is striking, given the simplicity of the piece. The brief excursions out of the first position are fingered and there is plenty of time to get from one position to another. making it rather a nice piece to introduce a hint of high positions and their glorious tone to novices. The generous dynamics make the overall phrasing easy to realise.
Novembre brings a greater contrast that adjacent months do in the calendar, commencing in E min or and moving to E, returning to E minor then reprising the major section. This has a much more Japanese feel than many of the other pieces in the collection, and would form a lovely contrast in a programme of intermediate pieces.
And so to the end of the calendar and the end of four neat little books... Let's cut to the chase Decembre is a frantic piece, a chase indeed. But it's all thoughtfully laid out so that most of the fast alliterations are all on the same string. Although discordant, there is a raw energy here that carries the piece, and the frequent jumps in pitch mean that the discords bring an excitement rather than an ear-battering.
It's not, if l'm honest, quite as «Japanesy« as my western ear was looking forward to sampling, but it's still very much a fresh contrast to the «stock patterns« that sometimes permeate less-complex ensemble music.
Derek Hasted (Classical Guitar Magazine)