Deux chansons Sépharades

“The first of these two contrasting songs Durme, Durme is composed as a lament in a traditional Spanish style. He adds interest to the single line accompaniment, by constantly changing the time signatures, and by using different rhythm patterns. The way it is written suggests a certain amount of flexibility in interpretation but, the singer would have to lead confidently and the guitarist would have to follow. In this duet the success of each part is dependent on a strong interaction between vocalist and player. The second song Rahel creates a different mood, and is longer with more verses. It is bright and cheerful in content, and composed in a familiar folk song genre. He adds extra colour to the accompaniment by his extensive use of harmonics. Interestingly, he doesn’t give any metronome markings or tempo indications in either song, and the fingering is left to the individual. Again he likes to rework some of his musical ideas, and this helps to make the guitar part sound fluent. What are the songs about? Strangely nowhere in the music does it say that the songs are in Spanish, or from what region they come, more information on the subject would have been helpful. No translation is included, so you would have to find out this information for yourself. The music is clearly printed and spaciously laid out, and the cover has the same portrait of Dusan Bogdanovic in sepia as appears in other publications. His biography is included at the beginning of the book, and gives a detailed account of his artistic achievements to date. The second song is around grade 3 for the singer and grade 4 for the guitarist. The first song is harder and is around grade 5 for both singer and guitarist. They are composed in a medium voice range. Dusan Bogdanovic has a very good understanding of what works for guitar and voice, and his music is always interesting to listen to.” Sandra Hambleton Smith (Classical Guitar Magazine)