Three Chilean Pieces

These pieces are dedicated to Clare Callahan in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Cincinnati Classical Guitar Workshop and they look good on the page - not too hard but intriguing nonetheless. The introductory notes are very welcome in explaining the pieces.
Refalosa, a dance with handkerchiefs and sliding of feet, is in A major in 6/8 time, though the centre section wanders into no sharps and sets guitar one playing two notes per bar against the others playing three notes per bar - great fun. Guitar one has the lion's share of the work, as-high as ninth position. and there is limited fingering. On the other hand, pardon the pun, the music sits well under the fingers and this is a rumbustious piece with a glorious set of harmonies, bright colourful, full of joy, with some playful rhythm patterns.
Entonatión represents poetry sung in free time and married up with an improvised accompaniment. The pace is slow and free. It's a gloriously lazy and almost formless journey through the music, with lovely episodes of activity and then calm. .
Cueca, the national dance of Chile, represents courtship between man and woman, and opens with a pizzicato bass line in 6/8, again in A, that wonderfully vibrant and colourful key. There are some challenging off-beat scales (why do guitarists find playing on the off-beat harder than other instrumentalists?), easy on the fingers but tough to get tight in step. But then, once the overall, sound is solid it becomes easier to add the decorative cross-rhythms. There's the most amazing wall of sound, eighteen notes at once and some glorious punchy chords and just a little strumming to heighten the excitement further.
This is colourful writing, and technically perhaps Grade Seven, though a feel for the rhythms is pretty much a prerequisite if the pieces are to blossom. But when they do...
Derek Hasted (Classical Guitar Magazine)