Cette pièce d’influence ibérique, de niveau 1er cycle, peut être jouée à une, deux, trois ou quatre guitares en variant les combinaisons. Par exemple, en duo : guitare I et II ou/et guit. III et IV ou guit. I et III... toutes les formules fonctionnent et apportent ainsi différents éclairages.
Just two pages of full score, but my schoolboy French lets me see that the composer proposes that it also could be played with two or three guitars, picking from the various lines, to create different realisations of the piece.
Including the DC Al Coda, the piece is 38 bars of 3/4 long and goes surprisingly high for a piece that's probably only Grade 3-4 in complexity. The reward for little forays up in X and XII position is a bright fresh sound that will delight the players, as these little passages are nicely under the hand and everything is neatly and comprehensively fingered.
Some maturity of technique is needed - Guitar Four has some half bars, and Guitar Three has some straightforward full Bar chords of Bb and A - an F shape taken where the neck is a little easier to manage. There's nothing too threatening when taken on its own, but integrating some of these chords and position changes into the piece without introducing a hesitation will need work.
For such a short piece, there is an interesting mix of melody, chord and percussion, and the chords are a mix of rasgueado, and brushed with the thumb. Each of the parts has its own challenges and rewards; the parts cross over so that everyone has a chance to go up the neck, everyone plays bass notes, everyone strums some chords, everyone has some percussion.
It's possibly a little ambitious for a school concert, but the rhythm is such that it really can easily be practised at home and it will glue together solidly when played in ensemble, and that's important at this stage of learning. I like it, and I look forward to hearing it played.
Derek Hasted
