Water Strider

Written in homage to Roland Dyens (who speaks highly of Mr Cosley in a quote in the foreword). This is a complex and rhythmically taxing piece that is some way above Grade 8. It is pleasing to see a few paragraphs from the composer setting the context for the piece and explaining that this piece contrasts the tranquillity and the brutality of nature.
Set in irregular time, but with the opening predominantly in 7/8 time, a growing wall of harmonics opens the piece, and a not dissimilar sequence closes the piece in an almost mirror image. The piece stabilises into 6/8 time, and once settled in this metre the composer constantly pitches three against two. The dissonances that look so strident on the page are frequently deliciously open and spacious. The centre section moves to 4/4 time and the pace is relaxed. There is no key signature but all of the many incidentals are flats giving a warmth to the sound that is contrasted here and there with a punctuation of staccato notes. The final section, although ending the piece as it began, is markedly different again, with aggressive writing, Bartok pizz. and a palette of tonal contrasts preceding the coda.
Although the composer notes the limited dynamic range the guitar offers, he does nonetheless go from a single guitar playing pp in harmonics to a tutti with strummed chords marked fff, so he does not constrain his ideas to fit the constraints of the guitars, he pushes the boundaries a little.
In terms of agility and general complexity of fingering, this is not hard, and the music lies on the paper without threatening the reader. The rhythm though, requires coolness and precision to succeed; or a miracle. If you need to rely on a miracle to play difficult rhythm, fear not - the ability to walk on water, like the water strider, would probably be included in the same miracle.
Derek Hasted (Classical Guitar Magazine)