Benjamin Verdery Doberman – Yppan : 39 pages This extensive piece is, on the face of it, in two movements but with a number of themes cropping up in both. Not only that there are a few features of this piece that set it apart from most other pieces I have seen, namely, the way you have to set your guitar up first.The open strings are, from bottom to top, D, G, D, A, Bb, and E, but with the added instruction to place a capo on strings 1 to 5, in the first movement, leaving t

Louis Trepanier Les Productions D’Oz: 7 pages Here is one from a set of twelve concert studies, all published separately by D’Oz. This really is a study in every sense of the word, as there are numerous technical obstacles the player has to overcome before getting to grips with this piece, even though it is harmonically very clever and always interesting. The opening section is marked Lento, liberamente with a zero time signature, simply because everything is very free temp

Francis Kleynjans Les Productions d’Oz : 20 pages Here is a set of ten pieces from this French composer, who has written hundreds of works for guitar, as witnessed by the Opus Numbers of each of these pieces, ranging from Op416 to Op438,( although a few Opus numbers are not used in this set of 10). I have seen many pieces from this composer and they are always very playable, extremely melodic and full of nice harmonies and interesting fingerings that are not always what you

Arnaud Dumond Les Productions D’Oz: 16 pages This book of 12 moderately easy studies is part of a three book set that ranges up to difficult pieces by the end. I have already seen and reviewed the first book a couple of years ago, that was marked simply ‘easy’, and which I had nothing but good things to say about it This latest book is every bit as good as the previous one, with the first thing you notice being how varied the genres and techniques are that he uses and that th

Nejc Kuhar Les Productions D’Oz: 4 pages This short piece is all about memories and the nostalgia some create and in this piece our composer has made all the music sad, emotive and very pleasant to play. It’s set in D Major with a dropped 6th to D and is a Lento 4/4.It is all in 2 voices but the main thing about the piece are the rhythms he uses, often setting one against the other . The opening melody starts almost immediately without an introduction over a rocking bass li

Kevin Swierkosz – Lenart Les Productions D’Oz :12 pages This Italian composer’s latest piece is in three movements and is a homage to the figure and work of Louis Claude de Saint – Martin, a French philosopher, with each of the movements having a title from his work. L’Home de Desir, is a Moderato, con Grazia and is a 4/4 movement set without key signature, but obviously not in C Major, or A minor as it seems at times to be in B Minor, but why the composer didn’t want

Jean – Marie Raymond Les Productions D’Oz: 6 pages Having seen many pieces by this French composer I am never disappointed by his beautiful works, always full of melody, lots of superb harmonisations, and giving the player a lot of enjoyment in the process. This latest work stems from his visit to Japan, where admiring the countryside, he imagined the sun setting in the evening, but dying in the process, only to be reborn at dawn the next day, and as a result the music is s

Mark Houghton Les Productions D’Oz: 22 pages I have seen many pieces by Mark Houghton, and this latest one is every bit as good .It is in 6 movements , and is descriptive of the New Forest in Hampshire, near where Mark now lives, a forest incidentally I remember very well, from my times holidaying with my parents ( yes! that long ago!) in Boscombe , near Bournemouth . The opening movement is Prelude : Morning Stroll, and Andante in A Major which is in 2, or sometimes 3 voic

Camilo Les Productions D’Oz: 4 pages This 3 minute piece apparently won the IX Concurso Internacional de Composition para Guitarra ‘Manuel de Falla’ It has a 1st string tuned to a quarter – tone under E, and a 6th string tuned to C. This in itself is a tad unusual, especially the instruction to not just tune string 1 to Eb, but to tune it a quartet tone lower than E, an instruction I have never seen before on any music . As for the title it translates as 19.05 – 5 minutes b

A.J. Scholz (rev.Giorgio Mirto) Les Productions D’Oz: 24 pages I must be honest that I have almost certainly never seen any music by this composer before .Arthur Johannes Scholz (1883 – 1945) wrote hundreds of guitar works and if this latest piece is anything to go on, it is a style that is extremely complex, never staying in one key for too long, and therefore the music has many accidentals and never goes where you expect it to. It is set in three movements, with the firs

Guy – Jean Maggio Les Productions D’Oz : 12 pages This book of 19 small pieces is aimed , as the Preface states, at the young beginner, aged approximately 6 years old, wishing to take their first steps on the classical guitar. This first repertoire is designed to be playful and progressive, and have been carefully written, observing the evolution of their skills and limited to solo melodies only. They follow a progression in the number of notes learned and are restricted to

Claudio Maccari Les Productions D’Oz : 8 pages There is a curious Preface that apparently explains the plot of this latest piece by Maccari, involving a heavy wind , a thunderstorm, a village party and someone falling in love and finally, and I quote, ‘ because Paganini is still blowing sarcastically’ After a very slow opening of 3 bars where the melody glides up and down the fingerboard, the main section , marked Allegro Ventoso takes over where the melody is often in l

Luc Gueugneau Les Productions D’Oz : 4 pages This is a Habanera piece set in G Minor by this French composer. Immediately you start on the Larghetto opening with its very usual Habanera rhythm, you feel that you have come across pieces very similar before. Unfortunately the piece has that effect on you the moment you begin. The opening 3 bars of rhythm then take on the melody which is very carefully fingered and, in one or two places, not on the string you might have consid

Adrian Andrei Les Productions D’Oz: 12 pages Roumanian-born Andrei has written many guitar works, and everything I have ever seen by him has always been wonderful stuff. This latest 6 movement suite is no exception, Muntenie being a region in Roumania. The first movement Rondo Lente is set in D Major in 6/8 and has two, sometimes three moving parts that are constantly on the move, so nothing gets boring! The melody is first in the treble, and then moves down to the bass with

Jean – Maurice Mourat Les Productions D’Oz: 6 pages When you see a title with the word Choro in it, you know what you are going to see, rhythm wise, but what I didn’t expect here is to find that it is so similar in chord usage and melody to another piece, the title and composer of which completely escapes me, but I am certain that you all would recognise what I am saying immediately, should you play this piece here. As this piece stands, it is in Am with a middle section in

Marco Smaili Les Productions D’Oz : 4 pages Spanish composer Smaili has here written a piece as a tribute to the late American avant – garde composer George Crumb, and indeed this piece is very much in the avant – garde style throughout its 5 minutes duration. The time signatures used are many and varied and it probably goes without saying that a key signature is not in evidence Moreover the rhythmic diversity of the notes is immense, to such an extent that you wonder just

Emmanuel Lacopo Les Productions D’Oz: 12 pages This piece by Lacopo was awarded the first prize in the 2023 Ottawa Guitar Society Composition Competition. On my first glance at the score, I was made aware of the many unusual features about this piece, beginning with the scordatura of the 2 nd string on an A, the 4 th on a C, and the 6 th on an F, which is why the notation of the piece is also there with a tab version underneath. Along with that are the numerous places whe

Marco Ramelli Les Productions D’Oz : 4 pages This is a short 3 ½ minute piece by Italian composer Ramelli commissioned by the Paganini Guitar Festival and dedicated to Andrea de Vitis who performs this piece on YouTube, should you want to hear it. This will not be to everyone’s taste as it is in a rather unusual style that uses a descending 3rd interval frequently , in reference to an actual piece of Paganini’s ‘Minuetto Che Va Chiamando Dida’ where his Dida, was an unknown

Jean Marie Raymond Les Productions D’Oz: 6 pages This composer always writes lovely pieces, many of which I have seen in the past, and this latest one is no exception. His music is full of beautiful melodies and harmonies and although his musical style is not very surprising in its harmonic detail, it is always beautifully written and super to get your fingers around. This is a waltz dedicated to a Japanese guitarist Michiyasu Takahashi , and is set in A minor at a speed ma

Jan Bartlema Les Productions D’Oz: 8 pages Here is a very vibrant piece of writing from Dutch guitarist Bartlema. True to its title, it’s in 6/8 for most of the time (the occasional bar is in 9/8), but the interesting factor is its constant forward move. It never sits still and yet the melodies and harmonies themselves are often modern, but always approachable. Set in Em, and marked Allegro Con brio at 1230 dotted crotchets a minute, it begins by climbing gradually up the f