Adrian Andrei : Suite de Muntenie : DOz

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 the accompaniment above. A nice start!

Ronde A Dix is (I presume) called as such because the Rondo sections are 10 bars each .Here we get his country’s  harmonic world, as the A Major time signature also has many place where a  D# is used that does give the piece that sound that many of Andrei’s pieces have. This is also a fine piece of writing full of individuality.

Danse du Potier (Potter’s Dance) is in D minor, (but without a key signature) and also has the augmented 4^th sound of the previous piece, this time G#. Its Allegro along with its slightly unusual harmonic world, does keep you on your toes, but is again a fine piece.

Vlasceneanca is a Moderato 2/4 piece full of semi – quavers in mainly two voices, hammer –ons and pull- offs being common here,. It is set in C Major, but again has augmented fourthe , in the shape of many F#s.

Aoleanul is an Andantino in A minor mostly in two voices with much moving around in the top part and longer note lengths in the bass line, often two notes.

The final movement Baltareasca ( Ronde) is a bouncy Allegro in D Major 2/4, again full of G#s in the melody which has a nice feel to it, and which then provides a superb close to what is essentially a great piece of writing, as this man’s music always is.

So if you know his work, you will want this latest suite, and if you haven’t yet tried his music out, well, you should!

Chris Dumigan