Bernard Piris
Les Productions D’Oz: 8 pages
French – born Piris is a composer with many guitar works to his name, along with all the other guitar activities he takes part in. This latest pair of solo pieces takes the player inward in his emotions, as the music is full of sadness, and loss and other such feelings.
The hardest part about this piece is getting used to the stringing, which has a 3rd string at G#, and a 6th string at C#, which does provide some wonderful sounds in its chords and part- writing but takes a little while to get used to !
The opening piece, set in C# Minor is marked Molto Libero, quasi Improvisando, and opens with some harmonics, natural, but not playing the notes you might expect, before a haunting melody enters. The music itself continues without any repetition, with a number of pauses, accelerandi, and generally giving a feeling as if the player is improvising, as the tempo indication suggests. A slight speed change to about 80 crotchets a minute brings in a new theme marked Paisible , where a three – voiced idea enters with a bass line and accompanying chords underneath a long – held melody line. This however does not last long, as the opening tempo returns, and then with it the opening theme, before the final coda which brings back the initial harmonics motto.
The second piece is still crotchet 80, and marked Andante, but is now in a quaver filled 12/8, and again in C# minor. Marked l.v. sempre the intention is for the musical notes to ring on through each other, as the style is now three voices, with a bass and melody line, sandwiching an arpeggio middle voice. Unlike the first movement the speed is relatively continuous throughout until a final coda where Lento takes the piece to its sad and quiet conclusion.
Once the player has got used to the unusual tunings for strings 3 and 6, the player needs to be relatively advanced technically as the music is full of lovely sounds and many chords and places where it is too difficult for any less talented players. But having said that, the pair is nice, pleasant, and a little different too, and so I can see this pair having a lot of fans.
Chris Dumigan