Brent Parker : Vol 4 Five Spanish Pieces for two guitars : Bergmann

Brent Parker, edited by John Feeley

Bergmann Edition : Score and separate parts ( 28, 16 and 12 pages respectively)

Anyone who has read my previous review of this gentleman’s Vol3 will perhaps be surprised to learn that in spite of that volume being very difficult, this latest book, Volume 4 makes that Vol3, seem very easy indeed!

No1 is in 2/4, and is littered with cross rhythms from guitar 1 and 2 .Take for example the opening bars where guitar 1 has four triplet semi – quaver groups, underneath which is two groups on quavers triplets. Add to this the fact that , as in the previous book, your fingers have to dive all over the place, and you are left with a piece that literally stopped us in our tracks. The harmonic touches are where the Spanish comes into the title, for the writing is often very Spanish in style.

No2 , set in A Major in 4/4 time starts off quite simply, with less difficulty than before , but then at bar 10 gradually changes until both players are playing demi – semi quavers and even hemi – demi – semi quavers

No3 is in 5/4 with quavers in one part mixed with crotchet runs in the other. It is quite pleasant and only very short at 30 bars long.

No4 has to be one of the hardest pieces of music i have ever seen. Written in 20/16 time, one part had straight crotchets or quavers whilst the other (usually part2) had five notes, each of the five being a crotchet tied to a semi – quaver! This rhythmic pattern continued for the first 35 bars, briefly changing to a simpler pattern for 4 bars before continuing as before right to the end. I cannot properly explain just how difficult this was to play.

The final piece is in 5/8 and 4/4 and is without key signature, but that doesn’t mean it’s in C or Am, quite the opposite! Indeed it has so many accidentals in it; it would be difficult to give it a key structure. As an example the first bar has a beat one chord of, from low to high a Db, F, E, and B, topped by a high A. The next bar has a mixture of flats and sharps in it, and a place where two hemi – demi – semi quavers are played atop a triplet of hemi demi semi quavers. As you progress through the piece the level of complexity is astonishing, and as with his other pieces in this volume and the other one, quite unlike anything I have ever seen before.

If you are a brilliant technical duo, who are superb readers as well as players, then you might get this volume as a challenge, just to see whether you can make sense of it, but otherwise, it is probably beyond most people’s technical abilities, and as well as that the music is wayward and definitely not in a style that most people will appreciate.

Chris Dumigan