Cristiano Porqueddu
Les Productions D’Oz: 45 pages
This piece has a very interesting history. A theatrical text called Viaggio in Sardegna, was written by Stefania Masala as part of the international event Sardinia Moving Arts organized by Musicare and financed by the European Community and the autonomous region of Sardinia. The 16 Watercolours for guitar were then composed by Cristiano Porqueddu with the aim of making musical comments to that text.
Therefore what you get here is firstly the entire text in Italian and then in English, consisting of 12 pages for each language, in small print, and intermingled various points where the sixteen guitar pieces should go. Obviously this means that the original performance, should it ever be repeated, would use these pieces, no doubt, again, but what of their musical life away from the text?
In spite of their life as accompaniment pieces to a dialogue, they are interesting and cleverly written pieces , even if a number of them are only barely 90 seconds long, for a few of them are 3, and 4 ,minutes in length, and would perhaps work as a little suite of pieces, describing the beauty of Sardonia.
They vary from the opening Piccolo Leyenda , a Lento in 2, or 3 voices that moves around in a totally original way , and which although completely tonal, has an interesting harmonic quality to it ( as do many of the pieces here) to an Omaggio a Stefania Masala called Terra e Memoria , which again is utterly different in the way the voices move around the guitar (Making the fingerings and strings used , an important factor when playing), and finally to Bozzetto (Cartolina) in the slightly rare key of Eb Major and again creating its very own sound world as it goes along its two voices.
There are many of these little pieces that are definitely worth playing, but they are far from easy, and do not follow any usual patterns that less talented players might be looking for. In contrast, they all sound quite unique in their harmonic and melodic movements and so need a decent player, but I really can see some of these making their way into a suite that many would enjoy playing, and just as many would enjoy listening to.
Chris Dumigan