David Leisner : Eve’s Diary for soprano and guitar : Doberman – Yppan

David Leisner

Doberman – Yppan : score only 23 pages

Commissioned for the duo of John Olson and Gioia De Cari, this set of six songs heralds from Mark Twain’s book, The Diary of Adam and Eve. It was written in a theatrical manner as the soprano Gioia De Cari acts as well as sings.The music is modern in style and does involve some complicated guitar work , as well as requiring a very good singer.

A Whole Day Old is the opening piece and starts without a key signature which does become obvious when you see the multiple uses of chromatic notes in the guitar part. There are semi – tonal clashing notes all marked to be rung together. Then the second section in D minor, has a guitar part where thirds are prevalent, but spread across triplets and quavers in a much more tonal styler, before the opening section , varied, does return , fading to nothing at the close.

The Moon is next and has a constant flow of two part writing with semi – quavers in one voice and longer notes in the other. This is in the unusual key, (for guitar) of F minor, and is marked Urgently at 96 crotchets a minute. This piece is in one style throughout so the semi – quaver writing is constant for its 64 bars

The third piece, It, is in D Major and headed with Alert at 104 crotchets a minute. It is a jumpy little piece with 3 basic sections all at different speeds and requiring careful attention to detail.

First Sorrow is marked Slowly and Sadly and is in G minor with some emotive music for the soprano whilst the guitar is a little easier to get your hands around.

Pink Dust (No5) is one of the hardest of the six with a lot of harmonic crunches on the guitar and interestingly a number of bars where the soprano talks the lines rather than sings!

The final piece Prayer is set in E minor and has a guitar part marked Passacaglia reliant on almost continuous quavers often using multiple Bs in octaves in one voice with a melody line in the other. The theatrical style takes precedent at the end where the soprano is instructed to either slowly turn her back on the audience or walk offstage leaving the guitar to fade away to nothing.

This is an interesting piece, written in a very individual way that would intrigue an audience, so providing you have the technique necessary to cope with the often tricky guitar part, and your soprano is also quite talented, this might be something you might enjoy trying out.

Chris Dumigan