Emmanuel Lacopo : The Way Water Breathes : DOz

Emmanuel Lacopo

Les Productions D’Oz:  12 pages

This piece by Lacopo was awarded the first prize in the 2023 Ottawa Guitar Society Composition Competition. On my first glance at the score, I was made aware of the many unusual features about this piece, beginning with the scordatura of the 2^nd string on an A, the 4^th on a C, and the 6^th on an F, which is why the notation of the piece is also there with a tab version underneath. Along with that are the numerous places where ‘special effects’ are added, for example , notes that are to played with the left hand only, and ones where you bend the notes up and down in a continuous bending action.

Apart from that the music itself is very modern and to be honest quite bizarre. After the first 14 bars of very odd harmonic pairs, each left to ring on for a long time, we get a tremolo section where everything is in two voices with numerous musical crunches along the way. Then at a different speed we get the section that includes the left hand only notes and the constant bending ones, along with time signatures changes, from 6/4 to 4/4 to 15/8 to 2/2.Then a brief return to the tremolo section then itself brings back the multiple time signature section this time hugely extended and not including 3/8 and 9/4.This section is almost completely made up of long arpeggiated notes going up and down the fingerboard without stopping.

After a brief pause the final section of very unusual chords takes over, occasionally interwoven with a small run of triplet quavers, which is how the piece finally ends followed by a final pair of harmonic s

I must be honest I found this piece extremely odd, and to be frank quite boring but then again if it won first prize it seems I am not on the same wavelength as the judges. So you might look at this piece and think it is brilliant. I really hope you do!

Chris Dumigan