Eugenio Catina
Da Vinci Edition: score and separate parts: (9, 4, and 4 pages respectively)
El Suer is named after a particular wind that agitates the lakes and creates a very choppy windswept lake out of a calm one, as evidenced by a quote from a poem by Teresa Baccolo that heads the music .As a result the music is constantly on the move in both parts and players need to be very good throughout its almost 4 minutes of duration, with guitar 1 needing to be a couple of notches better than guitar 2
Set in Em in 6/8, it opens with a motif that occurs elsewhere, of both players in semi – quavers playing a climbing arpeggio of an Em9 chord, with both parts in two voices, then becoming an arpeggio of C Major with an added F# before bars 3 and 4 gradually take the guitars down to arrive at bar 5 with the first theme. It continues with a number of different rhythms in guitar 1 while guitar2 keeps up with the semi – quaver arpeggio runs. At bar 16, Guitar 1 has the first of a number of tremolo passages that come and go throughout the remaining minutes, and the melody line does swap from one part to the other at times so that both players get the chance to be the lead player. The mood of the piece is constant and a continuous rapid flow motivates the entire piece, which close on a climbing Em arpeggio, similar to the opening, but this time goes right up to fret 19 on guitar on, finishing on a sforzando Em7 chord.
This is an interesting piece that really only has one mood throughout it, and if anything, that is the only criticism I have of it, because it is short and to the point and quite tricky to play throughout, and as far as creating the mood of the opening poem, very well written
Chris Dumigan
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