Ferdinand Rebay : Sonate in E Moll for violin and guitar : Bergmann

Ferdinand Rebay

Bergmann: Score and separate parts ( 32, 20 , and 20 pages respectively )

I came across Ferdinand Rebay some years ago when being sent one of his guitar Sonatas to review for the (now- defunct) Classical Guitar Magazine. I was immediately captivated by his unique sound, his wonderful use of harmony and melody, and also the fact that at times it reminded me of Mahler, ( whose music I adore above all others, by the way .)

At the time it appeared that almost no one had heard of this man, and so large bucket loads of his music was either out of print, or hadn’t been in print, which was a crying shame, because the more of his music I heard or read on the guitar, the more I realised that this man has to be one of the greatest composers for our instrument ever.

So here is a four movement Sonata for violin and guitar which has been recorded and which you can find on YouTube, should my review spark interest in you. The first thing to say is that you do have to be a talented duo to do a proper job with this piece, but suffice it to say that if any such duo performed this piece in concert the audience would be delighted and no doubt it would be the highlight of the evening show.

The first movement begins with an Allegro Non Troppo and the first thing to spot is that the violin writing is excellently done, and the guitar part is imaginative and not at all like anything you may have seen before, but nevertheless is interesting, always musical even if the number of accidentals might make you think that this is going to be odd sounding, or worse. No, it is very melodic, and beautifully harmonised, just not as you might normally be expecting. It is all very carefully fingered also, to avoid any misconceptions as to where the notes should be placed. The parts are evenly spaced out so that both instruments play the melody at times, not just the violin! There are also a number of tempo changes throughout the movement, and dynamics are frequent and carefully rendered.The second movement is titled ‘Variationen über das Kärntner Volkslied:“I tua wohl als wann nie nix wär’and is a gentle and calm folk melody  with four variations all very distinct from one another, and finally a coda.The third movement is a Menuett  in G major, and  its Trio in the tonic minor, before finally returning to the Major key for its conclusion.

The final movement is marked Rondo (Finale) has an energetic and very rhythmic style an again has numerous speed changes and also a few key changes along the way, and finally reaches the coda where the music dies away on a pianissimo and guitar harmonics against a long held violin note.

As I said before the entire piece is wonderfully written, and sounds exceptional and completely original in style and composition, so I can only say that any good duo would absolutely love this piece, as would their audiences!.

Chris Dumigan