Frederick Maggio
Les Productions D’Oz : 4 pages
This piece is full of the off- beat rhythms and colourful chords that one associates with Brazil and the Latin – American countries and so is immediately one of those pieces that takes a time to get under your fingers properly. The reason for that is that you do spend a fair amount of time trying to feel the beat amongst all the periphery of notes, and yet the actual notes are usually tied over the beat, so you end up not really playing the beat at all!
That said, this piece is beautifully written, and set in A minor, with the middle section in the tonic major key, and from the outset divides itself into two, and sometimes three main voices with the top voice, the melody, that races around the fingerboard hardly stopping for the entire piece, and like a lot of Latin – inspired music is often based around the chord, whether arpeggiated or not.
As a piece it certainly captures the essence of the style and so the title is very apt indeed! It isn’t that easy, so you would have to be a decent player to get to grips with its complexities, but it is worth the effort, as it is a fine, enjoyable piece that deserves to be seen and played by lots of guitarists.
Chris Dumigan