Hucky Eichelmann : Candlelight Blues: The Musical Compositions of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej Volume 1 Sheet Music and CD set.
Lullaby; Falling Rain; Friday Night Rag; I Never Dream; H.M. Blues; Magic Beams; Never Mind The Hungry Men’s Blues; Dream Island; Love In Spring; Near Dawn; Lovelight In My Heart; Love at Sundown; Candlelight Blues.
Hucky Eichelmann
CD: 42 mins 42 secs
Book: 44 pages
AMI Music: AMI 1999-01: https://amithailand.com/EN/ `
Just like its companion volume and CD, the compositions of the former King of Thailand are not original guitar works, have been cleverly arranged by four different people, and as a lot of his music is influenced by different jazz styles, the end result is very playable and really enjoyable and worthwhile. Lullaby begins with the Westminster chimes on harmonics and then becomes very classical in style and harmonies underneath a gentle melody. Falling Rain apart from eight bar in the middle is entirely a tremolo piece set in A Major and again very classical in style, whereas the following Friday Night Rag is, as the title suggests, full of the swing rhythm (written out in triplets incidentally, throughout) and littered with the chords of jazz. It is not easy however! I Never Dream is, in spite of the title, very pensive and in 3 / 4 time and set as a gentle waltz. H.M. Blues is another fun piece set in (almost) twelve – bar style, whereas Magic Beams is a little quirky, with some lovely harmonies and a bouncy style that admirably suite the guitar. Never Mind the Hungry Men’s Blues is quite different from the previous blues styled piece, and moves around the fingerboard consistently, thus making it great fun to play, but not easy to actually do so. Dream Island is very romantically styled with harmonies that slip and slide around in a very dream-like fashion whilst Love in Spring is another waltz rhythm with a suitably romantically styled set of harmonies and a nice melody atop. Near Dawn is full of dotted rhythms and a jaunty melody while Lovelight In My Heart , in contrast is very romantic and again set in 3 / 4 time , but not at all dance like, but, as the title suggests , smooth and with lovely imaginative harmony work. Love at Sundown is another piece in swing style, and although set in three voices is not too difficult, and has some unexpected harmonies that make for interesting playing, and the last piece in the book, the title work, is a boisterous blues full of block chords and needing some careful attention to detail to get it to work. You also need a really good ability to play the entire fingerboard without difficulty!
It goes without saying that Hucky’s CD is superbly played, with a very clear recording, and the entire book/CD set is altogether great fun to play. None of it is easy, but some of it is intermediate. That just leave the few that are advanced, but they are all worth getting to know better.
Chris Dumigan