JANE DARCEY : Peace : Bergmann Edition

Jane Darcey

Bergmann Edition : 7 pages

This Australian composer/teacher of the guitar has written a number of pieces for the guitar, this one partially under the guidance of Gilbert Biberian during late 2022.

Set in A Major, but moving through various keys in a mixture of 9/8 and 3 / 4 , this gentle piece has almost no solo lines in it, but rather spends a lot of time with  pairs of notes in the melody, and a bass line underneath. However it moves quite a great deal over all the fingerboard and so one has to be very careful when trying to keep up the tempo, which is however an Andante.

The harmonic style is modern but not atonal, but as far as I could tell when playing it, a little uninvolving emotionally speaking. It spent a great deal of time moving around on the fingerboard, without actually presenting itself as a melody line that you could remember. Of course this is only my opinion and you may think entirely differently, but it did feel often like an Etude, taking you through numerous fingerings and strings consistently. As a result it is a difficult piece technically and when trying to enjoy what you are playing.

As a result, I found this piece lacking, but if you have come across this lady’s music before, then you might want to give it a try out.

Chris Dumigan