Jean – Marie Raymond : In Golden Shades, The Sun Begins to Die : DOz

Jean – Marie Raymond

Les Productions D’Oz: 6 pages

Having seen many pieces by this French composer I am never disappointed by his beautiful works, always full of melody, lots of superb harmonisations, and giving the player a lot of enjoyment in the process.

This latest work stems from his visit to Japan, where admiring the countryside, he imagined the sun setting in the evening, but dying in the process, only to be reborn at dawn the next day, and as a result the music is sad at times, and then hopeful giving the player plenty of chances to bring out the emotive qualities written into the piece.

It has an introduction of eight bars that is Lento and full of expressive harmonies, before turning into a Gavotte , marked ‘with sadness’ at bar 9.It is set in three voices for the whole piece then with a melody, and a bass line, and a chordal rhythm in the middle voice. Halfway through, the piece turns from A minor, to A Major, marked ‘more happy’. Finally the minor opening section returns for one last time before a gentle close marked Lento.

It is a lovely piece of writing. To be fair, the harmonies are gentle and beautiful, but nothing will surprise you as he usually sticks to sounds that everybody will have heard before, but then again anyone that knows his style of composition will know what to expect and love playing it.

Chris Dumigan