John W. Duarte : 3 Character Pieces for 2 guitars : UtOrpheus

John W Duarte

Ut Orpheus: score and separate parts (8, 4, and 4 pages respectively)

This latest publication continues his son Chris’s intention to publish all the music that has until now remained unpublished.

These duets are relatively easy and yet still full of John Duarte’s amazingly individual harmonies and chord usage. There were several places where at first me and my duet partner both stopped and marvelled at the unexpected music we came across although it all sounds very much like John Duarte’s musical style, and as a result, it is both intriguing and  satisfying to play through.

Karen was written in 1997 for Danish guitarist Karen Dusgaard Nielsen, with the music in A Major, and a flowing 6/8.As I stated before, in spite of the 3 sharps key signature, you quickly find yourself in many different momentary keys with flats and naturals abounding, but after you familiarise yourself with it, it all fits absolutely naturally.

Stella was written in 1996 for the Reverend Stella Fairbairn, and is in D Major  3  4 with a dropped D in guitar 2.Again the music is friendly and relaxed and yet veers away from D Major quite a lot of the time only to return later in the piece. The difficulty factor is again not too much and a modest duo could cope well.

The final piece Dives and Lazarus is of course an English traditional piece, used by, for one example, Ralph Vaughan Williams in his 5 Variants on Dives and Lazarus, for orchestra. This is the longest and perhaps the most difficult of the three pieces, but even then it is not too hard, as a modestly talented duo will play it fine. Set in Gm, with both guitars on a dropped D 6th there are a number of high position barres in guitar one that do add to the difficulty factor and again several unexpected moments that just really do add to the interest factor of the piece.

So in essence this is a fine trio of pieces that will delight any duo, and also an audience that hears them. Yet again, this is a most worthwhile publication of more of John Duarte’s guitar pieces.

Chris Dumigan