John W. Duarte : Nuages Passants Op102 : Doberman – Yppan

John W. Duarte

Doberman – Yppan : 19 pages

This newly – published work from Duarte, hails back to 1986, and is a set of variations on Django Reinhardt’s Nuages, consisting of the Theme, Six Variations and a Finale. At a little over 15 minutes in length it is quite a considerable piece, especially when this is apparently its first publication.

Written in 1986, this piece has all the markings of the Duarte musical world. No part of it is obvious in its musical world; the imagination is considerable, with the music never sitting still for a moment. Moreover, the harmonies are tonal / modern and there are a great many places where slightly unexpected chords occur, with passing notes going through them, so that you are always on your toes, not knowing what to expect next. But this is what makes his music so fabulous, for one thing you could never say about this man’s music is that it is boring or dull, or obvious.

Firstly you get the theme which is quite chromatic and in two voices. The sleeve notes, incidentally,  make a mention of the fact that Reinhardt’s original version of his tune was chromatic, but over the years he changed it and took out much of the chromaticism, but the fact remains that our composer used the original chromatic version for his piece here. So there are multiple accidentals, and parts constantly on the move. Variation 1 is marked Amabile, and has a gentle feel although it does travel around the fret boardin two and sometimes 3 voices.

Variation II is marked Piangvole (Tearful) and is a quaver- driven 6/8, again in 2, or 3 voices and with many unexpected touches, whilst Variation III is Animato e con Forza and full of accented notes and completely in contrast to the previous, as well as being mostly in semi – quavers. Variation IV is a Solenne 4/4 that begins in a solo line that then doubles up and triples up. After a pause a Piu Mosso enters which is made up of a solo quaver – driven line. From, then on the two tempi alternate until the end, where a quiet Am chord closes the variation. Variation V is a Giocoso Alla Breve piece with fast runs of semi – quavers occur, intermixed with staccato octave bass notes until it becomes an Alla Marcia, Meccanico Assai.The original opening returns but this time the staccato octave basses are hard – hit 5 – note chords , which continues in this manner till the close when a senza rall with two note octaves closes it.

Variation VI is , in contrast an Andante Semplice in a gentle waltz rhythm and much less complex than a lot of the foregoing, after which the Finale enters, an Andantino Con Moto in 4/4 and of considerable size and probably the most difficult part of the piece .It is in a number of different sections and is on the move continuously reaching a huge climax after which the coda marked Dignitoso , Largo e Pesante finishes the work with  a number of large and long 6 note chords , the last of which has a pause leading to a subito con moto run up the fret board to a final harmonic chord and a four note run down the sixth string to the last chord of G Major.

This is a wonderful piece that has already been recorded twice, and is another in Doberman- Yppan’s fabulous set of publications called John Duarte Rediscovered. You have to be a good player to get around this work, but providing that is OK, you will love getting to know this superb piece of writingChris Dumigan