Kevin Swierkosz – Lenart : Sonatine D’Amboise: DOz

Kevin Swierkosz – Lenart  

Les Productions D’Oz :12 pages

This Italian composer’s latest piece is in three movements and is a homage to the figure and work of Louis Claude de Saint – Martin, a French philosopher, with each of the movements having a title from his work.

L’Home de Desir, is a Moderato, con Grazia and  is a  4/4 movement set without key signature, but obviously not in C  Major, or A minor as it seems at times to be in B Minor, but why the composer didn’t want to put the two sharps of the key signature on the sheet music is a bit odd, especially as there are multiple F#s and C#s written in the piece. The music is usually in two voices with lots of movement in the parts and some slightly unexpected fingering too. Largely in semi-quavers during the opening section it has an individual sound that doesn’t remind me of any other composers, being modern but not atonal throughout. There is a middle section marked Solenne , set in 6/8 seeming to be in Gm, but again without a key signature. Again the two voices are very complex and continuously diving around the fingerboard, making this far from easy to play. A varied repeat of the opening section then brings us to a complex coda where the movement closes on a B minor chord.

Le Cimetiere d,Amboise   is a short 35 bar movement , again marked Solenne, without a key signature, beginning with a tune in harmonics , that is then repeated in two, sometimes three note chords. It quickly develops into triplet quavers very high up on the fingerboard, before    turning into semi – quavers all still in two and sometimes three voices. It finishes where it began, with the harmonic tune.

The final movement L’Homme – Esprit, is marked Vorticoso (whirling), and is in 9/8 full of semi – quaver passages and usually in two voices. The speed is constant and although carefully fingered, still quite difficult to keep up, at the required speed. After 14 bars it turns into a 3 / 4 Aggraziato which momentarily slows the pace down before tempo 1 returning at bar 38 for a varied return to the opening melody, now set in a different key. After this return, a brand new section marked Adagio Religioso takes the pace right down for 10 bars before the opening idea returns one more time and the piece flies towards its coda and a final harmonic B on 1^st string fret 7.

This is an interesting piece that really doesn’t sound like anything else you may have played. The harmony work is very changeable, which does make this quite a difficult piece to get your fingers around! However, if the man’s music appeals to you, as he has written a number of works you may have come across, then this piece is very demanding but worth getting to know.

Chris Dumigan