Luc Gueugneau : L’En – Cas Des Muses –Habanera : DOz

Luc Gueugneau

Les Productions D’Oz : 4 pages

This is a Habanera piece set in G Minor by this French composer. Immediately you start on the Larghetto opening with its very usual Habanera rhythm, you feel that you have come across pieces very similar before. Unfortunately the piece has that effect on you the moment you begin.

The opening 3 bars of rhythm then take on the melody which is very carefully fingered and, in one or two places, not on the string you might have considered using. As a result, a couple of moments are a little awkward until you get used to them. At bar 37 the key changes to the tonic major with the habanera rhythm still unchanged and the general feeling of knowing the piece from elsewhere still in the back of your mind. A return to the opening key and themes, slightly varied, then leads you swiftly into the coda that closes on a G major chord.

I suppose that this is a friendly piece and quite peasant but it does sound so familiar to other pieces that I couldn’t get too excited about its musical content.

Chris Dumigan