Luc Levesque
Les Productions D’Oz: Score and separate parts (8, 2, 2, 2, and 2 pages respectively)
I have seen a number of works recently by this talented Canadian writer, and here he has produced a fascinating piece for 4 guitars (or four groups of guitars) that uses the canon as its main idea, (hence the title).Therefore the first guitar opens up this Moderato 4/4 piece with a four beat phrase of a mixture of quavers and semi – quavers that consists of a rising theme. At beat three, guitar two repeats it note for note before continuing in a similar fashion to guitar one. Then at the opening of bar 2, guitar 3 repeats the phrase almost note for note only deviating slightly on beat 4, after which guitar 4 repeats the phrase one octave down , but otherwise identically to the others. From there on this continues until every few bars a new theme emerges, at which point the other three guitars follow suit as before so that one never loses the fact that each part is trying to be a ‘copycat’.
The piece is a fascinating read, and although it is not easy, it is certainly playable by a reasonably talented set of players, whom I imagine would have lots of fun taking part in this little (58 bars) but entertaining and consistently engrossing little work. Lots of fun!
Chris Dumigan