Luis Eugenio Santos Sequeiros : Fado : Bergmann

Luis Eugenio Santos Sequeiros (edited and fingered by Isabel  Rei  Samartim)

Bergmann : 12 pages

This Portuguese doctor  taught  music to  his family and generally had a household where music was extremely important. He also composed a number of works for guitar, all based quite strongly on the traditional Portuguese music of his homeland, adn here with the help of Isabel Rei Samartim, his Galizan Fado has been published.

The first thing to say is that it is a friendly piece, set in Am and 2/4 time and , to be fair, not particularly surprising in its detail, bur nevertheless it is only moderate in its difficulty, but will none the less please any player. It is however very largely a piece with two chords only,  Am and  E7, although there is plenty of variety in the part writing so that it doesn’t seem boring, even though you will certainly find a proportion of it quite predictable. In the introduction you climb up an Am to a chord, followed by notes including appoggiaturas, and then a repeat phrase, followed by a similar idea up an E7 chord/arpeggio, all then repeated one more time before a second theme appears based almost entirely on three note chords set around the 5th position. After that is repeated, a further new melody that moves around more in quavers in two voices carries the two chord idea still further, until the opening idea returns and everything closes on an arpeggio of Am.

AS I said before, nothing here will astonish you with its unpredictability, but it is pleasant , fun to play, and very folk -like in style that many players will find fun to get their fingers around.

Chris Dumigan