Marianne Vedral : Mosaik – Five pieces for solo guitar : Bergmann

Marianne Vedral

Bergmann Edition: 13 pages

Marianne Vedral is a relatively new name to me, as I enjoyed her Summer Memories a while ago, but I’m glad I’ve come across this latest set of five pieces, because I thoroughly enjoyed them!

The lady writes in a very melodic style, but nothing is too predictable, and so the sound they create is warm, friendly and generally not too difficult to play whilst never giving you the feeling that you’ve heard it all before.

Joyful Arrival opens the set, and is in 4/4 with a 6^th string to D. It has an interesting melody spread over some broken arpeggios over quavers usually with a tie from the 4^th to the 5^th quavers creating a kind of swing feel to the rhythm.

Winter Poem is set in Em in 4/4 and has a lonely melody with a number of half barres up to fret 5 and set in three main voices. The melody moves around at times up to the higher frets but nothing is too difficult, as she has made everything very playable .

Remember the Sun is a gentle and very melodic piece in G, ful of broken arpeggios but with plenty of places where everything moves in a very friendly fashion.

Fun Bossa, is exactly what the title suggests. Set in Am with a nice swing of its off – beat rhythms this piece is probably the hardest of the five, but still not too difficult for the intermediate player. There are some nice, slightly unusual chord harmonies, but nothing the majority of you would not have come across before. This is  a lot of fun.

The final piece Hymn of Thanks has a 6^th string set to D, and the instruction to put a capo at fret 2, but there is no need to  worry about that because the piece is written in D so that you still read it as normal. Again, this is a friendly, warm, emotive little piece that finishes this wonderful book of very nicely indeed

This is a lovely book, full of super pieces that all have lovely melodies and harmonies and nothing is too obvious, so you don’t get the feeling that you have seen it all before, which can so often happen with some of our guitar music. Get this one, you’ll really enjoy it!

Chris Dumigan