Ming – Jui Liu : Springtime on the Muzha Line : Doberman – Yppan

Ming – Jiu Liu

Doberman – Yppan: 6 pages

This Taiwan guitarist/ composer has written many works over the years and this latest piece , named after the first metro line in Taiwan, is dedicated to Connie Sheu, who does a fine performance of this piece on YouTube.

I don’t think I have ever seen a piece with more time signatures in it than this piece, which has the following, 4/4, 3/16+3/4, 3 / 4 , 4/4+1/8,6/4, 5/4, 7/4,14/16,12/16, 24/16, and finally 2/4 – a total of 11 different ones in only 58 bars of music. So firstly, don’t expect this to be an easy read!

The actual style of music is slightly sad, with many minor chord sounds, although often they are complicated somewhat by additions of unusual notes, to add an edge to them. The opening is a Tempo Giusto is in two voices but with some very difficult rhythmic values caused largely by the time signature changes .This opening then changes to Larghetto Cantabile which is very chord driven with melodies cropping up above , below and in between them. Here there is a considerable amount of repeated chords, before a new section marked Pressante is largely in semi – quavers with off – beat bass notes underneath and again some repeated arpeggio patterns. Then the Tempo Giusto returns, this time with some added harmonic notes .This then leads to a Spirito which is almost entirely in semi – quavers which travels in a number of unusual harmonic places before a final Nostalgia, almost entirely made up of a solo line takes us to a very low – beat close.

The musical world this piece inhabits is quite unusual but not too much so. The only problem with it is the amount of rhythmic diversity which does make it a tough piece to get your hands around. However, if that doesn’t bother you and you like its sound world (Listen to the recording) then this piece could be fine for you.

Chris Dumigan