Ramses Calderon : Selected Works Vol 1 : DOz

Ramses Calderon

Les Productions d’Oz: 12 pages

Calderon heralds from El Salvador and here are 4 pieces from his large compositional repertoire that , generally speaking , are for advanced players only.

The opening piece El Colibri is perhaps the most difficult. It begins with a four bar introduction that jumps around the notes in an Em chord, but with half of the notes requiring a trill. This then leads to almost the entire remainder of the piece (33 bars, and nearly 5 pages) set in semiquaver sextuplets, usually in 2 voices .Even at the notated speed of Andante this is a real handful. The only exception to the sextuplets are bars 22 and 23 , which are both entirely in demi – semi – quavers to be played with the left hand only, moving from string 5 , down to the sixth, then back again , followed by moves up to strings 4, 3, and 2, before reverting back down again. Need I say that you need to be superb to be able to play a total of 64 notes in succession across 5 strings with just the left hand?

El Faro is an Allegro E minor 4/4 piece that begins with two voices, alternating a bass melody with a chordal accompaniment. This then turns into a section in triplet quavers over a bass melody, that goes right up to the very top of the 1^st string. A slightly more relaxed Andante section then brings back the opening idea and subsequently the coda.

Gratitud is in D Major with a dropped D 6^th, and is marked Largo and has a quaver driven melody interspersed with harmonics in 2, and occasionally 3 voices. There is a brief middle idea involving more chords and a melody in semiquavers before the opening idea returns and then the coda , which has a rising D Major arpeggio pattern, again with a harmonic in each bar, climbing up to top A before 3 bars of harmonic pairs in D close the piece.

The simplest piece is the final Cancion de Cuna, a one page Adagio in D, again with a dropped D sixth, and generally in two voices, although one or two of the stretches are quite large, and take a little bit of playing correctly.

So in essence these are difficult works to play, and although they are pleasant, I didn’t actually find them wonderful in themselves. However anyone who likes this man’s many other works will no doubt really enjoy them.

Chris Dumigan