Roman Smirnov : Jerusalem Swing for guitar duet : Bergmann

Roman Smirnov

Bergmann Edition : Score and separate parts ( 16, 8, and 8 pages respectively)

Multi award winning Estonian Smirnov has written and arranged multiple pieces of music for guitar and indeed other instruments. Here we have a nearly 4 minute duet now arranged for two guitars.

There lies, I think, the problem, because it seems that the piece was originally for clarinet and guitar (see the YouTube recording that is available to see), and the resulting music that, in this version, the clarinet plays is extremely hard for guitar 1.The music constantly soars up and down in extremely large batches of very small notes, prefect for a brilliant clarinettist, but a real problem for a guitar player, no matter how fabulous a player he or she might be. Not only that but there are very many accidentals all over the piece, and the key structure, to say the least, is constantly on the change, and the rhythmic diversity of the two parts, needs to be seen to be believed. Added to that , although the first 32 bars are (supposedly) in A minor, the key changes to Eb minor after that , then to E minor at bar 41, then finally to the original A minor for the last half a dozen bars, closing at bar 65.

The recorded version is very well played but it just seems too much for the guitarist playing the first part, unless the pair of you is of concert hall standard. Nothing less will do I am afraid, but if you are interested enough, go and listen to the clarinet and guitar version, and then imagine the guitar playing the clarinet part!

Chris Dumigan