Scott Fields : Sense Upon The Blackened Starfish for Flute and Guitar : Bergmann
- chrisdumigan
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Scott Fields
Bergmann Edition : Score and separate flute part : 12 and 4 pages respectively
This composer is a new name to me, but he is an American guitarist who has a number of bands who concentrate on modern elements such as the avant – garde and to a certain extent the experimental music .He also likes mixing notation with improvisation in some works so I was wondering just what I was going to be in for here, with this 90 odd bar piece for flute and guitar.
The first thing that puzzled me was the actual title. There is no explanation anywhere, and I couldn’t make head nor tail of the title and what it could possibly mean.
The piece begins with a repeated guitar chord underpinned by slightly off beat long bass notes. Immediately the sound is very modern. For example the opening chord is a C, G# and D# on fret thirteen of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings with an open E , before the 4th string D# moves to a C#, thus clashing with the C natural above. Then when the flute enters on a B, the guitar chord moves to a E, D#, C#, and G# in root position which continues even when the flute then moves to a C natural and a D natural. This situation continues with the guitar moving to a chord of E, D, C, and a low Eb, whilst the flute plays C#, F#, and G#, and then, just to give you one more example, the guitar plays an F#, D#, B, and D natural whilst the flute climbs up an F minor chord of C, F, and Ab. At times it just seemed that the flute’s part deliberately doesn’t play any notes that the guitar does, although the guitar chords are definitely not friendly to play or listen to.
And so it continues! I’m sure that there are players who love this style of writing but I really found it very unfriendly and hard to listen to, and indeed it continued throughout the entire piece in a very similar manner. So, whilst this definitely does not appeal to me , there may be many who love this style of composition, in which case this piece could be right up your street!
Chris Dumigan
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