Simon Farintosh
Bergmann Edition: 3 pages
Canadian guitarist Simon Farintosh here presents his first composition, dedicated to his wife Ella, and which apparently draws inspiration from the oceanic setting of his home in Vancouver Island.
It is set as an Adagio in B Major, not particularly a common key for guitar pieces. The piece is immediately individual in its placing of the various harmonies and chords that accompany the romantic and lush melody and some of the hand positions need care as they are quite different, especially when producing chords the way Farintosh does. The music itself is very tonal, but full of friendly clashes here and there, and is not too easy to play until you really have it carefully placed under your fingers. The range of melody takes you at one point right to fret 18 of the top string, but mostly you have to have a good knowledge of the entire fingerboard up to fret 12 , especially as there are a considerable number of unusually voiced chords throughout this work.
There is a nice video of the composer playing this, and other pieces of his, in case any guitarist is interested in hearing what the musical style of this piece is.
I can see this piece fitting nicely into a recital and as such I can heartily recommend it as something to look out for!
Chris Dumigan