Steve Marsh
Lathkill : 7 pages
This piece was written at Christmas 2014 for Steve’s wife Nadia and immediately strikes the player with its beautiful harmonies but absolutely unexpected style. I have seen Steve’s music before many times and it’s the individuality of what he writes that , at first, catches the player out, and then captivates him/her, because his music sounds like nobody else’s .
The piece has a dropped D 6th, and begins with an espressivo opening where the melody glides around underpinned by some gentle harmonies, sometimes in the form of small arpeggios, and sometimes with the aid of a second lower voice and carefully placed bass notes. The piece never relaxes into a pattern but rather keeps on the move. The fingerings are essential in a number of places here. Then after a high fingered chord the piece then becomes an Allegretto where semis – quavers involving multiple pull - offs and hammer - ons take over often breaking into two voices and many areas where the melody notes are placed high up the fingerboard, interspersed with broken chords in imaginative patterns. There are moments of rasgueado too before Allegretto opening theme repeats with slight variations. Then after a considerable length, the opening Espressivo speed and themes return until a pause brings in a new final section marked Slightly Quicker, and Carol – like which has a melody in two voices in the manner of a canon, and which has quite a different feel to the music before. At the coda the canon – like melody relaxes into a big chordal Maestoso where a final Molto Rit brings the piece to a satisfying conclusion on a G major chord.
This is an entirely beautiful piece of writing that really doesn’t feel like any other piece you might have tried, and deserves to do well!
Chris Dumigan