Thierry Tisserand
Les Productions D’Oz: Score and separate parts (11, 4, 4, 4, and 4 pages respectively)
This man’s pieces are many and everything I have seen has been wonderful. He always manages to put something fun, melodic and yet not littered with ideas you have heard before, into his pieces. This latest work, of which there is also be a version for two guitars by the same publisher ,begins with the common swing instruction to play the straight quavers that you see in the piece, as a triplet with the first note a crotchet and the final one a quaver, to create that swing sound.
Apart from the actual fact of reading straight notes and playing a swing rhythm, (and I personally know of several people who have a problem playing something different to how it sounds,) the piece is immediately fun, written in A Major, and to be played at 120 beats a minute, and not too difficult. For a large portion of the time all four players are on single notes, the sound relying on the players harmonizing often in groups of three to create the moving chords that are one of the main characteristic of this piece.
Nothing is too unexpected but the music itself is just different enough to not sound like a load of other swing pieces you may have come across, and certainly as a quartet, I can imagine that players would love this humorous, friendly and good – natured piece to play. Fabulous !
Chris Dumigan