William Kanengiser : Turn to the Sea for guitar ensemble : Doberman – Yppan

William Kanengiser

Doberman – Yppan : Score and separate parts ( 14, 4, 4, 4, and 3 pages respectively)

This is a beautiful piece of writing from this well – known guitar player/composer, but set in a way that could frighten lots of quartets! I’ll explain!

The composer’s idea of how to begin the piece is definitely something I have not seen before. Firstly the 3^rd guitar has a 2^nd string tuned to C and a 6^th string tuned to low C, but then at the very opening, each player has a brief solo which instructs them to play one of their strings then tune it differently before playing a brief cadenza like section as if to test the new tuning. So guitar 4 plays his B string, then tunes it up to a C before playing s bars in this new manner. Then guitar 3 plays his top E string , tuning up to an F then playing 3 bars .Then guitar 2 plays his A string, dropping it to a G and playing his 3 bars, and finally the first guitar takes his D string, and tunes it down to a C and plays his cadenza. After that 12 bars there are a further 3 bars where each guitarist plays a little fragment, before the Allegro Comodo begins the main 1st section at a rather fast  160 crotchets a minute , whilst playing quavers and sometimes smaller notes, in a melody that has many folk – like elements to it.

From then on, the music is swift and melodic but not at all easy, with a few moments that would task many players. All 4 players have important music to play, so nobody just accompanies or just plays a bass – line. They are all very involved. Finally the other unusual element is the rather different way Kanengiser writes percussive elements in various places. He explains how it is done very carefully in the notes at the beginning of the book, and there are numerous places where his music is explained so that you cannot misunderstand what he requires you to play.

The piece reaches a considerable climax only for the last two bars to be concerned again with a final detuning for all players, ending the piece on an A Major chord as a result.

As I said this will not suit everybody, but if you are a quartet of wonderful players who like a challenge then this piece is very clever, and like nothing you will have seen or heard of before!

Chris Dumigan