Picture on a Train

“Evocative «story» about strangers on a train”
As the Director of Education for the GFA and Director of Guitar Studies for Okla­homa City University, Matthew Denman is someone who has demonstrated that he’s keen on guitar ensembles. In this piece, scored for guitar quartet, Guitars One and Four have a «divisi» section, so a larger ensemble is ideally needed. This is a sub­stantial work, but all the part scores have well-chosen page turns. The score tells a story: there’s mist, a train, its whistle, and then we meet Pas­senger 1, and the effect that the titular «picture» has on each character. Passen­ger 2 is nervous and the picture reminds them of an unpleasant memory. Passenger 3 receives a spiritual awakening from the picture and there is a conversation about art. The piece concludes with the perfor­mance marking «Three passengers having three different experiences because of one picture on a train.» All of these ideas are to be evoked by Denman’s score. This piece requires an ensemble with quite strong technical ability, but rhythmi­cally the motion of the train acts to bind the parts tightly together, so this may actually come together more readily than some eas­ier pieces where the parts do not interlock. I feel a good ensemble could make magic out of this «intermediate» piece.
(Classical Guitar Magazine)