Camaieu

With each part running to a dozen pages, this is a sizeable pile of notes. The work breaks down, or perhaps we should say refracts, into colours - sapphire, indigo, azure, turquoise and ultramarine. Many musicians associate colours with keys; for me, A major is always a rosy colour. The idea of 5 blue tones all in A is nowhere near as 'realistic' to me as setting them in E; or maybe I'm more cracked than I feared. Sapphire is set on shimmering arpeggios, starting with A9. Its modest pace allows a gently syncopated melody to climb high up the neck to generate a spacious sound that's delightfuL Underneath runs a harmony line, often a third or sixth below; care is needed to get the timing really tight. Indigo starts like a jazz waltz and then moves to swing time. The quaver beams have been split here and there to delineate the end of one phrase and the start of the next - I like that. Some of the key changes are exquisite. Azure, in 3/4+6/8 time, also has a jazz feel to the harmonies. Although the rhythm is easy, the notes are sometimes more challenging, going far onto the body. At the same time, there is some delicious close harmony - chords that simply aren't achievable on one guitar move magically in sequence - it's lovely to hear something very different from what sounds like 'one big guitar'. Turquoise has an almost samba-feeL An ability to read, maintain and evolve a syncopated rhythm will be vitaL Beaming of semiquaver notes over the top of semiquaver rests is a nice touch and helps show the beats very well in many bars. But where a beat begins with a semiquaver rest, the start of the beam will take the eye of the unwary to the wrong place in the bar. This colour is more of a challenge. Suited to Grade 8 players these will sound lovely in concert.

Derek Hasted (Classical Guitar Magazine)