Well, when it starts, I'm definitely hearing a steam locomotive complete with whistle and a real sense of power. Clever dissonances put real weight into the first chuff of each four. So pretend it's a train... This stylist treatment gathers momentum, as it were, with the gradual incorporation of strummed chords, ponticello plucking, different articulations, Bartok pizzicato, bottle-neck chords, tambor and ... well, there's not much left that isn't employed. And then there is a sudden long chord that prefaces a new section with conventional pizzicato and thumb notes with the flesh. Set notionally in B minor, this section introduces some consonant chords and a different feeling entirely. The reprise of the opening is just as exciting and atmospheric as the start of the piece. Siberia? Maybe - maybe a long-distance train battling through icy weather and the occasional spring-like moment. Hysteria? Maybe - there are two endings. The first is a pair of strummed chords. The second continues for three beats more. The first two beats are a hysterical scream, denoted by ffff and a wonderful cartoon open mouth where I swear I can see tonsils. And then two thumps on the soundboard. Gripping stuff! So how hard is it? Some of the chords take some getting into, but rhythmically it's not really challenging at all. The bass part contains chords, and these won't really work with a contra guitar, but a Grade 4 player would feel comfortable. The upper parts are probably Grade 7. In terms of a challenging but still accessible piece that will make an audience sit up and take note, well, they don't come better than this. I'm just off to practise my scream. Derek Hasted
