Written in 1996, the first of the two Etudes is an extensive workout in usually two voices, involving hammer-ons and pull-offs. One voice holds down a long note whilst the other one produces the hammer-on, and then the parts swap. This happens constantly throughout its relatively long duration and usually in awkward places finger wise, so a certain technical maturity is needed to successfully bring it off.
Its companion piece is in 6/8 and here the work out is to do with syncopation. One voice plays straight dotted crotchets whilst the other plays crotchets. Again the rhythms cross over nearly every bar until in the middle three crotchets cross with four dotted quavers. After that the work subsides into calm, and a pianissimo chord closes the work with an enigmatic finish. Again the work out is considerable and aIl but the most mature players would find this quite hard.
An interesting pairing which really are Etudes in every sense of the word but definitely don't strike me as concert material. Worth investigating though if you want to improve your technique in these two areas.
Chris Dumigan (Classical Guitar Magazine)
