Golliwogg's Cakewalk. La fille aux cheveux de lin (arr. Adrew Zohn)
12 p., Niveau 3
This prolific arranger/composer has come
up with something new yet again. This time he turns his attention to Claude
Debussy with, it is unfortunate to say variable results . Golliwogg's CakeWalk
from the Children's Comer has long been a favourite piece of Debussyan pastiche,
admirably written for piano, and a delight to hear. Unfortunately it is a little
unwieldy on guitar in some of its portions. Witness the opening octaves,
perfectly attainable on the piano, slightly lumpy and a bit of a scramble on one
guitar. Also one only has to look at the middle section where the constant use
of grace notes do become rather hard work for the guitarist after a short time.
This is not to say that it is impossible to play, which of course it isn't but
it simply is not as naturally flowing or as easy to achieve as on the original
instrument for which it was conceived. So what should have been a pleasant and
amusing three or four minutes becomes a little wearing. La Fille Aux Cheveux de
Lin from Book One of the Preludes is a magical piece of writing and one is happy
to write that hear the arrangement is more natural and successful although there
are one or two sacrifices made which are sorely missed when one refers to the
piano score. But that is something one can do nothing about, as one cannot put
music written over a six or seven octave span, onto an instrument that copes
happily only with half that amount, without losing something relatively
important to the music. We then get onto the very fact that perhaps certain
music ought not to be arranged but left alone in its virgin state on the
instrument for which it was written, which is an arguable statement, destined, I
understand, to create many opponents. So on this occasion I would have to say
that this book has mixed results and is only partially successful in what it
sets out to achieve but you may think entirely differently. The volume is
beautifully set out and the printing wonderfully clear as always.
(Chris
Dumigan, Classical Guitar Magazine, November 2002)
