Golliwogg's Cakewalk. La fille aux cheveux de lin (arr. Adrew Zohn)
12 p., Niveau 3This 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)
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