Roland Dyens: Partituras medio

After several years of uncertainty, while we waited for permission to be granted by the various publishers of the original works, this edition has finally made it, much to the satisfaction of the nume...

Aria, extr. Bachianas Brasileiras no5 de H. Villa-Lobos. This is exactly the opposite process of Ville d'Avril, because here I began with a complete transcription for guitar ensemble of the original g...

I have to admit to a sneaking liking for this Capricorn dream which, for the price of re-tuning your A string to B, will whisk you off to a new but friendly world, very different from our everyday env...

Five short stories in five movements, five climates diametrically opposed to each other, ranging from an impressionist ambience to exotic oriental perfumes (not forgetting the mobile phone incident!),...

It was no easy task to compose a little sister to such an older brother as the Tango en skaï. It was written under extreme conditions (taking just a night and a day), and first performed in equally ar...

I am fortunate that this piece no longer needs an introduction - a fact that leaves me with little to write now. At the risk of repeating myself, I would like to point out that it is the archetype of...

Although Rythmaginaires was published before Côté Sud, it is actually my second ensemble piece, and is genuinely written for eight guitars. Having whetted my appetite on Côté Sud a few years earlier,...

This is my first composition for guitar ensemble. At the time, there were few important works in this format, and they hardly sparked off my imagination (they included vague transcriptions of music by...

Muguets. This piece was composed in the spring and remains one of my favourites (like the lily-of-the-valley of the title). It is a light little waltz with a Parisian perfume, and is dedicated to a Co...

This work was commissioned by the Santo Tirso festival in Portugal, and while it does not drag us inexorably along the shorelines of the dark 'fado' (from the Latin 'fatum', destiny), it does transpor...

Ville d'Avril was premiered on 30 August 1997 as part of the 4th International Summer School in Martigny in eastern France, which I had the honour to direct. It lasts exactly the same length of time a...

Although these three pieces were written at different times, they have been united between two covers because of the unusual anecdotes concerning the circumstances of their composition. (These stories...

After the rigours of composing a concerto for two guitars (such as Concertomaggio), and wanting a change of scene, I have found the most enjoyable activity lies in arranging. So I jumped in feet first...

Nur Tabulatur

It was only in December 1999 that I played, and recorded, this piece five years after having composed it. I have often been asked if it contained any reference to the music of Zappa, an iconoclast of...