CD Night & Day (Minor 7th on line)
It’s not a shift, but a paradigm chasm from classical to jazz guitar playing. Although all music shares a common vocabulary, the vernacular of jazz with its odd idioms of syncopation and blue notes might seem like an exotic dialect to a classical player, a southern drawl to one raised speaking an Irish brogue.
Truly authentic communication with an instrument via classical or jazz, as with a brogue or drawl, demands there be no mimicry... the dialect must be a native tongue. Roland Dyens proves on "Night and Day" that he is fabulously bilingual. Although having firmly established his preeminence as a classical guitar player with prior recordings of Villa-Lobos, Satie, Sor and Weiss, Dyens has shown perhaps more fluency with modern genres, including arrangements of Georges Brassens songs, Thelonius Monk and Django Reinhardt standards, even a tribute to the music of Frank Zappa. "Night and Day" likewise showcases Dyens’ facility with novel and virtuosic renderings of classic American jazz standards on solo nylon-string guitar. Like Martin Taylor, Dyens plays on one guitar that which sounds to be impossible, both in speed and articulation of diverging counterpoints. Particularly on "Bluesette", "All the Things You Are" and "Take the A Train", one must pause to verify that these are not duos. And as any serious musician strives to do, the technical difficulty of these arrangements is camouflaged, made subliminal by the carefree and contagious exuberance Dyens infuses into these tunes.
Even the simpler, slower melodies "I Love Paris", "Misty", and "Over the Rainbow" find a very complex expression with Dyens’ genius for arranging... but in the process of finding their way to your ear become simple again, natural, a native tongue that speaks to you sincerely in a dialect you’ve always heard.
© Alan Fark

The official newsletter of the New York City Classical Guitar Society
Roland Dyens/ John Williams
The Two Ends of the Spectrum
by Mark Greenberg

Solo Guitar Recitals by
Roland Dyens
American Youth Hostel- April 3, 2005
Long Island Guitar Festival- April 9, 2005

and

John Williams
Zankel Hall- April 11, 2005

An earlier article discussed ‘introspective’ more ‘extroverted’ type of classical guitar style. Two rarely-seen soloists in NY--the divine R. Dyens, and wonderful (and legendary) J. Williams provide examples of supremely accomplished approaches that could scarcely be more different.

Roland Dyens is perhaps better known as a composer. As a player, if Verdery represents the Tibetan Buddist school of guitar, Dyens hails from the Zen campus. Less is more. Or, to paraphrase a Dyens-ism—to play loud, you have to play soft. Slow demands fast. And, ultimately, to be heard, one has to be not heard. At least, one has to be very, very, very, very quiet.

And surely he is. Oddly, though, no matter how quietly he plays, he somehow remains audible. It is one of the anomalies of time and space that the guitar, though seemingly a very reserved instrument, carries long and far into the night. (Watch out for neighbors!) In addition, there is something calculated about Dyens’ approach and the ear of the mind may anticipate what Dyens is getting at, and fill in the occasional aural gap.

All this is, of course, eccentric. In fact, Roland Dyens is another example of an artist about whom specifics—how he played this piece, how he played that piece—are pretty much irrelevant. One does not so much watch him perform as watch him exist. One gets the feeling that he is simply a genius of a human being with strong opinions about pretty nearly everything, and he would do equally well on another guitar, another instrument, or even another medium. I would be willing to eat a Darryl Perry guitar if this guy doesn’t occasionally paint or draw; his books and conversation clearly show talent with language.

A few words now have to be said to give a better sense of Dyens’ sound. First, compared to other guitarists, he has a far greater range of dynamics and tone-color. Dyens never gets very loud--I imagine harsh sounds make him wince--but when he plays softly, he gets to the threshold of audibility, and then some. There are times when he may or may not be producing sound. Only he knows, and it is very much part of his sense of humor not to let you in on the secret. He impels (rather than compels) you to listen.

As far as tone-color, Dyens uses far more flesh than the average classical guitarist. On the other hand, he often plays even inner strings, even the 2nd string, with his thumb. In fact, Dyens can beautifully mimic the sound of either an electric or steel-string guitar. He can also provide a wide spectrum of special effects. I guess we’ve all fooled around with the tight stretch of strings above the nut. The difference is that for Dyens, they are a regular stop. Presumably he can tell you their pitch.

On this subject of pitch, Dyens is (I hope he will forgive me for saying so) a bit of a crank. If your concentration is not good, you do not want to play for him in a master class. He will retune your guitar, even if you are in the middle of the Bach Chaconne. Even if you are in the middle of the runs in the Bach Chaconne, he will retune your guitar. Not that he is a mean person; he is extremely warm and kind. I simply think he cannot bear to hear an out-of-tune guitar, and his ear demands that he administer an instant remedy. Had Dyens lived at the time of Bach, I think there is little question of where he would have stood regarding the issue of equal temperament. In fact, even in this, the 21st Century, he is distinctly a relativist and, in fact, Dyens’ book, 20 Letters, provides a specialized tuning regimen for the main intervals of each piece.

Of the two recitals that I heard, though there was an overarching structure, there was no specific program. Each Dyens recital starts with an improvisation. Do you think, though, that he plays more-or-less the same thing? I assure you, the two I heard were widely varied. The first, at the NYCCGS recital, was a nearly classical and extremely beautiful extended tremolo study. The Long Island improvisation was a jazzier number, composed of chords and runs. Next were Sor variations, nicely done but very, very quiet. Three waltzes completed the first halves of both programs. Dyens’ affection for Chopin is unsurprising. An equally subdued player of similar subtle sensibilities, Chopin reportedly said ‘Nothing is more beautiful than one guitar, save two.’ But then again, he never heard Dyens. It is difficult to imagine any other guitarist transcribing Chopin more sensitively or playing such music with greater refinement or delicacy. Apart from the exceptional palette of colors used, Dyens has a sense of rubato that transcends that of most modern musicians. Though he once told me he did not like photography because he likes to live in the present, the logical extension of Dyens’ thinking is that to live in the present, one must live in the past and future. Of this, he is in fact a master.

If there is one weakness to his playing, it is also its strength. Everything Dyens touches turns pretty much to Dyens. Barrios, Sor, Villa-Lobos all end up more-or-less assimilated into Dyens/Barrios, Dyens/Sor and Dyens/Villa-Lobos. Even those who have played the V-L Prelude #5 for decades will come out of a Dyens concert wondering if what he played were the same notes they’ve had under their fingers all those years.

But who can complain? Dyens’ performance practices are riveting and hold your attention completely. As suggested, much of his art happens inside his head; it is, in a way, conceptual, and as such, Dyens is fairly unconcerned with the physical realities of time and space. He takes big chances in performing suicidal feats of speed and change of hand position and, as he is a genius at calculating the odds, they always pay off. Frets? Who needs frets? If need be, he skates right off the neck of the guitar, into the clear void above the soundhole, still maintaining hand-position and obtaining his own odd tonalities. Though subtle and refined, Dyens is also a showy and exciting performer, who can (and does) get his audience to its feet. His arrangements of jazz standards that took up the bulk of the second halves of both programs included Take the A Train and Over the Rainbow; what Dyens does with these pieces has to be seen (and heard) to be believed.

At both programs, Dyens served up an encore of the newest of his ravishing works—the Angel Waltz (composed in a green room in LA). At the Long Island concert, there was a very charming moment when Roland forgot what came next, put his finger to his head like the proverbial absent-minded professor, and after only a second, his face lit up, and without breaking stride, he completed this most lovely Lauro-like piece(Dyens/Lauro, of course).
John Williams, you can say, takes up where Dyens leaves off. The softest sound that Williams produces equals Dyens’ loudest. Dyens is relaxed and casual. Williams is wound tight. Dyens arrives barehanded and borrows a guitar. Williams is loaded for bear and has a Smallman, a mike and two speakers. Dyens compels, or impels, you to listen. Williams orders you to listen (sometimes quite literally). Dyans requires (and gets) a noiseless audience. Williams’ audience coughs, sneezes, and in general makes a hell of a racket. Greenberg’s law: Artists get the audience they deserve.

Research on Roland Dyens and his arranging and performing style - by Michelle Birch, New Zeland
Download and enjoy the huge and incrdedibly detailed work this female guitarist from New Zeland dedicated to my approach of the guitar (special techniques, performance indications, colour, rythm, harmonics etc...). Simply amazing ! Download Here!

A six-page article from this wonderful Treatise was printed in Soundboard magazine in 2006 (volume 332, #1 &2) by Sean Beavers - Georgia, USA
ROLAND DYENS AND HIS MUSICAL STYLE

Guitarist and composer Roland Dyens was born in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, on October 19th, 1955. He moved in 1961 to France, where he has lived ever since in Paris and its suburbs. Dyens began playing guitar and composing at the age of nine. Four years later, Dyens began studying with Spanish classical guitarist Alberto Ponce at l’Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris. Dyens received his Licence de Concert in 1976 from l’Ecole Normale. He also studied composition, conducting, and orchestration under Désiré Dondeyne. He received first prize in harmony, counterpoint, and analysis. After graduating from l’Ecole, Dyens began to build his musical career. He received awards such as the Special Prize of the International Competition of Alessandria and the Grand Prize of the Charles-Cros Academia for his recording Hommage à Villa-Lobos. Besides being a laureate of the Beracasa and Menuhin Foundations (1980), Dyens was also honored in 1988 by the magazine Guitarist as one of the 100 best contemporary guitarists of any style. He has performed concerts and taught master classes in France, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, Hungary, Indonesia, the United States, Brazil, and many other countries. He has appeared on the cover of major guitar magazines including Les Cahiers de la Guitare (France), Classical Guitar (England), Gitarre & Laute (Germany), Guit’art (Italy) and Gitary Swiat (Poland). From October of 1998 to June of 2000, Dyens taught a classical guitar class at the jazz and rock school in Paris called simply l’Ecole. Currently, Dyens lives in Ville d’Avray, just outside Paris, and teaches at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, where he began teaching in June of 2000 after the retirement of his teacher, Alberto Ponce.
Dyens has recorded twelve albums that include a wide variety of repertoire. Some of the pieces on his albums were written for the guitar by well-known composers like Heitor Villa-Lobos, Fernando Sor, and Joaquin Rodrigo; however, many of the pieces on Dyens’ albums are his own arrangements or compositions. Some of his arrangements are of pieces by composers such as Frederic Chopin, Erik Satie, and Maurice Ravel. Other arrangements are of jazz standards by artists such as Django Reinhardt and Thelonius Monk. He has also arranged many French popular songs.
Dyens’ published compositions include forty-eight pieces for solo guitar, one guitar duo, eight pieces for guitar ensemble, one piece for guitar and string quartet, and three pieces for guitar and string orchestra. Dyens’ published arrangements include fifty solo guitar arrangements, three arrangements for guitar ensemble, and one arrangement for guitar and string quartet. Dyens describes his education as classical and formal, a typical music conservatory education. His experience with jazz and popular music came from his own explorations outside of his conservatory studies. Dyens emphasizes that he did not set out to combine musical styles. As he heard music he enjoyed, he integrated it naturally into his compositions.
To Dyens, composition and performance are linked. He views himself in the tradition of composer-guitarists such as Fernando Sor and Mauro Giuliani. His style is flexible and eclectic. His most important influences include European art music, French popular songs, American jazz, and South American jazz and popular styles. Dyens’ forms are often drawn from popular music, his harmonies from jazz.
A few of his pieces have influences from India and Saudia Arabia, for example, Concerto en Si and Hamsa. Concerto en Si, a concerto for solo guitar accompanied by guitar ensemble, is influenced by sitar music of India. The ensemble work Hamsa is influenced by Arabic music, especially the last movement. Even the title comes from Arabic. Hamsa is Arabic for five and refers to the five fingers of the “hand of Fatma”, which is symbolic for protection against evil and are often depicted on amulets worn around the neck. Dyens attempts to consciously recognize the diverse sources from which his musical style is drawn. He often pays homage to composers of the past who have influenced his work. It is perhaps ironic that a composer as creative and original as Dyens writes many works that are titled as homages, but this is characteristic of Dyens’ humility and desire to recognize small details drawn from prior works. Even if the majority of a work is newly composed and one or two small elements drawn from another composer, Dyens is likely to title the work as an homage. In addition to titular indications of homage, Dyens uses directions to the performer to indicate allusion and homage. The directions to the performer in Eloge de Leo Brouwer, Ville d’Avril, and Deux Hommages a Marcel Dadi specify works to which allusions are made. In other homages like Hommage à Villa-Lobos, allusions are not identified in the performance notes but are implied by movement titles like Bachianinha, which alludes to the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 by Villa-Lobos. In each of his homages, Dyens’ personality comes through. He says that he does not want to hide behind homage but prefers to let his personal touch be clearly evident while acknowledging his debts to the past.
This is similar to his approach to arranging, in which music of other composers bends to Dyens’ will and bears his fingerprints. He says that arranging is an art of sacrifice, knowing what to omit and what to add to make the piece idiomatic for the guitar. When arranging a piece, Dyens begins by choosing key and deciding whether he will use scordatura. The choice of key and scordatura is often designed to place the tonic and dominant notes on open strings. Then, as Dyens makes the arrangement, he seeks to use the tone colors of the guitar to highlight the most interesting aspects of the piece. He also freely adds his own ideas to his arrangements. One could apply to Dyens’ arrangements what Mark Greenberg said in a review of a Dyens performance, “Everything Dyens touches turns pretty much to Dyens. Barrios, Sor, Villa-Lobos all end up more-or-less assimilated into Dyens/Barrios, Dyens/Sor, and Dyens/Villa-Lobos.” Dyens draws from many sources but is defined by none of them.

Dyens’ Musical Style

Dyens’ musical style is eclectic and original. Dyens can adapt and combine many different musical idioms, seemingly with little effort and few lines of demarcation. For example, in L.B. Story he pays homage to both Leo Brouwer and Leonard Bernstein while managing to still be uniquely Dyens. In Deux Hommages à Marcel Dadi, he pays homage to Dadi and to Lauro, one of Dadi’s favorite composers. In spite of the elements of other composers’ music, Dyens’ works have a unique sound. This is due to the sensitivity to sound and timbre, the unusual rhythms, the syncopated melodies that unexpectedly spring forth from within the accompaniment, and the incorporation of a variety of extended guitar techniques.
Dyens frequently uses ostinato patterns to create an atmosphere. Then he introduces melodies, often syncopated, that emerge from the ostinato accompaniment, often weaving in and out of the range of the accompaniment as, for example, in the Tuh? movement of Hommage à Villa-Lobos. Dyens’ sensitivity to sound and timbre is reminiscent of other French composers including Debussy, who viewed timbre not as decoration but as integral to musical design. Dyens’ father was a painter, and Dyens says that he learned from his father to love colors and to be a painter with sound, creating many shades of tone. Dyens’ irregular rhythms are evident in many works including his famous Libra Sonatine. Irregular rhythms are also featured in the Cuba Libre movement of Éloge de Léo Brouwer, in which the irregular rhythms were partly derived from Cuban music, especially that of Brouwer.
Dyens’ titles frequently involve jeux des mots, plays on words. Often he combines two words to create a new word that previously did not exist. For example, Solilogue, the title of the first movement of Éloge de Léo Brouwer, is a play on the French word soliloque, which means soliloquy. By substituting a “g” for a “q”, Dyens combines soli(loque)+(dia)logue, implying that he is simultaneously talking to himself and having a dialogue with Brouwer. Another example of this word play is Climazonie, the title of the first movement of Hommage á Villa-Lobos. This word combines Clima(t)+(Ama)zonie to imply that this movement is evoking the musical climate of the Amazon river and therefore of Brazilian composer Villa-Lobos. These word plays are a part of Dyens’ style and add insight and sometimes humor to his works.
Dyens’ wit is also evident in the notes to the performer. For example, in Lettre XIII: Lettre et le néant, a page of blank musical staves reminiscent of John Cage’s 4’33”, Dyens explains in a note to the performer that the blank page is intentional and therefore not an excuse to get a refund from the publisher for the set of 20 lettres.
The wit that is evident in Dyens’ titles and performance notes is also evident in his music. In the performance notes to Si Brouwer m’était conté, the fourth movement of Éloge de Léo Brouwer, Dyens tells the performer that a short quotation of Elogio de la Danza by Brouwer is hidden in the music. Hidden indeed, the quotation consists of five thirty-second notes in an obscure accompanimental passage. Also, in an intense part of Si Brouwer m’était conté, Dyens quotes a taunting theme used by children on the playground. In a personal interview, Dyens explained that he introduced this theme for surprise and humor because he does not want to take himself too seriously.

Dyens’ Guitar Techniques

Dyens is very specific about the guitar techniques to be used in his pieces. If the guitar is a miniature orchestra, as some say, then Dyens is an orchestrator of the guitar. In many of his pieces, timbre and special guitar techniques are more important than the notes and harmonies. Many of his themes are first created as improvisations on the guitar, then refined away from the guitar, then returned to the guitar in their final version. He delights in thinking of effects that seem impossible to create on the guitar and then finding a way to make them possible. He uses many extended guitar techniques, such as strumming the strings behind the nut, plucking behind the fretting hand, right-hand tapping, left-hand tapping, and tremolo strumming know as dedillo. Dyens has developed his own notation for many of these techniques. He also includes sentences of technique description at various points in his pieces. One of the hallmarks of his music is how many of these technical effects he uses. He also includes very specific directions about dynamics and timbre, sometimes from note to note.
The specific nature of Dyens’ musical notation is worthy of comment. Many of his pieces sound like improvisations, but he notates every detail with extreme precision. The typical jazz standard is notated in a “fake book” where the melody and chord symbols are given and each performer realizes the work. The world of “classical” music, on the other hand, is usually focused on accurate performance of exactly what is notated. Dyens combines the improvisatory sound of jazz with the notational practices of “classical” music to allow any performer who is truly attentive to detail to create a performance that sounds remarkably similar to Dyens’ performance of the same work. Some jazz performers might feel that this exact notation encroaches on the freedom of the performer, while classical players are more likely to appreciate this level of detail. Dyens simply says that his music demands such complex notation to represent the complex reality of the sounds he is seeking.
In the preface to his 20 Lettres, directed to intermediate guitar students, he outlines three areas of guitar technique that he feels are often neglected. The first of these areas is tuning based on the chords of the next piece to be performed. Dyens recommends that instead of using the same method of tuning before every piece, the guitarist should tune using selected chords from the piece to create an improvisatory prelude as early lutenists did when tuning. The second area Dyens addresses in this preface is the damping of notes after their written duration. Guitarists frequently allow notes to ring past their written durations, and many guitar pieces are written with the assumption that performers will allow notes to continue to ring. Dyens contends that the notation should clarify whether such continued resonance is desired; he describes techniques for stopping resonance when appropriate. The third area that Dyens addresses in this preface is the avoidance of left-hand shifting noises. Many guitarists ignore or accept these noises, but Dyens prioritizes the elimination of these unintentional squeaks that can distract from the music. He covers all three topics in depth and develops special notations in each of these three areas to clarify precise techniques for performance. Attention to these concerns is evident in his other pieces as well.
In his master classes, Dyens is especially attentive to these three areas as well as to other musical details. He says that a consistent rhythmic pulse is the most important element in music. Dyens says that flexibility and freedom of interpretation develop within the structure of the rhythmic pulse. Dyens believes that tone colors are crucial to beautiful interpretation on the guitar. He also emphasizes the importance of articulation, accent, and not overusing arpeggiation of chords.
Dyens’ art is one in which apparent paradoxes are reconciled. Control over each detail does not eliminate freedom, rather it creates freedom. As Dyens exhibits control over each aspect, he also gain more choices and possibilities. Writing homages to the past does not bind the composer to imitating prior models, it frees him to recognize his influences and forge new music for the future.