Variations sans thème de Sardane

Flûtiau avec tambour - Fanfare avec procession - Procession avec rien - Flûtiau avec danse

This is an approachable guitar solo from a French composer and guitarist associated with Alberto Ponce, to whom it is dedicated. These variations seem to be more about an idea of a dance than a musical content beyond the tendency to a 6/8 rhythm. Despite being titled 'Flûtiau avec Tambour', the opening movement has no percussion. (.) The second part, 'Fanfare avec Procession' picks up the Sardana rhythm from before and this section owes more than a little to some of the Britten Nocturnal - anyone writing wide fixed intervals moving up and down against open strings is going to get that remark. 'Procession avec Rien' starts more like a Siciliana and gradually dissolves. The concluding 'Flûtiau avec Danse' brings together various elements from before in a boisterous finale. There is quite a lot of formulaic fingerboard writing here, with large chords moving up and down the frets against open strings internal to the chord shape, and - at last! - a little percussion. 

Stephen Kenyon (Classical Guitar Magazine)