Jimbo's lullaby

Description

The impressionistic textures and gultar-like modal hacmonies so charactertstic of Debussy's writing for the piano often transfer weIl to the guilar. Jimbos Lullaby however Iike much of the Children's Corner suite from which it comes, has a transparency that does not at first suggest the gultar orchestra as a suitable medium While no mention is made of sources one presumes that Levesque used the original piano version and not Andre Caplet's subsequent (unpublished) orchestration. That having been said Levesque has I think, succeeded in creatlng (without too much doubling) an effective orchestration for five guitars. Interestingly, Levesques orchestra uses an octave bass (guitar 5) but not a requinto or similar instrument at the top end. While the parts should he easily manageable hy players of grade 5 standard or so, a much higher level of musicianship would he needed to convey the many subtle details of articulation The bass probably has the most challenging part and is most effective in giving the piece its elephantine character.

(Peter Rueffer, Classical Guitar Magazine, March 2002)