1 Jazz Mind and Classical Hands - Roland Dyens and his Style of Arranging and Performing Michelle Birch Copyright 2005, Michelle Birch. Please seek the permission of the copyright holder at
[email protected] before any form of reproduction of this paper, in whole or in part, other than the initial download from Roland Dyens' website. 2 ABSTRACT This research project focuses on four of Roland Dyens' 26 Chansons Francaises: "Ne Me Quitte Pas", "Revoir Paris", "Avec le Temps" and "Plaisir d'Amour". It contains biographical detail, relevant recordings, existing literature on Dyens, and personal correspondence with Dyens and others. Analysis of these four song adaptations for classical guitar is undertaken in order to better understand Dyens' style of arranging and performing. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE page 1 ABSTRACT page 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS page 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS page 4 INTRODUCTION page 5 ROLAND DYENS – BIOGRAPHY page 6 THE FOUR ADAPTATIONS page 9 • The Importance of Understanding the Source page 11 • The Importance of Good Translation page 12 DYEN'S COMPOSITIONAL AND PERFORMANCE TECHNIQUES • Colour page 14 • Special Techniques page 16 • Performance Indications page 20 • Harmonics page 23 • Melody page 26 • Rhythm page 30 FINDINGS page 33 BIBLIOGRAPHY page 38 APPENDIX A: SCORES page 44 APPENDIX B: TRANSLATIONS page 58 APPENDIX C: PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE page 73 APPENDIX D: RECORDINGS page 90 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am greatly indebted to my primary supervisor Julie Coulson, not only for her determination to insist her students write clearly and concisely and the editing skill that she demonstrates, but also for her translations, both formal and informal, of several French texts related to this research.