Critique du «classical guitar magazine»:
“Morin is French-Canadian; he has studied jazz guitar and
played various diverse styles of music along the way inc1uding big
band, blues, and rock to name but three. I mention this because it
impacts on his music to a certain extent.
Melancolie, at 120-crotchets-a-minute is actually quite fast a piece for
such a mournful title! It is the harmony work that gives the piece its
title however, beginning as it does on a strange arpeggio that almost
defies key, before moving to the main first idea based around an altered
E major rising arpeggio. The melody is in the middle of the arpeggio
work here and all the chords are imaginative and slightly off kilter
with harmonies that 
are tonal but somewhat unusual. After a repeat of
the opening section the next idea slows the pace a little for a theme
based on triplet quavers and semiquavers marked animato. Again the
harmonies are distinctly individual and key structures are moving swimy
all over the place but that only adds to its appeal. Section one returns
for a brief coda interlaced with harmonies.
Reminiscence is a common time Larghetto which although having two sharps
as its key signature almost deliberately stays away from the home key
for quite a time, placing a certain tension to the proceedings.
Eventually a B minor chord begins to take the reins with a mournful
little idea. Then the section repeats, this time leading into a new idea
that begins in the home key before introducing all manner of foreign
chords that dislocate the listener's ear, eventually closing on an F
sharp minor chord. From there the opening idea returns once more, this
time leading to the coda.
Nos Rêves Envolés is a beautiful andante whose main them again relies on
an imaginative juxtaposition of notes and arpeggios that is
refreshingly unhackneyed. Mostly built around arpeggios for its entire
length, this final piece is definitely a case of saving the best to the
last. Meltingly beautiful, it goes in all manner of tonal directions
before finally finding its way back just in time for the coda.
This was a smashing little set full of originality and flair with
memorable ideas that sounding like nothing before - great!”
Chris Dumigan (Classical Guitar Magazine)
(version française à venir)
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Ludovic-Alexandre Morin
« The music of Ludovic-Alexandre Morin is elegant, with a strong feeling for melody and rhythm. Morin is one of the 21th. century composers whose music is targeted towards a broader audience than some of the elitary contemporary music from the 20th. century. Morin’s music is kind of easy listening but with edge and originality, which takes the music a level beyond the trivial. Moreover, his music have a touch of humour and most of his compositions are easy to intermediate level technically. All in all – Morin’s work is worth a closer study.
Ludovic-Alexandre Morin was born in Montreal where he still lives. He got his musical education at CEGEP St-Laurent in Montreal, learning jazz guitar. Morin tells me, that he learned a lot of harmony and theory stuff during his jazzy time. In that period of his life, he played as professional musician at the “pop – rock – jazz – blues” scene in the Quebec area. He used to do a lot of live gigs and concerts and even studio work as well. Besides playing guitar, Morin played drums – which he still do from time to time. Just for fun, as he says.
This active and demanding stage life took an end, when Morin’s son was born in 2004. He stopped performing, and concentrated on teaching and composing. Now he primarily works with classical guitar, which he has learned taking private lessons. Ludovic-Alexandre Morin also teach Argentine tango! He is a skilled milonguero. Teaching guitar and dancing are his primary source of income these days.
In 2006 Ludovic-Alexandre Morin published three nice pieces for guitar: Mélancolie, Réminiscence, Nos rêves envolés (Les Productions d’ Oz – DZ 899). Read the review and purchase the publication here…
Morin now have decided to publish his compositions at his website as free sheet music. This is due to some ideological
considerations and also because he wants to reach a larger public. He
tells me, that he gets a lot of response and feedback from his website.
Many guitarists have fun playing his compositions. And this is the
reason he offers his compositions for free at the website. As Morin
says:
“Music should be for everybody – free if possible. I get my income from teaching, which is a really great job. And it is a privilege that I have time and ability to compose alongside the teaching.”
Morin’s wife is often a source of inspiration to his composing. He gets inspiration from his memories and from his guitar students as well. Sometimes he compose easy and funny pieces for his students. He tells me, that he always have had melodies coming naturally to him – they just pop up in his head. When he compose, he improvise round those melodies writing down the ideas. Morin tells that what he communicate through his music, he can’t express in other ways.
Ludovic-Alexandre Morin have a varied taste in music. He likes jazz guitarists like Bill Frisell and Tal Farlow and a favorite classical guitarist is Ricardo Cobo. Morins also recommend Le Trio Joubran and Django Reinhardt. Franz Liszt: Dernières Pièces pour Piano played by Andrea Bonatta and Souvenir de Florence by Tchaikovsky played by Academy of St-Martin in the Fields, are often found on his CD player.
At last I asked Morin when we can expect him to publish a CD and he answered:
I have not yet released a CD and I’ll probably never do. I’m not so great as an interpreter. Over time, I realized that I’m better as a composer. My wish is, that a high-level performer some day will play my music on a CD. »
(version française à venir)
