Valse d’automne by Lyse Gingras

Valse d’automne comes to us from a composer that I cannot find a single ounce of biographical information through internet searches. I can only assume that he is either French or French Canadian. I assume the latter is due to his appearance in the Royal Conservatory editions for guitar. However, the most current editions do not have this piece in the books, or the syllabus.

Publications of Valse d’automne

The song appears to have been originally published in the Petit livre de guitare edited by Francine Dery and Claude Gagnon. My copy came from the third edition of the Royal Conservatory Guitar Series: Introductory. I have tried to obtain the sourcebook but have not been able to find it available. I did find a book by the same title by Claude Gagnon but the pieces were not listed. It also had two volumes and without the pieces listed, I did not want to purchase the incorrect one.

About The Piece

This piece falls in the Royal Conservatory level of Preparatory (Introductory in 2004). The key remains in A minor throughout. I play it with free strokes but many beginners might find playing with rest strokes more appealing. The image of an Autumn Waltz (translation of the title) comes to mind as you listen to the phrasing. The fingers and thumb never play together. This works well if you or a student is not yet putting intervals or chords together with the thumb and fingers simultaneously.

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Chadwick Becks

I have two degrees in guitar performance and was privileged to study under Aaron Shearer, Tom Kikta, David Skantar, Ken Karsh, Tim Bedner, and currently Christopher Berg. Outside my editorial work on this blog, I teach full-time across many genres including classical, jazz, blues, rock, funk, and metal.