Guitar Favourites

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Guitar FavouritesNorbert Kraft While compiling this collection of "favourite"guitar pieces, many of which I have played for much of my musical life, I realisedthat not only was it this music which first attracted me to the guitar, butthis is the repertoire that has enticed a world of guitar lovers to theinstrument's special charm and magic.These pieces, mostly quite brief, and mainly Hispanic inorigin, embody the soul of the guitar. Perhaps the most popular Spanish music is a handful ofpieces by Isaac Albeniz, written originally for the piano, but played moreoften in transcription on the guitar. In fact, Albeniz did not write any musicfor the guitar, but clearly had his national instrument in his "mind's'ear" when composing for the piano.Inspired by various regions or cities in Spain, thesepieces evoke the haunting and mysterious character that is Spain in everymeasure. Asturias, named after the northern mountainous province, issubtitled Leyenda (Legend) and may be the musical telling of a mountaintale, that seems to grow more exaggerated with the building of each phrase. Mallorcadepicts the beautiful shimmering island in the swaying rhythm of aBarcarolle (boatsong), as though Mallorca had been set adrift in the Mediterranean.The writing is very much in the style of the great piano composer, FryderykChopin, and clearly alludes to the fact that Chopin lived for a time in Mallorca.The city of Sevilla is the heart of "flamenco country". Basedon one of the fundamental flamenco dances, the sevillanas, the lively, rhythmicalopening and conclusion suggest a flamenco" fiesta", but the central sectioninterrupts with the mournful cry of a flamenco singer. These haunting, impromptumelismas, and the suggestion of the tango rhythm, conjure up the dark anguishof the "cante hondo" style. The twentieth century witnessed an unparalleled revivalof the guitar, owingmainly to the pioneering efforts of the great Spanishguitarist Andres segovia.Among the first composers to respond to segovia'srequestsfor new music werehis countrymen, Federico Moreno- Torroba, andJoaquin Turina.Moreno-Torroba was most famous for his zarzuelas -light, often comic operaswhich were incredibly popular, with their earthy characters and intrigues. Inhis Andante (from the Sonatina), Torroba draws forth a lyricismand sweetness that seems to turn the guitar into a vocal instrument. Incontrast to Torroba's large output,Turina wrote only a handful of pieces for the guitar, andalmost all are based on flamenco dance forms. The Fandanguillo, op. 36,uses the fandango rhythm stated in the opening measures by drumming onthe guitar, and builds to a brilliant climax through a series of improvisedsounding figures. The dance-formSoleares takes its name from the Spanish word for"solitude" (soledad), and depicts loneliness through itsrepeated rhythms and dark harmonies. The Paraguayann guitar-composer Agustin Barrios Mangore,worked in relative isolation in South and Central America, altho