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Well, I guess that I will start the composition thread. While I will be posting some of my video performances in the coming weeks of Carlevaro pieces, I am starting off with Carlevaro's "Estudio #5 - Homenaje a Villalobos". Carlevaro wrote five Estudios in this series, dedicated to Villalobos. Carlevaro studied with Villalobos when Carlevaro was a young man in Rio and was greatly influenced by him. I had the good fortune of studying this piece with Carlevaro in Montevideo. BTW, this is a great study to work on Carlevaro's RH Toque #4.
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Dale Needles Wow, Dale!! Great performance! You got many interesting colors in your interpretation! Thanks for sharing!
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Dale Needles Amazing Dale, very good use of dynamics and colors! This is indeed a work you make me interested in learning. You are lucky to have had the opportunity to work on this work withy the master himself!!
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Blaise Laflamme Moyses Lopes Thanks! This is a wonderful Estudio and well worth checking out. I find that Carlevaro's five Estudios - Homenaje a Villalobos are of a very high quality, not unlike Villalobos' Etudes and make for an excellent suite ala the Preludios Americanos. However, they are quite a bit more challenging to play than the Preludios. I currently only play No. 5 but hope to learn a couple of the others later this year. Also, Blaise, I am looking forward to hearing your interpretation of Evocacion and Campo. I am currently working on Ronda and Tamboriles. Ronda is in good shape and will post soon, while Tamboriles needs a little more work. Maybe, Moyes, you could relearn Scherzino. Then we would have a complete set. No pressure, just a thought!
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Dale Needles Great you are working and intent to record both Ronda an Tamboriles! Last year I worked on all 5, while I was not able to fully commit myself to them, and it's still my intent to have them part of a concert at some point. I think I can have Evocation in hand enough soon, Campo a bit later and probably Scherzino too, if Moyses has no plan for re-learning it
... but nothing prevents us to post our version of the same pieces, as I expect other Tonebase member will do! -
Blaise Laflamme my friend, you're real well humored!
Play the same pieces are like to say the same words... always can sound distinct... 
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Moyses Lopes exactly... we all express ideas in our own way and that's the beauty of music!
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Blaise Laflamme Moyses Lopes Totally agree!
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Here is Carlevaro's fourth prelude, Ronda from his set of "Preludios Americanos." I posted this over the weekend on the "Music You Love Challenge." It is a beautiful prelude that starts with a melodic round and then takes you on a little musical adventure. As I mentioned in the Challenge, the "Preludios Americanos" were premiered in 1963 in Montevideo, Uruguay and became more widely known in the 1970s, when they were published by Barry Publications (Argentina) and Carlevaro began performing them in Europe and the US.
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Dale Needles Bravo Dale, beautiful rendition of this beautiful Prelude with great dynamics, colors and clear articulations
I hope to recover my practice routine quickly and post one to follow you on this! -
Blaise Laflamme Thanks, Blaise. "Ronda" is a gem of a piece, and it is unfortunate that it is so seldom performed. I am now working up "Tamboriles," but it won't be ready until the end of March. Looking forward to hearing your interpretations of some of the "Preludios." They are a wonderful set of pieces that bring together the best of Carlevaro, combining folkloric sounding melodies and rhythms of his beloved Uruguay with his contemporary musical pallet.
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Dale Needles you're right and they are all so beautiful and interesting, musically and technically. The most played is definitely Campo which is probably the most «approchable» for most players, but they all deserve to be more exposed.
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Blaise Laflamme Campo really fits the guitar wonderfully.
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ken you're absolutely right, in fact all of the Preludios are very well written for the instrument!
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Here is Carlevaro's fifth prelude, Tamboriles, which concludes the "Preludios Americanos" cycle. I posted this video in the "Guitar Music of the World" challenge. The rhythmic foundation for this prelude is from the Afro-Latino candombe, popular in Uruguay during Carnaval. In addition to drawing upon Uruguayan folkloric traditions, a characteristic throughout many of Carlevaro's compositions, this prelude also includes a wide use of Carlevaro's musical tonal pallet and strategically placed harmonic dissonance and syncopation.
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Dale Needles Thanks Dale for adding it here, great performance of Tamboriles!
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Microestudios No.11
Last year, I practiced and learned the first 10 Microestudios. It was a very enjoyable experience ( I particularly enjoyed No. 3 and No. 6). This year, I would like to restart my Microestudios journey. However, I found that after the first 10 studies, the difficulty level seemed a bit higher than I had anticipated. I hope that in time I will be able to complete all 20.
No. 11 is like finger gymnastics, I can't say it's terribly challenging but certainly not easy (at least for me!). I skipped the 'poco meno' indication because I'm unsure how to properly slow down in the middle of the phrase.
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Wai That is very gymnastic in the left hand! Plenty of barres and leaps. Well executed, Wai!
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Wai So glad to see you posting one of the Microestudios. Excellent start, I am bit rushed today but will post some additional comments soon.
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Wai After listening to it again, you are doing a great job with this study. There are two important keys to this piece which I think you capture well with your performance. First, the technical side around shifting between longitudinal and transversal left-hand positions. Per Carlevaro's School of Guitar, pay close attention to these shifts and try to raise your fingers off the fret board using the arm. Also, when you shift from longitudinal to transversal, use the left arm and pay close attention to how you position/angle the left arm/elbow to get your fingers in the right position. Second, from musical side, treat this piece as a mini fugue with the soprano voice and the bass voice echoing each other. Play around a little bit in bringing out each voice. For example, the upper voice might be played a little more claro or metallic at times and at other times more dolce. The same can be done with the bass line, alternating between forte and pianissimo. These are simply suggestions but please note you are already playing this piece very well.
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Dale Needles Thanks so much Dale, I never considered treating it like a mini fugue before but that really opened up a new way of looking at this piece for me. The most fascinating part was hearing how Master Carlevaro varied the tempo when playing it - it felt so natural and unforced, not at all like 'following instructions' on the page.
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"Milonga Oriental" is another example of Carlevaro's compositional style in which he combines so masterfully the folkloric rhythm of the milonga with modern tonality. As I have mentioned in the recent Challenge, this piece was written in the 1960s around the same period that he was writing the "Preludios Americanos," however it was not published until 1994.
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Dale Needles again, great performance of this piece with great dynamics, colors and musicality!
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Dale Needles Very nice playing, Dale! And what a great piece! I'm surprised it took some thirty years to make it to publication. Was it intended to be part of some larger work?
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks again. Just want to keep our composition forum moving forward. Still looking forward to you and Moyses Lopes posting some Preludios Americanos. Sometime this summer, I hope to finally post the complete Introduccion y Capricho. I am also working on a video recording of Estudio No. 5 for the Etude Challenge.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
