Gaspar Sanz
On his "This Is Classical Guitar" website, Bradford Werner is posting lessons on some pieces by Gaspar Sanz. I really like the music, so I thought I'd try working on some of them.
In the 20th century, Joaquin Rodrigo used these pieces of Sanz as the basis for his Fantasia para un Gentilhombre.
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Villanos (Aug 26)
Here is an updated, and hopefully improved, version.
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Eric Phillips it looks like Stefan Apke has a lot of free time to post scores on IMSLP, I also found a lot by him over the place. That's great someone has time to create digital version of those old scores, but like you his fingerings are quite a bit unexpected in may places.
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Blaise Laflamme Yes, I'm very grateful for so many people like him (or Edson Lopes) who have taken the time to put all these scores on the web. It's quite a legacy.
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Eric Phillips you're right, Edson Lopes has done a lot too!
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Españoletas
Rodrigo used this music for the longest and slowest movement of Fantasia para un Gentilhombe. Sanz' version presents a theme (measures 1-24), and then two variations of the theme. I'm playing it here after determining the fingering and ornaments, and after a couple hours practice (last night and this morning). Like the other pieces in this thread. I'm really working on the small details (legato, bass damping, phrasing, etc.) as the piece is technically pretty straightforward.
Again, I'm using Stefan Apke's score from IMSLP (attached). I have changed several of his fingerings. I also changed a couple of his editorial decisions regarding use of the sixth string (which Sanz did not have). I did not eliminate the sixth string completely, but I chose to take out one or two times that Apke decided to use it.
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Eric Phillips that was great Eric, this is beautiful music. Do you know Carlevaro's version of those pieces? They are more challenging technically but offers at the same time an enhanced version organized as a beautiful suite more than good for performance and concerts.
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Blaise Laflamme I was completely unaware of Carlevaro's version, but I just found it. Great stuff! Of the three pieces I have posted here, only Espanoleta overlaps with Carlevaro. I just read through it and I love it. Maybe after I finish polishing up Sanz' version, I can work on Carlevaro's. Thanks, Blaise!
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Eric Phillips I would not say «modernize» but arranged it more conveniently for a modern guitar. This is not public publishing but Alfredo Escande compiled a lot of Carlevaro contributions and made them available, and by chance this score is there among a lot of others! Take a look and tell me what you think, https://bibliotecaabelcarlevaro.blogspot.com
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Blaise Laflamme Yes, that is the document I found. I like it a lot. Thanks, Blaise!
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Eric Phillips Cool! I've never played it but I intend to at some point. The Pavana I previously played was not taken from this version tho
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Españoletas (update)
I practiced for about another hour and then recorded this again.
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Eric Phillips Very beautiful, Eric! I remember I learned Bradford Werner's version in my first monthly challenge, his version was easier but still sounded beautiful.
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Wai I remember well how beatify you played this. Actually, Sanz has two versions. One is called Espanoleta (which I believe you played), and the other is Espanoletas (since it has variations). Bradford has lessons on both of them now.
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Españoleta by Sanz-Carlevaro
As you can read above, Blaise Laflamme tipped me onto the Suite de Antiguas Danzas Españolas by Abel Carlevaro. In this suite, Carlevaro seems to be adapting six pieces by Gaspar Sanz for modern performance. Does anyone know any more background about this suite? (And by anyone, I mean Dale Needles
.)In the spirit of this being a practice diary, I am posting four videos showing my progress through learning this piece this morning.
- A walkthrough in which I read through the score and make some observations/decisions about fingerings.
- After 30 minutes of practice.
- After 1 hour of practice.
- A final performance video. (I know I have not in any way mastered the piece, but this is more like a goal for my work today.)
There is a score attached at the bottom if you are interested.
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Eric Phillips hey good work on this Eric! Very interesting to see and hear your workflow and progress in this short amount of time. Do you like what Carlevaro did? Do you find it more complex and/or more adapted for the modern guitar?
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks, Blaise. I do like what Carlevaro did. It clearly takes advantage of the greater range and sonority of the modern instrument. I also really like the piu mosso section. It sounds more later Baroque in style (dare I say Bach-like?).
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Eric Phillips you're right, and as Dale Needles has pointed out they are arranged using some of his musical ideas and the suite he created makes a great whole.
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Eric Phillips Nice performance, Eric! There are at least two other modern arrangements of Sanz’s music (like Carlevaro’s gathered into small suites) - one by Regino Sainz de la Maza, the other by Narcisco Yepes (which he recorded). What all three arrangers have in common is that they seem to have selected exclusively from the works in ‘punteado’ (i.e. plucked) style. This makes some sense, as the ‘rasgueado’ (i.e. strummed) style typical of music for baroque guitar is not especially suited to the modern instrument. But it has perhaps given today’s players the false impression that Sanz was a composer mostly of ‘miniatures’ of intermediate difficulty. In fact, he wrote many longer pieces (generally sets of ‘differencios’) that demand a high level of technical competence, if not virtuosity. It might interest you to know that Sanz apparently favoured the so-called ‘double-reentrant tuning’ (i.e. one without bourdons for any course). This means that the lowest pitch(es) on his guitar would have been the two unison strings of the open third course. (This can be achieved on a modern guitar through restringing - I’ve not tried this myself, but I’ve heard of some who have.) A few baroque guitar specialists do in fact employ this tuning for Sanz.
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Eric Phillips Wow, you could tackle a piece in just 1 hour, very impressive! This version is so different from the other one you played in previous videos, are they the same piece of music?
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Wai They are based on the same melody, but Carlevaro obviously took it in a different direction.
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Eric Phillips Glad that you found Carlevaro's version. I studied this dance suite with Carlevaro back in the 1980 when I was in Montevideo. I really like what Carlevaro does with these. If you downloaded from Carlevaro's online library, you would know that Carlevaro arranged these pieces in the 1960s and published by the Barry publishing house in Buenos Aires in 1974. Carlevaro recorded them in Montevideo in 1974, this Suite was part of the LP "Recital de música española" released by the Tacuabé label in 1975. You can see the synchronization between that recording and the score published by Barry, in this video prepared by Leon Frijns
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Dale Needles Thanks, Dale. Great performance in the video! I guess I was just wondering what Carlevaro's musical purpose or goal was in writing these arrangements. As I've suggested, maybe the purpose was simply to rewrite the material for the modern instrument, taking advantage of its range and sonority. I'm just curious if there was more to it.
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Eric Phillips I agree one of Carlevaro's objectives was to adapt these pieces to the modern guitar. Another, maybe more importantly, was to freely arrange them using some of his own musical ideas. As you play through the suite, you will see more and more of Carlevaro coming through.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
