Week 4: Spain in 19th ! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the second week of the "Around the 19th Century Guitar World" challenge!
In the beginning of the 19th century the prevailing compositional style in Spain was similar to other places in Southern Europe. Over the course of the next hundred years through influential figures such as Aguado, Ferrer, and Tarrega, Spanish classical guitar will develop it’s own unique voice that will become the dominant style of classical guitar in the 20th century.
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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Tárrega - Prelude 1 (Aug 3 update)
Here' is my best effort on this prelude today. I think it's a little better than yesterday. Keeping the bass strings from squeaking seems almost impossible, so I'm mainly trying to minimize it, lifting fingers straight up when possible, and when a slide is necessary, trying to use the softer part of the finger.
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Eric Phillips That was beautiful, again, Eric. I think you were quite successful in minimizing the extraneous string noise. Your phrasing seems more confident and expressive.
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Jack Stewart Thank you, Jack. You must have listened to this bright and early in California.
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Eric Phillips Really beautiful, Eric - my immediate reaction is to say it’s your best video to date. (Just an impression, of course, I’m not actually comparing.) The squeaking doesn’t bother me - I regard it as simply part of the guitar’s sound world. I find it even has a certain charm. The last thing to aim for, IMO, is the ‘squeaky’ clean (pun intended, bad as it is) lifelessness of a MIDI file.
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David Krupka Thank you, David! I promise not to aim for the lifelessness of a MIDI file.
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Eric Phillips what a beautiful performance this is. Fully agree with Jack and David. Fluent phrasing and musical expression.
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joosje Thank you, Joosje!
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Eric Phillips Great stuff Eric. I would not have even noticed the string squeak if you hadn't mentioned anything. Beautiful piece. Great performance!
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Eric Phillips Sounds great Eric, and keeps improving , which is wonderful! The legato is maintained beautifully by your keeping the notes sustained as long as possible with slight overlap to next note (when possible); then making quick shifts to keep it going even though the tempo is slow. Your playing keeps getting better overall! Again, Tarrega provides amazing lyrical lines in these studies and I really like this one.
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Eric Phillips The playing was very smooth this time, and the squeaks were not loud at all. (If you want to know what loud squeaks sound like, watch my video
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Steve Pederson Barney Wai Thank you all for the kind words.
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Eric Phillips what a huge improvement over the previous one, working on those small details coupled with interpretation provides this level of playing, bravo Eric!
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Eric Phillips That was beautiful Eric.
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Derek Thank you, Derek.
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Just another example of transcribing mastery of Tarrega coupled with genius of Mendelssohn. Not sure I gave this beautiful gem a performance it deserves.
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Barney That was beautiful and masterful, Barney. Your tone and phrasing were wonderful. Your version is much more elegant than my attempt. I found the fingering really difficult, but you seem to handle it with ease.
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Jack Stewart Thanks Jack! This is a piece I played many many years ago, and just remembered it when asking Hannah if Tarrega's "transcriptions" were okay for this challenge.
I appreciate your kind words.
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Barney Beautiful, Barney! That's a piece that sounds so good with your warm, rich sound.
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Eric Phillips Thanks Eric! The cedar top helps a little, lol.
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Barney that was absolutely magnificent! I think both Tarrega and Mendelssohn would be very proud of what you did with that performance. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this piece, and have started working on it myself. I hope to have it down as well as you do someday!
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Steve Pederson Thanks very much Steve!! I think it helps a lot when you love and appreciate the beauty of the music. These composers were geniuses.
I know you will play it great , since you feel that way...
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Barney That was beautiful! One more piece putting on my future to-do list, thanks for sharing, Barney.
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Wai Thanks Wai!
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Barney that’s again a wonderful performance. You’re amazing. The building up and releasing of tension are so good, accentuating the phrasing and direction. Very beautiful. You are not playing the harmonics at the beginning but it sounds just as well (even better). It’s such a beautiful piece and arrangement. I practiced it for our Tarrega challenge, but first heard this guitar version played on the lute by Hopkinson Smith, as an encore, in an old church in Prague. Unforgettable, it sounded so intimate almost like whispering.
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Barney bravo Barney! I think you should not underestimate your performance, this was beautifully played with everything it deserves
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
