Week 1: Wanderer over a Sea of Fog! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of "The Romantic Era" challenge!
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When is a piece of music romantic for you?
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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Thank you Eric for inspiring us to (re) discover the Coste studies. Your performers are inspiring. I played som of them long ago, found topmost of them very difficult. It’s stil not easy. Coste was never my favorite, but only now, I am learning to appreciate the musical quality and enjoy the challenge of them.
here my interpretation of the beautiful 3rd study. I use my 7th string in these pieces. For this one not necessary, but in some of the others it comes in handyAs an bonus I add the one you skipped, nr 2. It’s quite a fun piece actually, should e faster maybe….
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joosje Beautiful, Joosje! Your seven-string guitar is perfect for Coste. I understand his guitar also had 22 frets. Does yours as well?
Number two is great, but like you say, needs to be fast. As you know, that is not my strength as a player. After quite a bit of practice, I just could not get it even close to as fast you play it here, so I moved on. You did a great job on it!
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joosje Those were great, Joosje. Coste is certainly getting his due here at Tonebase.
I am curious about your 7 string guitar. How is the 7th string tuned and do you find it difficult to handle?
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joosje As always I really enjoyed listening to your performance, it always amazed me that music came so naturally from your hands.
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joosje Such a great execution! Your last videos are with the 7th string too, right? I can't believe I didn't see that... =) This string is out of the arm, in fact, you have one note more and you tune as you need, right? Once more, Brava!
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joosje Lovely playing, Joosje! I especially like number two - I find it works well at your tempo. And it’s nice to hear the low ‘D’s in number three. It’s surprising that seven string guitars are not more common - there’s certainly enough good repertoire to justify owning one!
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Eric Phillips Jack Stewart Thank you for your always so encouraging words.
No, have only 19 frets (20 if you count the 0-fret.) The tuning of the 7th string can vary. Mostly in this music D. It’s convenient to have E and D available on open strings. But sometimes confusing, with damping
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Wai Moyses Lopes David Krupka thank you for taking the time to listen and for your generous comments.
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joosje That added variable bass string must be very useful at times. It's a shame it hasn't become a standard option for classical guitars.
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joosje Coste is real romanticto me, and you play it so beautiful and fluent, really right into my heart!
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Coste - Op 38 No 8 (May 6 update)
I practiced this for about an hour today, but it feels like there is not any improvement. I'm feeling a bit frustrated with it and may need to work on something else.
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Eric Phillips For me it's sounding great! I guess you're right: maybe working on some other piece will bring you results in this one. For me, time is as essential as a chair, i.e., my brain learns in a different way (and time) from my muscles. Anyway, I think you're - with this piece - on the path. Thanks for sharing!
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Eric Phillips yes, i think it sounds great. Nicely phrased and energetic. For me, personally, it could be a bit slower, to give room to the beautiful lyrical quality. Actually, I tend to play the A part (for me quite dramatic) a bit slower, the lighter B part a bit faster. Maybe misunderstood, somehow I feel it that way. But the way you play it, it sounds great Philip.
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Eric Phillips impressive only one hour of practice. Your skills in learning new pieces and performing them well is incredible
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Moyses Lopes joosje Lars Kjøller-Hansen Thank you all for the encouragement,
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Eric Phillips but its coming!!
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Eric Phillips this seems hard Eric but it seems to me you're doing fine. I'm in Lanzarote without my guitar and just managed to log on to see what's going on with the challenge.
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Derek thank you Derek enjoy your vacation
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More Coste, today. I practice Coste and Aguado studies, now, before I start working other pieces. They offer such variety in technical issues and musical quality. But for the longer term I chose some Sor, Mertz and Llobet. I don’t know yet how far I can get with one of them within the frame of this challenge. I need time to learn a piece. I have to rewatch Tonebase lessons and find myself some teaching….
Studies are easier to learn, one study I like a lot is Coste, no. 7 - quite energetic for the left hand. I never heard anyone else play it, but I like the moving voices and harmonic structure. It’s not so romantic in the lyrical sense, but rather dramatic with its moving bass lines.
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joosje Beautiful as always, Joosje! I really like your dynamics and expressive, but sparing portamentos.
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joosje thank you! I never heard someone play it too! and the bass is worth it!
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joosje Such a great piece of music, difficult with many voices to balance and treat, and you played really well. The 7th string works nice! I guess it was tuned in D, right? Thank you!
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joosje beautiful Joosje
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When is a piece of music romantic to you
(asks Martin in the subtitle)
It may be a definition dependent on time early mid 19 century as for paintings etc
For me then nothing defines romantic music more than Chopin.
For guitar music Tarrega and to some extent transcriptions of Albeniz and contemporaries defines it for me - although they are 50 year late painters had moved to impressionism
It may also be music that evokes certain feelings emotions or passion in you.
Musically I think there should be variations in dynamics, tempo, rubato, flashy licks ( if such exist in classical music) or lines that evoke emotions
I have posted some pieces that may be categorized under these definitions.
Two from the archive that have a special romantic meaning for me
1. Por ti mi corazón that I gave my wife as a birthday present last year
2. Serenata Espanol that I played to my sons wedding - note my new cut hair
Two that I just recorded
Chopin Nocture 9,2
Coste les soirées d'Auteuil
These two are both composed close to 1830 but are so different in style.
The Chopin is this week new project. (maybe old Fred will turn in his grave)
The Coste I have played 2 years ago, but the Scherzo part killed me, although I am going to resurrect with it thanks to this challenge, and I just ran through it a couple of times, I have played it better earlier
I had decided to not go into this challenge because I can't seem to learn the pieces in3-4 weeks , but the challenge inspires me to find new pieces as well as take old stuff up.
This week I have been off in my beach house but chose to hurt my hands and arms on handy man work instead of guitar playing.
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Lars Kjøller-Hansen Those are all beautiful pieces and you played them very well! It's only the first week of the challenge and there is already a lot of great music here. I am really looking forward to the following weeks.
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Lars Kjøller-Hansen . You have an impressive repertoire, Lars. Thank you for submitting these wonderful pieces, you seem to master so easily
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
