Week 2: Let us play Transcriptions and Arrangements 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the transcription challenge! This is the place for the Week 2 Submissions!
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream for help with the first section!
If you want to describe your process (optional), feel free to use the following template.
- Things you found easy:
- Things you found difficult:
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
- (Optional:) questions
↓ Reply below with your Progress Update and Questions! ↓
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As I mentioned last week, I have been working on two movements from Astor Piazzolla's Tango Opera, Maria de Buenos Aires, freely arranged by Agustin Carlevaro. The opera is the surreal story of Maria and tells of her depravity, redemption and rebirth in Buenos Aires underbelly. The Opera is in 17 movements and Agustin Carlevaro arranged six of those movements into a suite for solo guitar. The first movement is entitled Alevare, means to begin a tango, and is set at midnight in Buenos Aires with the spirit of the night evoking the voice of Maria. The piece is designated to be played "slow and mysterious." The challenge playing this short little piece is capturing the tango rhythm and conveying the mysterious atmosphere that the music evokes. Here is an audio recording of my progress to date.
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Dale Needles dry nice Dale, I love Piazzolla’s music, but not familiar with the tango opera
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Dale Needles that should read “very nice”, not dry nice
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Paul Kennedy I believe that it is little known in the guitar community and I have not seen any arrangements, other than Agustin Carlevaro's. However, it does get performed a bit by opera companies and was staged by the NYC Opera company in October of 2021.
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Paul Kennedy Just to let you know, Paul, you can edit your own posts. Just click on the three gray dots in the upper right corner of the post and choose "edit". I loved discovering that myself!
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Dale Needles Great work, Dale! Love the rhythms, especially toward the end!
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Eric Phillips Thanks, a nice little gem.
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Dale Needles Very nice. Yet another PiazzolaI don't. Very haunting piece.
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Dale Needles Nice work Dale
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Dale Needles fantastic Dale, thank you! You really captured the "slow and mysterious" mood with your performance, I really enjoyed the fullness of your treble strings!
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Dale Needles It sounds great! I was not familiar with this piece, thanks for sharing it with us.
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Dale Needles congratulations! it is sounding beautifully !!!
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Martin Thanks. While I would love to take credit for the fullness of the treble strings, I must attribute the sound to my beautiful 1999 Anthony Murray guitar. Anthony was an amazing American luthier based initially in San Francisco and later in Virgina Beach.
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Dale Needles My professor always said "No es la gitarra, son los manos!" (or something like that, my poor Spanish might fool me on the exact expression, haha).
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Nora Torres-Nagel Thanks!
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Hélène Beaulieu Thanks, next up will be Poema Valseado, another movement from the opera, Maria de Buenos Aires and a rarely performed Piazzolla piece.
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Dale Needles thanks Dale, can’t wait to hear the next installation
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Eric Phillips thanks Eric, that is a big help
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Dale Needles thanks Dale for playing so well and sharing this Agustin Carlevaro's arrangement, I didn't know it. I have somewhere his 4 Estaciones Porteñas, I should take a look at it.
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks. Agustin has done a lot of arrangements of Piazzolla's music as well as other tango composers. His publications are for the most part published in Buenos Aires and are hard to get, but he has at least one publication done by Chanterelle Verlag and one by Guitar Solo in San Francisco. The Guitar Solo publication is of Adios Nonino, a great arrangement of that piece.
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Hello everyone. I’m working on this beautiful piece, Capricho Catalan by Albeniz, as introduced to us by Emmanuel the other day. Is any of you playing it, too, and do you have Manny’s annotated score? I couldn’t find it. I’d be happy if you can share it with me. I’m struggling with the fingering. Especially the measures 43-46 are complicated. It’s a great piece to work on but I definitely need more time than these two weeks remaining….
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joosje Hi Joosje, it seems like Emmanuel didn't share his annotated score yet, I'll remind him :)
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joosje Aaaaand here they are: https://tb.media/3r9Zke2
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Martin
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Schumann's Traumerei (update Jan 11)
Here's a video of me putting all the parts together. I still feel a little shaky at times, especially in the B section (measures 9-16). I'd like to get this completely under my fingers and memorized if possible, so I can feel the freedom to stretch it musically. Getting there.
Right now, I am playing the second phrase of the B section (measures 13-16) with the melody down an octave. It is easier to play that way, but I think it may be more effective up higher like it is in the original piano score (and in Tarrega's transcription). If I have time, I might eventually rework that phrase and bring it up higher. We'll see.
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Eric Phillips very well done. It’s a beautiful piece and you are giving it a beautiful rendition. Thank you Eric. I really enjoyed listening.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
