Week 3: Italy in 19th !
Welcome to the Main Thread for the second week of the "Around the 19th Century Guitar World" challenge!
Italy was the birthplace of many great classical guitar virtuosos, although many of them found success outside of the Italian peninsula. Paganini was arguably one of the greatest violinists of all time, but was also a very talented guitarist and performed regularly with Legnani. Regondi, technically from Switzerland, followed in the Italian style of composition and was also a gifted multi-instrumentalist.
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Giuliani Op.113 Fughetta 1st half - very rough
I find this Fughetta by Giuliani to be a very nice Romantic Fugue (well, fughetta as the title says). I intended to post it during the Vienna week which was more appropriate. However, I grossly miscalculated how difficult it is for me. This is my best (?) take of the first half of this piece. I hope to have it by the end of the challenge.
Next week? Oh wow! Not sure, maybe?
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Jack Stewart Great job, Jack! I definitely would have guessed that to be a baroque piece. That's Giuliani?
As I listened to it, my dog heard your dog and started going crazy!
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Wai Thanks Wai. I can play he entire piece but only if I isolate each difficult part. I am (very) hesitantly hopeful I can manage an approximation of the piece.
We are house sitting our daughter's dog (brown) and it is a handful!
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joosje Thanks Joosje. You have much more sense than me. I was able to stumble thru it during the first week so I thought I could manage to put it together by Vienna (
BWWhaaaaaaaa - by Vienna! Oh that is priceless ) In any event, I really like the piece and will keep working on it.
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Barney Thanks Barney. I appreciate your encouragement.
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Steve Price Thanks Steve. I only recently discovered this piece and it was such pleasant surprise - especially being by Giuliani. I do think I will get this but not sure (in fact, pretty sure not) I will have by the end of next week.
Yes, the dogs have little respect for performance convention.
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Eric Phillips Thanks Eric. It was a surprising discovery that Giuliani had composed such an interesting fugue (fughetta). I don't really think of Giuliani as a contrapuntal composer, that is more of Sor's style. Though I am unaware that Sor ever wrote anything like a fugue. I think this actually sounds more like a Romantic fugue than Baroque to me, but I couldn't tell you why I think that.
We have been house-sitting our daughter's dog (the brown one) and she is quite a rambunctious puppy (the dog, not our daughter.)
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Jack Stewart Great start with this interesting piece, Jack! I notice that on the title page of the copy of the score in the Boije Collection is the hand-written annotation ‘for terzguitarre’. For those who don’t know, this was a small guitar, popular in the early 19th century, pitched a minor third higher than the standard instrument. (Why it hasn’t been revived in the modern era is a mystery to me, as there is a large existing repertoire for it, albeit mostly as a chamber instrument.) So the demands on the left hand when the fugue is played on a full-sized modern instrument may be greater than Giuliani intended.
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David Krupka Thanks David. Interesting to know about the term guitar. That would make sense, especially in measure 14 which requires a stretch between the 2nd finger on d (3rd fret) and the 4th finger on c# (6th fret). I am currently up to about 10% accuracy there.
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Hannah Murphy martin Is there a thread for week four?
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Giuliani op. 113 Fughetta
I have no business posting this but it is the best of many attempts to record it. There are several segments that continually give me a hard time. It begins reasonably well but the last section sort of falls apart. There are not many moments of repose so when I stumble it is a real scramble to regain my footing (so to speak). I will continue to work on it and maybe post updates (assuming they are an improvement) in the practice diary.
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Jack Stewart That was amazing, Jack! What big improvement from last time! 'm beginning to understand why I haven't ever heard this piece before - it's so difficult that it scares people away from playing it. I love the way the different little themes keep popping up in the different voices, and the whole thing just moves forward perpetually like a machine. I look forward to hearing your continued progress, so please do post in the practice diary.
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Jack Stewart Well done, Jack! You have already been able to play the whole piece, and it's over 3mins, man, I am still scared of practicing anything longer than 3mins.
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Eric Phillips Thanks, Eric. It is relentless which is both its charm and its curse. I hope to have it consistently under control soon, then begins the arduous task of trying to get the phrasing and articulation under control.
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Wai Thanks Wai. You have more sense than me. This one feels like a lot longer than 3 minutes.
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Jack Stewart Relentless is a good word. To be honest, this is the type of piece that I enjoy listening to, but that I don't enjoy playing. I would find this stressful to play.
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Eric Phillips I guess my problem is that I am very attracted to counterpoint, and fugues in particular.
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Jack Stewart This is coming along nicely, Jack. I had a look at some of those stretches you mentioned and they are certainly nasty! If the piece was indeed intended for terz guitar, you might consider using a capo at the third fret. By the way, if you enjoy counterpoint you should look at the music of Francesco da Milano (composed for six course lute, but entirely suitable for guitar). He was a great master of imitative counterpoint. Here’s a link to his music, if you’re interested (and don’t mind playing from tablature):
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
