WEEK 1: Select And Practice Your Piece! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the End-Of-The-Year Community Concert Challenge!
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 assignments and questions! ↓
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Weiss Fantasia Revisited
I'm reviving the Weiss Fantasia from a year ago and am working on rephrasing it. I'm especially focusing on the introduction section which was originally written w/o barlines. I am trying to give a more free form, improvisatory feel to it. It still needs work. I'd be interested in the community members' comments.
I might be able to record a revision of BWV 996 Allemande before I leave for Spain (Monday morning!!!). I return on the 29th so this (these) will be my only opportunity to participate in this challenge. I will definitely watch the Watch Party after I get back.
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks, Blaise, I appreciate your comments. I will try being more free in chordal sections. I tend to be hesitant to stray too far from the beat (intentionally, at least), but I do sense that being even more dramatic with the spacing would be effective. I will try slowing the intro ending, however I am currently intrigued with having an irregular flurry of notes leading to the final phrase before the fugue. I don't quite have what I want (or think I want). This gives me plenty to work with when I get back ( after I reclaim the piece after 2 weeks+ of not playing.)
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Dale Needles Thanks, Dale. It's great to hear from you! I'm afraid I sort of dropped off the map for a while. The sale of the restaurant and frustration with my playing kept me sidelined (mixed metaphors, I believe).
We are pretty excited about the trip. My wife certainly deserves it since she has had the responsibility of running the restaurant by herself since Covid. Our daughter will meet up with us in Granada for the last half of the trip.
Would love to reconnect in January, though it will probably take me a while to get back to being able to play after this break.
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Jack Stewart That Fantasie is really nice. So much music packed into 2 and half minutes. I love the style but I'll have to find something a little lower level.
Enjoy the trip. My wife and I spent some time in Cadiz and loved it.
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Steve Price Thanks Steve. I have always loved this piece. I think of it as comparable to Bach's BWV 996 Prelude. That's another I hope to revive this year - revive from about 30 years ago!
I am pretty excited about the trip.
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Jack Stewart That’s beautiful, Jack. Great articulation , which gives to the piece this much more organized and energetic character than what I often hear. Enjoy the trip!
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Jack Stewart This is sounding wonderful, Jack! This makes me want to try playing some Weiss. That buildup at the end is so rockin'!
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Jack Stewart take care of you and have a good trip! after two weeks of abstinence you'll probably have cleared your mind enough and be ready for another round of work.
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Jack Stewart This is sounding really good, Jack! I love the sense of 'purpose' and direction in your interpretation. I agree that an improvisatory feel is what is called for here. You're well on your way to achieving that. Have a great holiday in Europe! If you enjoy the visual arts, don't miss the 'Prado' in Madrid. And remember to always be on the lookout for those apparently ubiquitous guitarists!
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Steve Price Steve, you might look at the prelude from Weiss's Suite IV if you want a piece that is a little easier. It is similar in character to the first part of the Fantasia, but lacks a contrasting fugal section. Here is an edition from the Delcamp website:
https://www.delcamp.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Sylvius-Leopold-Weiss-Prelude-de-la-suite-IV.pdf
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David Krupka Thanks David, that's definitely more my speed.
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Hi tonebase friends, you are all doing so great, and this is such a nice and wonderful community!
Update from my side: I was practicing a bit during the last days since my 1st video. I was focused on practicing isolated spots with slow playing, for example some parts of the second section of "Un Dia..." (LH and RH) and 2 spots in "Montemayor". I feel some improvement.
Keep up practicing...
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Did some recording:
- isolations of Un Dia de Noviembre and Montemayor (final tempo)
- Montemayor - complete.
Starting with "Rec" and playing like "live", simulating the concert situation (which is new for amateurs usually playing for own ears only
and being nervous etc. but trying to stay focused on the music and what was learned during practicing. Aim: playing "free" as best as I can.
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Robert great job Robert. Montemayor is getting really in shape and ready for concert. Pity it’s such a short piece…..
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joosje Thanks! Indeed, too short.
There are other short pieces in the set of "Castles of Spain" and also longer (and more difficult) ones. These pieces are so beatiful and show so many different colours and melodies, a pure cosmos of lovely guitar music.
Of these pieces, I am practicing "Montemayor", "Torija", "Alba de Tormes" and "Sigüenza". -
Robert Nice work Robert. His Castles are such a great set of pieces.
You mentioned the mental aspect of this and I'm with you on that. It's interesting how different playing versus playing while recording is. Losing focus is what I struggle with and it's weird that I can concentrate while playing on my own but catch myself randomly thinking things like "did I feed the dogs?" while recording which ultimately leads to me losing my place, lol. This is great practice for me.
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Robert These are very impressive, Robert. The Brouwer and segment is coming along very nicely. Your performance of the Torroba was Beautiful.
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Robert Nice work Robert! Great idea to just hit record and treat it as a concert performance! You don't appear nervous at all. It's coming together quite nicely!
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Sor Op 6 No 12 December 10
Here's an update. I shared my thoughts in the video.
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Eric Phillips Well done, Eric! I love this piece, and listening to it by watching your video gives me an impulse to work on it again after years (if not more than a decade). Thanks for sharing all your videos of your journey through this piece.
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Eric Phillips This is really coming along nicely, Eric - a BIG improvement over your earlier take. (With Sor, I find it always takes a while for the left hand to adapt to its task; and remember, even Coste - Sor's own student - found his concert works more or less unplayable!) Musically, I feel you could be just a little freer with the tempo, but that is no doubt quibbling. (I hear in this piece the romantic side of a composer whose sensibilities straddle two eras.) These concert studies are real milestones for we guitarists - time for the dreaded (Segovia) number 12!?
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Eric Phillips this is great progress! You make it sound lovely and we all know how hard it is to get these melodic lines smooth and legato. Really well done!
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Eric Phillips you're progressing fast, voices are clear and well directed, you look relax enough.
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Heard so many great submissions in this forum, really inspiring!
I present here my first take of one of the pieces I had in mind for this end of year concert: a Fantasy by David Kellner (German, a Bach contemporary). Yes, I have a tendency to choose pieces that are not so well known….This arrangement is by Hubert Käppel, but I made some changes. The arrangement is with (6) string to D, but there are moments that you’d really need the open E to sound under the Dominant chord progression. So here I go, using my 7th string in D.
difficulty lies in the different tempi, the improvising character (as in Jack’s Weiss fantasy) , separating the segments and yet creating unity of the piece.the other piece I am working on is John Dowland’s a Fancy No. 6 (Poulton) in e minor. I hope to record in the next two days - there are 2 very tricky moments in the last part, I have to practice a bit more.
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joosje thank you for sharing this beautiful piece and interpretation. Your ideas are clear and refined and your tone is fluid and legato, bravo!
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joosje Joosje, this is outstanding! What a beautiful piece of music, and you seemed completely in control of each gesture and phrase. I’ll be listening to this several times.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
