Week 1: A Continent Full of Music! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the "Music from Latin America" challenge!
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What do you connect with Music from Latin America?
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Alberto Ulián - Los Adioses (Canción No. 2)
Here is another piece from the Uruguayan guitarist and composer I discovered a few days ago. The title means "The Farewells" but there was no specific reason for this title indicated on the score. I find the phrasing and rhythmic feel to be difficult to decipher, and so I'm not sure if my interpretation works. It reminds me a bit of the music of Dilermando Reis, with the rubato feel and the use of sixths and ninths in the melody.
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Eric Phillips Another nice piece. I noticed that you had a link on your Youtube post to a nice article on Alberto Ulian (1922-1993). I did recognize one of the influencers mentioned in the article, Atahualpa Yupanqui, the great Argentine poet and guitarist. If you have not heard Yupanqui, you should check him out. Not a great guitarist, he had his fingers broken by the Junta of Argentina, but nevertheless, he is a good guitarist and a great poet/singer.
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Dale Needles Thanks, Dale, I’ll look him up. I got the link to the article from Moyses Lopes here in this thread.
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Eric Phillips Inspired and inspiring, Eric! Beautiful interpretation. I think Brazilian serenade music had its roots in the Italian songs, mainly in the Neapolitan songs. If I am correct, the music from Ulián and Dilermando has a crossover there, because Uruguay and Brasil had many Italian immigrants, at the same time. But it's just an idea to think about... Thanks for playing, Eric!
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Moyses Lopes Thank you, Moyses. I never thought of a connection to Italy. My heritage is one-half Italian, so I like your theory!
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Eric Phillips It is such a treasure! And it is unbelievable how you play at first sight!
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Stefanie Mosburger-Dalz Thank you, Stefanie. In fairness, it is not first sight. I am reading the music, but I had practiced it quite a bit already.
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Eric Phillips That's a nice piece, Eric. Very interesting harmonic and contrapuntal structure. And beautifully played as usual.
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Jack Stewart Thank you, Jack!
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Eric Phillips I started to play out compilation books about latin guitarmusic the last days because the ability fades while working on my peaces and playing by heart all the time. It is not very beautiful, but after 3 days now getting easyer and I recognize the chords better...It is so amazing what people here bring out -information, music, inspiration...thank you for that!
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Hi, friends! This is another work in progress... Another Piazzolla. This video was recorded on July 27, 2021. I did it to ask a friend an opinion, but I simply got stuck after that and didn't go forward with this arrangement.
I know that are many good versions of Adiós Nonino, but I think that is a good exercise do my own version. I'll start again in a week or two. If anyone has an opinion, please let me know.
There are some problems with the recording... the guitar is a bit out of tune and the sound is just on the left... Thank you for listening!
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Moyses Lopes I love it, Moyses. Your musicianship is so extraordinary, not only as a player, but as an arranger as well. This is masterful.
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Moyses Lopes it is very touching and it represents the peace to me, I love it, it is amazing what you can do!
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Moyses Lopes Really Nice! You really capture the spirit of this great piece. Which arrangement are you using or is that one of yours? It is very well done. It would be interesting to compare it with Agustin Carlevaro's arrangement, which is also exceptional. Also, you probably know this, but Astor Piazzolla is quoted in his memoir that he thought "Adios Nonino" was his great composition.
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Eric Phillips Thank you, Eric! You're a gentleman!
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Stefanie Mosburger-Dalz Thank you, Stefanie!
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Dale Needles Hi, Dale! Thank you for your kind words. In fact, I listened to many interpretations on YouTube, from guitarists and pianists, and I thought that it was a great arrangement exercise do the mine. I got a piano score (with the Preludio included, which I haven't worked on yet) and start working. I avoided looking at other scores, the idea was to listen to and extract a version as if the piece was written for guitar. I know that it's very pretentious, but it's just an exercise. I didn't know about the Carlevaro, I'll look for it on YouTube. Thank you again!
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Moyses Lopes That is very impressive start, Moyses. Piazzolla is such a master of the dramatic. I am looking forward to hearing your progress on this.
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Jack Stewart Thank you, Jack! Yes, Piazzolla is really dramatic. In the words of Yo-Yo Ma: "The music of Piazzolla contains and expresses an infinite passion, it’s full of desire, and at the same time it’s contemporary." I read his biography, by Maria Suzana Azzi, for me, it was a key to understanding Piazzolla's music.
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Moyses Lopes wow, that’s great. Thank for this. It’s such a pleasure to listen to this.
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joosje You're so kind, Joosje, thank you!
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Barrios - Oración
This is a more challenging piece for me, so this video has lots of mistakes and pauses. It's a work in progress. I'm talking a bit at the beginning, so if you want to skip that, jump to 1:00.
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Eric Phillips its going to be good, you had a good tone and those tiny gaps will vanish, the peace is beautiful!
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Stefanie Mosburger-Dalz Thanks, Stephanie. It really hurts my left hand to play it. It's long and there are lots of barres and stretches.
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Eric Phillips Beautiful, Eric! There aren't that many mistakes, and I think Barrios had giant hands... For us, with normal hands, things can be difficult...
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