Program notes by Eric Bromberger

Prelude No. 1 in E Minor
Heitor VILLA-LOBOS
Born March 5, 1887, Rio de Janeiro
Died November 17, 1959, Rio de Janeiro

Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos met the great Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia in Paris during the 1920s, and the two young men became lifelong friends and collaborators. During the 1920s Villa-Lobos wrote his Twelve Ètudes for Guitar for Segovia, and he followed this in 1940 with Five Preludes for Guitar, also written for Segovia (their final collaboration would come in 1951, when Segovia commissioned a Guitar Concerto from his friend). Each of the five brief preludes establishes a mood and sets some technical problems for the performer. The Prelude No. 1 in E Minor is at a moderate tempo (the marking is Andantino espressivo), and in this music the guitarist must project a haunting melody that is heard beneath a pulsing chordal accompaniment–it is up to the guitarist to project both this melody and the accompaniment that animates it. The gentle opening section gives way to a more lively central section in E major, full of rapid passages and flourishes. Villa-Lobos asks for a repeat of both sections, and the music glides to its subdued conclusion on a deep (and solitary) E.

Prelude, Fugue and Allegro, BWV 998
Johann Sebastian BACH
Born March 21, 1685, Eisenach, Germany
Died July 28, 1750, Leipzig

For centuries guitarists have taken delight in playing the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, particularly transcriptions of Bach’s keyboard music or his works for solo violin and solo cello. Such arrangements come on good authority–Bach himself transcribed movements from this music for lute. But Bach also wrote a handful of original compositions for lute, an instrument he did not play. The Prelude, Fugue, and Allegro is one of these original compositions for lute. It appears to date from Bach’s final years–scholars believe that it was written in Leipzig in the early-to-mid 1740s (or from exactly the same period when Bach was beginning to assemble the Mass in B Minor), though it may have been assembled from music composed earlier for other instruments.

The Prelude, Fugue, and Allegro transcribes effectively for the guitar, and Bach’s contrapuntal writing emerges cleanly in this arrangement. The genial Preludeis particularly attractive music, with the melodic line flowing smoothly above modest chordal accompaniment. Longest of the movements, the Fugue is set at a moderate pace–this is poised and dignified music, and Bach calls for a da capo repeat. The concluding Allegrorides along a wealth of spirited energy and finally drives the suite to a noble close.

Variations on “The Carnival of Venice”
Francisco TÁRREGA
Born November 21, 1852, Villareal, Castellan
Died December 15, 1909, Barcelona

Francisco Tárrega was known in his day as “the Sarasate of the guitar,” since he did for the guitar what his countryman Pablo de Sarasate did for the violin: he composed for his instrument, toured widely, and helped advance the cause of music for that instrument. Tárrega studied at the Madrid Conservatory (where his father, suspicious of the guitar, insisted that he also study piano), and then made concert tours throughout Europe. Tárrega wrote about sixty original works for the guitar and arranged the music of other many other composers for that instrument. One of his compositions, a tremolo study titled Recuerdos de la Alhambra, has become one of the most famous pieces ever written for the guitar.

“The Carnival of Venice” is a popular tune said to be based on the old folksong “My Hat, It Has Three Corners” (even those who have never heard that title will recognize the tune). Its rising-and-falling melodic lines have made it ideal for variations, and some of the sets of variations written on it are quite brilliant, particularly the many written for brass instruments. Tárrega opens his set of variations with an introductory section marked Cadenzato, full of flourishes, before offering a straightforward presentation of the tune. There follows a series of variations–some brilliant, some lyric–that allow a good guitarist the opportunity to demonstrate his technique and his musicianship.

Tres Piezas Españolas
Joaquín RODRIGO
Born November 22, 1901, Sagunto
Died July 6, 1999, Madrid

Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo, whose life spanned the twentieth century almost exactly, is remembered for his vast number of works for the guitar, and so it is surprising to learn that he did not play that instrument. His Concierto de Aranjuez, composed in 1940, remains the most popular concerto ever written for the guitar, and for the solo guitar he composed in a number of different forms: dances, evocations of specific composers, music written to celebrate specific regions of Spain and so on. Rodrigo has also written for individual performers, and his Tres piezas españolas (“Three Spanish Pieces”) was composed specifically for the great Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia.

While they are all of Spanish character, these three pieces are in a sharp variety of forms. At the center of the set is a passacaglia, that stately variation form that proceeds over a repeating ground bass. Rodrigo frames this with two fast movements: a Fandango (an old dance thought to have originated in Castille and Andalusia, in which the music gradually accelerates) and a Zapateado (a strongly-accented dance in triple-time).

Un Sueño en la Floresta
Agustín BARRIOS
Born May 23, 1885, San Bautista de las Misiones, Paraguay
Died August 7, 1944, San Salvador

One of the greatest of all guitar-players, Agustín Barrios (who sometimes took the last name Mangoré) learned to play that instrument in his native Paraguay. In 1910, at the age of 25, he left Paraguay for a one-week tour of Argentina, but that tour turned into such a success that he was gone for the next fourteen years. Barrios played throughout Latin America and essentially made himself an international citizen of that region. He toured Europe in the 1930s, then spent the final years of his life teaching guitar at the National conservatory in San Salvador.

As a performer, Barrios was said to be a virtuoso on the order of Paganini, and he was one of the first guitarists to make recordings (Barrios made his first recording in1914). He left about a hundred compositions, but many of these remain unpublished, and many others exist in numerous versions–Barrios would often amend his music over the years.

The title Un Sueño en la Floresta (“A Dream in the Woods”) is a somewhat fanciful title for what is one of Barrios’ best-known compositions, because this piece has nothing to do with either dreams or woods–instead, it is a very graceful tremolo study. Un Sueño begins with a stately opening melody, which is repeated, and gradually the music eases into a tremolo study in which a steady melody in 6/8 is constantly surrounded by the sound of tremolos. This soothing flow of sound is interrupted by a more vigorous episode, and then the tremolo resumes and Un Sueño concludes in the calm mood generated by that steady sound.

Seis por Derecho–Joropo
Antonio LAURO
Born August 3, 1917, Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela
Died April 18, 1986, Caracas, Venezuela

Antonio Lauro began his musical studies on the violin and piano, but at age 15 he heard a recital of the guitar music of the Paraguayan guitarist Agustin Barrios and was so moved that he dropped the violin and piano to concentrate on the guitar. Though he was never became a virtuoso guitarist, Lauro composed extensively for that instrument. He sang in a trio, played the cuatro (a ukelele-like folk instrument), and composed: beyond his many works for the guitar, he wrote a string quartet, orchestral works, and a guitar concerto. Late in life, Lauro–who is regarded as Venezuela’s outstanding composer–served as the president of the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra.

From an early age, Lauro was drawn to the folk music of Venezuela, particularly to the waltz-like dances native to the region of Venezuela and Colombia. One of these dances, known as the joropo, takes its distinction from its rhythmic vitality, for it alternates passages in 3/4 and 6/8. Seis por derecho (that title translates, roughly, as “six for the right” or “right hand”) has become Lauro’s best-known composition. He marks this brief dance Allegro brillante, and brilliant it certainly is, full of music that requires lightning-quick use of both hands. Listeners may take pleasure simply in the excitement of this music or in sensing the shifting pattern of accents and stresses as this exuberant dance whips past.