Category: Repertoire

Playing with Inspiration: A Transcription from Clara Schumann

Not many of Clara Schumann’s piano works lend themselves to solo guitar, but I recently came across one piece that does – the hauntingly beautiful Larghetto that begins her Quatre Pièces fugitives (Four Fleeting Pieces), op.15. Here is my transcription:

Clara Schumann, Larghetto, op.15 no.1: download the score in PDF (see resources for this and other scores)

IMSLP has the original piano score. It has been recorded a few times by pianists: YouTube has a beautiful live performance of the whole set by Michelle Cann:

In my last post, I focused on the transcription process in a piece by Mendelssohn. This time, let’s look at a couple of features of the piece and how they might shape your practice. Learning a piece of music is a creative activity – half system, half experimentation. But one principle is always worth bearing in mind: to learn a complex piece, first make it simpler. We’ll look at two ways of simplifying the music to aid learning: 

  1. simplifying a passage to its basic harmonies
  2. simplifying a passage to its basic motive
Continue reading “Playing with Inspiration: A Transcription from Clara Schumann”

Different Kinds of Fidelity: The Canzonetta from Mendelssohn’s First String Quartet

What happens if we prioritize the bass line of this complex piece?

Guitars International recently released a beautiful video of Hao Yang playing the Canzonetta from Mendelssohn’s First String Quartet, op.12.

The transcription Hao plays is one that I made for her: in fact, some passages in the final version reflect her preferences among various options I proposed. As we went through the string quartet original, I was quite surprised at how many passages present difficult choices that affect how the music hangs together: you could say that each decision represents a different way of being faithful to Mendelssohn’s score. The publication of Hao’s video seemed like a good opportunity to share the transcription and reflect a bit on the choices made along the way.

To start with, then, here is the transcription for download in PDF. The original quartet score is available from IMSLP. This mischievous piece was an immediate hit after Mendelssohn published it in 1830. In the nineteenth century, it was already sometimes performed on its own in versions for different instruments: many of these historical transcriptions are available on IMSLP (look under the tab ‘Arrangements and Transcriptions’).

As for the guitar, Tárrega was the first to make a transcription (the score, published by Alier in Madrid around 1925) is also on IMSLP, both in its first edition and in a manuscript copy by Llobet); Segovia recorded it, adding personal touches as he always did; Julian Bream goes back to the original – as he always did – to make a more complex and virtuosic version of Tárrega. (To listen to these various versions, here is a playlist on YouTube.)

‘My transcription’ might be a bit of an overstatement. A transcription is not really new unless it demonstrates a new concept, and I’m not sure if it would have occurred to me that this piece could work on the guitar without Tárrega’s version to start from. But as I went through the score, I did in fact see some opportunities to try something new, particularly with regard to the role of the bass. Let’s dive in. 

Continue reading “Different Kinds of Fidelity: The Canzonetta from Mendelssohn’s First String Quartet”

Brouwer’s Combinatorial Art

When we understand Brouwer’s thinking, our performances become more vivid

Leo Brouwer’s output is often divided into three periods: folkloric, avant-garde and neoromantic. When I first started playing the guitar, he was in his avant-garde phase, and works such as La espiral eterna and Canticum helped me to understand how music could be an adventure for the ears, a kind of musical science fiction. Having got to grips with the dissonant sound world of the avant-garde pieces, I well remember the shock of hearing his first neoromantic works, such as El decamerón negro. It was difficult at first to come to terms with their sweetness and apparent rejection of the sonorities of the previous music.

And yet this period-based narrative is not so simple. One complication is that each of Brouwer’s compositional phases incorporates elements of the previous ones: a neoromantic work such as the Fifth Sonata might contain folkloric and avant-garde elements. Another is that Brouwer’s music is characterised not so much by its style as by the way he thinks: whatever he might have rejected is not as important as what he has retained. No wonder, then, that I eventually came to love his later works.

What unites Brouwer’s compositions is a constructive way of thinking that starts with short, incisive ideas and then combines them into larger sections. He can write a long line, but the typical Brouwer idea is a memorable cell: a riff, a dance rhythm, a flourish, a fanfare, a call, a peal of bells; an epigraph, a reminiscence, a quotation; a cry, catchphrase, invocation or curse.

So far, so good, but once a striking idea has been sounded, what comes next? The answer is simple: it can repeat; it can evolve or dissolve; above all, it can be put into conversation with other such ideas. The result might be hypnotic and minimalist, or it might be a glittering collage.

Continue reading “Brouwer’s Combinatorial Art”

A Conversation with Stephen Goss and a Recital by Menuhin School Guitarists

Here is a video of the book launch, in which composer and guitarist Stephen Goss interviewed us about the book, and past and present guitar students from the Yehudi Menuhin School played a beautiful recital.

Steve took Richard and me through the book’s four major parts, giving us the opportunity to explain our approach: some themes include the challenge of integrating technique and musicianship, how to practise creatively and how to encourage students to make their own discoveries. 

As for the guitar recital, it was spectacular and very touching to witness.