We get so much sheet music sent to us by various publishers year ’round—literally hundreds of pieces in every setting imaginable (solo guitar, multiple guitars, guitar-flute, guitar-harp, etc.)—but we don’t have the space to write about the great majority of them in our four quarterly issues each year.
So, just as are now listing new classical guitar CD releases every other Tuesday here, we’re now going use the Tuesdays in between those to announce new print music releases. As with the CDs, these are not reviews (some will be reviewed in the magazine, but frankly most will not), but we think it’s important to at least get the word out about what’s being offered to guitarists out there. Where possible, we’ve linked the titles to the publisher’s website, and stated the degree of difficulty (if provided by the publisher). —Blair Jackson
Here is a link to our previous listing from October 25.
Olivier Bensa
Microfaune (solo guitar)
Editions Henry Lemoine, 41 pp.
French guitarist’s “24 préludes dans tous les tons” offers musical impressions of butterflies, bees, crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, etc. Advanced
Sérgio Assad
Suite Brasileira No. 4 (solo guitar)
Doberman-Yppan, 23 pp.
Four pieces based on different genres that reflect the rural and African influence on Brazilian music: “Cateretê,” “Jongo,” “Toada,” “Batuque.” Advanced.
Jean-Marie Raymond
A Rainbow for Minoru (for two guitars)
Les Productions D’Oz, 8 pp.
From the cover to the title to the dedicatees, this appears to have a Japanese flavor. Also new from D’Oz in a perhaps similar vein is Raymond’s Three Friends in Kyoto. Advanced.
Hagen Barz
Uckermärkische Miniaturen (solo guitar)
Edition Dohr, 14 pp.
Set of 12 miniatures inspired by Germany’s beautiful and historic Uckermark region, north of Berlin. Intermediate and advanced.
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Here’s a video of Barz playing a few of these lovely, pastoral pieces:
Niccolò Paganini
37 Sonatas for Guitar (solo guitar)
Ut Orpheus, 94 pp.
Guitar works are an underappreciated side of Paganini (1782–1840), who never played the instrument in public (and whose violin works are more commonly played by modern guitarists). Edited and fingered by Riccardo Del Prete, foreword by Angelo Gilardino. Extensively annotated. Advanced.
Anonymous
Renaissance Italienne: 6 pieces pour guitare (for solo guitar)
Editions Henry Lemoine, 7 pp.
Six very short 16th century pieces originally written for lute and transcribed for guitar by Italian musicologist Oscar Chilesotti (1848–1916). Intermediate.
Alexander Borodin
Petit Suite (for three guitars; arr. Adrian Andrei)
Les Productions D’Oz, 14 pp. plus parts
Borodin (1833–1887) was a Russian Romantic composer best-known for writing three symphonies, numerous chamber works, piano pieces and many songs. His six-movement Petit Suite was written for piano originally and arranged here for three guitars by Romanian Adrian Andrei. Intermediate.
Paul Coles
Momentos Españoles (solo guitar)
Universal Edition, 21 pp.
Book by British guitarist/composer/teacher Coles contains 16 short pieces inspired by Spanish and Latin music. His bio notes that he is “known for his compositions that are technically interesting but accessible for most players.” Intermediate.
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Prelude in G minor Op.23, No. 5 (solo guitar, arr. Stevan Jovic)
Les Productions D’Oz, 7 pp.
Top Serbian guitarist’s lively guitar arrangement of popular piano piece by Rachmaninoff (1873–1943), written in 1901, two years before his famous Ten Preludes, of which this became a part, was published.
Here’s a video of Jovic playing this piece.
Atanas Ourkouzounov
Broken Grooves (for two guitars)
Doberman-Yppan, 20 pp. plus parts
Adventurous Bulgarian composer/guitarist has written more than 80 guitar works, most in a decidedly modern idiom. Advanced.
Yorgos Nousis
Políptico emocional (for solo guitar)
Doberman-Yppan, 12 pp.
Folk-tinged and mostly melodic five-part solo rumination from Greek composer-guitarist. Samples available at link above. Advanced.
Various Composers
Preludios para Tárrega: An Anthology of Contemporary Music for Guitar
Ut Orpheus
Editor/fingerer for this project, Piero Bonaguri, commissioned these seven short preludes “after” Tárrega (i.e. inspired by him) in the summer and fall of 2015 and has compiled them into this single volume. According to Bonaguri, some composers specifically referenced Tárrega’s music; others drew less obvious connections. The composers are Emilio Calandín, Claudia Montero, Marco Reghezza, Marco Smaili, Alessandro Spazzoli, Roberto Tagliamacco, and Paolo Uglietti. Bonaguri says the pieces are “average level of performance difficulty.”
Below, Piero Bonaguri plays Claudia Montero’s Tárrega homage, Lágrimas de Buenos Aires: