Music

I’ve played guitar for some years now both acoustic and electric, and I was in a band once. Here are recordings for a few classical pieces played on my acoustic guitar. They have been recorded with a cheap USB-microphone which worked surprisingly well. A slight reverb has been added to some of the tracks, but otherwise they are nearly as they were recorded. To save the mp3 file right click the “listen now” button and choose save as in the menu.

Classical Guitar Pieces

Romance d’Amour

This is a must in every classical guitar players repetoire. The author and origin of the song is not known, but its style is that of the late nineteenth century in spain. It is composed of both parts in a major key and a minor key and uses triplets throughout.

Bourrée in Em

This is a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) from his “Lute Suite No 1”. It consists mainly of successions of two quavers and a crotchet and has a constant moving feel to it. In addition it demonstrates contrary counterpoint between the bass and treble. In the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis it is numbered BWV996. Paul McCartney said that his song “Blackbird” was inspired by this bourrée.

Scarborough Fair

This is an English folk song from the middle ages. Back then, the town of Scarborough hosted an 45-day long fair attracting visitors from all of England, Denmark and other countries. Most people probably now the song from the Simon and Garfunkel version, which is quite different from what I’m playing.

Etude in Am

This little piece was written by Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829). Giuliani was a virtuous itialian guitarist and composer and known for his expressive adagios. This piece, however is an allegro with a brisk, flowing melody. It is also known as “Study No 6 in Am, Allegro” from Opus 50 – The Butterfly.

Greensleeves

Greensleeves is an 16^th century english folk song. The composition has dubiously been attributed to Henry VII as a song for his lover Anne Boleyn. Based on the italian style of the song it is considered Elizabethan in origin an thus postdates Henry VIII. Greensleeves is by many considered a christmas song.

Largo

Largo is a magnificent little piece by Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741). More formally, it is named “Concerto in D for Lute RV 93, 2° movement Largo”. Originally it was meant for lute and two violins. However, it translates very well to guitar, and is, for the most part, easy to play. The difficult part is to articulate the notes just right.

Minuet in G major

This piece is from the “Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach” which is said to be written by Johann Sebastian Bach. This piece as well as one other piece from the notebook, however, are now believed to be composed by Christian Petzold (1677-1733). It is an easy piece for piano, but it is slightly harder to play on the guitar.