FERNANDO SOR Andante Largo
This month Bridget Mermikides revisits the vast body of works by perhaps the father of modern classical guitar; master composer, performer, and teacher, Fernando Sor.
Bridget Mermikides arranges and transcribes another fantastic etude from one of the early masters of the classical guitar as we know it.
We’ve visited his works before, but this issue we are tackling a wonderful piece by a seminal figure of classical guitar, the Spanish composer and perhaps first virtuoso of the instrument Fernando Sor (1778-1839). Sor was a successful performer, respected teacher and prodigious composer (his work includes two operas, nine ballets, three symphonies). However it is with the development of the classical guitar where Sor’s enduring influence lies. His large body of guitar pieces, studies, lessons and exercises, have forged generations of classical guitarists from student to master, and are as useful (and used) today as in his lifetime.
Here, I’ve taken the fifth of his six Little Pieces (Opus 5 no. 5), known as Andante Largo (‘at a slow/broad walking pace’), after the tempo indication on the score. It was written in 1814, around the time when Sor had left his homeland of Spain for the last time in his life to pursue his career in Paris, London and Moscow.
As is typical of Sor’s work, this is a succinct piece that seizes the constraint and opportunities of the instrument, and blends Sor’s learned musical technique with a Spanish romantic flavour.
Structurally, the piece can be seen as an AABA’CA form, the theme at the A section in the key of D major, (bars 2-9) repeats and is followed by a bridge B section (bars 11-18) before returning to an elaboration from of the original theme (A’ bars 19-26). The C section sees a modulation from D major to D minor. This ‘parallel key modulation’ where there is a major-minor switch to a key of the same root, has a somewhat Spanish and exquisitely romantic feel, and is experienced again when the A section returns in the original key of D major.
Technically the challenges lie in the sustaining of the melody (which is often in two to three voices) with the fretting hand, and the balancing of these voices with the bassline and the picking hand. The melody also features slurs both to create flowing demisemiquaver lines (particularly bars 16-17) as well as melodic ornaments adding character to the melody (as in the last note of bar 6). In order to meet all these technical demands, careful and studious practice will help you absorb this quiet masterpiece of the classical guitar.
NEXT MONTH Bridget brings you her own arrangement of Julio Sagreras’s Violetas
THE CHALLENGE LIES IN SUSTAINING THE MELODY WITH THE FRETTING HAND, AND BALANCING THESE VOICES WITH THE BASSLINE AND THE PICKING HAND