FERNANDO SOR Study, Opus 35, No 20
This month our classical expert Bridget Mermikides presents this beautiful arpeggio study by the Spanish guitarist and ‘Beethoven of the guitar’, Fernando Sor.
Bridget continues her series of studies from the greatest composers for classical guitar.
In this issue we return to a work by the ‘Beethoven of the guitar’, the Spanish composer and (perhaps the first) virtuoso of the instrument, Fernando Sor (17781839). More than a supreme guitarist, Sor was a successful performer, respected teacher and prodigious composer with an output that included two operas, nine ballets, and three symphonies. Sor’s dedication to performing, composition and teaching, forged an enduring influence. His guitar pieces and studies have inspired generations of classical guitarists from student to master, and are as used today as in his lifetime. His studies fuse clear guitar instruction, a keen awareness of the benefits of the instrument, as well as an elegant and sophisticated compositional style. Sor’s musical skills were also accompanied by charm and occasionally a caustic wit – six of his ballets are dedicated to ‘whoever wants them’ and a book of simple studies to ‘the person with the least amount of patience’.
In this issue I’ve taken a piece from his 24 ‘Very Easy’ Studies (Opus 35) composed in his retirement in Paris, where the majority of his classical guitar works were written. These studies – which certainly are not as easy as Sor’s title suggests – are popular and important works in the classical guitar canon, and are as musical as they are instructive. Here I’ve taken No.20 which is an arpeggio study in 3/4 time employing Sor’s gorgeous harmonic and melodic sense. The technical focus of this piece is to achieve a plucking-hand fluidity which is played almost entirely with free stroke (using rest stroke to emphasise occasional melody notes). However, there are some less obvious challenges with this piece such as fretting-hand stretches and keeping a legato flow using fretting-hand preparation during position shifts. Incidentally, Sor wrote and performed these on ‘Romantic’ style guitars, which were significantly smaller than the modern instrument design which might explain his use of his ‘easy’ categorisations.
This attractive study is written in triplets throughout and it works nice and easily for the picking hand. On beats 2 and 3 the melody note is a crotchet and it can be musically effective to play this with a light rest stroke to allow it to stand out slightly. The fretting hand has to navigate one chord shape after another and these need to be smoothly connected to one another to create a nice flowing legato effect. Mostly the chord changes are pretty easy but at other times they’re likely to take you by surprise.
Such technical issues are addressed in the tab captions and, once resolved, will allow you to play this with the appropriate lilting lyricism.
NEXT MONTH New classical tutor, Declan Zapala arranges a piece from Bach’s first Lute Suite: Allemande
“This attractive study is written in triplets throughout and it works nice and easily for the picking hand”