singer, one-man choir, guitarist and composer
Suite in lute tuning for classical guitar
SM-000182113
- Alternative title
- Suite in honour of Alonso Mudarra
- Composer
- David W Solomons
- Publisher
- David W Solomons
- Genre
- Classical / Instrumental
- Instrumentation
- Classical guitar
- Scored for
- Solo
- Type of score
- For a single performer
- Duration
- 5'40"
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Year of composition
- 1978
Description
The guitar is tuned with the third string down a semitone (F sharp), like a transposed lute, which provides for some different sonorities as the stopped and unstopped strings follow a slightly different logic from that used in standard classical guitar music. It is reminiscent in places of the music of Alonso Mudarra, a lutenist and vihuelist of the 16th century but the fast movement (heard at the beginning and the end of the suite) is closer to that of ragtime, albeit a somewhat frenetic ragtime.
It can - of course - be used for performance but it might also be useful as an example of scordatura work in a course of guitar lessons
The sound sample is my own performance, recorded on cassette tape several decades ago.