Aria con Variazioni - Frescobaldi

The Aria is Moderato with mostly three voices in evidence, although the odd larger chord does enter
from time to time. The First Variation is marked piu mosso and the musical parts move around
considerably more here. The Second Variation is an allegro and things get quite tricky here although
never losing their inherent guitaristic qualities. No. 3 is marked sostenutoand here there is more
opportunity to show a more emotive side to the piece, whilst the final 4th variation is an allegretto.
The final Aria repeat is varied from the original at the beginning, and the whole work closes on a
florid cadence leading to a close on the tonic major.

Lady Hudson’s Puffe

Though John Dowland maintained to his deathbed a public persona of gloomy and melancholic
depression, his music often shows a highly active wit. Indeed, often his lute solos, though they
are stereotypical dance forms for the larger part, betray quite subtle characterisations. In such
instances, he may even be attempting polite social commentary on his noble and bourgeois
patrons. A number of almains, pavans, gigues, and the like survive with the names of the
apparent dedicatees for the music attached; quite often, these pieces are dance forms that toy
with presenting a subtle character. It may very well be the case that in absence of painted
portraits, facets of the actual human beings are reflected through history in Dowland's music. If
so, Lady Hunsdon must have been an extraordinary woman.

Lady Hunsdon apparently gave Dowland the inspiration for an almain, otherwise cryptically
known as Lady Hundsdon's Puffe. Whether the word "puffe" suggests the breath of a dancer's
exertions, the graceful exhalation of a society woman, or the heady dialogue of a "windbag," the
title in itself could be suggestive; the dance form, as well, indicates a germanic dance, known to
Elizabethan audiences as being spirited, but a bit heavy and plodding. Furthermore, the almain
for Lady Hunsdon is one of the only dance forms in which Dowland so completely abandons
regular phrase structures. The characteristic duple patterns are always present for the dancers.
The "puffe," however, first follows a four-bar phrase with a conventionally ornamented repeat,
then by one of only three bars, starting transposed down a step. (Do either of these indicate
"German" dancers getting tired already?) A two-bar phrase, notable for its puffing repeated
chords, is also repeated with ornament, and an extended coda follows an echo of the opening.

Theme and variations based on Magic Flute – Sor

This piece embodies Fernando Sor's best characteristics as a composer, requiring great
technique.[4] It is a relatively frequently performed piece that serves as a “testing ground for every
aspiring guitarist.” [1] As said of this piece and Op.7, the Folies d’Espagne, by Brian Jeffrey, author of
the largest Sor biography to date, “no space is wasted and the music devotes itself not to “guitaristic”
effects but only to itself.” [3]
The work is based on a melody from Mozart's opera The Magic Flute. The opera was first performed
in Vienna, 1791, and in German, while the first performances in Italian took place in 1794, so Sor
could have feasibly written the piece any time since then. However, it is more likely that he was
inspired to write the piece when the first major production was premiered in England in May 1819,
when Sor was in the area.[3]
Recuerdos de la Alhambra – Tarrega

The manuscript of the first version of "Recuerdos de la Alhambra",

originally entitled "Improvisacion! A Granada! Cantiga Arabe", ends -
after the last music staff - with the following note (which I
faithfully translate for you from Spanish):
"Because I cannot present you a more valid offer in the day of your
Saint, please accept this humble poetic note, an impression which my
soul felt before the majestic wonder of the Alhambra in Granada, which
we admired together". Such a dedication is offered "A mi esimia
discipula Sra D.na Conchita G. de Iacoby su Maestro y amigo Fran.co
Tarrega, Malaga, 8 Dicbre 1899". Then the title of the piece and its
dedication changed when the work was published (Conchita Iacoby and
Francisco Tarrega had a rather stormy relationship), but there can be
no question about the origin of the piece.

Grande Valse

Choros no 1

Villa-Lobos composed Chôros No. 1 in Rio de Janeiro in 1920, originally publishing it under the
title Chôro típico, then Chôro típico brasileiro. The title is taken from an improvisational genre of
Brazilian instrumental popular music that originated in Rio de Janeiro in the nineteenth century. The
Portuguese word choro (pronounced [ˈʃoɾu]), means "cry" or "lament", though most music of this type
is far from being sorrowful. Four years after composing this work, at the time of his first visit to Paris,
he decided to make it part of an extended cycle of works collectively titled Chôros, which eventually
included fourteen numbered compositions, plus an Introduction aux chôros (Introdução aos chôros):
Ouverture, for guitar and orchestra, designed to be played before a complete performance of the
cycle, and Chôros bis, a two-movement duo for violin and cello, considered as a sort
of encore piece. A Quintet ("em forma de chôros"), for five woodwind instruments (1928) is
sometimes considered as related.
In the context of the larger cycle, Chôros No. 1 "is like the essence, the embryo, the psychological
model that will be developed technically in the conception of all the Chôros" (Villa-Lobos 1972, 210).
The score of Chôros No. 1 is dedicated to Ernesto Nazareth, and a recording of it made by the
composer lasts just under four minutes. Unlike the successor works, there is no attempt here to
synthesize different aspects of Brazilian music into a stylistic montage. Instead, it employs the
patterns, figurations, and simple structure characteristic of the improvised music of such
celebrated chorões of the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as Zequinha de
Abreu, Quincas Laranjeiras (pt), Chiquinha Gonzaga, and Catulo da Paixão Cearense (pt) (Wright
1992, 62) This simplicity and the beauty of its composition have made it a favourite with professional
guitarists (Appleby 2002, 80).
Vals en Re – Manuel Ponce