SKU: UT.CH-111

ISBN 9790215316317. 9 x 12 inches.

The three original pieces for guitar Notturno, Napolitana (popolar songs) and Roma (March for guitar), together with three transcriptions, are included in a manuscript of 36 pages, noting in the frontispiece “Transcriptions and compositions of F. Balilla Pratella sent as a tribute to M.R. Brondi (1920)”.
These compositions follow a traditional language, and, in the tonality and the alternating themes, are an expression of Pratella’s folkloric vein, with cantabile and melancholy melodies, with the exception of the march, that show some echoes of the nineteenth century guitar masters’ way of composing.
There is a characteristic use of the quartine with no alternated thumb forefinger tremolo, that immediately recalls the plectrum orchestra so much used by Pratella in his youth.
The discovery of these pieces – which happened accidentally and saved them from certain destruction – contributes to enhance that period of great guitarist turmoil preceding Segovia,  establishing itself at the beginning of twentieth century in Italy with three compositions from an author that, along with the Bonaccorsi and Colacicchi, anticipated that current – already initiated by the Fara, Gabriel, Caravaglios – which was, in the following decades, to go by the name of ethnomusicology.

SKU: HL.50607050

UPC: 196288292401. 9.0x12.0x0.073 inches.

Deux Airs populaires cubains (Dos aires populares cubanos) and Deux Thèmes populaires cubains (Dos temas populares cubanos) were written in the 1960s and published by Éditions Max Eschig in 1972 and 1978. These two pieces belong to the genre of arrangements of popular songs for solo instruments that was a widespread presence in the plucked-string repertoire from the sixteenth century on. In these two cycles, Leo Brouwer reworks Cuban popular music with his usual instrumental originality. In the first cycle, Brouwer did not alter any of the melodic or structural elements of the original songs, only embellishing these with introductions, harmony, and some structure. In the second cycle however, the original dance was composed by Brouwer himself, imitating Cuban popular music characterised by both Spanish and African influences. Rather than being based on actual folk repertoire, it draws its inspiration from it and attempts to recreate its sonic ambiance. Zigante interventions, made on the scores published during the 1970s, consist of the correction of a few errors and restoring some of the original repeat signs as conceived by Brouwer. Any fingering indicationswere added by Leo Brouwer himself.