A collection of 28 Ernesto Nazareth compositions expertly transcribed for classic guitar solo. One of the major difficulties in trying to arrange Ernesto Nazareth s themes for any instrument but the piano is to separatethe melodic line from its accompaniment: both are so closely together (that is one of the strongest characteristics of his pianistic style of composition) that it becomes almost impossible to treat one of the features disregardingthe other. If one did that the result would be only a pale and incomplete portrait of what was intended by the composer. That thought has guided us in the making of this book. In spite of the huge obstacles that resulted from thetransposition of a piece originally written for the piano a very rich instrument regarding the expressive recourses to the more 'modest' guitar we always kept in mind our principal intention: to preserve at the most all themelodic dialogues of the scores in special the ones between the melody and the bass line both the elements that form the soul of Nazareth s compositions. We obviously had to do some changes. Thus for instance in somearrangements it was necessary to transpose the original key to a more appropriate one (at the guitar view-point of course). Some phrases or fragments had also to be written an octave higher or lower (that can be perfectlyunderstandable if we consider the very wide melodic range of the piano and the extensive way with which Nazareth uses it). Needless to say that all those recourses were used only when it has been strictly necessary. Despite thefact that those 28 pieces are only a little portion of Nazareth s work this group of arrangements represents a good and representative panel. Among them there are some of Nazareth s greatest hits ('Apanhei-te Cavaquinho' 'Odeon' 'Brejeiro' 'Ameno Resedá' etc.) as well as other not so known compositions but no less beautiful and important. Listening to those pieces one can observe the compositional talent of Nazareth and his incredible
