Notes by Richard M. Long
-The French noël, the English carol, the Spanish villancico, the German Weihnachtlied, the American pop holiday song-all of these partake of one of the most venerable musical traditions in the western world. In its earlie [+]Notes by Richard M. Long
-The French noël, the English carol, the Spanish villancico, the German Weihnachtlied, the American pop holiday song-all of these partake of one of the most venerable musical traditions in the western world. In its earliest forms, Christmas music probably emanated from pre-Christian music to celebrate the winter solstice; subsequent generations contributed more varied influences: Byzantine Liturgy, Medieval plainchant, Renaissance polyphony, rustic dances, and Protestant hymns. For this collection, Stephen Robinson has unearthed a few rarely heard gems from the guitar repertoire, and he has also asked some of his friends, including several of the most eminent guitarists and composers of our times, to contribute new music to this ancient tradition. He has also contributed an original piece of his own, revealing an uncommon talent for melody which is here in good company.
-The French composer Charles Gounod (1818-1893) wrote his Méditation sur le 1er Prélude de S. Bach relatively early in his career, in 1852, several years before his first critical triumph with the opera Faust. This lovely obbligato to Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude [No. 1 in C, BWV 846, from the first volume of the Well-Tempered Klavier] soon became a favorite setting for the Latin hymn "Ave Maria," perhaps the only setting seriously to rival that of Schubert in popularity. It was a logical choice for the great Spanish guitarist Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909) to arrange because it presented the sort of technical challenge that he seems to have relished, sustaining a cantabile melody over a continually modulating accompaniment ... and also because both he and Gounod's celebrated memory were born in the same year!
-Agustín Barrios Mangoré (1885-1944) would probably be astonished to see the status he has achieved as a composer in the half century since his death. He learned guitar fundamentals from a local teacher in his native Paraguay, but his phenomenal technique was apparently self-taught; surviving recordings reveal him to have been a remarkable virtuoso. His career as a performer took him throughout Latin America and on one tour of Europe, but he was never able to achieve the wealth or the fame of contemporaries such as Andrés Segovia in spite of his pio
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