Our featured music is a Fandango - Danse Espagnole
by Ferdinando Carulli.
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FERDINANDO CARULLI (b. Naples, Feb. 10, 1770; d. Paris, Feb.
1841) was among the earliest exponents of the classical guitar.
The guitar as we know it with six single strings was developed
late in the 1700's and by the dawn of the 19th century it had
gained a great deal of popular appeal. Italians particularly seem
to have embraced it. This was the first "golden age" of the guitar
and among the first Italian guitarists were Giuliani, Carcassi,
and Carulli.
Like most Italian musicians of that era Carulli had to travel
to northern climes to make a living. He eventually settled in
Paris. In 1810 he wrote his Method, Op. 241 which although dated
is still in use today. He also wrote "L'Harmonie Applique a la
Guitare", the first harmony treatise for the guitar.
As a composer he was quite prolific, writing everything from full-blown
concertos to chamber works and solos. In all he published 400
compositions, even writing a singing method with guitar accompaniment.
Although the quality of his work might not approach that of some
of his contemporaries like Sor and Guiliani, his works speak of
the era and can exude a great deal of charm.
Terrence Farrell
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Here's a quote from a review of this music written by
George Warren and published in "Guitar Review", Winter 1991:
"All this is delicious stuff if you don't demand a piece be as serious
a work as a late Beethoven quartet. There's even one good concert piece
in it, so uncharacteristic that people won't believe you when you tell
them they've been listening to Carulli. This is a Fandango: Danse
Espagnole, op.73, No. 2, and it's akin to the one Soler wrote for
the harpsichord and the one Boccherini wrote for guitar and string quartet
(in Quintet No. 4 in D). It'd make a terrific encore, particularly
if you souped up the last seven measures with a rousing bit of rasgueado
and ended the piece with a real bang."
You can hear the music by playing the Midi file. There are several choices
for displaying the music. If you have the Adobe Acrobat reader, you
can download the pdf files, either with or without tablature. If you
don't have the Acrobat reader, you can print directly from the web pages.
Each page of the sheet music appears on a separate file.
Play a Midi file of the music:
Download pdf files with tablature:
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