Fernando Sor And The Dark Ages Of Guitar
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- Опубліковано 16 чер 2024
- Perhaps more than any other instrument, the guitar had its ups and downs in history. Before the "Great Vogue" brought it into the limelight, and after its luminous period faded, the guitar struggled against cultural and musical marginalization, often dismissed by the establishment and overshadowed by other instruments. In this video, we explore the fascinating story of Fernando Sor, one of the most distinguished composers for the guitar. Sor's compositions, known for their emotional depth, expressiveness, and technical brilliance, stand as a testament to his genius and the guitar's capability as a solo instrument. Join Jakob Schmidt, along with Erik Stenstadvold, emeritus professor from the Norwegian Academy of Music and a leading expert on the history of the guitar, as we unravel the rich narrative of Sor's life, his music, and the remarkable period in which he lived. This journey not only celebrates Sor's legacy but also offers invaluable insights into approaching historical music sources, providing a deeper understanding and appreciation for classical guitar music. Whether you're a musician, a student of music history, or simply a lover of classical guitar, this video promises to enlighten and inspire. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and leave your thoughts in the comments below.
00:00 Intro
01:41 Historical Context
03:47 Sor's Life during the Great Vogue
07:00 Sor's Struggles & Fantaisie Elegiaque
08:50 Approaching the Sources
13:08 Approaching the Style
15:30 Crashing Back into Obscurity
17:09 Conclusion
Music featured in the video:
Fernando Sor:
Introduction and Variations on a theme by Mozart, Op.9
Introduction and Variations on the air 'Malbroug', Op.28
Fantaisie Élégiaque, Op. 59
March from the ballet 'Cendrillon', Op.15c
Franz Schubert:
Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished", Allegro moderato, 2nd theme (this is incorrectly labeled as 2nd movement in the video)
All performed by Jakob Schmidt on a G.A. Stauffer replica by Jan Tulaček, Prague.
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I am just an amateur classical guitarist. I will probably never be very good at it, but I purchased 10 years ago a copy of Sor's opus 6, 29, 31, 35, 44 and 60 etudes, and I love playing them. 125 little gems in all. I really don't care if they are historically inaccurate. It's good stuff. He wrote some damned pretty little pieces. I probably don't do them justice, but who cares? I am a Sor fan
I too concur good sir
@@MrPDTaylor I concur also. ;)
Think of those opus' as a collection of historic literature where you read into it what your heart reveals to you. The Sor oeuvre you have is a regal collection of one of the greatest guitarists of all time.
I need a deeper dive into Sor's music. But shit, there's so much great scores to be played in the world. :D But yeah, I am currently learning Variations on a Theme of Mozart and I learned 80% of the piece, just need the 20% of the rest and then interpret it and make it nearly flawless. Then I own just two other pieces of Sor - an Allegretto and an Andantino quasi allegretto, nice pieces but I still didn't learn them properly.
@@ArtificialFertilizer Yes, you are right,...we all need more time to really discover all the great work, both past and fairly recent. Listen to this one interpreted by Carlevaro, ua-cam.com/video/K7asXt_P0j4/v-deo.htmlsi=H0oXWx6hKh90k-iR , by experimenting with phrasing these etudes can have surprisingly different results, but because they have been recorded by popular names, who often just glazed over them for a quick "filler" recording, most have never discovered what is truly hidden within these works when explored with love and dedication. cheers
He also endorsed fretting the bass string with your thumb, heralding the emergence of Hendrix 150 years later.
Apples and Oranges friend.
or a "multiple discovery" perhaps?🤔@@TalibanSymphonyOrchestra
@@TalibanSymphonyOrchestraHendrix was influenced by classical and orchestral music. The (second-hand) example is that he would flip over to straight 8s for a short passage before flipping back to the regular swing feel of whatever song it was. I remember hearing this pointed out once, but I forget song or performance where it purportedly took place, or indeed where I heard it all.
So what? And try using your thumb to bar the bass string on a classical and you are asking for hand problems. Also, examples of "swing" can be found in classical music as well. @@luserdroog
@@TalibanSymphonyOrchestraSince you insist upon taking away my fun, please take care not to break it.
Dear Jacob, this video is extremely important, not only because it shows the golden age of the guitar and its development as a unique instrument, but specially because it also shows the vulnerability of editions and, why not, of the guitarists composers. I wrote my Master Degree Dissertation about Mauro Giuliani and the Rossiniane, in the hope of understanding how he masterfully adapted Rossini's opera arias to the guitar. I studied every opera from Rossini to find the themes hidden in some passages of it. It was remarkable the influence of the opera back then, since there were no TV or radio and the opera offered all one could expect to see and listen, uniting dance, drama, great music and orchestration, very convincing painted scenarios and superb singers. All great musicians wanted to compose an opera, and it wasn't different with Giuliani, Sor and Carulli. Giuliani was luckier than the others once he was a close friend to Rossini, and the latter gave him his manuscripts, so that Giuliani could compose his variations on Rossini's themes, and later the Rossiniane. Sor did the same adapting Mozart's Magic Flute to the guitar, although I confess I had some difficulty to find the original theme in Mozart's opera. But he wrote a masterpiece that deserves to be played more often, as well as his Gran Solo that represents together with the Grand Overture by Giuliani the very best of the classical-romantic music for guitar.
I’m 63 and have played Sor since I was 14. It’s wonderful music
I'm 65 and have been playing the same Sor Study almost daily for at least 30 years and have just begun to make it sing.
I learned guitar with Sor etudes. They are magnificent.
Tonebase - doing a great service of revealing the guitar's history.
These deep dives into guitar music and history are awesome!
I study classical guitar with Berta Rojas at Berklee college of music and have been a fan of Sor for many years. This video was so fascinating, I loved every second of it!
Andre Segovia was great, but Sor composed and played like no other.
Sor is my dude 😎
I spent a year studying Sor. In the 99s. I'm back in it again.
This is a wonderful presentation. I learned of Sor from my son’s fantastic classical guitar teacher, and I love his etudes, but this adds a whole new dimension to appreciating the artist. Tonebase is so well researched and presented. THANK YOU and please keep up your wonderful site.
I played electric guitar for years before I took the plunge and started classical. So many great composers like Sor, Giuliani , Carulli and many others. I've certainly enjoyed my fauré into guitar, it's good for strauss relief. Where have they been haydn all my life? Learning more about guitar is certainly on my chopin liszt.
Soy un guitarrista de música clásica que admiro mucho a Fernando por sus composiciones admirables!
Excellent presentation. Unfortunately, particularly with Carulli's virtuoso pieces that he played at his concerts, many compositions were never published and are now lost.
We at the "Arlington School of Music, a Div. of The Arlington Institute of Music & The Performing Arts", expanding since 1930 in Arlington Heights, IL USA thank you for your in depth video on the quintessential Spanish composer...Fernando Sor ....and welcome all to view it inspiring the new generation of young artists to the Magic of The Guitar. Gracias !....Thank You so much.
..it took u more time to kiss ass than i have to practice: get REAL!!!…
Great job, Jakob!
Excellent work
Wonderful video!
Really great video. Thank you!
Very interesting! Thank you...
Most interesting and well presented. Thanks!
Fantastic presentation. Thank you.
Highly informative and well presented .
Great video, I loved watching this.
Fantastic and informative video Jakob!
Marvelous!! Thank you for sharing!
Love these super informative and well-presented deep dives! Fantastic resource
Tasteful and well researched. Thank you. 🏆
So much substance and understanding! Great job, Jakob! Thank you!
Awesome video! Great depth and attention to detail. Cheers!
Very good video. Thanks for posting!
Great sharing of the Guitar Legend F. SOR.. 👌👏
Thanks so much.. 🙏🎸😘
This is a brilliant video, thank you so much for sharing your superb playing and profound knowledge. Throughly enjoyed this 👍
What an amazing video, thank you
Excellent video on Sor, his music and the guitar! 👍🏼👍🏼
Great piece Jakob. Compliments to you and to Prof Erik Stenstadvold.
Thanks! More videos like that, please
Great video Jakob.Many thanks for posting. I love Sor's music.
Beautiful presentation, would love to see more like this
Thank you for the presentation - it has reawakened my love for Sor's music!
Wonderful Sor. I love your presentation and skilled executions on the guitar.
Very informative and enjoyable. I appreciate how well-spoken Jakob and the professor are.
Lovely !… a great episode … well done and very informative… Thank you !
Excellent documentary! not too long nor annoying and to the point! Bravo!
Very interesting, beautiful video. Always been a big fan of Sor, thanks for uploading.
Fascinating! Thank you! I am just a beginning classical guitarist, after becoming frustrated with the lack of pedagogy relative to finger style jazz guitar. Sor's Opus 60 is my 1st stop on my classical journey and I find his work not only helpful, but also enjoyable. Lovely little pieces of music. So much better than being presented with a song having 8 four-finger chords, memorizing 8 scales and accompanying arpeggios, and the insistence that I improvise --or else it's not really jazz..... I do believe, however, that the classical training will help me get back to jazz. I love them both!
Really enjoyed this. Thanks from Ireland.
Another very interesting and equally touching video from your hand with detailed and in-depth research work! I love how you try to shed light on the artist's personality in line with contemporary history and the respective environment. Of course, this can only ever be a small glimpse, but I think it's also a great overview! One can see your love and enthusiasm for the subject.
And by the way, it seems to me that you are also a great performer and musician yourself! Thank you very much for sharing
Thank you for your insightful, informative and very interesting discourse on one of my favourite composers. Very inspiring indeed.
Excellent post and very informative. Sor was and is still a giant in the Classical guitar repertoire.
His Studies will always be dear to my heart.
I am so glad that I discovered Fernando Sor's music today.
Thank you so much for the amazing content!
What a professionally produced video. Could have been any subject. Bravo!
Amazing! Thank you. 🙂🙏
Sor's music is so ingenious, so satisfying and such fun to play!
I really enjoyed this video. Thank you
More videos on the history and composers would definitely be interesting, such Santiago di Merci, Corbetta, Mertz, Ponce, and the most unusual, Paginnini
Thanks again
Thank you, thank you and thank you again for these videos (thining of the Segovia one as well) - spoken as a music historian/guitarist myself who so much misses a thourough mutual interest between musical practice and musicology concerning our instrument.
Thoroughly researched and very well presented in excellent English! Why didn't you round off this presentation with Fernando Sor's Elegiaque by way of finale? Tropical greetings from Java, Indonesia!
Very interesting to listen about brilliant classical composer as SOR. More I know about them, more I appreciate the partitions and more I respect them for the treasure they left us. Thank you 🙏 very much.
Was thrilled to find this video about Fernando Sor, who I have studied for years. I am an amateur classical guitar player and some of the first pieces I learned were by Sor.
Excellent!
A lot of negativity in this video. The guitar and lute always had plenty of fine players. Even Paganini turned toward the guitar for a while.
The charming and intimate nature of the lute and guitar was very compelling. Mertz and Coste were just two of the fine players in the so called 50 year gap after Sor's career.
Thank you for this interesting short deep-dive. I played Sor etudes at 16 and quickly read opus 9 when I was 17. Classical guitar has always been part of me since that epoch, although I was unable to dedicate my life to performance. Sor, Tárrega, Villa Lobos and Barrios helped me rehab after falling ill decades later. Nearing 50 now, and I still recoup and regroup with the world of classical guitar. Thank you again.
Nicely done.
I hear Pepe Romero's version of "Fantasia" often on my hometown classical radio station (KBAQ -Phoenix) and it always brings a smile to my face. 😊
Thank you so much once again. I play steel string acoustic jazz, folk and blues, where there is also some concern with historical accuracy, although less, given the age difference between the genres. It is, however, interesting to hear an expert say that Sor probably never played a piece precisely the same on each occasion. I think this should be a liberating statement for players of the classical repertoire.
Thank you.
Obrigado pelas excelentes informações. Aprecio muito a música de Sor. Curitiba, Paraná - Brasil
Great introduction to Sor, well done. Great to have Mr Stenstadvold here. I liked his humour when he said 'don't trust any edition, not even MINE' ;-) . On the subject of slurring: when you look at Sor's music, it seems that Sor did not put much emphasis on exact repetition of material. It seems to me that he considered slurring to be a personal matter, and different every time. In the end, the musical execution follows the player's idea of the music.
I loved the transcription of the 8th symphony by Schubert in the beginning! Is there a full recording of it?
Joy in the morning!
An excellent documentary. As a lifelong amateur guitarist, I have deep respect for Sor's achievements, and have performed several of his pieces - the duo l'Encouragement being my favourite.
Still, he has in my view been superseded by Torroba, Tarrega, and by Llobet, Lauro and of course Barrios. Their music has true passion and makes better use of the guitar's possibilities.
There is a fine line...
I greatly enjoyed your video. We have a guitar festival at URI every fall. It would be great if you came to this festival to discuss your research.
While I think Sor was revolutionary in some very small circles, I haven't played a lot of his pieces. I started in classical guitar and have moved to late 19th & early 20th century jazz, ragtime, and novelties. To even get to having these pieces made for guitar took foundational work of keeping the guitar alive through the centuries. Playing these pieces that I like, I borrow a ton from the classical techniques that makes guitar easier to play. Great video! I enjoyed it.
Sor composed in the early period of the six string guitar 12 ground frets. It was not much knowledge about the guitar back then. So he must have been a very musical gifted man, when he has composed so very idiomatic music for the guitar at that time. I like eight beat triplets. So
my favourite guitar piece is: Etude op. no. 11 in e-minor. It's a quite interesting piece. Let me hear if there's someone who agree with me. Greetings from: Mats Johansson, a classical guitarist and singer from Sweden.
At 12:28 you mentioned that there was no legatto in the London edition so des that mean that for instance the first variation every note should be plucked at the begining?
Hiw very interesting, I also find that avoiding the ring finger, when possible, enhances my performance, regardless whether it is a Sor piece, or a Brouwer piece I play.
Good video. As nice as the guitar is, it’s never matched the beauty and virtuosity that the lute has given.
I have heard Sor referred to as the Mozart of the Guitar. I believe it. His music affects me the same way as Mozart's, and I love playing his music.
I'm just astounded there's a name for it. "The Great Vogue". I love History.
New subscriber in Chicago.
Thankyou Jakob, a fascinating insight to Sor. His tragedy is our gain. As a self taught player, I once dabbled with classical playing but as I didn't back then & still don't really read music, it was too painful & slow, so I gave up & cheated, by approximating the pieces by ear. Far worse for listeners than for me! Also far worse than performing a possibly "contested" version of a piece. I understand the appeal of authenticity: "Did the composer mean that, or is it a misprint etc.?" but really we should live in the present, learn the piece we have access to & express ourselves through it, give it some life, not let it become so fixed in Aspic that there is only one way. I wrote my college thesis on the Guitar, from the Oud, Lute, Cittern etc. to it's development into the instrument/s we know. The Stauffer guitars were an interesting influence on wider European makers.
I also try to have fingernails but life breaks them, players have to adapt!
As far as the Classical Period guitar composers, Sor perhaps wrote the most refined music. I have a couple Editions of his Collected Works.
Woo Sor!
Love this. Can we get a list of pieces that we hear in the video?
Thank you! Just added it to the description! The Schubert theme at the start is of course the second theme from the first movement - not the first theme of the second movement, as I incorrectly labelled it. The pieces by Sor I played are:
Introduction and Variations on a theme by Mozart, Op.9
Introduction and Variations on the air 'Malbroug', Op.28
Fantaisie Élégiaque, Op. 59
March from the ballet 'Cendrillon', Op.15c
- Jakob
@@tonebase thank you so much.
@@tonebase by the way, you're playing is excellent here. It takes a special sensitivity to be able to play this type of stuff
@@tonebase I have some questions about op. 28. Can I do you on ig? What's your @?
I have played Sors music for years ..he did use nails but not on the Thumb ..interesting video thanks .. :)
The thing about Sor is that he can write even just student Etudes that sound awesome. And of course any prog/metal type rocker can play through a set of Sor Etudes and hear lots of nice, chord progressions lurking in there that would translate well to both melodic prog or heavy neo-classical metal. He's up there with Johann Sebastian on that front I think.
Just as “Dark Age” in the early Medieval period wasn’t really dark, I don’t think the early period of guitar was “dark”. It was not noticed by classical composers, but it has always been developing in flamenco and other folk genres.
The missing music history of the "Guitar Vogue"! That was interesting. I can hear something in the background and I thought: The way Segovia got recognition was because he could make the guitar sing, his way of using tone color seems not surpassed, at least i can not hear anything nearing the tone and dynamics fx in his rendering of Fandanguillo by Moreno Torroba. Or the Chaconne by Bach - but there are many other better examples, I just do not remember the names now.
My favourite Sor compositions are his duets.
It's funny, I started playing a little over 20 years ago and at the time it seemed like Sor was really looked down upon except for a small handful of pieces. I'm sure the overall attitude was probably already changing at that point but I'm happy to see him getting more and more respect as time goes on.
I've been studying Classical guitar for 40 years, and we must have hung with different crowds, but I've never heard Sor disparaged. Sor, in every guitar circle I've been associated with, every convention I've attended, every masterclass, etc. Sor has ALWAYS been considered an extremely important figure in the literature - held in highest regard.
I'm not into Hero-worship, but Sor deserves to be acclaimed as one of the all-time great contributors to the literature of solo guitar playing.
8:47 wait what? a student of his who died during childbirth? I'm misunderstanding something, cuz that seems impossible to die during childbirth, but still be a student
Of course it is meant that she died during the birth of her child
@@Biensche-3566 oh thank you so much Weingeist. Don't take my name seriously, I can be lil dumb sometimes haha, I thought the student was the infant, so I thought the infant died during birth, the infant was the student... but thanks a lot for clearing it up. I don't understand how it slipped by me like that omg haha makes total sense
edit: I think what confused me was him saying "died in childbirth" my brain would've understood it if he said "died during childbirth"
I think this is a very interesting video, and I don't want to be too harsh with my critique. I ought to say, that I'm a jazz guy, but, like all of us jazz freaks, we LOVE classical music. Unfortunately, classical guitar doesn't work for me personnally. When I play with finger nails, they invariably break, and my thick fingers are not apt for playing by flesh. I have to use a pick. - To Fernando Sor: Yes, a most wonderful composer. What I want to criticize as a bit naive is the idea that there is only ONE definitive version of a musical piece (or, as a work of art in general). Leonardo worked on his 'Mona Lisa' for long years, and, who knows, he could possibly have altered it another time if he had lived longer.
The young gentleman who made the vid seems to be a very good guitarist. So, one question: do you play all pieces the same way all the time, irrespective of the mood you are in or of changes of understanding of these pieces? Probably not. If you did, you wouldn't be a good musician, which I assume you are. - So WHY do you expect a composer to have this ONE DEFINITIVE FINAL version of a piece? The question "what is the original?" is a question for bookkeepers or historians of music, not for musicians. - I want to say: play the version you feel is apt for the mood of the day, as you feel it, and don't let yourself be hampered by ideas like "what is the definitive way?". There might be NO definitive way. Sor was such a great composer, you won't ruin his music altering a few notes here and there.
Jimmy Page, John McLaughlin, Richie Blackmore, Steve Howe, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, and so many more significant (and less well known!) 1960 and 1970s guitar players, usually associated with pop, rock, blues, jazz and folk, all had the masterful 1968 Narciso Yepes LP, 24 Études by Fernando Sor, in their collection. There are little licks and tricks "borrowed" from Sor all over pop music from that era. There is something easy-going, logical, charming and friendly about his seemingly simple but endlessly complex style that still endears him to us, even today.
I like Sor, but I've always preferred Giuliani's works. (except that Sor Fantasia that was uncovered a while ago and published by Romero. that is a great work!)
Hello,
Can you provide the full name of that Fantasia played by Romero?
i tried to post a link to it, but i guess you can't do that anymore. It's just called a Fantasia pour guitar seule and it's dedicated to Madamoiselle Houze. it has no opus number
Awesome. Thanks :)
@@alderfromhell it is published by Tuscany Publications. It has no opus number because it was never published, the score was purchased by Snr Romero around 1995 and he published it via Tuscany so as to retain ownership and copyright of the whole thing, so the facsimile is not available.
❤
I don't think there's any debate as to why Sor played without nails. He spells it out quite explicitly in his writings. He despised how nails sounded, and said they took the soul out of the instrument. Tarrega switched later in life too, and nail shills will try and say it was for health reasons but we really have no evidence either way. What we do know though is some of his most famous pieces like Endecha and Oremus were composed without nails.
Fernando Sor is great. I wrote my Funeral March for guitar in memory of him. One of my friends in music school used to say I was the reincarnation of Sor, maybe it's true haha.
0:07 That literally never happened,Guitar always been a popular instrument separated from the high society and its high time we accept and also embrace this. Guitar composer never followed even the parameters of the composers like Mozart and his Fundaments for the Sonata form as Pianist and orchestra composers from that time did. We as Guitarist always did whatever we want to do historically and l think that is precious.
Nice playing by the way.
I have always considered Sor as the beginning.
Wonderful ! Let us not forget Mauro Giuliani !
In those days the 432HZ A was used. Try tuning down just 1 semi- tone and all becomes clear.
By the sounds of it its beyond my capability
What about Dionisio Aguado ???