classical guitar sheet music

[db05]

Hi. Am new here and I looooooove this forum. 

My first request... If any of you also play guitar (classical! I gave up electric a long time ago), can I please request some guitar music? Piano sheets abound, but is hard to find guitar books/ scores anywhere. Please and thank you.

Or else I will pick up the electric guitar again and start transcribing all your favorite piano works! ... Just kidding.

[minor9th]

Try these sites:

https://www.delcamp.net/guitarraclasica/partituras.html

https://www.free-scores.com/centre-uk.php?CATEGORIE=999

https://fuoco13.narod.ru/scores.html

[db05]

Many thanks. 

[indutrial]

Or else I will pick up the electric guitar again and start transcribing all your favorite piano works! ... Just kidding.

I play guitar and bass and I do this all the time.

Run a search on the following blog: https://jfk-guitarra.blogspot.com/

There are a few posts on there that featured massive collections of guitar and 2-guitar sheet music. Mayhap they're still available...

Also, take a gander at www.eythorsson.com . Most of his site's material is pedagogical pieces, but he also has a lot of guitar etudes and performance pieces available.

As for pieces I'd suggest looking into, I tend to favor works from the recent century and am very partial to things like:

Tansman - Cavatina; Concertino for Guitar and orch..

Francaix - Guitar Concerto; Divertissement for 2 guitars

Bogdanovich, Dusan - Sonata Fantasia (for 2 guitars)

Absil - anything he did for guitar is awesome

Mangore-Barrios - anything

Loeb, David - hard to find, but he has a ton of great works ranging from Oriental-themed suites to Sonatas in alternate tunings, not to mention a lot of duets with other chamber instruments. Loeb is a modern composer prolific in the sense that Bach was. He literally has something like 6 guitar suites and 5 guitar sonatas, all of which are excellent.

Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Mario - anything

Villa Lobos - anything

[thalbergmad]

I tend to favor works from the recent century

You surprise me old chap.

I would never have guessed this.

Thal

[indutrial]

You surprise me old chap.

I would never have guessed this.

Thal

As amazing as a lot of older classical guitar literature is, I think it really hit its stride in the first half of the 20th century, when more Latin American composers were coming into their own and injected a ton of new folk ideas into the idiom. Not only did this mean tons of excellent new nationalist pieces, but also tons of spillover influence onto composers like Tansman and Absil who both came countries not commonly associated with large guitar repertoires, who would combine their baroque and classical styles into the folk elements they were exposed to. As a result, Andres Segovia got tons of interesting work and pretty much revolutionized the instrument.

The other guy I mentioned, Loeb, is a composer from the past century who does not act at all like your typical modern composer. Though his harmonic sense is heavily free tonal, he doesn't stray far from folk ideas and ultimately creates a fantastic fusion of styles that makes him sort of part-composer, part-ethnomusicographer. The first exposure I had to his work was actually a set of short pieces called Suites and Meditations for guitar solo which consisted of a 'Suite Occidentale' and a 'Suite Orientale.' The former has a very east Mediterranean feel. The latter suite explicitly works with East Asian modes from Balinese, Japanese, and Okinawan sources to great effect.

[thalbergmad]

Well, I am yet to experience outside of the 19th Century (as usual), what would you recommend for starters??

Thal

[minor9th]

For 20th century, try Britten's "Nocturnal" op. 70--a masterpiece in the form of variations and theme (yes, the theme is at the end!) based on John Dowland's "Come Heavy Sleep."

[thalbergmad]

Well, l like Dowland, so that is a good start.

I have been spending some rather nice evenings relaxing to his lute suites. Regretfully, i am unable to start to try to play them as my brother built my left handed lute as a right handed lute.

Thal

[minor9th]

Well, l like Dowland, so that is a good start.

I have been spending some rather nice evenings relaxing to his lute suites. Regretfully, i am unable to start to try to play them as my brother built my left handed lute as a right handed lute.

Thal

Aah... Bach's Lute Suites--totally sublime. I'm working on Prelude, Fugue, & Allegro BWV 998 right now. It's a lot easier in the keyboard version, but there's something special about plucked strings.

[indutrial]

I'm not sure if you're asking me to recommend pieces to play or to listen to...If the latter is the case, buy this (it's cheapy cheapy used on Amazon  )


https://www.amazon.com/Jungles-Paraguay-Williams-Plays-Barrios/dp/B000002A6G

Another recent recommendation I would make is the Corona Kvartet's disc Northpoints, which features a number of excellent Danish guitar quartet works of recent vintage, including a set of dances by John Frandsen. That can be found at:

https://www.amazon.com/Northpoints-John-Frandsen/dp/B0002T3X6C

There's actually a Youtube film of them playing a piece by Danish composer Wayne Siegel called "East L.A. Phase." Siegel is one of a few minimalist composers who I actually enjoy. This work makes me think of the 1980s-present King Crimson albums that utilized multiple guitars and chapman sticks to create futuristic-sounding textures. Whether that kind of stuff is your cup of tea or not, the Frandsen work would be worth it on it's own. The other works are pretty cool also.

[db05]

Aah... Bach's Lute Suites--totally sublime. I'm working on Prelude, Fugue, & Allegro BWV 998 right now. It's a lot easier in the keyboard version, but there's something special about plucked strings.

Exactly. Even though I chose to major in piano, I admit some interesting pieces are better on guitar.

Good thing I didn't get interested on all the other instruments. Imagine playing all the parts of an orchestra! 

[minor9th]

Exactly. Even though I chose to major in piano, I admit some interesting pieces are better on guitar.

Good thing I didn't get interested on all the other instruments. Imagine playing all the parts of an orchestra! 

I think Albeniz's Leyenda sounds better on the guitar, which he was trying to imitate, but Chopin needs to stay on the piano!

[db05]

I think Albeniz's Leyenda sounds better on the guitar, which he was trying to imitate, but Chopin needs to stay on the piano!

Yes, I agree on Albeniz.
Chopin guitar transcriptions... Hmmm...

[indutrial]

Chopin guitar transcriptions... Hmmm...

Like a lot of Bach pieces that have been arranged for guitar, they sound far better when there's two guitarists involved instead of one.

[minor9th]

There's certainly less struggle that way, especially with keyboard pieces. Four fingers that have to simultaneously create and strike notes versus ten than "only" have to strike notes is a lot harder. One has to admire the phenomenal chops of this fellow who makes a heroic stab at the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue:

(It's divided into three parts)