Fernando Sor Guitar Studio Op. 35 no. 15 Segovia no. 16 sheet music, Noten, partitura, partition

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FERNANDO SOR (1778 – 1839)

Fernando Sor or Ferran Sor i Muntades was a Spanish guitarist and composer born in Barcelona on February 13, 1778 and died in Paris on July 10, 1839. The French musicologist Fétis called him the “Beethoven of the guitar.” His creative and didactic work contributed to revaluing the guitar in the first half of the 19th century, but he also stood out as an author of music for theater, ballet and songs representative of European pre-romanticism.

Biography

He was born into a fairly wealthy family, since Sor descended from a long line of soldiers (his father was a civil engineer, and his grandfather, born in the south of France, was in the French army). He tried to continue that military tradition, but moved away from it when his father introduced him to Italian opera. He fell in love with music and abandoned his military career. Along with opera, his father also guided him towards the guitar when, at that time, it was little more than an instrument played in taverns, considered inferior to the instruments of the orchestra. Without studying music theory, he learned the technique of guitar and violin as a child. At the age of 10 he entered the choir and orchestra of the Montserrat monastery under the tutelage of Anselm Viola, and studied the fundamentals of harmony and counterpoint.

When his father died in 1789, his mother could no longer finance his studies and the abbot of Montserrat, Joseph Arredondo, offered to take the boy to study for free at the Escolanía del Monasterio de Montserrat, near Barcelona. The study there revolved around music. It was in this monastery where he began to write his first pieces. However, his teachers, especially Father Viola, did not appreciate the guitar, and therefore Sor’s training for this instrument is self-taught, before and after his time in Montserrat.

In 1795 he returned to Barcelona and began his military career as a second lieutenant under General Vives in Villafranca’s army. The position allows him to give his first piano and guitar concerts and compose. took place at the Teatro de la Santa Cruz in Barcelona In 1797 the premiere of his opera Telemachus on the Island of Calypso .

In 1801 he moved to Madrid, where he intended to get closer to the musical circles of the Court of Charles IV and enter the Royal Chapel or the Royal Chamber. He is not welcome there. But the 13th Duchess of Alba welcomed and protected him in her circle of artists. Meet people like Isabel Colbrán, Dionisio Aguado, etc. Upon the death of the Duchess he entered the service of the Duke of Medinaceli, who gave him a position as estate administrator in Barcelona, ​​where he returned in 1802, until in 1804 he was appointed royal administrator in Andalusia and settled in Malaga, the city where he developed an active musical life.

In those years he composed several boleros and guitar pieces widely distributed as manuscripts; The first printed editions were published in Paris in 1811 by Salvador de Castro y Gistau. He was in Andalusia when the War of Independence broke out; He composed numerous hymns and patriotic songs such as Venid vincedores , sung by the Spanish army upon its entry into Madrid on August 23, 1808. In 1810 Sor swore fidelity to José Bonaparte, so three years later he would march like many other Frenchmen, to a exile in France.

In 1808, when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain, he began writing nationalist music for the guitar, often accompanied by patriotic lyrics. After the defeat of the Spanish army, Sor accepted an administrative position in the occupation government, under the monarchy of Joseph Bonaparte. He was Prefect of Police in Malaga, whose cathedral has some of his works on display. After the expulsion of the French in 1813, Sor and many other of the most important artists, aristocrats and intellectuals of the time who had collaborated with the monarchy of Joseph Bonaparte left Spain for fear of reprisals and because of the esteem they had for France. his advanced ideas.

In Paris he enjoyed the popularity that his songs had thanks to the editions published in the Journal de Musique Étrangère pour la Guitare ou Lyre . In 1815 he tried unsuccessfully to obtain a position as a composer in the musical chapel of the King of France and moved to London, a city with more musical opportunities and which had a large colony of Spanish exiles. There, in addition to being a composer and guitarist, he stood out as a singing teacher and author of Italian arias. In those years he published seven collections of Italian Arias for voice and piano that gained great popularity, and he composed music for ballet: La Foire de Smyrne , Le Seigneur Généreux , or Cenerentola , which took him to the Bolshoi in Moscow and a tour throughout Europe.

In 1825, after the death of Tsar Alexander, the funeral march composed by Sor for this occasion was performed at the funeral held in Saint Petersburg; He also composed the ballet Hercule et Omphale for the coronation of Nicholas I. Of the dozen ballets he composed, only four survive: Cenerentola, Alphonse and Leonore, Hercules and Omphale and The Sicilian or Love painter.

Although there is no record of his membership in any Lodge, the affiliation of the people who helped him most at the time suggests that he could have been a Freemason, initiated by his friends during the French occupation of Spain. He went to Paris, and never returned to his home country. In Paris he made friends with many musicians, including the Spanish guitarist Dionisio Aguado, who went to Paris from 1825 to 1838, collaborating closely and even living together for a time at the Hôtel Favart, which is still standing and operating today. He composed a duet for the two (Op.41, Les Deux Amis (the two friends) in which one part is marked “Sor” and the other “Aguado”).

He began to gain renown among the Parisian artistic community for his compositional and guitar playing skills, and began occasional tours throughout Europe, gaining considerable fame and turning the guitar into a concert instrument. He was in England in 1815 where he was recognized as a composer of operas and ballets. In 1823 he traveled to Russia, where he wrote and successfully presented the ballet Hercules and Omphalia on the occasion of the coronation of Tsar Nicholas I. In 1825 his ballet, Cinderella, inaugurated the Bolshoi Theatre. The prima ballerina is his lover or woman of the moment: Felicité Hullin. In 1827 he settled and decided to live the rest of his life in Paris. This is due partly to his mature age and partly to his loss of patronage in Russia, following the death of Tsarina Mother Elizabeth. During this mature stage he composed many of his best works.

The main income of a musician in Sor’s time was concerts and publishing sheet music. The concerts were given between several musicians in honor of one of them and he collected the fees. This was done on a rotating basis by circles of like-minded musicians and friends. As for the scores, published by Jean Antoine Meissonnier, Sor’s pieces were not exactly salable to the mass of amateurs due to their difficulty, and it exasperated him to compose for amateurs with little effort. In any case, he ended up publishing easy and evolutionary pieces, making the minimum possible artistic sacrifices.

In 1826 he returned definitively to Paris, dedicating himself almost exclusively to the guitar, as a teacher, concert pianist and composer; The result of all this is a Guitar Method , four books of studies, twelve duets for guitar and several fantasies, variations and dances for that instrument. He died on July 10, 1839 and was buried two days later in the Parisian cemetery of Montmartre.

The end of his life is comfortable despite the legend (shared by many romantic artists) of death in oblivion and misery. The last concert for his benefit was given on April 24, 1836 together with Aguado. A testimony about the end of his life is given by his friends Eusebio Font y Moresco and Jaume Batlle i Mir in an article in the Barcelona Public Opinion of January 1850. However, his daughter Carolina, harpist and painter, died on June 8. 1837. His last work was a mass in honor of her. This death plunged the already ill Sor into a serious depression, and he died on July 10, 1839 of cancer of the tongue.

His grave was identified in the Montmartre Cemetery in the 1930s at the initiative of the Friends of the Guitar of Paris (André Verdier, Emilio Pujol and the Danish Ostergaard among others). It was restored to avoid the 100-year expiration of the concessions that would have implied the transfer of the remains to a mass grave and the reuse of the niche.

He was buried in the tomb of the Spanish nobleman David del Castillo, a friend of Fernando Sor, whose family also fled Spain. In 1936 there were two ceremonies to inaugurate the restored tomb: The first by the Government of the Republic and shortly by the government of General Franco. Again, in 1978, the tomb was once again in terrible condition and was restored with the addition of a sculpture of the canary who lived in France, Ángel Peres. The tomb can continue to be visited in division 24 of the Montmartre Cemetery; It can be easily seen from the internal Samson Avenue.

Despite having been born in Barcelona on Sant Pau Street (probably where the current Lyceum is or very close), there is still no plaque that commemorates him. However, in the charismatic neighborhood of Gràcia, in the space known as La Salut – the most select in the area – there is Sors Street (Carrer de Sors, ​​in Catalan), dedicated to the musician. It is a quiet and beautiful street parallel to Torrent de les Flors and which ends, at the top, less than five minutes from the main entrance to Park Güell.

Style

His style is mainly characterized by the use of a guitar language that was quite advanced for his time, but he is still considered a totally classical composer. However, many performers tend to interpret their works with a “romantic” approach.

He ventured into different musical forms – such as divertissements, themes with variations, sonatas, fantasies, minuets, duets, as well as various vocal music – demonstrating his knowledge of the composition techniques of the time. However, his works are clear and somewhat simple, which allows easy assimilation for those who listen to them.

He made frequent use of minor keys as a preamble to his pieces, a clear example is the introduction of the Variations on a Theme by Mozart , which is in E minor but during the course of it, it modulates to show the theme in E. elderly. Another example of this characteristic is the “Great solo” , where the type of modulation is the same, only in the key of D.

Another characteristic of his compositional style is the subtle use of ” harmonic delays ” very much in the style of Haydn and Mozart. Likewise, it is possible to find more similarities with these composers, but this can be observed as a result of the influence of the predominant style of their time, the Galante Style.

Musical Pedagogy

Since leaving the Montserrat school, Fernando has frequented amateurs, professionals and notables interested in learning the art of guitar or harmony. Among his students are Isabella Colbran and José de San Martín. In his mature period in Paris he himself edited a didactic work, still of reference today: Method for guitar , published in 1830 and translated into several languages, including Spanish, in 2008, 178 years after its first edition. There have been many apocrypha derived, republished and sold from this method and it is advisable to be well informed before following one, the motto being to follow the original from 1830, of which few are authentic.

Fernando Sor’s Works

Operas

• Telemachus on Calypso’s Island (1797)
• Don Trastullo

Ballets

• The Smyrna Fair (1821)
• The Generous Lord (1821)
• Cinderella (1822)
• The Painter Lover (1823)
• Hercules and Ia (1826)
• The Sicilian (1827)
• Hassan and the Caliph (1828)

Vocal music

• 25 Boleros or seguidillas
• 33 Arias
• Cantata alla duchessa d’Albufera (Valencia, 1813)

Orchestral music

• 3 Symphonies
• Violin Concerto

Chamber music

• 3 String Quartets (Lost)
• String trios with guitar (Perdido)

Works for guitar

• 30 Divertimentos Op. 1, 2, 8, 13 and 24
• Variations Op. 3, 9, 11, 15, 16 and 20
• 11 Fantasies Op. 4, 7, 10, 12, 21, 30, 46, 52, 56, 58, 59 and 97
• 6 Short Pieces Op. 5
• 12 Studies Op. 6
• 12 minuets Op. 11
• Grand solo Op. 14
• 3 Sonatas Op. 15, Op. 22 y Op.25
• 12 Valses Op. 17
• Variations on The Magic Flute (Mozart) Op. 9
• 8 short pieces Op. 24
• Variations Op. 26, 27 and 28
• 12 Studies Op. 29
• Studios Op. 31 Op. 31 nº 20, 35, 44 and 60
• 24 Short pieces Op. 32, 42, 45 and 47
• 6 Living room pieces Op. 33 and 36
• 12 Waltzes Op. 51 and 57
• Variations Op. 40
• Serenata Op. 37
• 6 Bagatelas Op. 43
• 6 Pieces Op. 48
• Capricho Op. 50
• Duetos Op. 34, 38, 39, 41 “The two friends”, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 53, 54, 55, 61, 62 and 63.
• Six selected airs from the opera The Magic Flute Op. 19

Fernando Sor “24 Estudios”

Op. 29 N°13 en si bémol mayor Op. 35 N°22 en si menor Op. 35 N°21 en si mayor Op. 6 N°8 en do mayor Op. 35 N°14 en do menor Op. 29 N°17 en do mayor Op. 35 N°13 en do dièse mayor Op. 35 N°19 en do dièse mayor Op. 31 N°16 en ré menor Op. 35 N°17 en ré mayor Op. 35 N°16 en ré menor Op. 60 N°25 en ré mayor Op. 29 N°22 en mi bémol mayor Op. 31 N°10 en mi bémol mayor Op. 6 N°11 en mi menor Op. 29 N°22 en mi bémol mayor Op. 31 N°10 en mi bémol mayor Op. 6 N°11 en mi menor Op. 31 N°14 en sol mayor Op. 29 N°23 en sol mayor Op. 6 N°6 en la mayor Op. 31 N°20 en la menor Op. 6 N°2 en la mayor Op. 31 N°22 en si bémol mayor

Narciso Yepes (14 de noviembre de 1927, Lorca – 3 de mayo de 1997, Murcia), guitarra.

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