Six Preludes pour guitare – Pierre Lerich

Pierre Lerich, French guitarist and composer. Born in Calais on 29th June 1937, died in Lille on 11th August 2008. Lerich’s style is influenced by Jazz and Latin American music. His works are mostly fresh and pleasant.

The six preludes are Lerich’s short and refined works.

The first one started with the short and lively E major theme and modulate to G major in the middle section with different mood as contrast to the first theme, and finally returned to the first theme in E major

 

The second is a slow lullabies. The left hand moves on the fretboard with geometric fingerings to form a unique arpeggios.

 

The third subtitle “sur trois cordes” in French means three strings, as the title suggests that is all done on the three treble strings except for the last note. The music has a flavour of jazz harmony.

 

The fourth is the most popular one in this set of preludes. The subtitle “comme un reve,” which means dreamlike. The rhythm is in three beats similar to Barcarola. The melody is catchy and with the impressionistic harmony. It is like the feeling of boating on the river at night.

 

The fifth one is a slow-moving speed mostly in 6/4 tempo, but there’s 3/4 and 4/4 tempo insert in the middle to make the phrase more flexible. The impressionistic harmony make this piece reminiscent.

 

The sixth prelude is very free in tempo (Tres libre). The whole piece does not even have a bar-line. The impromptu style is obvious and in a mysterious mood.

 

When a child is born – Ciro Dammicco

 

“When A Child Is Born” is a popular Christmas song. The original melody was “Soleado”, a tune from 1974 by Ciro Dammicco (alias Zacar), composer for Italy’s Daniel Sentacruz Ensemble, and Dario Baldan Bembo. The tune was based on Dammicco’s earlier tune “Le rose blu” published in 1972. The English language lyrics were written a few years later by Fred Jay (Friedrich Alex Jacobson). They do not make specific mention of Christmas but the importance they attach to looking forward to the birth of one particular child somewhere, anywhere, suggests a reference to the birth of Jesus Christ, and the citing of “a tiny star” that “lights up way up high” may allude to the Star of Bethlehem . Fred Jay’s lyrics have been sung by many artists, most successfully by Johnny Mathis in 1976. “Soleado” is used in the 1975 Argentinean film Nazareno Cruz y el lobo (The Love of the Wolf), and it is credited as “Theme From the Motion Picture ‘The Love of the Wolf'” on Mathis’s album Johnny Mathis Sings the Movie Greats.

“When A Child Is Born”

A ray of hope flickers in the sky

A tiny star lights up way up high

All across the land, dawns a brand new morn

This comes to pass when a child is born

A silent wish sails the seven seas

The winds of change whisper in the trees

And the walls of doubt crumble, tossed and torn

This comes to pass when a child is born

A rosy hue settles all around

You’ve got the feel you’re on solid ground

For a spell or two, no-one seems forlorn

This comes to pass when a child is born

And all of this happens because the world is waiting,

Waiting for one child

Black, white, yellow, no-one knows

But a child that will grow up and turn tears to laughter,

Hate to love, war to peace and everyone to everyone’s neighbour

And misery and suffering will be words to be forgotten, forever

It’s all a dream, an illusion now

It must come true, sometime soon somehow

All across the land, dawns a brand new morn

This comes to pass when a child is born

Miguel Llobet

 

The Barcelona born maestro of guitar was born on 18th October 1878. Though he turned to the guitar at the relatively late age of 11, he had studied both piano and violin from his early childhood. His first teacher was Magín Alegre; by 16 Llobet  was studying with Francisco Tárrega  at the Barcelona Municipal Conservatory of Music. 

Llobet was instrumental in establishing the classical guitar on the international concert scene. He pioneered the way for guitarists in succeeding generations, as well as of his compositional skills and arrangement for guitar, especially his arrangement of the Catalan folk songs.

Llobet launched his concert career in 1898 and, with the aid of Tarrega’s patron Concepción Jacoby, embarked on his international career with a series of Paris concerts in 1904. The following year Llobet apparently relocated to Paris, using it as a base of operations from which to tour Europe until 1910.

That year he seemed to have moved to Buenos Aires and thereafter made numerous tours of Central and South America. His U.S. debut came in 1912 and included performances in New York and Boston. Although accounts differ, Llobet  seems to have spent the war years in the U.S. where his concert schedule was quite full.

In the postwar era, Llobet was active touring Germany, Austria, England, Italy, Hungary, and other European locales, as well as the U.S. He resettled in Barcelona in the 1930s, primarily to teach. Among his students was the talented Cuban José Rey de la Torre. Llobet rarely concertized in his last years, his last major tour coming in 1934 with appearances in Germany, Austria, and the U.S. Llobet died in Barcelona on 22nd February 1938.

Five Preludes by Heitor Villa-Lobos

 

5 Preludes by Heitor Villa-Lobos

The Five Preludes was completed during the summer of 1940, are the last Villa-Lobos’ composition for solo guitar. Both are dedicated to composer’s wife Arminda Neves de Almeida. It was first performed by Abel Carlevaro in Montevideo on 11th December 1942.

The titles of these preludes are :

Prelude no.1 in E minor : Homage to the dweller of the Brazilian sertao – Lyrical Melody

Prelude no.2 in E major : Homage to the Rascal of Rio – Capadocia Melody – Capoeira Melody

Prelude no.3 in A minor : Homage to Bach

Prelude no.4 in E minor : Homage to Brazilian Indians

Prelude no.5 in D major : Homage to the social life – “To the fresh young boys and girls who go to concert and Theatre in Rio

These preludes each representing an original approach to a different style such as the composer reverence for J.S. Bach in a veritable Bachiana Brasileira in miniature (Prelude no.3) ; the Romantic lyricism of Fryderyk Chopin (Prelude no.1 and the second part of Prelude no.5) ; and the traditional music of Brazil, whether urban (Prelude no.5), tribal (Prelude no.4), or inspired by the obsessive rhythm of the capoeira, an ancient war dance of African origin (Prelude no,2 : the second section of which imitates a berimbau, an Angolan gourd instrument played by striking its single metal string with a stick). This Five Preludes vary in structure as well : three of them (no,1,2, and 4) in ABA form, but one (no.3) is in AB form and the last (no.5) is in a more elaborated ABCA form.