10-30-12 POSTED FOUR MORE SONGS
Posted by Vincente E. Woodward on Tuesday, October 30, 2012
It is about 3:30 a.m.
I just finished posting four more songs.
Specifically,
Luis Milan- Pavana #6
Federico Moreno-Torroba - two movements from the Suite Castellana (I can't find the third one, just yet, but I do have it, and expect to run into it before too long).
The first is a Fandanguillo.
The second is titled Arada.
I have no idea what it means or anything else about it, for that matter.
Moreno-Torroba was a very influential Spanish guitarist.
His works are of very high quality.
Note the "jazz chords" being used very early on.
I have played these pieces since I was about 18 years old, and just grow more in love with them with each passing year.
They are definitely not easy, either conceptually,
or musically/harmonically.
It took me many years to be able to play these songs mellow.
You always want to play them really uptight and fidgety and twitchy, and rushed.
I have to continuously fight that impulse every second that I play the song.
I think mellow lasts longer.
That's after many years of experience trying it every which way imaginable.
And finally, the great Mexican composer, Manuel Ponce, and his very beautiful Scherzino Mexicana.
I fell in love with this song the first time I ever heard it and even moreso the first time I played it.
It is a very tricky and difficult song to play.
I make it sound ridiculously easy.
But that is after many years of not being able to play it with any degree of mastery whatsover.
The rhythm is very tricky, and there is that fantastic counter-melody which is just full of tricks, but oh so effective when you finally figure out just what it is all about, anyway.
I wanted to make a quick note of a concept which I heard many years ago from the great guitarist Andres Segovia.
He likened the various songs and their respective manuscripts as "old friends".
And very dear old friends at that.
So, he explained. you will work hard on a song for years and perfect it and then move on.
You may not even think of that song for ten or more years.
And then one day as you are rummaging through a pile of sheet music you spot your old friend standing out from within the crowd.
And now, it is about to get very intimate and very rowdy, so I would suggest that you close your eyes and just forget what I am talking about.
Oh, and close your ears too, I think.
Because this baby is going to shake you down really hard, from the the innermost parts and then outwards until your entire body is in an altered state, and a very pleasant one, at that.
That's how it is with me and my old friends.
It's far too intimate for anyone to even know just what it is, exactly, that I am here speaking of.
Boy, that's some friend.
And, so it is just that.
And so are these songs which I break out every five or ten years and enjoy once again like the very finest of wines or the most loving and intimate persons we have ever known.
Yes, these songs, from Milan, to Moreno-Torroba, to Ponce are very fine old friends whom I have had the enviable circumstance of knowing very intimately throughout my entire adult life.
What a privilege and an honor it has been!
goodnight
and may God bless.
w/abundant love
vw
Tuesday
10-30-12
3:47 a.m.
Ventura, California, USA
I just finished posting four more songs.
Specifically,
Luis Milan- Pavana #6
Federico Moreno-Torroba - two movements from the Suite Castellana (I can't find the third one, just yet, but I do have it, and expect to run into it before too long).
The first is a Fandanguillo.
The second is titled Arada.
I have no idea what it means or anything else about it, for that matter.
Moreno-Torroba was a very influential Spanish guitarist.
His works are of very high quality.
Note the "jazz chords" being used very early on.
I have played these pieces since I was about 18 years old, and just grow more in love with them with each passing year.
They are definitely not easy, either conceptually,
or musically/harmonically.
It took me many years to be able to play these songs mellow.
You always want to play them really uptight and fidgety and twitchy, and rushed.
I have to continuously fight that impulse every second that I play the song.
I think mellow lasts longer.
That's after many years of experience trying it every which way imaginable.
And finally, the great Mexican composer, Manuel Ponce, and his very beautiful Scherzino Mexicana.
I fell in love with this song the first time I ever heard it and even moreso the first time I played it.
It is a very tricky and difficult song to play.
I make it sound ridiculously easy.
But that is after many years of not being able to play it with any degree of mastery whatsover.
The rhythm is very tricky, and there is that fantastic counter-melody which is just full of tricks, but oh so effective when you finally figure out just what it is all about, anyway.
I wanted to make a quick note of a concept which I heard many years ago from the great guitarist Andres Segovia.
He likened the various songs and their respective manuscripts as "old friends".
And very dear old friends at that.
So, he explained. you will work hard on a song for years and perfect it and then move on.
You may not even think of that song for ten or more years.
And then one day as you are rummaging through a pile of sheet music you spot your old friend standing out from within the crowd.
And now, it is about to get very intimate and very rowdy, so I would suggest that you close your eyes and just forget what I am talking about.
Oh, and close your ears too, I think.
Because this baby is going to shake you down really hard, from the the innermost parts and then outwards until your entire body is in an altered state, and a very pleasant one, at that.
That's how it is with me and my old friends.
It's far too intimate for anyone to even know just what it is, exactly, that I am here speaking of.
Boy, that's some friend.
And, so it is just that.
And so are these songs which I break out every five or ten years and enjoy once again like the very finest of wines or the most loving and intimate persons we have ever known.
Yes, these songs, from Milan, to Moreno-Torroba, to Ponce are very fine old friends whom I have had the enviable circumstance of knowing very intimately throughout my entire adult life.
What a privilege and an honor it has been!
goodnight
and may God bless.
w/abundant love
vw
Tuesday
10-30-12
3:47 a.m.
Ventura, California, USA
