"As a guitarist/composer, Barrios is the best of the lot, regardless of era. His music is better formed, it's more poetic, it's more everything! And it's more of all those things in a timeless way." ~ Guitarists, John Williams
Agustín Barrios was a Paraguayan virtuoso guitarist and composer, regarded by many as the greatest and most prolific composer and performer for the classical guitar of all time and recognized by classical guitarists everywhere as one of the great geniuses of the instrument. This book is a collection of seven of his greatest works, transcribed in guitar tablature. These scores were meticulously combed through with extra care taken in all string designations, fingerings and barre markings. The top-tier players of the classical guitar are often implementing smoother fingerings that cannot be found in the scores available to the public. With the scores contained in this book, this work has already been done and it was accomplished through much persistence, using technology for slowing down audio and video to make determinations as to various artists’ fingerings. Justification for fingerings and optional ways for playing many of the passages due to the many Barrios scores in circulation are included in the footnotes. One of the most valuable fingering options offered in this book is the arpeggio and scale run in Un Sueño el la Floresta, which include both the left and right-hand fingerings of Agustín Barrios, himself, taken directly from the recording of him performing the piece. These fingerings are extremely different from any of his scores and would likely be of great interest to the advanced player.
I had previously made some of these transcriptions available in the form of sheet music singles in both tablature and standard notation formats. The idea for compiling these into one book came about after seeing the high demand for these scores, especially those in the form of guitar tablature. Each of the pieces published here are part of my own personal concert repertoire. The scores were meticulously combed through with extra care taken in all string designations, fingerings and barre markings. Standard notation versions of the complete works of Barrios’ works have been previously published, in their entirety, by other authors. But just the thought of this kind of mass production without the possibility of errors seems impossible and I have, in fact, found multiple errors when consulting these publications. And even though guitarist John Williams has praised the work that went into compiling these collections, Williams, himself, refrains from using the fingerings contained within them when performing these pieces. Instead, the top-tier players are often implementing smoother fingerings that cannot be found in the scores available to the public. With the scores contained in this book, this work has already been done and it was accomplished through much persistence, using technology that makes it possible to slow down audio and video to make determinations as to various artist’s fingerings. Differing ways of playing certain passages in some of Barrios’ pieces have also come about either due to the multiple Barrios’ scores and recordings or liberties taken by various performers such as John Williams, Denis Azabagić, Xuefei Yang, Rafael Rebello and others. Justifications for these artists’ liberties or the specific Barrios manuscripts that a passage was taken from are all referenced in the foot notes. One of the most valuable fingering options offered in this book are the arpeggio and scale run in Un Sueño el la Floresta on page 26 (or page 103 if reading the standard notation version) which include both the left and right-hand techniques of Agustín Barrios, himself, taken directly from the recording of him performing the piece. The speed at which Barrios executes this passage is astonishing. The fingerings are extremely different from any of his scores and would likely be of great interest to the advanced player.
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