Notes on Composers

Fernando Sor (1778-1839)

One of the guitar’s greatest composers and performers, Fernando Sor was born Josesph Fernando Macari Sors in Barcelona, Spain in 1778. He received his first musical education in singing, harmony and counterpoint at the monastery Escolania at Montserrat. As a child, Sor had played his father’s guitar, and in the monastery he studied organ, violin and also singing.

At the age of 19, Sor presented his first opera in the Barcelona Theater. When the French invaded Spain, Sor came into contact with many French musicians in Madrid. In 1813, when the French left Spain after defeat, Sor left also and made his new home in Paris. After spending several years in London and Russia, Sor eventually returned to Paris where he died in 1839. Sor left a catalogue of over 400 pieces for the guitar including a method, studies, fantasies, themes with variations, and sonatas. Sor was also one of the few guitar-composers who was well-known in his lifetime for his non-guitar compositions including ballets, orchestral works, songs, piano works, and more. His ballet Cendrillon was performed with great success at the Kings Theatre in 1822, in Paris the following year, and then in Moscow.

In 1819, the first London performance of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute had created a sensation. Sor was in London at the time and seems to have been caught up in the enthusiasm. He composed his celebrated Op.9 Variations on “Oh caro armonia” around 1820-21 and performed them with some success. It is likely that Six Airs choisis de l’Opéra de Mozart: Il Flauto Magico, Op.19 were part of the phenomenon. The themes, not the best known in the opera, are Marche réligieuse, Fuggite o voi beltáfallace, Giú fan ritorno I Geny amici, O dolce armonia, Se potesse un suono, and the chorus Grand’ Isi, grand’ Osiri.


Moreno Torroba (1891 – 1982)

Among the many aspirations Andrés Segovia had for himself and the guitar was to create a modern repertoire in association with notable orchestral and instrumental composers. The first such composer to contribute to what is now referred to as the “Segovian repertoire” was a young Moreno Torroba. The Nocturno was one of the first pieces Torroba wrote for Segovia, featuring evanescent figurations in its outer sections and a somber central episode; it is deeply expressive. Almost all of his nearly one hundred works for guitar are short dance-like numbers, but there are also more ambitious works including his concertos. Torroba’s use of the Spanish musical language is often more in the spirit of fiesta than the fiery passion of flamenco or the soulful melancholy of the cante hondo (the “deep song” of the Gypsies).


Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

The tenor, Peter Pears (1910-1986) was Britten’s loved companion, professionally and personally, for much of his mature life. Pears frequently collaborated with the illustrious Julian Bream on lute. This collaboration complimented Britten’s fondness for Elizabethan song, and Bream’s incessant pleas for a guitar work were eventually satisfied in this vein. Several other works by Britten can be traced to institutional and personal commissions and spontaneous expressions of friendship for other musicians. Julian Bream had to wait “a good ten years” for Nocturnal but the music came! The work was premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1963.

The Nocturnal is a cornerstone of the 20th century repertoire and yet Britten originally wanted to write a piece for lute. Thus, it is a series of seven variations and a passacaglia on the song Come, heavy sleep by John Dowland, a setting of which appears at the end of the cycle. It can be viewed as a reverse theme and variation form, and is not unlike his Lachrymae, Op.48 for viola and piano, also based on a Dowland song. In the Nocturnal, originally called Night Fancy, Britten is concerned with depicting the various psychological moods and qualities of sleep, a fascination that he held throughout much of his life. A strong parallel is suggested between sleep and death here and is immediately recognizable in the original Dowland song upon which the Nocturnal is based.

Each variation has a descriptive title, and the Passacaglia can be seen as the main element of the piece, building impetus with an obsessive reiteration of the bass theme, itself derived from an interior voice heard at the beginning of Dowland’s song. This is a seminal work for the guitar in many respects: in its dimensions and formal design, high intellectual content, in its notational, textural and formal innovations, and above all, its dramatic and expressive power.