Ernesto Nazareth Guitar Solo Anthology: 28 Guitar Solos

One of the major difficulties in trying to arrange Ernesto Nazareth's themes for any instrument, but the piano, is to separate the melodic line from its accompaniment: both are so closely together (that is one of the strongest characteristics of his pianistic style of composition) that it becomes almost impossible to treat one of the features disregarding the other. If one did that, the result would be only a pale and incomplete portrait of what was intended by the composer. That thought has guided us in the making of this book.

In spite of the huge obstacles that resulted from the transposition of a piece originally written for the piano - a very rich instrument regarding the expressive recourses - to the more "modest" guitar, we always kept in mind our principal intention: to preserve at the most all the melodic dialogues of the scores, in special the ones between the melody and the bass line, both the elements that form the soul of Nazareth's compositions. We obviously had to do some changes. Thus, for instance, in some arrangements it was necessary to transpose the original key to a more appropriate one (at the guitar view-point, of course). Some phrases or fragments had also to be written an octave higher or lower (that can be perfectly understandable if we consider the very wide melodic range of the piano and the extensive way with which Nazareth uses it). Needless to say that all those recourses were used only when it has been strictly necessary. Despite the fact that those 28 pieces are only a little portion of Nazareth's work, this group of arrangements represents a good and representative panel. Among them there are some of Nazareth's greatest hits ("Apanhei-te Cavaquinho", "Odeon", "Brejeiro", "Ameno Reseda", etc.) as well as other not so known compositions- but no less beautiful and important. Listening to those pieces one can observe the compositional talent of Nazareth and his incredible harmonic, melodic and - especially - rhythmic versatility. Each of them has its own and unmistakable personality.

The most part of the scores of this book - as well as in Nazarethian repertoire - is composed by tangos brasileiros (i.e., Brazilian tangos), but there are also some polcas and some of his most expressive valsas, like "Confidencias" and "Coracao que Sente".A collection of 28 Ernesto Nazareth compositions expertly transcribed for classic guitar solo.