Fernando Sor

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Fernando Sor

Fernando Sor (baptized February 14, 1778 – July 10, 1839) was a Spanish guitarist and composer, born in Barcelona. In Spain he is sometimes known as the "Beethoven of the Guitar".

Works

See also: List of compositions by Fernando Sor

How history has viewed Sor's style can be summed up in a quote from William S. Newman:

"The creative worth of Sor's guitar sonatas is high. The ideas, which grow out of the instrument yet stand up well enough apart from it, are fresh and distinctive. The harmony is skillful and surprisingly varied, with bold key changes and with rich modulations in the development sections. The texture is naturally of interest too, with the melody shifted from top to bottom, to middle, and frequent contrapuntal bits added. Among the extended forms, the first Allegro movements still show considerable flexibility in the application of 'sonata form', especially in the larger number of ideas introduced and recalled. For that matter, the style still goes back to that of Joseph Haydn and Mozart, especially in the first movement of Op. 22, which has all the neatness of syntax and accompaniment to be found in a classic symphony, and its third and fourth movements, which could nicely pass as a Minuet and Rondo by Haydn."

—William S. Newman (Unknown source)

Method for the Spanish Guitar

Sor's Method for the Spanish Guitar was first published in French under the name Méthode pour la Guitare (1830) and then translated in English under the name Method for the Spanish Guitar in 1842.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Fernando Sor

Sheetmusic

• Free sheet music by Fernando Sor (www.freestave.com)
• www.fernandosor.fr.st
• Rischel & Birket-Smith's Collection of guitar music Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Denmark
• Boije Collection The Music Library of Sweden
• George C. Krick Collection of Guitar Music Washington University

Biography

• More detailed biography and performance notes (www.musicweb-international.com)
• Another biography (www.classicalguitar.net)

Publications

• Information (Tecla Editions)
• Ich, Fernando Sor Versuch einer Autobiografie und gitarristische Schriften; by Wolf Moser (Edition Saint-Georges, ISBN 30001552741)

Works

• List of Sor's surviving musical works (www.musicweb-international.com)

Photos

• Fernando Sor's grave at the Cimetière de Montmartre (alt.)