Enrique Granados : arr. Johan Smith
Les Productions d’Oz: 20 pages
Granados’ life story ends tragically as he died aged only 48 trying to save his wife after their ship was torpedoed in the English Channel, and he jumped in to save her, but died as a result.
So his list of compositions, although quite large in number, would probably have been considerably larger had he had a normal life span. As it is he wrote 12 Operas and theatrical works, 10 works for orchestra, 14 chamber works for various combinations, 40 Opus numbers for piano ( Amounting to a much larger number of separate pieces) , 22 works for voice and piano, and finally three choral works; quite a number I think you’ll agree. However he wrote nothing for guitar, although over the years many of his pieces have been arranged for our beloved instrument.
His Opus 1 was a set of 10 piano pieces called Tales of Youth, beginning with Dedicatoria moved from F Major to D with a dropped D sixth. Consisting of a lovely flowing melody underpinned by some beautiful harmonies, its 24 bars of music is over before it’s begun, which is a shame .La Mendiga (The Beggar), set here in Dm, (originally in Am) is in two sections, a Lento opening sad and forlorn and superbly arranged, leading to a Piu Mosso that moves the difficulty factor up several notches, using several higher register points and (hopefully) flowing arpeggios underneath a happier melody. Both sections repeat to some extent, before the work closes sadly .Cancion de Mayo (May Song) again has some wonderful harmonies but again has some really tricky moments , again taking the player to the top string around frets 12 to 19, and all apparently meant to flow seamlessly and effortlessly. Having known the piano original for some time now, I was a little taken aback at how it could, (with some adjustments) be fitted onto the guitar at all, but it does, and providing you are an excellent player, it will fit. Cuento Viejo (The Old Man’s Tale) is a serious page of writing that, at one point has an ossia, showing the players how the original was voiced, before it was arranged as you find it here. Viniendo de la Fuente (The Fountain) is set in three voices throughout, and again this adds a difficulty factor onto it that will confound some players. But let it be said that it is all completely playable, but anyone with a less than superb technique will definitely struggle, fabulous though the music is. The sixth piece originally had a title consisting of three asterisks, here replaced by the speed marking of Lento Con Ternura. It is very short and slow and consists of 16 bars of long flowing chords interspersed with a slow expressive melody, and is one of the easiest of the set. Recuerdos de la Infancia (Childhood Memories) is again a slow piece, but full of complex chords performed via three moving parts, that do keep you on your toes as the harmonies and melody range over the entire fingerboard .El Fantasma (The Phantom) is a very swiftly moving Allegro Energetico that careers around the guitar at times in octaves in the opening section. Then a faster section, complete with semi – quaver runs that really do task the player, takes over until the opening idea returns for one more time, before a repeat of the entire piece leads to a final low D. La Huerfana ( The Orphan), is subdued and full of legato melody lines. The final Marcha is a real helter – skelter, very dance – like, and with many off – beat accents, that help to enhance the Allegretto Humoristico of the speed marking. This is a wonderful close to the suite but is very difficult indeed, as it never lets up for one second, but keeps the player really busy throughout.
The suite itself is a marvelous piece of writing, and when you hear the original on piano, you might think that there is little chance that it could be successfully arranged for one guitar. As it is, Johan Smith does a very fine job .Yes, he does thin down certain parts to make the music more adaptable to the guitar, but generally he makes it all playable and fun to do so, but as I said before, beware if your technique is not advanced, because this piece most certainly is!
Chris Dumigan