EARLY ROMANTIC GUITAR

Dionisio Aguado (1784-1849)

Le Fandango Varié, Op. 16

Dionisio Aguado

Dionisio Aguado is certainly one of the most remarkable figures in guitar history bringing many innovations to the instrument and performance. Originally from Madrid, Spain he settled in France and established his career in Paris like many other of the other great musicians and guitarists of the period, like the great Fernando Sor with whom he was friends.

Just one innovation of Aguado was that he advocated the use of a "tripod" to hold the instrument during performance. He also published one of the most significant and substantial guitar methods that the we possess.

He propounded the idea what he called the doctrine of Equisonants or Synonymous sounds. In a nut shell, the one call play the same note upon the guitar in various and sometimes multiple positions - with the doctrine of Equisonants - Aguado essentialy divides the guitar into four regions and marks meticulously in which region a particular passage should be played with a bracket number. As far as I have seen thus far from the videos available the performance I give here is the first video available performed according the fingerings and equisonant indications of Aguado in his first edition. I have adhered to his indications meticulously.

The Fandango, Op. 16

The Fandango op. 16 from 1930 is a unique and important piece in that it reveals to us a bridge between the classical guitar of the period and the older style of guitar (baroque guitar) playing and what would later emerge as the form we now call flamenco. The piece is divide into three sections with a slow introduction marked Adagio followed by the Fandango, a popular Spanish dance form (in this instance closest in semblence to the Fandango de Huelva), followed by a classical Coda.

The Guitar