As a guitarist and composer I have long been drawn to the wonderful music
that can be found in Spanish and South American cultures. The rhythms, modalities and colours drawn from
many vibrant backgrounds have had a great influence on my work.
Here you will find pieces by composers from a number of these countries and some pieces I have written which
are based in the habaneras, bossas and other genres in this diverse landscape.
Hopefully, this will inspire your own exploration of this rich tradition spanning so many different people, places and time. This first of my own compositons is Tengo Sueno which has an underlying habanera rhythm which originated in Cuba and found its way to Europe
and the whole of the American continent in subsequent music and dance styles. The next, Cantilena is mainly in a 6/8 rhythm which is widespread in many folk music traditions By contrast Threadbare Rambling is a contemporary folk piece From Mist to Shadows takes us to Brazil, with a bossa nova feel whilst Freshening Southwesterly has a strong syncopation running through out and a hint of slide guitar The final selection, Mezcla Por La Primavera, begins very much in a Spanish vein, moving then to a segment based in the folk music of the Balkans
before segueing to a more jazzy style for the close
I have also included a number of pieces by South American composers whose music has had a great influence on my playing and writing The first, Mazurka Choro is by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa Lobos, a seminal figure in the development of music of Brazil
who wrote many pieces for guitar drawing on the folk music of his country The next piece Choro-Brasil from the Argentinian composer Héctor Ayala's Serie Americana, this piece having a jazz flavour in parts Staying in Argentina, Máximo Díego Pujol´s piece Préludio Triston is based on the milonga dance form Dilermando Reis, the composer of the next piece, Se Ela Perguntar, was a highly reknowned Brazilian guitarist and composer And this final piece is the highly popular Sons de Carrilhöes by the Brazilian composer Joäo Pernambuco