# Hello there!



## ConEGIB (Jun 3, 2012)

Ahoy there, classicalists (?)! 

This may seem a bit unorthodox, but I'm an electric guitar player severely influenced/amazed by classical music. Of course, I listen to the "guitar genres", but still, I love taking time off just to listen or play classical music on my electric.

I've listened to tons of neoclassical guitarists who add too much "guitar stuff" to their compositions (but that's fine since they're guitarists), and I've though of writing a "few" purely classical pieces.

Could anyone give me a few tips, namely, what musical form should I start with, and who's examples to listen to. If it helps, I'm dazzled by Vivaldi. It also wouldn't hurt if it's a stringed instrument (which I manage to transcribe easier to my guitar).

Cheers!


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## chee_zee (Aug 16, 2010)

well it seems youre into the older stuff rather than the 20th or 21st century, which is actually fine as it is better to start with baroque and work your way up. form wise, look up baroque suite on wiki, the dance movements are in binary form, you might then go on to classical era forms like the sonata, rondo, sonata-rondo, scherzo and minuet/trio, theme and variations, ternary. You may or may not need to read up a bit on theory to get to the point that you could make good use of these forms, besides reading books on the forms themselves that is.

cant go wrong with a good grounding in harmony of the 18th and 19th centuries either way. my ideal book on classical form is from William Caplin. I doubt you'll find the need to dive into canon and fugue though (if so, Convertible Counterpoint and Doctrine of the Canon from Sergei Taneev have english editions you can obtain through the interlibrary loan, convertible counterpoint is fully downloadable for free from google books since it's so old).


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## ConEGIB (Jun 3, 2012)

Thanks for the reply! Well, most of the newer stuff I like is the music scores for movies. :/

I'll do a bit of research on these, and I know some theory. I also have a book on it which I read, but I'll find out what I can about William Caplin's book. If it isn't that expensive, it might find a spot in my bookcase.

Also, if you've got any nice pieces that suite the forms you listed, feel free to share! Would make my life a lot easier!


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## chee_zee (Aug 16, 2010)

bach has countless suites. if you dont mind harsichord then look up his french and english suites. the cello suites are an absolute must as well. take any baroque composer you know of, type their name and suite on google. here's something I found off wiki that may interest you:
"Guitar virtuoso Mauro Giuliani composed his Variations on a Theme by Handel, Op. 107 for guitar, based on Handel's Suite No. 5 in E major, HWV 430"

my personal favorite of the bach cello suites is suite no 2. each of these is approximately 20 minutes, and there are 6.

unless you have money for audiophile vinyls and are obsessed with that, I recommend getting spotify and going to spotifyclassical.com, typing in the name of a favorite composer, ulysses stone will probably have the complete works of that composer in order as a playlist.


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## ConEGIB (Jun 3, 2012)

Thanks for the reply, yet again!

Not at all, in fact I adore harpsichord, it sounds amazing. I'll start checking these suites and transpose them to my guitar and analyse them. I'll learn what I can about the form and then (try to) write something. Unfortunately Spotify isn't available in Croatia, so I'll just find the works on YT.

I'm sorry if I didn't make it clear before, my favourite periods are baroque and classical period. Cheers!


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## chee_zee (Aug 16, 2010)

you'll want to learn from william caplin as soon as possible then. in addition to the large overall structure of forms, you will, even in baroque, come across periods, sentences, and hybrids of them. these are your basic 8 bar phrases that can be extended, shortened, made asymmetric or irregular etc. 
a lot of people not deeply steeped in the baroque era don't know, but the harpsichord has 2 manuals and a great variety of stops, from lute sounds to different plucking positions.


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## chee_zee (Aug 16, 2010)

also, if you get completely lost when attempting to transcribe some of the more complex 4 voice contrapuntal textures, just go to the petrucci library, imslp.org. they are a repository for sheet music of the public domain, just make sure to observe the ratings of each score as some people upload rather error-ridden scores.


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## ConEGIB (Jun 3, 2012)

http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/gener...nalysisComposition/?view=usa&ci=9780195143997 Is this the book you meant? I'll try to get it as soon as possible, but $40 is just a bit too much right now because I'm saving for a new guitar and I need all the money I have.


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## chee_zee (Aug 16, 2010)

might find it cheaper elsewhere, such as abebooks or ebay or just using google:

http://books.google.com/books?id=tEKf_lIk8MsC&sitesec=buy&source=gbs_buy_r


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