# Tuneful Classical Guitar Compositions/Composers?



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I'm looking for some suggestions.


Scofield is my fav Jazz guitarist.
Trey Anastasio of Phish is my fav rock guitarist.

Now I'm looking for composer.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Try Leo Brouwer


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

list=OLAK5uy_lutT-bVhtIyaMkMgt1t2PFbWV5L6TgncQ


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Now I'm looking for composer.


Specifically classical music?


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

NoCoPilot said:


> Specifically classical music?


Yes. Not the era, the genre.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

hammeredklavier said:


> list=OLAK5uy_lutT-bVhtIyaMkMgt1t2PFbWV5L6TgncQ


I have their Schubert for Two which is nice. Sollscher's recordings of Bach transcriptions are also favorites.

I also enjoy guitar transcriptions of Scarlatti sonatas, especially for solo guitar (as opposed to duos). I have several recordings, but I've had the Narciso Yepes set for a long, long time (starting with cassette) and it still holds up.

I recently picked up this set:

And of course:


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

renaissance lute music can be played on guitar
transcriptions of baroque (Bach orig. Lute or harpsichord, Scarlatti orig. harpsichord)
early 20th century spanish stuff (some original, some transcribed from piano) such as Albeniz, de Falla etc.
There are two? Naxos discs with Albeniz piano music arranged for guitar trio that convinced me that some guitar music is worth listening to; it is at times more atmospheric than the original.


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

Joaquín Rodrigo

A lot of Isaac Albéniz's piano music has been transcribed for guitar and is now thought of as guitar music, but was not originally composed for the instrument. Highly recommended nonetheless.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)




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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

For my money the King of the tuneful guitar is Augustin Barrios, one of the fathers of the classical guitar. His music is of unparalleled charm and grace. Simple without being simplistic, approachable without being clichéd. My favorite among his many excellent interpreters is Barrios' fellow Paraguayan Berta Rojas.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Bwv 1080 said:


> Try Leo Brouwer


Leo Brouwer is a fine composer of guitar music but I'm surprised to see him put forward as a particularly tuneful composer for the instrument. Brouwer has said (in a 2003 interview with David Reynolds) that he does not favor melodic writing for the guitar and his mature works for guitar feature clusterchords, dissonance and chromaticism, fragmentary thematic ideas, no clear melodic ideas, and the use of timbre and dynamics as structural elements.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Luchesi said:


>



Or this:


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

RICK RIEKERT said:


> Leo Brouwer is a fine composer of guitar music but I'm surprised to see him put forward as a particularly tuneful composer for the instrument. Brouwer has said (in a 2003 interview with David Reynolds) that he does not favor melodic writing for the guitar and his mature works for guitar feature clusterchords, dissonance and chromaticism, fragmentary thematic ideas, no clear melodic ideas, and the use of timbre and dynamics as structural elements.


his works since the 80s are tonal and melodic


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

jegreenwood said:


> Or this:


Miles is such a deep ocean, I get lost. To appreciate his recordings I would have to follow his development (his early recordings) and it's a big commitment. It doesn't help that his drug experiences can't be appreciated as a sober jazz player. My explorations will always be different, from his 'way back then.. Not less surreal, but obviously I don't have the excellent background he had (nor the pressures of the times).


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Bach! His lute suites (usually played on guitar) are tuneful, rhythmically fizzing with life, just all-round fabulous. John Williams does them particularly well, some of the best Bach playing I know on any instrument.


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## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

Numerous renaissance and baroque composers for lute! Bach,Weiss,Byrd,Dowland,Fresabaldi

Then you the Luis Milan who composed for the Vihuela

Then there was the Baroque guitar very similar to the lute and Vihuela ,Gaspar Sanz composed for that well!

Then you Fernando Sor of the Beethoven,Schubert era.Also Dionisio Aguado,a great guitarist maybe best ever but only a mediocre composer.

Francisco Tarrega who composed Requerdos de la Alhambra and Caprichio Arabe and many many etudes and of coarse most famously "The Nokia cell phone ring tone" (From Gran Vals)

20th century
De Falla
Turina
Toroba
Rodrigo
Granados
Albaniz (pronounced Ulbaneeth)
Castelnuevo-Tedesco (Italy)
Ponce (Mexico)
Piazzolla (Argentina)
Brouwer (Cuba)
Villa Lobos (Brazil)
Barrios Mangore (Paraguay)

I myself a composer have a few works for guitar.I'm not good enough with computers to post the recordings but I have recording done in the Netherlands I can send through email.


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## Nate Miller (Oct 24, 2016)

It all depends on how well you can read. We are talking a guitar player, right? 

Tarrega is pretty accessible to new players. It is some very pretty stuff and not particularly hard to play, so you would probably enjoy pieces like Legrima and Adelita

As mentioned earlier Barrios is very tuneful, but if you aren't the best reader, it might not be as much fun

And strangely enough, I do think this fellow would enjoy Leo Browser's "Etudes Simples" regardless of what was said previously. Its easy to read, easy to play, and for 20th century music, its fun to play. And he said he likes Phish and Scofield so I think he'd like those. 

I actually play, and I've played most of the stuff on this thread (sans the Schubert). But for my money, the most lyrical guitar music is by Mauro Guiliani. He was friends with Beethoven and Rossini, wrote in the classic style, and his music is alot of fun to play.


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## 4chamberedklavier (12 mo ago)

Animal the Drummer said:


> Bach! His lute suites (usually played on guitar) are tuneful, rhythmically fizzing with life, just all-round fabulous. John Williams does them particularly well, some of the best Bach playing I know on any instrument.


It took me too long to realize this man & the film score composer are two different people


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## Nate Miller (Oct 24, 2016)

4chamberedklavier said:


> It took me too long to realize this man & the film score composer are two different people


and to think he was one of the top 3 most famous classical guitarists of the second half of the 20th century

in today's terms that's the equivalent of having 23 followers on Instagram


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## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

What is it that people mean by "Tuneful"
Is there music that is not tuneful I mean even serial music just has another viewpoint on "tuneful"

Unless your talking absolute program music for effect alone but all music is tuneful otherwise it would not be music.What does exist is tunes we like and tunes we don't like.


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## Nate Miller (Oct 24, 2016)

yea, I sorta translated that to "lyrical", but I also sort of thought of it as "music that is playable" and fun on the guitar.

That's why I think the Brower Etudes Simples might actually be something this fellow might enjoy. Not lyrical, really, but very playable and if he likes Scofield, there are even bits of that he could pull out and make "licks" out of 

but on the "tuneful" front, its hard to miss with Guiliani on the guitar.


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## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

Nate Miller said:


> yea, I sorta translated that to "lyrical", but I also sort of thought of it as "music that is playable" and fun on the guitar.
> 
> That's why I think the Brower Etudes Simples might actually be something this fellow might enjoy. Not lyrical, really, but very playable and if he likes Scofield, there are even bits of that he could pull out and make "licks" out of
> 
> but on the "tuneful" front, its hard to miss with Guiliani on the guitar.


I used to play guitar before becoming dedicated to composition.Granados was very lyrical I thought and Heitor Villa Lobos also very lyrical,as a former classical guitarist myself.


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## Nate Miller (Oct 24, 2016)

bagpipers said:


> I used to play guitar before becoming dedicated to composition.Granados was very lyrical I thought and Heitor Villa Lobos also very lyrical,as a former classical guitarist myself.


Villa-Lobos...good call!

I was playing through the suite populaire bresilienne just yesterday. His preludes are also very popular with guitarists and alot of fun to play


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## SearsPoncho (Sep 23, 2020)

Tarrega, Rodrigo, some Villa-Lobos, and the transcriptions of Granados and Albeniz's piano music by Segovia and others.


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## Wigmar (8 mo ago)

bagpipers said:


> What is it that people mean by "Tuneful"
> Is there music that is not tuneful I mean even serial music just has another viewpoint on "tuneful"
> 
> Unless your talking absolute program music for effect alone but all music is tuneful otherwise it would not be music.What does exist is tunes we like and tunes we don't like.


Classical guitar composers, some of them:
Murcia
Visée (suite d minor)
Aguado (8 lessons)
Sor (studies nos 6, 10, 15, 19, arr. Segovia)
Tarrega ('capricho arabe')
Albeniz (suite op 47: 'Granada', 'Sevilla')
Granados (danzas op 37: 5 & 10, tonadilla 'La Maya de Goya')
Ponce: 'sonatina meridional', cancion no 2
Moreno-Torroba: sonatina, fandanguillo
Castelnuovo-Tedesco: 'tarantella' op 87
Rodrigo: fandango

These works are masterly recorded by Andres Segovia


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## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

Wigmar said:


> Classical guitar composers, some of them:
> Murcia
> Visée (suite d minor)
> Aguado (8 lessons)
> ...


Didn't I mention all of those in my previous post if you scroll up


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

bagpipers said:


> What is it that people mean by "Tuneful"
> Is there music that is not tuneful I mean even serial music just has another viewpoint on "tuneful"


I think what people usually mean by 'tuneful' is akin to what Schönberg had in mind when toward the end of his life he wrote to Hans Rosbaud that he wanted most of all for people to know and whistle his tunes on the street, just as he had often heard them whistle the melodies of that tunesmith, Tchaikovsky. Alas, there is very little evidence to suggest that this is yet the case.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Captain, try: The Moon & The Forest
Played by ; Miloš Karadaglić (guitar)


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## Dulova Harps On (Nov 2, 2018)

I second the Scarlatti Narciso Yepes recordings! Great stuff.


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## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

Dulova Harps On said:


> I second the Scarlatti Narciso Yepes recordings! Great stuff.


I believe that Yepes could have been more renowned sooner had Segovia not tried so hard to bury his career for dislike of the 10 string instrument.Kind of the same thing happened to Augustin Barrios had not John Williams worked so hard to promote him.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

one of the most popular composers (especially if you're looking for catchy melodic stuff) is Roland Dyens


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

also





But generally speaking with few exceptions I think you would be more lucky looking for transcriptions than for original pieces


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## Wigmar (8 mo ago)

bagpipers said:


> Didn't I mention all of those in my previous post if you scroll up


Yes, you did. I did not notice it.


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## Nate Miller (Oct 24, 2016)

I got the impression the original poster was just getting into classical guitar. These are all great suggestions, but seriously, alot of these pieces are way beyond the means of most people starting off on classical guitar.

for example, Scarlatti can even be hard on a keyboard, but try a guitar transcription of some of his sonatas, and you might break something you are going to need later


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## Wagner#1Fan (6 mo ago)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Yes. Not the era, the genre.


I'm watching, whatever you come up with will be genius...


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