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Notes 59.2 (2002) 435-438


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Fernando Sor. The New Complete Works for Guitar. Re-engraved in eleven volumes. Edited by Brian Jeffery. London: Tecla Editions, 2001. [Vol. 1: Guitar Solos: Opus Numbers 1-9. Introd. to this ed., p. vii-viii; introd. to vol. 1, p. ix; editorial practice, p. x; notes on the pieces, p. xi- xvi; score, p. 1-63. Tecla 1201 (paper); $22. Tecla 1101 (cloth); $61. Vol. 2: Guitar Solos: Opus Numbers 10-16 and Works without Opus Numbers. Notes on the pieces, p. vii-xiii; score, p. 1-97. Tecla 1202 (paper); $22. Tecla 1102 (cloth); $61. Vol. 3: Guitar Solos: Opus Numbers 17-25. Notes on the pieces, p. vii-xi; score, p. 1-75. Tecla 1203 (paper); $22. Tecla 1103 (cloth); $61. Vol. 4: Guitar Solos: Opus Numbers 26-32. Notes on the pieces, p. vii-ix; score, p. 1-78. Tecla 1204 (paper); $22. Tecla 1104 (cloth); $61. Vol. 5: Guitar Solos: Opus Numbers 33-43. Notes on the pieces, p. vii-xii; score, p. 1-88. Tecla 1205 (paper); $22. Tecla 1105 (cloth); $61. Vol. 6: Guitar Solos: Opus Numbers 44-52. Notes on the pieces, p. vii-xi; score, p. 1-64. Tecla 1206 (paper); $22. Tecla 1106 (cloth); $61. Vol. 7: Guitar Solos: Opus Numbers 54-60 and Appendix: Meditación. Notes on the pieces, p. vii-xiii; score, p. 1-63. Tecla 1207 (paper); $22. Tecla 1107 (cloth); $61. Vol. 8: Guitar Duets: Opus Numbers 34-53. Preface to the guitar duets, p. vii; notes on the pieces, p. ix-x; score, p. 1-82. Tecla 1208 (paper); $22. Tecla 1108 (cloth); $61. Vol. 9: Six Guitar Duets: Opus Numbers 54 bis-63 and the Bolero a Duo. Notes on the pieces, p. vi-x; score, p. 1-83; 2 p. of facsims. Tecla 1209 (paper); $22. Tecla 1109 (cloth); $61. Vol. 10: The Guitar Duets: All the Guitar 1 Parts. Score, p. 1-80. Tecla 1210 (paper); $22. Tecla 1110 (cloth); $61. Vol. 11: The Guitar Duets: All the Guitar 2 Parts. Score, p. 1-80. Tecla 1211 (paper); $22. Tecla 1111 (cloth); $61. Set: Tecla 1200 (paper): $199; Tecla 1100 (cloth): $549.] Errata listed on the Tecla Web site at http://www.tecla.com/catalog/1200.htm (accessed 28 August 2002) under links to individual volumes.

[Portions of this engraved version were initially printed and sold in a projected ten- volume edition, with different distribution of content, and different front matter. The earlier volumes have the imprints, variously, London: Tecla; Hebe's Web, 1997-2000 (see OCLC 38162239 and 47258003). Volume 1 contains the guitar solos op. 1-11, c1997 (Tecla 1201); volumes 7-10, c2000 (Hebe's Web 90207-90210), correspond in content to volumes 8-11 of the Tecla edition reviewed here. Other volumes not identified by the editor may also have been printed. Ed.]

In terms of sheer musical value, resourcefulness, and suitability to the instrument, one cannot find better classic guitar music in the early decades of the nineteenth century than that composed by Fernando Sor (1778-1839). Practically all literate guitar students and teachers in the twentieth century owe their understanding of the guitar as an instrument with serious multipartite —indeed sometimes truly polyphonic— musical capabilities to the etudes of Sor.

This reviewer, like so many of his peers, became familiar with Sor's studies through a standard postwar edition, widely available across North America and Europe and still in print through Hal Leonard Publications, the Twenty Studies for the Guitar, revised, edited, and fingered by Andrés Segovia (New York: E. B. Marks, 1945; 2d ed., Milwaukee: Distributed by Hal Leonard Pub. Corp., 1980s; reissued with accompanying CD by Paul Henry, 1998). Segovia, who [End Page 435] died in 1987, was a giant in the field of guitar publishing and recording. But like most giants, he had his weak points. One of them was an absence of humility when dealing with musical sources—the kind of respect that motivates true scholars to uncover and publish clean, reliable...

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