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Thursday 11 January 2018

Sanz: Pavanas por la D, con Partidas al Aire Español

 Facsimile of Gaspar Sanz: Pavanas por la D.
'D' refers to the Abecedario symbol for the Am chord on the guitar, and hence Dm on the ukulele.
(The English and French titles on the top line refer to other pieces on the same page.)

This is a charming, melodic little piece, and good fun to play. The there is a statement of the main theme in bars 1 – 16, followed by a variation in bars 17 – 32; these are both in the style we are used to in lute transcriptions. The third variation is in campanelas style: sounding like little bells.

I have posted two versions: one for re-entrant uke, which (especially in the campanelas) should sound quite like the original, which was written for re-entrant guitar. The low-G uke version makes some use a bass line, but this necessitates playing the high G on string 2 where the melody demands, and makes the campanaleas somewhat more convoluted.

I have little else to say about the piece, except that the falling scale fragment in bars 26 to 28 sounds really Spanish to me.

I hope that you enjoy playing it.

Note added 10/2/18: This is an updated version of the original post, with two revised arrangements. If you have the earlier version you might like to replace it.

Note added 8/3/18: You can read an analysis of this piece here: https://www.thisisclassicalguitar.com/baroque-guitar-for-smarties-by-clive-titmuss/

You can find the  re-entrant version here:
... and the low-G version here: