OPUS 17.  SIX WALTZES  

First published in Paris in 1824. 

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OPUS 18.  SIX WALTZES

First published in Paris in 1824. 

No. 4 The passage from bar 25 onwards is no doubt intended to be played at the 9th position.

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OPUS 19.  SIX AIRS FROM THE MAGIC FLUTE

First published in Paris in 1824 with the title Six airs choisis de l’Opéra de Mozart: Il Flauto Magico.  The work in its original edition is dedicated to “M. Amédée”, a name which is puzzling as it stands.  But could it have a connection with the Christian name of the composer of The Magic Flute?

The contents are as follows:

1.      Marche religieuse.  This is the march at the beginning of Act 2 of The Magic Flute.

2.      Fuggite o voi beltà fallace.  A duet in Act 2, sung by two priests.

3.      Già fan ritorno i genii amici.  A trio, sung by three boys.

4.      O dolce armonia.  Part of the finale to Act 1.  The theme on which Sor wrote his Variations op. 9.

5.      Se potesse un suono. Part of the finale to Act 1.  Sung by Pamina and Papageno.

6.       Grand’Isi! Grand’Osiri! A chorus sung by priests and Sarastro.

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OPUS 20.  INTRODUCTION ET THÈME VARIÉ  

First published in Paris in 1824.  This is based on the same theme as a “Thema Varié” published by Castro in 1810 or shortly before (it is in volume 2 of this present edition).  The theme is not unlike “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen” from the Magic Flute. 

Variation 3, bar 55, second chord, the original has G double sharp, here changed to G natural (and a G sharp at the next chord).

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OPUS 21.  LA DESPEDIDA

Within the last few weeks before this edition went to press, a copy of a previously unknown edition of this work has been discovered in the Fundación Joaquín Díaz in Urueña (Valladolid, Spain) of a Spanish edition which appears to predate the previously known (French) edition.  Because of the particular circumstances of this work which Sor dedicated to a musician working in Spain, it is likely that the new text is closer to Sor’s original than is the French edition, and it gives a better text of the music, showing above all a more detailed, precise and careful use of dynamic indications.  I have established the text of La Despedida on the newly discovered Spanish edition, which means that the text here in this present Tecla edition is a new text, one which has not been available until now. 

The newly-discovered Spanish edition has the following title:

La Despedida, Andante y Allegretto para Guitarra sola, de D. Fernando Sor, dedicada a su amigo Don Francisco Vaccari, Primer Violin de la Real Camara, y de la Capilla de S.M.C.

It was published in Madrid at the Establecimiento de Grabado y Estampado de Música, Calle del Turco, that is to say by Bartolomé Wirmbs, and bears his plate number 273, which can be dated at about 1824 (cf. C.J. Gosálvez Lara, La Edición Musical Española hasta 1936, Madrid, 1995, page 193).  The French edition published by Meissonnier bears the Meissonnier plate number 304 which can be dated at about 1825 (cf. my book Fernando Sor Composer and Guitarist, second edition, 1994, page 158).  However, it is probable that the piece in fact dates from 1816, because on a copy of the Meissonnier edition in the collection of the late Robert Spencer, London, is the handwritten note: “A Dios.  F. Sor a su amigo F. Vaccari.  Londres 28 de Julio de 1816”.  It is likely, then, that the piece commemorates some event which took place on that date, perhaps a concert in London, or perhaps a departure.  Fortunately, we have some documents which can help to cast light on this.  (The handwritten note, by the way, is not in an early hand, but I think it can be trusted: it may well have been copied from an authentic note written by Sor which was on some other copy now disappeared.)

Francisco Vaccari (or Francesco Vacari, in the no doubt original Italian form of his name) was a violinist of the highest stature, being the first violin of the Kings of Spain.  He was in London in 1815 and 1816.  While he was here, on 14 June 1815 (four days before the Battle of Waterloo) he was leader of the orchestra in Sor’s first benefit concert in London, and on 27 June in the same year he was again leader in another concert in which Sor played.  On 24 April 1816 he was again leader in Sor’s second benefit concert.  Also, interestingly, there exists a London edition of Three Spanish Boleros composed by Sor and with accompaniments arranged by Vaccari, “as sung by Madame Vaccari”.  (For all these, see my book Fernando Sor Composer and Guitarist, Tecla, second edition, 1994).  Clearly there were many professional links between Sor and Vaccari.  It may be guessed that Sor composed La Despedida and dedicated it to Vaccari on 28 July 1816 in London on the occasion of Vaccari’s departure, in order to commemorate either some musical event in which both men were involved, or else simply the departure itself.

Presumably Vaccari then returned from London to Spain in 1816, to the service of King Fernando VII.  In August 1822 he obtained leave of absence for one year to go again to London, “con objeto de restablecer su salud y ventilar asuntos pendientes” (to re-establish his health and to attend to various pending matters).  At that time Sor was still in London.  It is to be presumed that Vaccari then returned to Spain by August 1823 because his leave of absence was only for one year.  But 1823 was a dangerous time in Spain: it was the year of the invasion of Spain by a French army under the Duc d’Angoulême, called in by Fernando VII to put down the liberal move­ment of Riego.  The French army stayed for five years.  Anyone suspected of liberal sympathies was in danger and many intellectuals fled.  One such, for example, was the opera composer José Melchor Gomis (see the introduction to the new edition of Gomis’ Le revenant edited by Tomás Garrido, Madrid, 2000, and the book José Melchor Gomis by Rafael Gisbert, 1988).  Vaccari, for his part, was fired from his post by Fernando VII in November 1823 (see the extracts from documents given below).   V. Llorens in his book Liberales y Románticos, Madrid, 1968, says: “El primero de octubre de 1823 el régimen absoluto había quedado restablecido por la intervención de Francia, cuyas tropas siguieron ocupando territorio español durante cinco años, mientras los liberales tenían que expatriarse”. 

In Sainsbury’s Dictionary of Musicians, second edition, 1827, the entry for Vaccari says that “on account of the political troubles in Madrid, he left Spain for Portugal, and in the year 1823 was performing in this country [England] for the second time, having been here previously in 1815”. 

To return to La Despedida: the plate number of the newly discovered Wirmbs edition is 273 which Gosálvez dates at about 1824.  Presumably the Wirmbs edition was printed from a manuscript, quite probably from Sor’s own manuscript which perhaps he had given to Vaccari and which Vaccari had brought with him to Spain either in 1816 or in 1823.  It seems that the Meissonnier edition appeared in 1825, and a close examination of the details seems to show that Meissonnier copied the Spanish edition, with a good many small omissions and changes which are not for the better.  Above all, many of the interesting and detailed dynamic markings present in the Spanish edition (and therefore, also present here in this new Tecla edition) have disappeared in Meissonnier.  It would be good to hear a performer today restore them in performance.  In 1825 when the Meissonnier edition appeared, Sor was in Russia, so it is unlikely that he had any control over the appearance of the Meissonnier edition—or even, probably, over the work’s being given its opus number, 21, which is not in the Spanish edition and which was probably allocated by Meissonnier.

It is a pleasure to restore to this work the title La Despedida which it bears in the newly-discovered Spanish edition and which no doubt was the original title.  The work has until now usually been known as Les Adieux, the title which it bore in the Meissonnier edition. 

The Spanish edition has the word “Paisiello” at the beginning of the second part (where the 2/4 section begins).  The word is not present in Meissonnier.  I have checked in Paisiello’s works and in Michael F. Robinson’s Giovanni Paisiello: A thematic catalogue of his works (two volumes, 1991 and 1994), but I have not found the tune there, and nor have colleagues recognized it.  If any user of this edition recognizes it, it would be much appreciated if they would be in touch.

There is a curious question about the Spanish edition: why does it bear Vaccari’s full title (Primer Violin de la Real Camara, y de la Capilla de S.M.C.), if by the time of publication Vaccari had been fired and even, perhaps, was in exile?  One possibility is that the edition was published slightly earlier, say in the time-span August-October 1823 before the firing: another is that the manuscript bore that title and that the engraver simply copied it even if it was no longer true (although that is hard to believe, given the political climate in Spain at that time).

The Spanish edition, by the way, has been previously known, but not with its present imprint.  A later issue of it with the plate number A.R. 2302 (Antonio Romero) has been previously known and I listed it in my book on Sor.  However, until now it was not known that it was anything other than a later edition of the work. 

* * * * *

Here is the text of two extracts from documents of Barbieri in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, regarding Vaccari’s leave of absence in 1822 and his firing in 1823: 

Vaccari, Don Francisco (Violín de la Real Cámara, 1814-1822).  Mayordomía mayor.  Excmo. señor: Condescendiendo el Rey con la solicitud de D. Francisco Vaccari, primer violín de la Real Cámara, se ha dignado S.M. concederle licencia por un año para trasladarse a Londres, con objeto de restablecer su salud y ventilar asuntos pendientes.  Lo que de Real orden comunico a V.E. para su inteligencia y noticia del interesado.  Dios...  J. el marqués de Santa Cruz.  Señor camarero mayor del Rey.  Palacio, 6 de agosto de 1822.  En 7 del mismo se comunicó al interesado.

(Real Sumillería de Corps.  Lib. 3.  Registro de Reales Órdenes.  Enero 1820 a fin de diciembre 1828)

[MSS. 14.046  2-3]

(Francisco Asenjo Barbieri: Biografías y Documentos sobre Música y Músicos Españoles (Legado Barbieri), ed. E.  Casares, Volume 1, Madrid, 1986, page 483.)

Real Capilla.  El Excmo. señor D. Antonio Allue, patriarca de las Indias, hoy mismo me ha comunicado lo siguiente:

El Excmo señor conde de Miranda, mayordomo mayor de S.M., me ha comunicado de orden del Rey, nuestro señor, con fecha de antes de ayer, que S.M. se ha servido separar de su servidumbre a los individuos de la Real Capilla siguientes:

D. Hermenegildo Luego, teniente de la parroquia ministerial, D. Francisco Brunetti, D. Francisco Vacari, D. Dámaso Cañada, D. Juan Font, D. Vicente Asensio, D. Santiago Medech y su mujer, D. Calisto Filipo, D. Magín Jardín, D. Mariano Ledesma, D. Matías Tres-Puentes, D. Miguel Maniel, D. Manuel Ducaci y D. Ignacio Ducaci, siendo al mismo tiempo su real voluntad que a estos individuos se les abone sus sueldos hasta el 31 de octubre próximo pasado, y que en adelante no perciban asignación alguna sea qual fuese en procedencia.

Por otro oficio comunicado también en este día me dice que S.M. ha resuelto que su Real Capilla de Música asista a las honras de los militares que se han de celebrar en la real iglesia de San Isidro, mañana domingo 23 a las diez de la mañana en la forma acostumbrada, aunque no concurre S.M.

En su consecuencia dispondrá V. que las voces se suplan en los términos que haya lugar y lo participo a V. para su conocimiento y efectos consiguientes.  Dios guarde a V. muchos años.  Madrid, 22 de noviembre de 1823.  Andrés de Aransay, receptor.  -Sr.  D. José Lidón.

[MSS.  14.091]

(ibid., volume 2, Madrid, 1988, page 185.)

* * * * *

16 The final D is E in the original, here altered editorially.

19 The sharp is added editorially.  It is not present in the original but is implied by the natural at the next bar.  (The Meissonnier edition has a sharp.)

39 The natural on the E is editorial.  (It is present in Meissonnier).

44-54 The original edition does not specify exactly how the harmonics in these bars are to be played, only giving the word “arm”.  The indications in this edition are therefore editorial suggestions only.  It would be possible to play these harmonics as artificial harmonics, but Sor made it clear in his method that he preferred natural harmonics to artificial ones.

44 The sharp on the G is editorial.  (It is present in Meissonnier).

45 The sharp on the G is editorial.  (It is present in Meissonnier).

118 This bar is corrupt in the original and is here emended.  The sharp on the D is editorial.

120 The sharp on the D is editorial.  

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OPUS 22.  SONATA

The earliest known source of this work of which a copy has so far been found is the Meissonnier edition of 1825, and so this present edition is based upon that.  However, a reference has now been found to a Spanish catalogue of 1824 advertising for sale a “Sonata laudatoria” by Sor, which may well be this sonata which is now known as op. 22, in which case it would be the earliest known source of the work.  So far no copy of that Spanish edition has been found, but perhaps one day one will be discovered.  (See Francisco Asenjo Barbieri, Biografías y Documentos sobre Música y Músicos Españoles (Legado Barbieri), Volume 2, ed. Emilio Casares, Madrid, 1988, page 322.)

The Meissonnier edition bears a heading “Grand[e] Sonate de Sor, qui fut dediée au prince de la Paix”.  The “Prince de la Paix” was Manuel Godoy, the architect of the Peace of Basle in 1795 (whence his sobriquet), Prime Minister of Spain and virtual ruler of that country in the last years before the Napoleonic invasion; and Godoy fell from power in 1808.  Sor evidently composed this sonata in Spain in 1808 or before.  It is almost certain that over a period of some twenty years, changes would have been introduced; but because no source from Spain has yet been discovered, it must remain an open question to what extent, if at all, the original version differed from the text which we have.  As yet it is also not certain whether the reference in the 1824 catalogue was to a printed edition (if so, it was probably fairly recent at that time), or to a manuscript, and if the latter then it is quite possible that it could have been a manuscript, or a copy of one, dating from many years earlier.

Sor had also composed at least two other sonatas, those known today as op. 14 and op. 15(b) respectively; but those were both one-movement sonatas like those of Domenico Scarlatti, whereas this has four movements and (perhaps for that reason) is called “Grande Sonate”.  Op. 25 also has four movements and is called “Deuxième Grande Sonate”. 

Manuel Godoy, as well as being a powerful political figure, was also “an intelligent and generous patron of the arts” (Gerald Brenan, The Literature of the Spanish People, 1963, p. 295), encouraging the dramatist Moratín and many other writers and artists.  It is not at all surprising that Sor should have dedicated this work to him. 

The sonata has four movements: allegro, adagio, minuet, and rondo.  Like op. 15, it is in C.  As in op. 14, the first movement moves freely from key to key; in the first two pages we move suddenly from C to E flat major.  This is a kind of change not characteristic of Sor’s later works, and supports the idea derived from the dedication to Godoy that t his is in fact an early work.  Soriano Fuertes wrote of Sor’s early style, in relation to this sonata: “En un principio su gusto fué tan enérgico, que se le puede llamar soberbio, como se ve en la obra que dedicó al principe de la Paz” (“At first his style was so energetic that one can call it magnificent, as can be seen in the work which he dedicated to the Prince of the Peace”) (Historia de la Música Española, IV, 1859, p. 211).

*****

At bar 512 the sharp on the F is editorial (there is no sharp in the original edition), added partly on the analogy of bar 522 (although that is not quite the same) which has a sharp on the F in the original edition.

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OPUS 23.  DIVERTISSEMENT

Opus 23 is a collection of small pieces.  Its bibliographical history is confusing, and that is why the numbering of the pieces in this edition is not continuous.  For those interested, the details are set out below.  Some of those details have come to light since the publication of my book Fernando Sor, Composer and Guitarist in 1977. 

The first two unnumbered pieces in this edition are two pieces of music which were published in 1810 or shortly before without opus number by Castro in his Journal de Musique Etrangère, a Minuet and a “Petit Allegro” (in fact, “Allegretto ma non troppo”).  The two pieces are given here in Castro’s version; they are doubtless authentic and they date from Sor’s Spanish period.  The “Allegretto ma non troppo” has the form of an Allemande and is a piece with a great deal of character which would be well worth performing, especially in view of the very unusual direction which appears: “La reprise de la seconde partie, on la fera en sons harmoniques sans la basse”: “Play the repeat of the second section in harmonics and without the bass”. 

Some fifteen years later, in 1825, the “Cinquième Divertissement” op. 23 appeared, published by Meissonnier.  Confusion has arisen because it turns out that there were in fact two different versions of op. 23, both published by Meissonnier and both (misleadingly) with the plate number 348.  Copies of the first are in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and one of those copies was reproduced in an earlier edition of Sor’s Complete Works for Guitar which I published.  It contains six pieces: No.1, Valse; No. 2, also called “Valse” even though it is in 2/4 time (in fact, it is the “Allegretto ma non troppo” previously published by Castro, but without the interesting note on harmonics); No. 3, Valse; No. 4, Minuet, the same that Castro had published; No. 5, Allemande; and No. 6, Valse. 

The seven pieces numbered from 1 to 7 in this edition come from a second version of Meissonnier’s op. 23 which is quite different, and I have an original copy of it.  No. 1 is the same “Valse” as before.  However, the old No. 2, Castro’s “Allegretto ma non troppo”, has been removed and is replaced by a completely new Allegretto.  No. 3 is the same “Valse” as before.  The old No. 4, Castro’s Minuet, has gone and has been replaced by a completely new Allegretto.  The old No. 5, the Allemande, has also disappeared and been replaced by two new pieces, a minuet and a long Andante.  The old No. 6, “Valse”, becomes the new No. 7.  In other words, three pieces have been removed and four new ones inserted. 

It is hard to tell at this distance of time why these changes were made.  However, a further detail regarding dating has recently come to light: op. 23 was listed in the Journal Général d’Annonce on 19 August 1825.  The interest of this small detail is that it shows definitively that the work was first published at a time when Sor was not living in Paris, but far away in Moscow.  Any confusion of contents can therefore be attributed to the publisher Meissonnier.  It may be that the  revised edition was published under Sor’s supervision when he returned to Paris in 1826; but that is only an unconfirmed theory. 

So, to sum up:

The first two pieces in this edition are from Castro. 

The pieces numbered from 1 to 7 are the seven pieces in the second version of Meissonnier’s op. 23. 

Finally, I give the allemande which was removed from the first version of Meissonnier’s op. 23.

The Minuet, No. 5 in this edition (one of the four new pieces which were not in Meissonnier’s first edition) had previously been published by Castro in 1810 or shortly before as the fourth of Four Minuets (they are published in volume 2 in this present edition). 

*****

In the first minuet, Castro’s edition does not explain how to play the harmonics in this piece, merely giving the indication “Harmonici”.  Perhaps they were intended to be played “sans la basse” as in the next piece?

In no. 4 and no. 7 I have added a repeat.

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OPUS 24.  HUIT PETITES PIÈCES

This work, too, consists of a number of short pieces.  Six of the pieces are minuets.  The fact that six of the eight pieces have the somewhat archaic scordatura of the sixth string to F, as well as their style, suggests that these pieces are likely to date from Sor’s Spanish period.

*****

No. 2, bars 5 and 6, final chord: this is probably just a notational convention, and the chord should be played as though it were the last part of a triplet (that is, play it together with the last note in the bass).

First published in Paris in 1827.

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OPUS 25.  SONATA

Another four-movement sonata, like op. 22.  Rather confusingly, it is called in the original edition “Deuxième Grande Sonate”; in fact, of course, Sor had composed three sonatas previously: two in a single movement known today as op. 14 and op. 15(b) respectively, and one in four movements, op. 22. 

In the second movement, Allegro non troppo, it may be suggested that the repeat of the first part be regarded as optional, as the movement becomes rather long with it.

Op. 25 was first published in Paris in 1827 on Sor’s return from Russia, where it may have been composed.  Like the sonata op. 22 it is in C, and again it has four movements: andante largo, allegro non troppo, andantino grazioso (theme and variations), and minuet.  But the robust style of the earlier sonatas is missing, and instead we have much attention given to precise and complex harmonics in the second movement, and a rather weak ending with a minuet.  This work, surely, is a late one.

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Volume 3

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