Fernando Sor And The Dark Ages Of Guitar

I am just an amateur classical guitarist. I will probably never be very good at it, but I purchased 10 years ago a copy of Sor's opus 6, 29, 31, 35, 44 and 60 etudes, and I love playing them. 125 little gems in all. I really don't care if they are historically inaccurate. It's good stuff. He wrote some damned pretty little pieces. I probably don't do them justice, but who cares? I am a Sor fan

I’m 63 and have played Sor since I was 14. It’s wonderful music

Tonebase - doing a great service of revealing the guitar's history.

I learned guitar with Sor etudes. They are magnificent.

Dear Jacob, this video is extremely important, not only because it shows the golden age of the guitar and its development as a unique instrument, but specially because it also shows the vulnerability of editions and, why not, of the guitarists composers. I wrote my Master Degree Dissertation about Mauro Giuliani and the Rossiniane, in the hope of understanding how he masterfully adapted Rossini's opera arias to the guitar. I studied every opera from Rossini to find the themes hidden in some passages of it. It was remarkable the influence of the opera back then, since there were no TV or radio and the opera offered all one could expect to see and listen, uniting dance, drama, great music and orchestration, very convincing painted scenarios and superb singers. All great musicians wanted to compose an opera, and it wasn't different with Giuliani, Sor and Carulli. Giuliani was luckier than the others once he was a close friend to Rossini, and the latter gave him his manuscripts, so that Giuliani could compose his variations on Rossini's themes, and later the Rossiniane. Sor did the same adapting Mozart's Magic Flute to the guitar, although I confess I had some difficulty to find the original theme in Mozart's opera. But he wrote a masterpiece that deserves to be played more often, as well as his Gran Solo that represents together with the Grand Overture by Giuliani the very best of the classical-romantic music for guitar.

These deep dives into guitar music and history are awesome!

He also endorsed fretting the bass string with your thumb, heralding the emergence of Hendrix 150 years later.

I study classical guitar with Berta Rojas at Berklee college of music and have been a fan of Sor for many years. This video was so fascinating, I loved every second of it!

I spent a year studying Sor. In the 99s. I'm back in it again.

This is a wonderful presentation. I learned of Sor from my son’s fantastic classical guitar teacher, and I love his etudes, but this adds a whole new dimension to appreciating the artist. Tonebase is so well researched and presented. THANK YOU and please keep up your wonderful site.

Very informative and enjoyable. I appreciate how well-spoken Jakob and the professor are.

Sor is my dude 😎

Fascinating! Thank you! I am just a beginning classical guitarist, after becoming frustrated with the lack of pedagogy relative to finger style jazz guitar. Sor's Opus 60 is my 1st stop on my classical journey and I find his work not only helpful, but also enjoyable. Lovely little pieces of music. So much better than being presented with a song having 8 four-finger chords, memorizing 8 scales and accompanying arpeggios, and the insistence that I improvise --or else it's not really jazz..... I do believe, however, that the classical training will help me get back to jazz. I love them both!

Excellent presentation. Unfortunately, particularly with Carulli's virtuoso pieces that he played at his concerts, many compositions were never published and are now lost.

Excellent post and very informative. Sor was and is still a giant in the Classical guitar repertoire. His Studies will always be dear to my heart.

Beautiful presentation, would love to see more like this

We at the "Arlington School of Music, a Div. of The Arlington Institute of Music & The Performing Arts", expanding since 1930 in Arlington Heights, IL USA thank you for your in depth video on the quintessential Spanish composer...Fernando Sor ....and welcome all to view it inspiring the new generation of young artists to the Magic of The Guitar. Gracias !....Thank You so much.

I really enjoyed this video. Thank you More videos on the history and composers would definitely be interesting, such Santiago di Merci, Corbetta, Mertz, Ponce, and the most unusual, Paginnini Thanks again

Lovely !… a great episode … well done and very informative… Thank you !

Another very interesting and equally touching video from your hand with detailed and in-depth research work! I love how you try to shed light on the artist's personality in line with contemporary history and the respective environment. Of course, this can only ever be a small glimpse, but I think it's also a great overview! One can see your love and enthusiasm for the subject. And by the way, it seems to me that you are also a great performer and musician yourself! Thank you very much for sharing