The Music of Leo Brouwer, part 2

One of the reasons I wanted to do some posts on Brouwer was that I have been re-learning the Elogio de la Danza, a really impressive piece, and, while in Montreal, I picked up a nice collection of his solo pieces from Max Eschig:

It is good value because for less than what just the Estudios sell for in individual volumes you get all twenty of them, plus the solo music published by Eschig (Aires and Temas populares cubanos, Piezas sin titulo 1-3, Danza del Altiplano, Preludio, Fuga plus Parabola and Tarantos and his cadenzas). Today I want to talk about the four books of studies.

Brouwer has composed twenty studies for guitar, titled Estudios Sencillos, in four books, five studies in each. I have found them invaluable for teaching and used them for decades in my private teaching. They are not only extremely good for teaching technique, what makes them particularly useful is that they are very good for teaching musical values as well. Estudio I for example is not only good for RH thumb independence, it is also an excellent study in learning to phrase and control dynamics. The second study, a chorale, is very good for LH finger independence and balancing chords. No. 3 is a good prep for tremolo and, again, dynamics. No. 4 uses changing time signatures and, again is good for phrasing. No. 5 is good for arpeggios and syncopated rhythms. No. 6 is an excellent arpeggio study. No. 7 is a study in slurs and in counting rests. No. 8 introduces counterpoint so the student has to learn how to phrase and balance two melodies simultaneously. No. 9 is a challenging study for slurs, LH finger independence and syncopations. No. 10 is a study in syncopation, LH finger independence and slurs. These ten studies were published in 1972. They are invaluable in teaching because they can be played by students early on. Until I discovered these and some other pieces by Bryan Lester, I despaired of finding good material for beginners other than those dreary studies by Aguado, Sor and Giuliani. Nothing against them, of course, but musically they are, except for a few by Sor, rather uninspiring.

In 1983, Eschig published ten new studies in two books. The first few are roughly at the same technical level as the first ten, perhaps a bit more challenging. As we move on, however, they become more difficult. The first five are essentially just developments of the ideas in books I and II: arpeggios with fixed fingers, legato treatment of chords, slurs (but now double slurs with fixed fingers) LH finger independence and so on. Estudio XVI introduces some new problems. Sub-titled, "para los ornamentos" this study is in Baroque style and has a lot of very intricate melodic and harmonic ornaments written out. The technical challenge involves both arpeggios and slurs that have to be executed with rhythmic precision and clarity:

Click to enlarge

Nos. XVII and XVIII are also for ornaments involving tricky grace notes and slurs. No. XIX is for chords with slurs while two fingers are fixed and slurs with bar chords. No. XX is a variation on that with repeated arpeggios. It shows the influence of the "minimalism" of Steve Reich and Philip Glass.

I am going to talk about Parabola and Tarantos next time. Written in the mid-70s, they come at the end of what we might call Brouwer's avant-garde phase. Sometime around 1980 I think he underwent an aesthetic crisis or transition and I think that we see some of this in the second group of ten studies. He develops a keen interest in both Baroque music--he recorded a whole album of Scarlatti sonatas and later published the transcriptions--and in the return to pulse and tonality of the American minimalists. I attended a guitar festival in Toronto in the early 80s that Leo was also at and he along with Stephen Dodgson and Gilbert Biberian gave a discussion session on composition that I was at. I asked the three of them the question why they had all returned to composing tonal music (the question was mostly directed at Leo because of his recently published El Decameron Negro)? I will get into that more next time!

Now let's listen to the Brouwer studies. The guitarist is Ricardo Cobo:

There is an even newer set of studies by Brouwer published by Chester Music that I have not looked at.