Me and the Chaconne

The list of really great pieces for the classical guitar is surprisingly short. Mind you, not everyone would agree with this assessment. But it seems clear to me that there are only a few really substantial pieces. We could try to list them: the Concierto de Aranjuez would qualify and for solo guitar, the Nocturnal of Britten, the Invocation and Dance also by Rodrigo, the Variations and Fugue on Folias de España by Ponce and then we are likely into the transcriptions: the Chaconne of Bach, a few works by Albéniz and Granados, some by Scarlatti and that's about it. Of course arguments could be made for a few others, perhaps something by Sor or Giuliani, but that's about it. A shockingly brief list for such an important instrument.

Perhaps the most brilliant thing Andrés Segovia did for the guitar repertoire was transcribe the Chaconne of Bach. Instantly we had a piece that not only worked surprisingly well on the instrument, but it was also an addition of tremendous stature. One could argue that it is the greatest piece written in the whole Baroque era (though of course that would start a whole host of arguments!).

Perhaps the stupidest thing I did in my career was to put off learning the Chaconne. It was really a mixture of poor judgement and sheer laziness. I could never quite bring myself to learn the Segovia transcription as it didn't quite conform to my taste as far as interpretive choices. And I was too lazy to do my own version from scratch--there are a lot of notes in the Chaconne! I was also unsure that I was going to bring something worthwhile to the piece. That was pretty stupid as I could not NOT do otherwise than play it my own way. Anyway, I let decades go by without learning the piece, instead performing cello suites and lute suites by Bach.

But now I am rectifying all this and I'm well into doing my own transcription (which is mostly just lightening up Segovia's and rethinking the slurs and ornaments) and working on memorizing it. Some of the thirty-second note passages are surprisingly hard to keep straight!

Working on this piece every morning has the lovely benefit of putting Bach in your head all morning, something I heartily recommend.

There were three pieces that convinced me to convert from steel string and electric guitar to classical guitar: the Chaconne, the Concierto de Aranjuez and Asturias by Albéniz. The latter two I often played in my career, the Chaconne was the only one missing. So now I am finally getting around to it. I think I have just enough technique left to be able to play it, so it will make a nice envoi to my performing career. About a year from now I should have it all memorized.

Here is a version I rather like: