{"id":9237,"date":"2018-02-27T15:56:13","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T23:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=9237"},"modified":"2018-02-27T15:57:29","modified_gmt":"2018-02-27T23:57:29","slug":"recent-sheet-music-releases-john-cage-spanish-renaissance-music-for-guitar-and-raul-maldonado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/recent-sheet-music-releases-john-cage-spanish-renaissance-music-for-guitar-and-raul-maldonado\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Sheet Music Releases: John Cage, Spanish Renaissance Music for Guitar, and Ra\u00fal Maldonado"},"content":{"rendered":"

We get so much sheet music sent to us by various publishers year \u2019round\u2014literally hundreds of pieces in every setting imaginable (solo guitar, multiple guitars, guitar-flute, guitar-harp, etc.)\u2014but we don\u2019t have the space to write about the great majority of them in our four quarterly issues each year.<\/p>\n

So, just as we occasionally write about classical-guitar album releases regularly in this online space, we also occasionally announce recent print music releases. As with the CDs, these are not reviews per se (some\u00a0will<\/em>\u00a0be reviewed in the magazine, but frankly most will not), but we think it\u2019s important to at least get the word out about what\u2019s being offered to guitarists out there. Where possible, we\u2019ve linked the titles to the publisher\u2019s website or some other outlet where it can be purchased, and stated the degree of difficulty (if provided by the publisher or it\u2019s obvious).\u00a0\u00a0\u2014Blair Jackson\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nJohn Cage<\/strong>
\nPiano Music Arranged for Guitar<\/strong><\/em><\/a>
\n(arr. Aaron Larget-Caplan)<\/strong>
\nEditions Peters, 20 pp.<\/p>\n

Aaron Larget-Caplan<\/a> is fast becoming perhaps the greatest guitar advocate for the music of John Cage (1912\u20131992). Having previously arranged Cage’s Six Melodies<\/em> <\/a>(originally written for violin and piano) for violin and guitar, he has now put together a collection of Cage piano pieces arranged for solo guitar. As Larget-Caplan notes, the collection “<\/i>features five early and mid-career compositions by John Cage, dating from 1933 through 1948. . . The compositions required little adjustment from the originals, mainly in the form of register modifications, and fit very well on the guitar. All phrase and dynamic markings follow the published originals. Very few left and right hand fingerings are included in the publication, to allow the performers their own realizations. All of the works retain their original keys and are presented in chronological order.”<\/p>\n

If you still think of Cage as either a peculiar modernist or wispy minimalist (or both), you will probably be surprised by the warm and sonorous nature of many of these pieces. In its piano version, for example,\u00a0In a Landscape<\/em>, almost sounds like it could be a lovely evocation of a Japanese woodblock print, with its delicate, unfolding melody and elegant and mesmerizing short scalar runs, which resemble a koto in parts. Two of the Three Easy Pieces<\/em> (all very<\/em> short) look back at Baroque and\/or early classical music. Dream<\/em> (watch below) is quiet, tender, contemplative. The other two works are “A Room” and “Chess Pieces,” each interesting and attractive as piano works, and no doubt on guitar as well.<\/p>\n

The Editions Peters website promises a Cage Piano Music Arranged for Guitar CD later this year, so we’ll keep an eye out for that for sure.<\/p>\n