Domenico Scarlatti : Arr Laura Verdugo del Rey
Bergmann Edition: 6 pages
For decades now, the keyboard works of Domenico Scarlatti have been produced on the guitar ( or guitars), and with more than five hundred to go from, there are a lot of editions of various Kirkpatrick numbers already around.
The original key of K144 was G Major, here moved to A Major, with the 3rd string down to F #. The first thing that is apparent is how difficult the work actually is on the guitar, regardless of the 3rd string down at F#. What begins as a simple two voiced structure quickly develops a number of trills, sometimes in two voices at once, before chords and very small note values appear throughout, which does make this substantially harder to play than you might expect. Of course a very good player will be able to sort out the problem areas, and to be fair the fingerings are very clear and work extremely well. As usual the work is in two halves, both repeated.
K149, originally in Am, now in D minor, with, the odd instruction to put a capo on fret 1 (therefore making it sound in Ebm) is an Allegro. Here the work is more straightforward with two voices throughout the work, and yet still taking the player all over the fingerboard, and so the guitarist has to be agile and able to change from one area to another very quickly, with little or no difficulty apparent.
These two arrangements don’t always fit naturally under the fingers, as can often be the case with keyboard works, but given an advanced technique and plenty of time on your hands , they will sound really well , as Scarlatti does.
Chris Dumigan
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