12 Iconic Songs arranged for solo classical guitar
Faber Music: 32 Pages
Many years ago , 1984 to be precise, there were three fabulous books of arrangements by legendary guitarist John W Duarte of music by Jerome Kern , George Gershwin , and Cole Porter which were second to none with regards to their imagination, cleverness and just generally brilliant arranging , as they were so guitaristic . The publisher of those books has long gone, and now Faber has brought out the first of those ground – breaking books in a new design, much better print quality, and with slight editing where necessary from Raymond Burley.
The 12 songs are the same, Love Walked In, the legendary Summertime, certainly one of the best of these wonderful arrangements, The Man I Love, They Can’t Take That Away From Me, Embraceable You, the exciting Fascinating Rhythm, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Someone To Watch Over Me, Love Is Here To Stay, A Foggy Day, Strike Up The Band, and concluding with How Long Has This Been Going On.
Everyone is simply wonderful, and yes you don’t have to be a reasonably good player to do a fine job of some of these, but just trying to get your hands round some of these imaginative chords and beautiful arrangements without stumbling, is an exercise worth doing. Therefore if you like the idea of Gershwin on your classical, and are relatively good a player, these pieces are definitely ones that you will love. Highly recommended.
Chris Dumigan
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