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Paul Magnussen -> RE: New Falseta Anthology (Jun. 26 2011 19:24:45)
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I received a review copy for my flamenco column in Classical Guitar magazine. Here’s the review (it appeared in the Sep 2009 issue). Hope it helps:
Rincón Flamenco
No.57: Reviews
By Paul Magnussen
A New Anthology of Falsetas for Flamenco Guitar
Edited by Paul Jared Newman
The Bold Strummer (53 pages)
The author, a New Yorker, has considerable experience as a flamenco dance accompanist; but also a BA in Music from UC Berkeley. Which is fortunate, because it means that this opus is produced with a firmer grasp of how to indicate rhythm than some of the ramshackle productions I’ve seen over the years.
It consists of thirty-two falsetas, eight each of soleares, alegrías, bulerías and siguiriyas: ‘They have been chosen to represent the “bedrock” of flamenco style, reflecting tradition yet touched by invention and innovation, to provide a basis for understanding and ongoing exploration.’
The falsetas are presented in staff notation and tablature, and fully fingered; there are also chord diagrams where appropriate. Their technical standard ranges from quite simple to moderately difficult, but none is virtuosic. Original perpetrators include Montoya (2), Ricardo (1), Sabicas (3), Escudero (1), Peña (1), Lucía (9) and Diego del Gastor (2).
The only reservation I have is that some of this material has already been published elsewhere: for instance, Sabicas’s Aires de Triana appeared in Joseph Trotter’s book and in Volume 1 of the Gendai Guitar series of four, which also contained Lucía’s Recuerdo a Patiño; Alain Faucher’s book covers Montoya, of course.
That said, this collection can be thoroughly recommended.
P.S. I have now also received a CD, which the author tells me will be included with the book. It contains all of the falsetas, played slowly and clearly.
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