Sor Study, Op.60 No.8 in C Major
Demonstration of Study No.8 from Fernando Sor's 25 progressive studies, Op.60.
Fernando Sor found fame as a virtuoso performer and composer. It was because of this that he created music for instructional purposes, organising them into Opus' which move through levels of musical complexity and technical difficulty. Whilst the studies are mainly looked at for pedagogical reasons, many of them do stand alone as useful repertoire pieces.
The 25 studies that make up Op.60 form part of one of the most famous etude collections. Each study covers a different learning concept. It's a very musical collection, especially when compared to other composers for the guitar from around the same time.
Many guitarists pick and choose only a handful of studies and use them as performance pieces. I do understand that as it can be hard to initially see the intent that Fernando Sor had behind each etude. The primary goal of the collection as a whole though is, I believe, to promote clean legato technique whilst playing through various harmonies/textures.
The studies range from grade 1 to grade 7. However the majority of the pieces are around the grade 4 to 5 level.
Study No.8 in C Major
Fernando Sor's intention in this study seems to be to encourage the holding of open position chords for their full value creating a nice legato feel. The chords are arpeggiated for the most part, so along with promoting good left hand technique this study also prompts you to control your right hand achieving balance in volume and tone between thumb and fingers. I would stick with free stroke throughout as rest stroke is not really possible in some passages.
I would say that study No.8 is around Grade 2 level.
The edition of the sheet music I'm using is very comprehensive and handles left and right hand fingering well : https://www.spanishguitar.com/Product...
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