Aguado - La Fandango Varié Op. 16 - Performed on an Original 19th Century Romantic Guitar - Polivios

Dionisio Aguado (1784 – 1849)
Le Fandango Varié Op. 16

Dionisio Aguado is certainly one of the most remarkable figures in guitar history, bringing many innovations to the instrument and performance. Originally from Madrid, Spain, he settled in France and established his career in Paris like many other great musicians and guitarists of the period, for example the great Fernando Sor with whom he was friends

Just one innovation of Aguado was that he advocated the use of a "tripod" to hold the instrument during performance. He also published one of the most significant and substantial guitar methods that we possess. He propounded the idea of what he called "the doctrine of Equisonants" or Synonymous sounds. In short the same note may be played on the guitar in various and sometimes multiple positions - with the doctrine of Equisonants - Aguado essentialy divides the guitar into four regions and marks meticulously in which region a particular passage should be played with a bracket number. As far as I have seen from the videos available, the performance I give here is the first video available performed according to the fingerings and equisonant indications of Aguado in his first edition. I have adhered to his indications meticulously.

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The Fandango op. 16 from 1930 is a unique and important piece in that it reveals to us a bridge between the classical guitar of the period and the older style of guitar playing (baroque guitar) and what would later emerge as the form we now call flamenco.

The piece is divide into three sections with a slow introduction marked Adagio followed by the Fandango, a popular Spanish dance form (in this instance closest in semblence to the Fandango de Huelva), followed by a classical Coda.

The Guitar
The Guitar used for this performance is an exquisite anonymous english 19th Century romantic guitar circa. 1850. The label inside is from G. Butler, a renowned distributor from England and Ireland, although the guitar is most likely from a french builder.

Performed by:
Polivios Issariotis
www.polivios.net