Playing the
Lisbon Portuguese Guitarra by Ronald Louis Fernandez
(continued) Section 17a. Minuete da Saudade from Estudo
de Guitarra (1796)--Antonio Da Silva Leite-- MINUETE DA SAUDADE PAGE
This piece is a minuet, a French dance, written for the
English Guittar (spelled with 2 T's) by a Portuguese composer in
1796.
It was written by Antonio Da Silva Leite (1759-1833) who was
in charge of music at the Porto Cathedral. It appeared in a
method book entitled Estudo de Guitarra. This book has
some special relevance for the Portuguese guitarra because it has
been cited as the first method for the Portuguese guitarra. However, there are some who claimed that Estudo de
Guitarra is really a method book for the "English"
Guittar (spelled with 2 T's) written in Portuguese. See Section 17b
for more information
THE MINUETE DA SAUDADE
This is a nice piece to listen
to. It is a minuet
which is a dance of
French origin in 3/4
time. (Note
that "minuet"
is the English
spelling of
the French
"minuete".)
It was written for
an "English" Guittar
with the natural
tuning which is
CEGCEG (key of C) or
GBDGBD (key of G)
from the 6th to 1st
course. This pattern
is composed of:
tonic, major 3rd,
perfect 5th, tonic,
major 3rd, perfect
5th. My tablature is
written for fado
tuning on the
Portuguese Guitarra
and the
accompaniment is in
standard tuing for
the Viola de Fado or
Spanish Guitar.
As
you can hear and see in the transcript, the
Minuete da Saudade has a lot of arpeggios;
these fit well with an instrument tuned in
3rds. That is because the tuning pattern makes
the notes easy to reach as they are on
adjacent strings. Also, there are passages
with parallel thirds which are also quite easy
to play on adjacent strings with such tuning.
It is interesting that the title of this piece
includes the word "Saudade" since that word so
often has been used in Fado lyrics. However, since
there are no words it is impossible to
know why this minuete has "Saudade". It
would be interesting to know if this was a
fashionable word at the time among the
target audience of this piece and the book
of which it was a part.
Since this is a minuet
it is in 3/4 time which is the same as a waltz.
Usually a minuet is slower than a waltz. The
minuet was a stately dance for pairs and
associated with the upper classes. In
contrast, the waltz was a country dance which
was more energetic and lively. I should
note that Fados are are usually written in 2/4
time although I have seen some written in 4/4
time. So, despite the the phrase "Da Saudade",
the meter of this piece marks it as quite
distinct from any Fado played on the Portuguese
Guitarra.
