La romanesca, Op.19b Fameux air de danse de la fin du XVIe siècle Arranger: Napoléon Coste (1806 - 1883) Claude Antoine Jean Georges Napoléon Coste (27 June 1805 – 14 January 1883) was a French classical guitarist and composer. In Paris he studied under Fernando Sor and quickly became a virtuoso guitarist. His work was influenced by the Early Classical-Romantic composers of the time including Hector Berlioz. Coste had a special fondness for playing on a seven string guitar. Besides original compositions, Coste is known as one of the first composers to transcribe guitar music of the 17th century into modern musical notation. La romanesca is Coste's arrangement of a dance tune from the end of the 16th century. Romanesca is a melodic-harmonic formula popular from the mid–16th to early–17th centuries that was used as an aria formula for singing poetry and as a subject for instrumental variation. The pattern, which is found in an endless collection of compositions labeled romanesca, perhaps named after the Roma, is a descending descant formula within a chordal progression that has a bass which moves by 4ths. The formula was not to be viewed as a fixed tune, but as a framework over which elaborate ornamentation can occur. It was most popular with Italian and Spanish composers of the Renaissance and early Baroque period. Coste's teacher, Fernando Sor also made an arrangement for flute and guitar. [MEDIA=youtube]7cptm7SPICc[/MEDIA]
