Carmen Suite For Classical Guitar Arr Ausqui

One might think that it would be impossible to arrange the music of Georges Bizet's opera, Carmen, for solo classic guitar, but Nestor Ausqui has done it! While the guitar is an intimate and sweet-sounding instrument, it does not have a broad dynamic range; yet, as Dionisio Aguado proclaimed in his Nuevo Metodo para Guitarra of 1843, the classic guitar's expansive palette of tone color gives it the ability to emulate "a miniature orchestra".

These characteristics make the guitar the ideal instrument to reflect both the character and sensuality of the dances that occur throughout Bizet's Carmen - Aragonaise, Habanera, Seguidillas, and Danse Boheme - as well as Carmen's sober "Chant de la Mort". Recommended for the advanced guitarist, Carmen Suite is written in standard notation with extensive digitation and occasional drop-D tuning.

In Nestor Ausqui's Carmen Suite, "…the guitar both sings like a human voice and accompanies itself, giving the work an irrefutable guitar identity. The characteristic feeling manifested in Spanish dance is now expressed through the guitar with a full and defined instrumental singularity."

- Guillermo Rene Alvarez
Musicologist, Professor at the Instituto Superior de Musica, Universidad Nacional del Litoral-Argentina