Isaac Albeníz: Bajo la Palmera
A habanera, this piece's formal design has outer sections in both major and minor characters. These sections are interrupted with a gentle central section a tempo in major. Though repetition is present in this piece, there is considerably less literal repetition in the primary theme and a diversity of transitional materials. Finally, the concluding theme is a transformation of the original, main theme.
Richard Rodney Bennett: Impromptus
Before the publication of Bennett’s Impromptus, serial guitar works had typically been composed on a small scale. Having never written for the guitar before, Bennett composed these Impromptus as a way to teach himself to write for the guitar. Within Bennett’s serial composition, he explores a variety of moods from one impromptu to the next. He begins with a first movement, an invocation for the piece, and moves onto an imitation waltz in the second impromptu. This is followed by a plaintive third impromptu, a fiery fourth impromptu, and a final impromptu that has the feeling of a reflection on the work as a whole, finishing with a quote from the very beginning of the work.
Joaquin Rodrigo: Junto al Generalife
Junto al Generalife (Close to Generalife), is dedicated to the gardens connected to the Alhambra. Rodrigo was inspired to write this piece by the scents and sounds of the garden. Rodrigo says “Everyone knows of the magical gardens of the Generalife connected to the Alhambra; there can be found the gentle rustle of perfumed breezes, a distant tinkle of bells, and flowers which shelter behind the myrtle bushes. And there, also, the guitar reposes and dreams.”
Roland Dyens: Libra Sonatine - Fuoco
The Libra Sonatine written by the late Tunisian-French guitarist-composer Roland Dyens following a surgery. The composer writes: “Its three movements are an explicit portrayal of that very particular period of my life: first the chaotic India (before the operation), then the Largo (during it) and finally the Fuoco, in which the unrestrained rhythms depict a veritable incarnation of my return to life (and several guitarists often play this last movement as an independent piece).”