Carlos Pedrell was born in Minas, Uruguay, in 1878. A nephew of the Spanish musicologist and composer Felipe Pedrell, he received his musical education in Paris at the Schola Cantorum, where he studied under Vincent d’Indy. After serving as an inspector in various Argentine music schools, he returned to Paris in 1921, the city where he would later pass away in 1941. He devoted to the guitar several works of remarkable refinement, among which his masterpiece, Danzas de las tres princesas cautivas, stands out.
Interest in his output extended to Andrés Segovia, who included three short pieces by the Uruguayan composer in his celebrated Schott series and recorded one of them, Guitarreo, the concluding piece of a triptych that also comprises an austere Lamento and an aphoristic Página romántica.
The Danza Argentina, Carlos Pedrell’s first composition for guitar, dates from 1924. I was aware of its existence, yet I had not had the opportunity to study it in depth or to investigate its sources. In the summer of 2025, Professor Luigi Dell’Accio, guitarist, drew my attention to this forgotten page; and thanks to the generosity of my colleague and friend Luigi Biscaldi — to whom I wish once again to express my gratitude — I was able to obtain the manuscript. Further research has allowed me to ascertain that a copy of the work is also preserved in the collection of unpublished guitar manuscripts held by the Fundación Andrés Segovia in Linares. It was the intention of maestro and friend Angelo Gilardino, in 2004, to publish the complete edition of Pedrell’s works — with the exception of those already issued by Schott — within the prestigious series The Andrés Segovia Archive. That editorial project, however, was never brought to completion.
The present edition takes into account all expressive, dynamic, and agogic markings found in the autograph manuscript. In the rare cases where these may be considered optional, I have enclosed the symbol or indication in parentheses. In the Trio, finally, I deemed it formally appropriate not to remove certain guitar slurs and preferred instead to suggest that the performer obtain the resulting sound through the simple percussive action of the left-hand finger on the fingerboard.
- Cristiano Porqueddu, 2026
