Sevillana

“Spanish-flavored piece is fine for guitar quartet”
This charming piece can be seen on You­Tube performed by England’s Tetra Guitar Quartet, of which arranger Carl Herring was a member. (Stephen Goss is perhaps the best-known Tetra alumnus). And that makes the job of reviewing this piece a little easier, because my task is simply to guide you on the complexity of the arrangement so that you can see whether it is perform­able by your quartet or ensemble. The piece derives from an 1884 orchestral work by English composer Edward Elgar (1857-1934), more fully titled Sevillana (Scène Espagnole). Set in E minor and E major, with Guitar Four tuned down to D for what, as far as I can see, is just a pair of bottom Ds, the music is fast, rather than complicated. The part scores are very easy on the eye, and all the parts have two page-turns that are in periods of silence, so playing from score is not going to be fraught with chaos. Fingering is sparse, but where present, it includes left hand, right hand, and string numbers. This is certainly accessible to a compe­tent quartet, though the wonderful clarity and ease that you will hear on YouTube might prove a little elusive to a less-skilled ensemble. Performance techniques are clearly marked and there is nothing one would regard as out of the ordinary. This piece really sounds good on guitar!
(Classical Guitar Magazine)