This is part of the Easy Music for 4 Guitars series, subtitled Mexico, and is a traditional Mexican song - La Sandunga - with the original words and a French translation for those who can play and sing simultaneously without dribbling.
Sometimes known as the unofficial anthem of Tehuantepec, it is indeed as easy as the title suggests, but it is all the more enjoyable as a result.
Guitar Four has simple strummed three-string chords of E and A minor, and some slow arpeggios. Guitar One takes the tune and ventures cautiously to the fifth position with a little fingering to help those still finding their bearings up in the clouds. Guitars Two and Three provide the meat in the sandwich, but such is the simplicity that sometimes they are merely duplicating each other's efforts an octave apart. Provided that the tune isn't overpowered by the accompaniment line that sits above it, this gives a clean and crisp texture that preserves the simplicity of the piece but brightens the sound noticeably.
With chances to enjoy some gloriously big accelerando this is definitely fun to play and there is just a little syncopation here and there that makes it go with a real swing.
Guitar Three is alternately called upon to do some simple chords and to go up up neck, and tl1is is perhaps tl1e hardest line - Grade Three or thereabouts. In a school environment. tl1ere are educational opportunities to involve some geography, some history and some foreign languages too, making this piece all the more attractive to a school music teacher wanting a piece that's guaranteed to work and to sound effective and atmospheric too.
Derek Hasted (Classical Guitar Magazine)
