Tuesday, August 3, 2010

SoupGreens.com: Justin Holland's 'Spanish Fandango, classical/blues nexus'


[Justin Holland]

Last month AfriClassical linked to an eBay listing offering sheet music which included Spanish Fandango, composed and arranged by Justin Holland (1819-1887), who is profiled at AfriClassical.com. SoupGreens.com posted an item on the composition yesterday, and included a link to an audio sample:

SoupGreens.com
'Spanish Fandango' is the 'Smoke on the Water' of bottleneck guitar in open G. It's the first song you learn, and it's really really rootsy. But it turns out to be a piece of classical music.”

“Open Tunings & Slide – The American Legacy of 'Spanish Fandango':
In 1867, Justin Holland published his arrangement of the American popular song “Spanish Fandango”. The first recording on this page is my live recording of the original score obtained from the Library of Congress.

“'Spanish Fandango' is arranged here in its traditional tuning - ‘open G’ - in which the strings of the instrument are tuned to the notes of a Gmajor chord. Through the dissemination of sheet music publications including Holland’s, this piece became a permanent part of the American guitar repertoire.”





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