Les folies d’Espagne (Complete set)

In the beginning, the Folia was a dance and at the same time a dance song, of popular origin, which started developing in the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the Middle Ages. During the 18th century it was one of the basses and one of the most appreciated melodies all over Europe and was the starting point for themes with variations. During the Baroque, in France it was considered that the origin of this bass was Spanish, so this pattern was known by the name of Folies d’Espagne.

The present arrangement of Les folies d’Espagne by Fernando Sor is arranged for guitar trio or guitar ensemble with 3 voices: Guitar 1, Guitar 2 and Guitar 3. With a pedagogical intent, I added to guitars 1 and 2 the 1a and 2a guitars in divisi, where the technical difficulty of these is less complicated for an ensemble of guitarists of different technical levels.

So, we have these 2 performance options:

– Three voices: Guitar 1, Guitar 2, Guitar 3.

– Five voices (in some variations):

Guitar 1 + Guitar 1a, Guitar 2 + Guitar 2a and Guitar 3.

Some variation or the final Minuet can be performed with a solo trio.