Ländlers by Giuliani

Mauro Giuliani

Mauro Giuliani (c.1780-1829) was considered the greatest guitarist of his time. His generation included such guitarists as F.Sor, D.Aguado, F.Carulli and M.Carcassi. Giuliani was also the first guitarist who composed for guitar in conventional guitar notation (Grunfeld 1969).

The career of Mauro Giuliani as musician and composer can be divided into two periods, beginning with the Vienna years (1806-1819) in Austria and continuing with the years in Italy. First in Rome (1820-1823) and then in Naples in the Court of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies until his death in 1829.

In Vienna Giuliani participated in musical life as a guitarist giving concerts in conjunction with such Viennese musical personalities as Hummel, Moscheles, Mayseder, among others (Heck 1986:15). The Viennese musical style and life reflected on Giuliani also as a composer. Giuliani had over a hundred works published during his Vienna years. Among these there were also many sets of Ländlers, one of which is Twelve Ländlers Opus 80.

From Twelve Ländlers Opus 80 I chose the numbers 1, 2, 7 and 8 as a corpus for my generative grammar work. These ländlers from Opus 80 are originally composed for two guitars. In my arrangement the first guitar plays only a single melody-line and the second guitar plays a simple chord accompaniment.