Guitar Works of Agustín Barrios Mangoré, Vol. I: Guitar Book

This collection gives you access to the foundational repertoire of classical guitar at a single source, eliminating the need to hunt through multiple editions. The 21 pieces in this volume span a range of technical demands and musical styles, making it equally valuable as a performer's reference and a teaching anthology from which you can draw repertoire suited to different student levels and performance contexts.

The music spans from intimate and introspective (El Sueño de la Munequita's dreamlike quality) to rhythmically vibrant and folk-inflected (the driving pulse of Danza Guarani). Throughout, there is a unmistakable romantic sensibility paired with the warmth and resonance characteristic of Latin American guitar idiom.

This book serves classical guitarists at the intermediate to advanced level, including conservatory students, private lesson pupils pursuing serious repertoire study, and performers building a concert program. Teachers will find it invaluable for identifying pieces that match their students' technical development while introducing them to essential repertoire.

• Approach the melodic lines with vocal phrasing in mind; Barrios composed these pieces with the singing quality of the guitar voice at the forefront, so shape phrases as you would a vocal line rather than treating them as purely technical passages.
• Balance the texture carefully when Barrios writes accompanying figures beneath the melody; maintain clarity of the principal voice while keeping accompaniment economical and transparent.
• Pay attention to the historical context of these pieces when interpreting tempo and rubato; Barrios's romantic sensibility often benefits from tasteful flexibility rather than metronomic rigidity.
• Explore the unique sonorities available on classical guitar for the pieces with Latin American character; the rasgueado and other traditional techniques are integral to the authentic voice of works like Danza Guarani.

Program individual pieces as recital selections at any point in your season; the variety of styles and technical demands means you can choose work suited to the specific program theme or concert context. This volume also serves as a stable reference for guitarists building a classical repertoire core, allowing you to return repeatedly to these essential works as interpretive depth grows.

• Romantic phrasing and vocal rubato at the guitar
• Accompanying figurations that sit beneath melodic lines
• Latin American rhythmic and tonal idioms (rasgueado, traditional patterns)
• Right-hand tone production and balance between melody and accompaniment
• Interpretation of early-to-mid 20th-century classical guitar composition