Thread: Help to identify a classical guitar piece

Hello,

I found this midi file with music for classical guitar:
http://www.classicalguitarmidi.com/s...ss_Prelude.mid
According to this website:
http://www.classicalguitarmidi.com/s-z.html#WEISS
it should be "Prélude (de la sonate Smith 3, Manuscrit de Londres)" and is attributed to Sylvius Leopold Weiss.
But problem is that when I searched the Internet for Weiss music sheets and videos on Youtube with Weiss music, I was not able to find this particular piece.
So was Weiss really the author or it was wrongly attributed to him?
What is a precise title of the given piece?
Where can I find the score for it?

Thanks

Here you have it:

The youtube clip sais, it is a suite, not sonata? This might be the source of your problems. On the other hand, the piece is just attributed to Weiss but not undoubtedly ascribed to him, that means, there can be a lot of other composer that this suite is attributed to.

This is an intersting site. Manuscrit de Londres means London manuscript. On the site mentioned above you have a link to the manusript.

Thank you very much.
May I ask why the prelude does not contain measure signature?
It is strange because I can not figure out the right rhythm to play it.
I tried to split the prelude into parts of length 4 quarter notes, but then there were pieces that sounded unfinished.
The same was for splitting it into parts of length 6 quarter notes.

Hm, you are really asking me too much. I'm not a professional musician or musicologist. Probably musical notation evolved through time, and in certain periods and in certain countries measure signature hasn't been developed yet or hasn't been in use. Have you looked up this site: http://http://jdf.luth.pagesperso-or...de_Londres.htm
There is a transcription of tabulature into modern day musical notation, that should help you.

Yes, I looked at it, that is why I asked...
If you look at this file http://dl.dropbox.com/u/60516846/Par...L7_Suite_3.pdf you can see that this suite consist of several parts. First one is Prelude and it is the only part that has no measure signature and it is not divided into bars (there are no bar-lines)... in contrast with other parts which are normally divided into bars.

Can not help you, sorry. I hope somebody else will provide an explenation for you.

Originally Posted by azerbajdzan

Thank you very much.
May I ask why the prelude does not contain measure signature?
It is strange because I can not figure out the right rhythm to play it.
I tried to split the prelude into parts of length 4 quarter notes, but then there were pieces that sounded unfinished.
The same was for splitting it into parts of length 6 quarter notes.

Don't concern yourself with making all of it it fit into the same rhythm; approach each phrase on its own. It sounds like some of the arpeggios differ by a note or two. They are irregular in length. But don't try to think of the meter as being all the same.

Think of the phrases as being 4/4 plus a measure of 3/4, or 4/4 plus 2/4, irregular in length. For example 4 +2, not six; or 4+4+3.

Don't worry about the "irregularities." He wrote it without measures because it is to be played "freely." Think "freely."

If you want to divide it into measures, go ahead.

A lot of times, music with irregularities like this is the result of vocal phrases, to follow a voice.
In The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love," for example, the verses are 4/4 + 3/4, unusual for a rock song, but the result of accommodating Lennon's vocal.
In many old country recordings, like Hank Williams Sr., you can hear "irregular measure structure" because the band is following the vocal, as in "I'm A Long Gone Daddy," in 4/4, but which appears to have "2 extra beats" or a measure of 2/4 (or one measure of 6/4), but don't think of these as "meter changes," just see them as "extra beats" which accommodate a vocal (or instrumental) phrase which falls "outside the cracks" of regular measures.