Dedicated to the legendary Andrés Segovia, this colorful six-movement suite incorporates traditional Spanish guitar sounds and modes, as well as a twentieth century harmonic sensibility.

The "Preludio" (Prelude) opens with a traditional rotating guitar picking figure with the melody notes on the lower line alternating with a repeated inverted pedal point tone in the upper register. The beautiful modal scale sets a strange, ancient, yet romantic, mood. Eventually this pattern reaches the lowest, highly resonant octave. Some rich, modern modal chords (built in fourths) follow. When the rolling patterns begin again, the modal scale has been replaced by eerie chromatics of a disjunctive, constantly wandering nature. However, the patterns soon find their former evocativeness expressed through a modal scale in the sub-dominant key in which the piece concludes.

"Coral" (Chorale) evolves its somber, touching harmonies at a slow Lento tempo. The music gives the impression of contemporary chording mostly by accenting non-harmonic tones on the main counts and resolving them into standard triads on the softer beats, although there are places where unresolved minor ninths stand out. The mood is intimate, reflective, sad, yet lyrical.

The tender, sweet main theme of the "Cuna" (Cradle Song) gently flows along in sets of two notes in a close interval to each other, accompanied by a simple arpeggio on the first beat. The middle section has a cantabile feeling like a subdued chorale, a reflective moment. The initial theme and motion returns to cadence on a simple major chord.

The "Recitativo" (Recitative) creates a strange atmosphere, difficult to ascribe to a specific emotion. The employment of the rarely used Locrian mode (which contains the "forbidden" tritone as one of its primary intervals) with dissonant chords interspersed has something to do with this unsettled state. There are also a few measures that sound like a mocking children's song. Nevertheless, this movement in a "Lento molto espressivo e cantabile" tempo has a haunting quality.

The theme of the "Canción" (Song) is a melancholy waltz in A minor that proceeds in the pure minor mode until encountering subtle chromatic modifications that express restrained passion. The middle bridge also contains undulating motion that resolves briefly in a new mode (Dorian instead of Aeolian), but the beginning theme is fully recapitulated at the close.

The "Muñeira" is a "doll's dance" in an Allegro con moto tempo with a lilting 6/8 dance feel and a skipping accent on the fifth beat that seems to lend a slight artificial jerk to the doll's motion. The melody is played over pedal point chords and descending lines in the middle voice. In the middle section, dissonant intervals of the "ho-ho" variety add a comic and slightly grotesque characteristic to the image before things get straightened out again and the main theme comes back with fuller major harmonies and a bravura ending with pesante, fortissimo "rasgueado" (strumming).

© "Blue" Gene Tyranny, Rovi