Hi!

I plan to play parts or all the Telemann Trio Sonata in A minor (#5 Essercisii Musici)in a friend's party (his 80 years birthday!). I have the second flute of the Trio but the third part seems to be for Harp.

Would it be too crazy to play this part with a Spanish Guitar (which I also have already, albeit for another piece)?

Would the style suffer too much or there could be other problems I cannot see?.

I promise to post a live recording in case this finally goes ahead.

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"in a friend's".. should be "at a friend's", right? Sorry.

Looks the idea is too crazy indeed, judging from the absence of any comments. Or are there other reasons?

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Sometimes I wonder if I have a special ability to generate threads that remain uncommented... Here it is like finding a single normal word that produces no results in a Google search

Hi Jose Luis,

I wouldn't hesitate using a guitar. It would probably sound beautiful! The only drawback I see is that some techniques for one instrument don't necessarily transfer to another instrument (i.e. a glissando on a harp) But I would think a talented guitarist should be able to play this without too much effort.

Jose Luis, it will work fine if the guitarist is familiar with baroque music. I'm not sure why the continuo part that you have was specifically arranged for harp. Was it? Is this nicknamed the "Gypsy" sonata?

All of those Telemann trio sonatas were written for "(BASSO) CONTINUO" only and not for a specific instrument. The continuo part can be played on a keyboard instrument (for fullest effect) or by a polyphonic plucked instrument such as lute, guitar, or harp. For the most basic realization, it can even be played on a bass melody instrument such as cello or bassoon (bare-bones arrangement). The instrumentation was not specified by Telemann, so musicians used whatever was convenient and available.

Good luck!

Thanks a lot. You are completely right.

I made a stupid mistake. On the score I have (from Allegroassai.com), it is notated as Fl Vl Bc. The vinyl record I have with JP Rampal/M. Duschenes call it "Trio Sonata in A minor for Record, Flute and Harp...sichord".

When I copied everything to a file in my PC I abbreviated it as Record, Flute and Harp. And later simply forgot my laziness.

I understand now why my thread remained with no comments for a long while. It was for humanitarian reasons!

OK, it is a ciphered bass. I am not able to decipher the cipher, though I now the principle behind it and I even have a table relating the ciphers with the chords.

The guitarist probably cannot improvise on ciphered bass and if he could, it would be very limited in such an instrument, unless somebody knowledgeable makes a suitable arrangement for guitar.

Also, my teacher (I would play this piece with her at the party) is resisting the idea, she says that adding a guitar will worsen the tuning problems (I believe she has enough problems adjusting to my tuning in real time and adding a fixed tuned instrument would make it close to impossible. Maybe she is quite right and I'd better drop the idea.

Or maybe not. I have been improving my tuning and maybe for December...
To be continued...

LOL! At least you found out before trying to hire a harpist. I look forward to hear the recording after the party. Actually, it is a good sign that you put so much effort into making it sound well, and quite a birthday gift!