A Collection of Joyful pieces for Guitar. Easy to Advanced Level
1.
Handel - Theme from Water Music
This exhilarating work, also titled "Alla Hornpipe," is taken from the second suite of Handel's celebrated "Water Music." "Water Music" premiered on 17 July 1717 after King George I had requested a concert on the River Thames. The king was so pleased with it that he ordered it to be repeated at least three times, both on the trip upstream to Chelsea and on the return to Whitehall.
Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" is one of the the most enduringly popular works in music. It is a rag time two step, a fashionable form around the beginning of the twentieth century. Joplin was the first classically trained black composer to become a household name in America. Ragtime was eventually succeeded by jazz.
"La Bamba" is a Mexican folk song, originally from the state of Veracruz, best known from a 1958 adaptation by Ritchie Valens, a top 40 hit in the U.S. charts and one of early rock and roll's best-known songs.
This famous melody comes from the final movement of Beethoven's "Choral" Symphony No.9 in D minor, Op.125. It is a setting for choir and orchestra of the German poet Schiller's 1785 poem "An die Freude." The "Ode to Joy" was adopted as Europe's anthem by the Council of Europe in 1972. It has a also been used as a protest song, for example by student at Tiananmen Square and against General Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile (1973–1990). It has also appeared in movies, including Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange and "Die Hard," starring Bruce Willis.
The first lines read:
Oh friends, no more of these sad tones! Let us rather raise our voices together In more pleasant and joyful tones. Joy!
One of the most famous and well-loved of all baroque works, the four seasons are the first of 12 concerti that make up "Il Cemento Dell'armonia e dell'inventione" ("The Contest of Harmony and Invention"). They were originally written for solo violin and orchestra. The opening movement of the first of the concerto suggests all the joy and expectation of its title, "Spring."
Rossini's exuberant "William Tell" Overture is from his 39th and final opera "William Tell." With its famous finale, "March Of The Swiss Soldiers," it is a major part of the concert and recording repertoire. It is particularly familiar through its use in the American radio and television shows of "The Lone Ranger." Several portions of the overture were used prominently in the films "A Clockwork Orange" and "The Eagle Shooting Heroes."
"Libiamo ne' lieti calici" ("Let's drink from the joyful cups") is one of the most famous examples of a "brindisi" or "drinking song," in which a group celebrates the joys of imbibing. It takes the form of a joyful duet in waltz time. It takes place in act one, at a late night party in which Alfredo (tenor) tries to impress Violetta (soprano), with whom he has fallen in love.
