Ali Omar El-Farouk - Prelude No. 1 (Heitor Villa-Lobos)

Recorded at Dar Omar El-Farouk at Tunis Village in Fayoum, Egypt, on June 13th 2020

Guitar made by Jeremy Clark
52 Instrument Co.

Mixing and Mastering: Ali Omar El-Farouk

Video Editing: Ali Omar El-Farouk

Since I first started learning it, Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Prelude No. 1 quickly became one of my favourite pieces to play from the classical guitar repertoire. It has quite a different and more modern compositional approach than other classical guitar pieces, exploring the guitar in such a unique way. I love how the melody is phrased on the lower register of the guitar, singing gently, sounding almost like a cello.

The first theme in E minor repeats 3 times, each time developing and building more and more in intensity, then always resolving calmly, learning into the next repetition. The third repetition ends in a way that almost feels like someone’s mind is spiralling down into madness!

Leading into the second theme, a sad and bluesy progression that also repeats 3 times, every time confirming the resolution more and more.

The third theme changes the mood completely to a happy fiesta, changing the tonality from E minor to E major with an ascending arpeggio movement and joyful resgueados. This section repeats twice, the first time ending with a series of fiery resgueados, and the second time Villa-Lobos’ being a genius composer ends it the same way as the first 3-part theme in E minor, and leading into it.

After the first theme in E minor, the second theme in 3-part comes back again to end the piece, this time ending the very last time in a surprising twist from minor to major, ending on an E major 6 chord, giving a lovely sense of hope.

I hope that you will enjoy listening to it, and may it bring peace to your heart. 🎵🎶

I dedicate this recording as well as the other recordings in this series of classical guitar music to Tarek Sharara who encouraged me to create these recordings.

© Ali Omar El-Farouk 2020

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