Fantasia on Paisiello's "Nel cor più non mi sento", op. 16

This fantasia by Sor is an extended set of variations using many of the different techniques possible on the guitar. It was first published in Paris by Meissonnier in 1823 with the title Cinquième Fantaisie pour la Guitare avec des Variations sur l’Air de Paisiello Nel cor più non mi sento.

Variation 4, bars 90 and 102: the C in each of the last chords is an artificial harmonic. Sor writes in his method about the harmonics in this variation as follows:

Quelquefois je profite aussi du procédé du violon dont j’ai parlé, mais très rarement, et avec de grandes precautions. Dans une de mes variations sur le thème de Paisiello, Nel cor più non mi sento, je termine les deux reprises par les deux sixtes en sons harmoniques, exemple soixante-dix-neuvième; on voit que, pour la dernière, je fixe le premier doigt sur la cinquième corde a la troisième touche pour bien déterminer l’ut; la touche devient le sillet, et si, à cinq touches, je devais produire la double octave de la corde à vide la, je produirais, à l’octave (devenue quinte), la double octave d’ut; je produis avec le second doigt la double octave de mi, sur la cinquième touche avec la sixième corde, et les deux notes réussissent très distinctement; mais aussi cette variation est plus lente que les autres. Je ne dis pas qu’avec beaucoup d’exercice on ne puisse parvenir, par les moyens indiqués, à jouer en sons harmoniques avec plus de vitesse que moi; en ce cas, je me féliciterai toujours d’être surpassé, car ce sera une preuve de l’utilité de mes recherches. (‘Sometimes I take advantage likewise of the violin-method already mentioned, but very rarely, and with great caution. In one of my variations on Paisiello’s theme, Nel cor più non mi sento (Hope told a flattering tale), I terminate both strains by two sixths in harmonic sounds, example 79 [in the illustrations to the method]. It is seen that, for the latter, I fix the first finger on the fifth string, at the third fret, to determine C properly: this fret becomes the nut, and if, at five frets’ distance I should produce the double octave above the open string A, I should produce at the octave (become fifth), the double octave of C. I produce the double octave of E with the second finger, on the fifth fret with the sixth string, and both notes sound very distinctly: this variation, however, is slower than the others. I do not say that, with a great deal of practice, success might not attend the methods mentioned for playing harmonics, with greater rapidity than I can. In this case, I shall always rejoice at being surpassed, for it will be a proof of the utility of my researches.’)

(Originally in French in Sor’s Méthode pour la Guitare, Paris, 1830. English translation by Arnold Merrick published as Method for the Spanish Guitar in London in 1832, available in reprint form from Tecla Editions.) In other words, if I interpret Sor correctly, stop the fifth string at the third fret, then play harmonics on both the fifth and sixth strings at the same time, touching the fifth string at the eighth fret and the sixth string at the fifth fret. At bar 84 stop both strings at the third fret and touch both strings at the eighth fret. In variation 7 the stems pointing down in the first bar indicate that those notes are to be played with the right hand thumb (and by inference, all the similar notes in this variation).

A charming reminiscence of a performance of this work may be found in the catalogue of the Tiscornia collection of guitar music, Catálogo Breve, which was published in Buenos Aires in 1948. In the preface of that 1948 book, Jorge M. Furt remembers how his late friend Eleuterio F. Tiscornia used to play this piece on his Torres guitar:

Me detengo ante este papel blanco y me lo veo, cerrando los ojos, en una de nuestras tantas noches, diciendo en su Torres ilustre, sonora como un milagro de bajos cálidos, de clarísimos altos, la música de Coste o de Sor en una lección expresiva que le escucho patente, mas allá de su muerte y de mi vida, como pura insuperada intención armónica. Todo oídos en este silencio puedo seguir, como seguía el muchacho lejano, el fiasco limpio y preciso de la Fantasia de Sor sobre tema de Paisiello, todas sus variaciones, solas el respiro de las pausas. (Una tarde, bajando al volver de Fiesole, me entré en la Villa Albrizzi y le corté una ramita de uno de esos viejos laureles junto al camino que Paisiello recorría para su vivienda, y se la mandé a Buenos Aires en memoria de una noche en que, disuelto el último compás de la Coda, no supimos ni el ni yo por unos minutes atinar palabra, quebrar el silencio, en el cuarto lleno de libros donde duraba, suspensa, la melodía: ‘nel cor più non mi sento...’) (‘1 sit before this white paper, closing my eyes, and 1 see him on one of so many of our nights, interpreting the music of Coste or of Sor on his fine Torres, miraculously sonorous in its warm basses, its very clear trebles, in an expressive reading which I can clearly listen to beyond his death and even beyond my own life, as though for a pure and insuperable harmonic intention. All ears in this silence, I can still follow, as that far-off lad used to follow, the clear and precise phrasing of the Fantasia of Sor on a theme of Paisiello, all its variations, and apart, the breath of its silences. (One evening, as I went down coming back from Fiesole, I went into the Villa Albrizzi and I cut for him a small branch of one of those ancient laurel trees by the side of the road which Paisiello used to walk along on the way to his house, and I sent it to him in Buenos Aires in memory of a night in which, the last bar of the Coda having died away, for several minutes neither he nor I knew how to find a word to say, to break the silence, in the room full of books in which there remained, suspended, the melody: ‘nel cor più non mi sento...’).

This edition comes from the new 2019 second edition of Sor’s New Complete Works for Guitar edited by Brian Jeffery. The Introduction and Index to the entire series are here in nkoda.

This new edition is copyright © by Brian Jeffery 2019. Your cooperation is requested in not making illegal copies for other people.

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