Twenty-four Very Easy Exercises, op. 35

These 24 very easy exercises op. 35 by Sor were first published in Paris in 1828. The original title was Vingt quatre exercices très faciles et soigneusement doigtés (24 very easy exercises, carefully fingered). With his 24 progressive lessons op. 31, Sor had already composed instructional pieces which were a good deal easier than his previous studies in op. 6 and op. 29. He had given the title “Lessons” to those easier pieces of op. 31. However, it seems that these were not easy enough, for a preface to op. 35 says that certain people had said to him that they required too rapid a progress and aimed too high. Therefore he composed his op. 35, a set of extraordinarily easy pieces for beginners, which he called not studies, and not lessons, but “Exercises”. See the notes to op. 31. A preface to op. 35 in the original edition reads as follows: Plusieurs personnes ont trouvé que mes vingt-quatre leçons pour les commençants exigeaient des progrès un peu trop rapides, et qu’elles étaient disposés de manière à mettre l’écolier à même d’acquérir un grand talent; que cette disposition n’était point celle qui convient à ceux qui ne visent qu’à devenir d’une force médiocre, et qui ne pouvant donner une grande assiduité à l’étude se contentent de pouvoir s’accompagner et de jouer quelques morceaux agréables sans qu’ils soient d’une grande difficulté. La justesse de ces observations m’a décidé à composer ces Exercices qui peuvent suffire à donner la facilité nécessaire pour s’accompagner et mettre l’écolier en état de s’occuper des 24 leçons s’il désire augmenter son talent; ces leçons lui paraîtront alors moins difficiles puisqu’il aura déjà exécuté ce qui fait le fond de chacune. Ces exercises seront très utiles surtout aux personnes qui étudieront d’après la méthode que je suis sur le point de publier, car mon but principal a été de mettre en pratique la théorie qu’elle renferme. (‘Several people have found that my 24 Lessons for beginners [op. 31] required a somewhat too rapid progress, and that they were aimed at enabling the student to acquire a great talent; and that such an aim was not suitable for those who aim only to acquire a moderate ability, and who, unable to give great assiduity to studying, are content to be able to accompany themselves and to play some agreeable pieces which would not be of great difficulty. The correctness of these observations has decided me to compose these present Exercises which can suffice to give the necessary facility to accompany oneself and to put the student in a position to be able to tackle the 24 Lessons if he wishes to increase his talent; those Lessons will then seem to him to be less difficult, because he will already have played that which is the basis of each of them. These present Exercises will be particularly useful to those people who will study following the method which I am about to publish, because my principal aim has been to put into practice the theory which it contains.’) Exercise 20 resembles example 14 in Sor’s method, which he gave as a “passage in the style of harp music”. He writes (Method, English version, page 18): “Lastly, to imitate the harp (an instrument of similar tone), I construct the chord so as to comprise a great distance, or interval, as in example the thirteenth, plate 1, and I touch the strings at one-half the distance from the twelfth fret to the bridge, taking great care to have the fingers which play them depressed a little between the strings, on order that the friction of the curve DE, fig. 18, may be more rapid, and produce more sound; it being understood that the passage is in the style of harp-music, such as that of example the fourteenth.” It could be considered appropriate, therefore, to play Exercise 20 in that way. It was at this time, in 1828, that Sor broke with his publisher Meissonnier and began to be his own publisher, in association with Pacini. Op. 33 (Trois pièces de société) was the last work published by Meissonnier, and op. 34 (L’Encouragement) was the first published by Sor and Pacini. This present op. 35 was the first solo work brought out under the new arrangement. Sor’s Complete Studies, Lessons, and Exercises (opp. 6, 29, 31, 35, and 60, together with op. 44) are also published by Tecla in a modern re-engraved edition in one book (Tecla 101). 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. Brian Jeffery