João Luiz plays Mignoniana from 24 Studies for Guitar by Sergio Assad (b.1952). This comes via Luiz’s YouTube channel. Great piece with all the weaving musical lines and rhythmic interest. Wonderful performance by Luiz with such a natural rhythmic momentum and motivic awareness. Here’s what he mentioned about the piece on his YouTube:
Sérgio Assad (1952): One of the greatest living composers of our instrument, Sérgio Assad recently wrote 24 studies for solo guitar, which I consider the most important group of guitar studies since Villa-Lobos’. In the studies, Sérgio surveys the most significant Brazilian rhythms, as well as portraying many important composers who in one way or another have connections with the guitar. Sérgio’s knowledge of the role of Brazilian guitar throughout the 20th and 21st centuries is second to none. He plays popular music, and besides being a master arranger, he is also a great improviser, incorporating that into his compositions. In “Mignoniana”, Sérgio masterfully uses the multi-layered Afro-Brazilian rhythm Maracatu, which is not commonly heard in solo guitar music due to its polyrhythmic nature, but here takes the form of a constantly evolving dance challenging the endurance of the player. Francisco Mignone was the Brazilian composer of his generation mostly associated with the Maracatu, and Sérgio, very creatively uses a fragment from Mignone’s Maracatú do Chico Rei as the main thematic idea for “Mignoniana”.Show less
Luiz is no slouch as a composer either. I’d not heard of him until a couple of years ago, when he played in Nora Spielman’s wonderful Odeon guitar recital series here in Brooklyn (apparently sadly suspended as Spielman has decamped for Montana). Now he (and his music) seem to be everywhere!
What a wonderful contributor to the vast Brazilian guitar tradition!