Gillinsons and Jonathan Vaughans account of the life ofan orchestral musician, which also confines itself to thepresent day. However, Robert Philips survey of historicalrecordings of orchestras offers a revealing insight into theway in which the past century of recording reveals howattitudes towards orchestral sound, discipline and techni-cal standards have changed and evolved. Robert Saxton, apractising composer, reviews the way in which composersrelationships to the orchestra have changed over time,concluding his chapter with a thoughtful discussion of the problems that contemporary conditions pose for thisrelationship. Further perspectives on the interactionbetween the orchestra and society are offered in SueKnussens optimistic account of the educational pro-grammes that are an essential part of most modernorchestras work. Finally, the future of the orchestra isconsidered by Stephen Cottrell in a chapter that is full ofideas for making the orchestra viable in the 21st century.

The critical reader who possesses specialized knowledgeof one or more of the areas covered in the book willinevitably find things to disagree with or to criticize. Theaccount, for instance, of the emergence of the orchestra inthe 17th century will not be uncontentious in some quar-ters. In the chapter on orchestral repertory, too, somereaders may feel that there is a discrepancy between thetreatment of 20th-century and pre-20th-century music,and that consideration might have been given to the ques-tion of why the repertory is as it is. Nevertheless, all thecontributors bring valuable insights and understanding tothe subject. For the non-specialist reader or music student,at whom the book seems primarily to be aimed, it providesa useful introduction to a wide range of issues connectedwith the orchestra.

Thomas F. Heck

Fernando Sor, composer-guitaristEstudios sobre Fernando Sor / Sor Studies, ed. Luis Gsser(Madrid: Publicaciones del Instituto Complutense deCiencias Musicales, 2003), =C30

There are no fewer than 31 contributions in this hefty,multilingual miscellany of articles on Fernando Sors lifeand legacy. The number is surprising because, in the overall history of music, even the best early 19th-centuryguitarist-composers (Aguado, Giuliani, Sor et al.), like somany of their violinist counterparts (Paganini, Rode,Spohr), have always been considered Kleinmeisterstarsof lesser magnitude in the musical firmament. It is only byusing better telescopes and focusing more closely, asGsser and his collaborators have done with Sor in the lastseveral years, that one can begin to appreciate the manyways in which this Catalan composer stands apart from hiscontemporaries.

At the outset, a word of caution may be in order aboutthe diversity of languages in Sor studies: it is not recom-mended for English readers unfamiliar with Romance lan-guages, since only about half the articles are in English.The remainder include an organological study in Frenchby Bruno Marlat (which does reasonable justice to thestages in the development of the guitar during Sors life-time), and an Italian discussion by Marco Riboni of SorsMthode pour la guitare. Then there are 14 Spanish contri-butions dealing with everything from Sors life to his com-positions in the larger forms: his ballets, and orchestraland choral music. Most impressive among them is JosepMara Mangados well-annotated 46-page biography ofSors early years in Catalonia, based on considerable origi-nal archival research. Mangado acknowledges that Sorswas the original Catalan form of our guitarists name, aspelling (some readers will recall) echoed for a period oftime in Library of Congress cataloguing practice, butabandoned since about 1978 in favour of the standard Sorspelling.

The 15 articles in English mostly discuss Sors composi-tions for the guitar, or for guitar and piano. They tend tobe relatively analytical. Among them is a valuable piece byDavid Buch, substantially reprinted from Guitar review(1983): Two likely sources for Sors Variations on a Themeof Mozart, op.9. It should be required reading for all stu-dents of the classical guitar, just to give them an awarenessof the vocal world in which the guitar flourished. Some

148 early music february 2004

memorable and informative evocations of Sors activity inRussia can be found in Richard Longs Fernando SorsFuneral March for Tsar Alexander I, and in MatanyaOphees Fernando Sor and the Russians.

The scholar who has done the most to resurrect Sorsmusic, through his ambitious editing and publicationefforts, has been Brian Jeffery. His five-volume facsimileedition of Sors Complete works for guitar (New York: Shat-tinger, 1977) was followed by a nine-volume facsimile edi-tion of the same with his own publishing house (London:Tecla, 1982). These reprints have been a great boon to bothscholars and performers. They were superseded in 2001 byJefferys release of The new complete works for guitar (Tecla,2001), typeset and now more legible than ever, if not with-out some vexing misprints here and there. Jefferys contri-bution to the present volume, Sor and the seguidillasboleras form, provides food for thought in regard to theinfluence of the dance on a traditional sung dance form. In the hands of an original composer like Sor, it seems that the seguidillas boleras form evolved in the direction ofgreater structural freedom than might otherwise haveoccurred.

A careful perusal of the present volume cannot help butlead the reader to an increased appreciation of the varietyof Sors accomplishments. He was born into a world ofdouble-string guitars (with five or six courses), but wasamong the first Spanish guitarists to reject them in favourof the Italianate (or classical) instrument with six singlestrings. Thanks to his excellent musical education, hebecame much more of an all-around composer than anyof his guitarist-composer contemporaries. Yet, as PaulSparks points out in his probing essay on Sors guitar vari-ations, Although he lived his entire adult life in the 19thcentury, his mature outlook nevertheless remained under-pinned by profoundly eighteenth-century values (p.426).Sors choral music (appraised by Roger Quin and JordiRif) and such surprises as a full-blown violin concerto(treated by Josep Dolcet) are discussed with insight andexpertise.

Happily, the first footnote of each article in Sor studies isa short biographical sketch of its author. How surprising itis that the editor himself was not among them, although infairness one must admit that he had a full-time job dealingwith an array of contributions in four languages. Gsserpoints out modestly in his introduction that his editorialinterventions at time bordered on shared authorshipalevel of involvement that will be familiar to anyone whohas tried to produce a worthwhile collection even half thesize of this one. Gssers expertise in the subject area is

apparent in the choice of topics addressed; his editorialskill shows in the evenness of redaction.

So what is missing? A bibliography, for a start. TheSpanish introduction informs us that the project was orig-inally to have appeared in two volumes, the latter toinclude the bibliography and a new thematic catalogue ofall the works of Sor. That volume has not yet appeared.Gssers introduction states that it is now being envisionedas a separate publication, with the thematic catalogueentrusted to Dutch musicologist Mijndert Jape (compilerof Classical guitar music in print [1989]). May it not be longin coming.

early music february 2004 149

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The new Deputy Chairman is John Briggs, whohas been a member of the Council of NEMA forfive years and is an amateur musicologist andearly music enthusiast.

The distinguished conductor and harpsi-chordist Christopher Hogwood continues asPresident of NEMA.

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If you perform early music, whether as a profes-sional or an amateur, you should join NEMA.The annual subscription of only 22 entitles youto a copy of the Early Music Yearbook and twocopies of Early Music Performer each year.

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