Classical guitar often gets labeled as one of the softer, quieter instruments you could hear play in a concert hall.
But what if you had 10 of them playing together, then you add a soloist, how about a flamenco soloist too? And why don’t you throw in two double basses, and a narrator speaking in Spanish?
Well now you have the makings of a guitar ensemble, specifically the configuration for Javier Farias’ Arauco: Por Fuerte, Principal y Ponderosa.
Guitar ensembles are rare to find, and once found you’re often hard pressed to find them playing something other than an arrangement of Toto’s Africa or Copland’s Rodeo. Most composers don’t know what to do with one guitar, let alone write for a group of 8 or more of them. There are only a handful of composers that have written for such an ensemble, one of the most notable being Chilean composer Javier Farias.
A guitarist himself, Farias has been paving the path for large guitar ensemble music for over 20 years. He founded the Ensamble de Guitarras de Chile in 2006 and this group has premiered dozens of new works from all over the world, many of which were written by Farias.
Arauco: Por Fuerte, Principal y Ponderosa was premiered the same year that group was founded, and is scored for 10 guitars, one classical soloist, one flamenco soloist, two double basses, and narrator. The piece is based off the 16th century epic poem La Araucana, which depicts the Arauco war that saw Spain attempting to conquer Chile, and the resistance from the indigenous Mapuche people.
The music that Farias set to this text is full of fire and fury. Over the nine movements, the musicians are convey a story of war and revolt, but also take time to ease up and bask in the more tender moments. Movement three sees the flamenco soloist taking the ensemble on a solea, a dance that sees the Spanish, though successful in the war thus far, afraid of the increasing power of the Mapuche people as they start to push back and revolt. It is a lament of what is to come.
One of my personal favorite moments on the record comes in the combination of the fourth and fifth movement. The fourth movement begins with true sorrow coming from the guitars and basses, pushing and pulling over an ostinato bass. The sorrow slowly builds to anger however, and this sees the entrance of the flamenco and classical soloist marching in step with one another. Their marching soon turns to battle as guitars trade chords blow for blow and ends with a flurry of strums that leads into the pulsing movement five. This movement sees the ensemble in full revolt, with the help of the classical soloist.
The level of intricate writing that Farias achieves in this piece is beyond anything else you can find for guitar ensemble. He has achieved not only to write engaging music to listen to, but to be translated into a story in the listener’s mind. This album is like a film in many ways, carrying with it the emotional climaxes you would expect to be hit. Not only do I feel this is the best guitar ensemble piece ever written, I think it is one of the best pieces for guitar period.
I had the great privilege of playing in a performance of this as an undergraduate student in 2022, and I’m very lucky to be able to come back to this piece as a conductor and lead a performance with the Eastman Guitar Ensemble in April 2027.