Arabesque No. 1 by Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Guitar: Altamira N 3 Model
Tanner Monagle Studios
Postproduction: Drew Henderson
Written between the years 1888 and 1891, this early work already shows Debussy’s impressionistic musical style in development and make significant use of the pentatonic scale. Impressionism is one of my favorite styles of music and I first heard a performance of this piece for solo guitar by guitarist Eduardo Baranzano. After trying to find the music with no luck, I had no choice but to make my own arrangement of the piece.
Originally written for piano, this is a challenging work to make it flow musically in the guitar. The rhythmic complexity of the triplets against the melody on eight notes is a difficult task to achieve in our instrument. The guitar has a lot to offer regarding color and articulation and the piece is shown in a different light.