COLLEZIONE DI MUSICHE PER CHITARRA diretta da Angelo Gilardino Tomas Marco TAROTS 22 piezas para guitarra digitacién de GABRIEL ESTARELLAS BERBENTomas Marco TAROTS 22 piezas para guitarra (1991) Obra escrita para Gabriel Estarellas y dedicada con admiracion y carifio a Angelo Gilardino 1 - LE BATELEUR . pag. 6 Il - LA PAPESSE .. pag. 12 Ml = VIMPERATRICE pag. 14 IV — L'EMPEREUR . pag. 16 Vv -~ LEPAPE .... pag. 20 VI = L’'AMOUREUX pag. 22 VII — LE CHARIOT . pag. 25 Vill -— LA JUSTICE . pag. 29 IX — V'HERMITE - pag. 31 X — LAROUE DE LA FORTUNE . pag. 33 XI - LAFORCE .. pag. 38 XI — LE PENDU pag. 44 XI — LA MORT.. pag. 46 XIV — LA TEMPERANCE ». pag. 48 XV — LE DIABLE ..... pag. 50 XVI — LA MAISON DE DIEU . pag. 54 XVIT - L’ETOILE . pag. 60 XVII — LA LUNE . pag. 62 XIX. - LE SOLEIL .. pag. 64 LE JUGEMENT . LE MONDE . LE FOU pag. 69 pag. 71 pag. 75 BERBEN Edizioni musicali ANCONA, Italia ori eu po wl a ate an HERR» nan, al © Edict BERDEN = Ancona, Tut tat a scone, none © rarer vo i per tl pu. £ epresment viata la viprcione ftostatoa 0 com qualita ato proce ens ‘Opn soacone sar persia a termine di epg (RD. 9 el 2 erin delete De hsINTRODUCTION mong contemporary composers who have dedicated far more than the odd composition to the guitar, we encounter Tomas Marco (Madrid, 1942), who stands out for the great variety and relentless flow of his production. In his scores for and with the guitar, which he published from the early sixties up to the present time, we can follow step by step the evolution of his personal style, from an outspoken militancy - tight in the forefront of the European avant-garde - 10 a more relaxed, witty stance in the ranks of today’s arcadic post- modernism. Itis in this latter leg of his work that we detect a return to traditional ton- alities, to structural symmetries and to mini- malistic ententes. But it is also the evolu- tionary path followed by Marco, together with many other Spanish musicians, that we are tracking here: the route followed by his generation to distance themselves from the stifling narrowness of inherited nation- alism. Although not a guitarist himself, Tomas Marco shows in his most recent scores a sharp understanding of the guitar’s pecu- liarities, starting from the Fantasia sobre fantasia, all the way to the four tempos of the Sonata de fuego. Here the composer works his way through intricate idiomatic webs, playfully taking up the role of the guitarist-composer, and building up_ his music from the fingering. This amusing divertissement comes bla- tantly to the fore in this collection of 22 pieces for guitar. They are all inspired by the tarot cards; their curious figures, along with their esoteric mysteries, are brought to life by re-enacting their atmosphere, theat- tality and fables, thanks to a skilful hand- ling of the guitar’s musical possibilities. What transpires is the analogy between the guitar's “sensorial universe” - so well per- ceived by the author - (a universe in which ‘one can navigate by means of fingering coordinates, but the ultimate meaning and essence of which remain buried beneath its unfathomable mysteries) and the tarots’ “imaginal universe”. It is a game in which the sheer knowledge of the rules does not entitle one to superior powers: these are hidden behind a layer of cabalistic herme- tism, and can be accessed only by a leng- hty, painstaking training, the only venue to achieve an unhindered reading clairvoy- ance. itis then to this magic sphere, to the nether world lurking beneath the notas negras that Tomas Marco is addressing himself with his Tarots. In so doing he rediscovers - well beyond the realm of contemporary guita- rists’ rational and scientific curricula - the eerie figure of the alchimist-musician, fluc- tuating between history and myth, the adept uttering cryptic spells and wielding a twofold power: sound, and musical-sapi- ential mastery. It turns out to be a humble, yet a highly imaginative quest for the gui- tar’s ultimate polyphonic and timbric possi- bilities, with no ulterior purpose in mind but the attainment of a highly refined stage of musicality. So refined, as a matter of fact, as to obliterate the fine line between in- vention and discovery, creation and elab- oration, prophecy and memory. The musi- cian is led all the way to the threshold of an indescribable Being, very similar to the one surfacing in Jung’s psychoanalytic séances; genuinely unaware as the latter was of the existence of “Oneself”, he would inevitably bump into the “peculiar and paradoxical phenomenology of Oneself”. No doubts, Tomés Marco's research was to yield outstanding didactic results too: these 22 pieces are “concert studies” as well, presenting various levels of technical com: plexity. One could easily select from among them excerpts for a concert, reshuffling them into a new sequence, if need be: for this too would go hand in hand with that initial spirit of playfulness. This foreword would never be complete if 1 omitted to thank the composer, who dedi- cated such an encompassing ‘and trend- setting collection to me. By so doing he meant to underpin an aesthetic, poetical and musical perception, which enhances the way we conceive the guitar and its music: and for that !am deeply grateful to im. Vercelli, January 1993 Angelo Gilardino