Works by
Ferran Sor
Ferran Sor Muntades, Fernando Sors or Sort (Barcelona, 1778 ' Paris 1839) is known as a guitarist, both in his facet as an interpreter and composer. Having received his first musical education as a choirboy in Montserrat, he pursued his studies at the military academy. Due to his liberal ideals, he had to go into French exile in 1913, after the Peninsular War, and never got the desired royal amnesty that would have allowed him to return to his country. He travelled along Europe, became renown and obtained recognition as a virtuoso of the guitar and as a composer. His success however didn't limit to this instrument. At the age of 19, he premiered the opera Il Telemaco nell´isola di Calipso at the Teatre de la Santa Creu of Barcelona. In 1822 he premiered the ballet Cendrillon in London, which was a huge success, both in the British capital and in Paris, where it was performed 104 times. In 1826, on the occasion of the coronation of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, he premiered the ballet Hercule et Omphale. Once retired in Paris, he published his famous Méthode pour la guitare in 1830, which was translated into several languages. His large 'uvre includes, besides a huge number of pieces for guitar, symphonic, religious, chamber, vocal, opera and ballet repertoire.
In this short biographical sketch, we cannot omit the importance the violin had in the education of this young musician. We know that the young man's first music teacher, Josep Prats, was the concertmaster of the cathedral of Barcelona and that the protector of the composer after the death of his father, the lawyer and town councillor of the city hall of Barcelona Gaietà Gispert Suriol, was a dynamic amateur musician and a reputed violinist. It was probably due to his influence that Sors could enter the choir of the monastery of Montserrat after his father's death. Finally, already in Montserrat, when his friend at the choir, Martí Sunyer (1776-1842) took his vows in September 1793, Sor filled his shoes as a violinist of the orchestra.
Joan Pàmies