Spanish Romance: "Romance Anónimo" (Anonymous Romance)
is a piece for guitar, also known as "Estudio en Mi de
Rubira" (Study in E by Rubira), "Spanish Romance",
"Romance de España", "Romance de Amor", "Romance of
the Guitar", "Romanza" and "Romance d'Amour" among
other names.
Its origins and authorship are currently in question.
It is suspected of originally being a solo instrumental
guitar work, from the 19th century. It has variously
been attributed to Antonio Rubira, David del Cast...(+)
Spanish Romance: "Romance Anónimo" (Anonymous Romance)
is a piece for guitar, also known as "Estudio en Mi de
Rubira" (Study in E by Rubira), "Spanish Romance",
"Romance de España", "Romance de Amor", "Romance of
the Guitar", "Romanza" and "Romance d'Amour" among
other names.
Its origins and authorship are currently in question.
It is suspected of originally being a solo instrumental
guitar work, from the 19th century. It has variously
been attributed to Antonio Rubira, David del Castillo,
Francisco Tárrega, Fernando Sor, Daniel Fortea,
Francisco Vicaria l Llobet, Antonio Cano, Vicente
Gómez, and Narciso Yepes. The Anónimo (anonymous)
part of its name has been incorporated over the years
due to this uncertainty. The question of authorship has
probably been propagated by three main reasons: the
lack of claim by its true author, the desire to avoid
paying copyright fees, and the desire of publishing
companies to claim the lucrative copyright of this
world-famous piece.
The style of the piece is that of the parlour music of
the late 19th century in Spain or South America, having
a closed three-part form: the first in the minor key
and the second being in the major key, with the third
being a restatement of the first.
The earliest recording of "Romance" is on a cylinder
(from the "Viuda de Aramburo" label) featuring
guitarists Luis and Simon Ramírez, made in Madrid
sometime between 1897 and 1901. The work in question is
titled "Sort-Estudio para Guitarra por S. Ramirez". It
is highly likely that the name "Sort" — as it occurs
on the cylinder's title — refers to Fernando Sor, as
Sor's surname is sometimes also spelled "Sort" or
"Sorts". The recording may be heard on the Doremi CD
release "Tarrega, His Disciples, and Their Students"
(DHR-7996) and online at the UCSB Cylinder Audio
Archive.
Narciso Yepes (1927 — 1997) interpreted and is listed
as the author of the piece in René Clément's 1952
film Jeux interdits (Forbidden Games). The popularity
of the film gave the piece worldwide fame. Yepes
currently has the copyright of this composition in
Spain although recordings and manuscripts of this song
predate 1952. Newer publications show Yepes as the
arranger and the piece being of anonymous authorship,
or authored by Fernando Sor.
The official statement from Narciso Yepes and the Yepes
heirs is that Narciso Yepes, being a young boy,
originally composed the piece for his mother when he
was about seven years old (c. 1934) and soon thereafter
performed it between acts at the Teatro Guerra, in
Lorca, Spain. Some time later, he recounts, when he was
thirteen years old he attended a performance in
Valencia and heard his composition performed by another
guitarist, who indicated the authorship as "anonymous".
Yepes contends that the melody had been plagiarized
(with some changes to the arrangement) by someone who,
he assumes, must have attended that first
performance.
However, Yepes was born 1927 and cannot be the author
of the work, since it was already recorded in 1900 and
published before 1925 (possibly 1913) by J.A. MEDINA e
HIJO; and in 1919 in the method of Pedro Mascaró y
Reissig, etc. Vicente Gomez (1911–2001) published it
and performed it in 1941 in the Hollywood movie Blood
and Sand with Tyrone Power and Rita Hayworth, also
attributing authorship of the piece to himself.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_%28guitar_piece%
29).
Although originally written for Classical Guitar, I
created this Interpretation of the "Spanish Romance"
for Solo Viola.
SHEET MUSIC