Classical Guitar - Mertz Etude

This classical guitar piece, Mertz Etude in A Minor, contains many lessons.

Firstly, the multitude of sixteenth notes (semiquavers) is good practice for the alternation of the fingers and could be said, a good pre-cursor to the more difficult technique of tremolo.

The actual pattern in this instance is different from the often used tremolo technique of p.a.m.i. as this piece uses: p.i.m.a, m,i,m,i. The value lies in the alternation of the fingers, usually at a fairly brisk speed, that develops the fine motor skill necessary for a good tremolo technique.

There are also a few slurs used within the piece at speed. You need to play them "crisply" to make them sound effective. They add both flair and "fire" to the piece overall. Another technique you'll notice that adds so-called "fire" is the bass melody, either descending or ascending which uses as a balance an open note such as the open "E" (upper) string. You can see in bar 4 and particularly bar 12, this is used very effectively in this Etude by Mertz.

According to Wikipedia…

“Caspar Joseph Mertz (baptised Casparus Josephus Mertz) was born in Pressburg, now Bratislava (Slovakia), then the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and part of the Austrian Empire. He was active in Vienna (c.1840–1856), which had been home to various prominent figures of the guitar, including Anton Diabelli, Mauro Giuliani, Wenceslaus Matiegka and Simon Molitor.

A virtuoso, he established a solid reputation as a classical guitar performer. He toured Moravia, Poland, and Russia, and gave performances in Berlin and Dresden. In 1846 Mertz nearly died of an overdose of strychnine that had been prescribed to him as a treatment for neuralgia.

Over the following year he was nursed back to health in the presence his wife, the concert pianist Josephine Plantin whom he married in 1842. Some speculation may lead one to the conclusion that listening to his wife performing the romantic piano pieces of the day during his period of recovery may have had an influence on the sound and unusual right-hand technique he adopted for the Bardenklänge (Bardic Sounds) op. 13 (1847).

Mertz's classical guitar music, unlike that of most of his contemporaries, followed the pianistic models of Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schubert and Schumann, rather than the classical models of Mozart and Haydn (as did Sor and Aguado), or the bel canto style of Rossini (as did Giuliani). Though the date of his birth indicates that that was the logical influence since Sor was born in 1778, Aguado in 1784 and Giuliani in 1781 while Mertz in 1806, a difference of about 25 years.

The Bardenklänge are probably Mertz's most important contribution to the classical guitar repertoire – a series of character pieces in the mould of Schumann.”
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Видео Classical Guitar - Mertz Etude канала LearnClassicalGuitar