Alborada Del Gracioso, guitar transcription

One of the most beautiful orchestral works I ever heard, is Alborada Del Gracioso by Maurice Ravel. He wrote it originally for solo piano, as part 4 of his ’Mirroirs’, but orchestrated it a few years later. Ravel said that the opening should sound like a Spanish guitar strumming, so I always wanted to know how it would actually sound on the guitar itself... Alborada is a morning song (alba del dia = dawn of day), mostly sung by lovers separating at dawn. Gracioso is not a gracious person, but a joker. Hence the little story is that Ravel wrote about a man trying to seduce a girl that was too beautiful for him: the grotesque lover looked like a buffoon. But if you listen to the music carefully, I think Ravel is not making fun of the Gracioso, but has respect for his idle endeavors. Home recording: Guitar by Kazuo Sato (2020) Transcription by Koen Claeys Thanks to Geert Claessens for his mixing and mastering wizardry