Brian Jeffery – Fernando Sor Composer and Guitarist, as a digital download (pdf)

Brian Jeffery’s book Fernando Sor Composer and Guitarist is the standard biography of the great eighteenth- and nineteenth-century guitarist and composer Fernando Sor (1778-1839). This is the new third edition, of 2020, as a pdf.

I’m delighted to announce this new third edition. It contains much new information about Sor.

I’m also delighted to say that I have been able to find out who Sor’s first wife was, something which has been hunted for for many years. We know her name, we know what she did, we know something about her. It’s in the book!

This new book is currently available only as a pdf, not printed, which I am happy about because it doesn’t have to be shipped, so I’m happy to be making thereby even a small contribution to the welfare of the planet.

I am also happy that Josep María Mangado has kindly agreed to allow his own three books (Fernando Sor volumes 1 2 and 3) to be available exclusively from Tecla Editions. In these three books he gives much more detail about certain aspects than I have been able to do, for example about Sor’s family in Barcelona or about the dancers who appeared in the various productions of Cendrillon. It’s a good example of cooperation, I think.

It is possible that we may issue this book later in printed-on-demand form. It is only a possibility and there is no guarantee that it will happen. But if it does happen, and if you think that you might like to order a copy when the time comes, please make sure that you are registered with Tecla on the registration form at the foot of the Tecla home page, and then you will be sure to be notified of the possibility of ordering a copy. Also, if you will send me an email on the Tecla contact form expressing your interest and stating your location, I can already put you on the list. Anyone who buys the present digital version and who later wishes to obtain any printed version will receive a substantial discount on the printed version.

Sor’s compositions for guitar solo and guitar duet are available in my edition of Sor’s New Complete Works for Guitar which is available as a printed set of eleven volumes or as individual works online as pdfs.  

Songs and other compositions by Sor, in both printed and digital forms, can be found on the Sor home page .

Brian Jeffery

The Sor home page

Fernando Sor biography

Fernando Sor life and music (a longer biography) 

Tecla home page.