As Melodias da Cecília, C 190 a
Ten Pieces for Solo Guitar
Composed by Cecília Mahle
Arranged by Ernst Mahle
This is a set of ten pieces for solo guitar arranged by Ernst Mahle. Amazingly, the melodies were written by Mahle's daughter Cecília Mahle when she was between two and six years old! They are arranged in a traditional way, with hints of Brazil. Mostly in first position, they are of intermediate difficulty. They are not much of a challenge for a trained classical guitarist to play, plus they are easy on the ears. I'm hoping they will be embraced by concert guitarists as an addition to their concert repertory. They represent a "lighter" side of Mahle.
A former student of Ernst Mahle, scholar João Paulo Casarotti, in his Master's Thesis (see the link to it on this page), has written the following about As Músicas da Cecília, a related group of pieces:
This group of pieces was an extraction from the 1392 melodies created by Mahle's daughter Cecília, when she was between 2 and 6 years old, and annotated and arranged by Mahle. Cecília was a very musically talented child, who sang the melodies that represented her childhood. She was blind at the age of four due to brain cancer and died at the age of fifteen (1973). Mahle annotated and arranged these melodies, transforming them into a series of pedagogical books for various instruments. According to Mahle, he arranged 1000 of them and distributed them in 18 different albums. He clarifies:
I began the [Melodias da Cecília project] arranging for a recorder and cello with an accompaniment of piano. Then, I arranged the other ones for piano and for the other instruments. Regarding the titles of the pieces, some of them were given by Cecília and the other ones were extracted from books that she used to like, such as fairy tale histories and poetry, or we [Mahle and his wife] created them according to each piece. *
* Casarotti, Questionnaire addressed to Ernst Mahle and Maria Apparecida Mahle, 2006
According to Ernst Mahle, this music for guitar has been out of print for many years. I newly engraved the music this year (March/April, 2015). Although I updated and/or changed some fingerings, the music looks very much like the original publication, keeping the number of measures in each line the same, with some changes in the number of systems per page. I made a few corrections, mostly where there were very obvious mistakes (places where the rhythmic values were impossible to sustain). This music has not been proofread by Mahle himself because he is busy with other projects, but in an email reply from him, he put his trust in me. I have proofread these pieces thoroughly, and though I'm not immune to making errors, I believe these editions are very reliable. If any errors are found, I will make corrections quickly.
I am very excited to be able to present this music for free via download. It represents one of only two works by Mahle for solo guitar - so far as I know. I am working on engraving the other piece, the Suite for solo guitar, which I will provide on this website at a later date.
This music was originally published in one collection, but each piece is available below individually. Click on the icon of the piece you are interested in and you will be taken to a page that will display the entire piece along with a download link.
I hope you enjoy these wonderful little gems. It is my honor and privilege to provide them to you for free.
Sincerely,
The Music
Click on the icon of the piece you are interested in. You will then be brought to a webpage dedicated to that piece, where you will see the entire composition along with a download link.
