Six Keyboard Sonatas of Manuel Blasco de Nebra: Transcriptions for Guitar and Analysis of Spanish Folk Music Influences, and Use of Keyboard Techniques that Imitate the Guitar, as Inspired by Domenico Scarlatti

Abstract

The extant keyboard compositions by composer Manuel Blasco de Nebra (1750-1784) were discovered nearly 200 years after his death. This document contains a compilation of de Nebra’s known biographical information and provides historical context to his music, specifically his sonatas 107-112 (discovered in 1987). Research is used to demonstrate how his compositions were significantly influenced by the Domenico Scarlatti-inspired tradition of incorporating guitaristic elements in keyboard sonatas. Specific techniques and correlations are identified between de Nebra and Scarlatti. This document provides sonata form analysis of each of the six sonatas and offers conclusions about his general realization of sonata form. To demonstrate the folk music influences in de Nebra’s compositions, contemporaneous Spanish folk music styles are examined in relation to the sonatas. Finally, new transcriptions of the six sonatas for classical guitar are provided. The issues that occurred during the transcription process are listed with detailed descriptions of the solutions. These pieces are valuable additions to the tradition of transcribing eighteenth-century keyboard music for the guitar.