Album Notes

Now it is nearly 50 years since Göran Engdahl got his first guitar and by that started his career as composer. In parallel with the studies in classical guitar in Uppsala he also wrote songs and played the electric guitar in local pop bands. His first guitar composition with classical fingering he wrote in 1975. Since then he has uninterruptedly continued to compose pieces for guitar inspired by among others Fernando Sor (1773-1839) and Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909). To write music for guitar with classical fingering today is exceptional. The main guitar literature is written during the nineteenth century or earlier. The characteristics of Göran Engdahl’s guitar compositions are their rhythmic and harmonics that would be unthinkable during the nineteenth century. Another characteristic also is that the compositions are comparatively easy to play. Göran Engdahl’s guitar pieces constitutes a valuable contribution to the guitar literature and can serve as education material for the new generation of guitarists that consider the pieces of the old masters too hard to play and out of fashion. Besides his composing of pieces for guitar he also writes songs with lyrics of his own and other poets. The accompaniment then is with classical fingering that renders the songs a special quality. The latest record Kärlekssånger I / Love songs I (2009) comprises a selection of own poems with music about love, death and life.