Babylon: Traditional - Arranged for Nylon String Guitars by Tom Salvatori, 1974
Sooooo...here's quite a recent find! While going through an old box of sheet music I found a reel-to-reel tape of one of my first multi-track recording efforts...a traditional piece of music inspired by a song that appeared on Don McLean's 1971 American Pie LP. The last song on side 2 of the album was McLean's arrangement of a traditional melody - Babylon - based on a canon by Philip Hayes (U.K., 1738-1797). As a kid just starting to learn guitar, I was inspired to arrange the piece as an instrumental Nylon String Guitar round. Now looking back I would say at the very least it was certainly a step up from "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." In staying true to the era, I matched up the recording with a couple pictures of when I was learning to play the guitar at 15 years of age...from 1974...a long time ago!
Send in the Clowns - Stephen Sondheim - Arranged for Nylon String Guitar by Tom Salvatori, 1974
So much fun! Another pleasant surprise - on the reel-to-reel that I recently found...a piece of instrumental music I recorded in 1974 - it's a solo Nylon String Guitar arrangement of 'Send in the Clowns,' a song written by Stephen Sondheim for the 1973 musical 'A Little Night Music.' I matched up the recording with pictures from the era - from 1974-1976 during my High School years. Enjoy!
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Prelude 3 in A minor - performed by Tom Salvatori, 1974
And last but not least...the third piece from the old reel-to-reel tape I recently found - it's a recording of Heitor Villa-Lobos' Prelude No. 3 in A minor. I studied this piece with Duane Tutaj, my guitar teacher from Elmhurst IL, who entered me into the Illinois Music Association Senior Open for Classical Guitar students in 1975 to make sure I had an end goal for my learning and practicing! In retrospect it was a good experience to make sure I was prepared but I also learned that I wasn't too keen on the idea of the guitar being used as a basis for competition. Again, the pictures in the video are from my High School years, around the 1974-75 timeframe.
Enjoy!
Tom Salvatori
August, 2023