24 Preludíos

70 years after Ponce’s death in 1948, we celebrate his life with a new critical-performing edition of his 24 Preludios newly prepared from the original manuscripts by Stefano Grondona.

We proudly present a totally new edition with audio-CD of the 24 Preludios para guitarra. The accompanying CD includes all 24 Peludios as well as 4 bonus tracks of music by Ponce played by Stefano Grondona, the Sonata III and the Variaciones sobre un tema de Antonio de Cabezón. This edition is really two editions in one. Not only is it a performing edition meticulously fingered by Stefano Grondona, but as well it is also an Urtext edition of the original manuscripts. Our pragmatic critical apparatus permits the player simply and clearly to see also what was in the original manuscripts, and what was not.

With this publication it is now possible to clarify some long-standing issues relevant to our aim of presenting an accurate final music text; it is now possible to see where previous publications of this repertoire have varied with the manistripts and how we have treated these situations in our edition. A comprehensive critical commentary is included together with copious historical and informative notes about the selection of the works and how why our edition took its present form and content. At last we believe to have an edition which takes the form which the composer intended and new source material is also included, such as the Ramaugé ms for Prelude no. 6.

We take the opportunity to thank the Facultad de Música de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México for their generous collaboration and encouragement received while preparing this edition as well as for their permission to reproduce parts of the original manuscripts. We are indebted also to the distinguished Mexican guitarist and Ponce scholar Miguel Alcázar for his help, support and information also generously given.