This is perhaps one of the most well-known and iconic pieces of the classical guitar repertory, by Isaac Albéniz, and it is quite literally the reason that I play classical guitar. When I was in high school, my mom put on a record of John Williams, Spanish Guitar Music, which begins with “Asturias” (a region in Spain), subtitled “Leyenda” (Legend). Williams’ playing is, of course, totally perfect in every way (look at that sober, elegant refinement!), but it was the ringing open strings and ultra-fast arpeggios in the fast section, punctuated by those fierce chords, that really rocked me back on my heels. I was practicing this piece a few months ago when a friend commented, “wow. The heavy metal of the classical guitar world,” and of course, that’s exactly right. Soft, soft, soft, WHAM! Soft, soft, soft, WHAM! is one the favorite techniques in heavy metal, and that, plus the whole E-minor vibe is no doubt why it appealed to my high school self so much I decided that was it, I was going to take classical guitar lessons, and someday play this most guitaristic of guitar compositions.

Like so many things that come from childhood, it almost all turned out to be a lie, however. “Asturias” was not in fact written for the guitar, but for the piano. Its E-minor vibe was originally G minor. The title of the piece is completely bogus, invented by a German publisher years after Albéniz had died. The subtitle, too. And, in fact, the music is not even remotely reminiscent of the folk music of the Asturias region—it is, however, typical of Andalusia and that guitar music we know so well, flamenco. Finally, it turns out that the sober, elegant refinement of John Williams was actually the immature work of a child prodigy—those recordings were made when Williams was just 15 (a charmingly dorky 15, if this cover to the left is any indication), which is why they’re so cheap today. No matter! The playing is still perfect, and so is the piece.

It goes without saying that, although I have been messing around with this piece for 20-odd years, I still can’t really play it right. One passage fouls me up pretty much every time, and all the real players play it much faster than I do here. Even so, I finally got to the end of that particular journey—whew!