The complete works of Søffren
Degen (1816-1885)
ISMN M-706787-47-3
This edition is sold to The Royal Conservatory and the Royal Library in Denmark,
Complete solos for guitar,
Volume I ISMN M-706787-40-4
Complete guitar duets, Volume II ISMN M-706787-41-1
Complete duets for guitar and cello, Volume III ISMN M-706787-44-2
Read about this edition
View the front page of this edition
The complete works for guitar
Søffren Degen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark,
on October 12th 1816. His father committed sui-cide before the young Søffren
had reached the age of two. Degen’s introduction to music came through
his stepfather Andreas Hallager who was a professional composer, conductor and
an oboe player. Andreas Hallager had a strong affection for the guitar. Degen
gave his first public performance as a 13-year-old student at the conservatory,
when he recited a poem by the poet Christian Wilster. The young Søffren
Degen considered the guitar as his primary study, but the conservatory did not
accept the guitar as a serious instrument for the students, so Degen was trained
as a cellist and a composer. The great Danish composer J. P. E. Hartmann was
responsible for most of Degen’s training. Degen was heavily inspired in
his compositions by Hartmann. Degen fought all his life for a serious attitude
to-wards the guitar, so that the guitar could be accepted in the higher circles
of music society and enter the concert stage as a serious concert instrument.
He toured around Europe as a very successful guitar virtuoso, and he supplemented
his income with engagements as a cellist and as an actor. Degen is the only
Danish guitarist from the 19th century who we know for sure was seriously involved
with the main international guitar community. He had very close ties to Napoléon
Coste, and two letters from Coste to
Degen have survived. Degen strongly believed in the future of the heptachord
guitar (seven-string guitar). He was convinced that it was superior to the usual
six-string guitar. Coste might have been his main source of inspiration in this
belief. All of Degen’s compositions and transcriptions are written for
the heptacord. Degen’s involvement with the international guitar environment
is obvious, and the traces of Coste, Mertz and Giuliani in his compositions
and transcriptions leave us with the impression of a great 19th century guitar
virtuoso. His exceptional instrumental sense is seen, for example, in the strange
and interesting composition “ Sorgmarsch” (Funeral March). The surprising
and original way of imitating church bells in this composition indicates how
far he had reached as a guitar player and composer. Degen’s greatest contribution
to the guitar repertoire is to be found in his unusual compositions and transcriptions
for cello and guitar. These are all major concert works. Degen was trained as
a cellist and he mastered the cello, as did many other great 19th century guitarists.
His transcriptions are based on well-known music by Mozart, Haydn, Schubert
and cello virtuosos such as Dotzauer, Flotow and Bockmühl. Degen was not
like his colleague Henrik Rung (1807-1871), a highly important composer with
strong influence on the Danish tradition. Degen’s importance is mainly
as an instrumentalist and an interna-tional figure in the guitar world. Degen’s
compositions are well crafted and written in highly romantic style, often program
music, and nearly always in a (for the guitar) unusually large-scale form. That
large-scale form was no doubt inspired by Coste. Many of Rung’s compositions
have a touch of the Danish national Romantic style. Degen died in 1885 in Copenhagen.
A few traces of his work still survive in the guitar world today. It was a student
of his, Thorvald Rischel, who gathered one of the world’s most important
collections of
guitar music, today in the Royal Library in Copenhagen, thanks to which many
nineteenth centuryguitar works have survived until today. The cello part schuold
be performed in way that to a cetai degree imitates the guitar.
To see some of the scores contact..................................................http://hebeonline.com
Jens Bang-Rasmussen
Frejasgade 14 2, tv
DK-2200 Copenhagen N.
Fax/tlf +45 35811963
e-mail : jensb-r@vip.cybercity.dk
The complete works can also be ordered from Jens Bang-Rasmussen.
Complete solo works for guitar
Volume I
ISMN M-706787-40-4
Opus 1
No. 1 Walz No. 1a Walz
No. 2 Walz No. 3 Walz
No. 4 Walz No. 5 Walz No. 6 Walz
Opus 2
No. 1Gallopade walz No. 2 Gallopade walz No. 3 Gallopade walz No. 4 Gallopade
walz No. 5 No. 6 The 29 of Febrary walz
Opus 3
No. 1 Zapateado No. 2 Rigel
No. 3 Rigel No. 4 Andante Pastorale, Scherzo No. 5 Small
Marsch for guitare
Romanse (Romance)
Serenade
Sorgmarsch
Tempo di marcia
Allegro
Andante
Piece facile pour guitare (Sept Morceuax par Sor Giuliani og Degen WH. 1899
en samlig af på 7 stykker af de nævnte komponister)
Transskriptions
Felix Mendelsohn (1809-1847)
3 movements from Lieder ohne worte
Volume II
ISMN M-706787-41-1
March for two guitars
Second parts for famous soloworks and duets
Napoléon Coste (1805-1883)
La source de lyson
Rondau de concert
Les Passage des Alpes
Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829)
Grandes variatione
Concerto op. 70
J. K. Mertz (1806-1856)
Einsiedlers Waldglöcklein
Primier parts ISMN M-706787-42-8
Score ISMN M-706787-43-5
Complete duets for cello and
guitar
Volume III
ISMN M-706787-44-2
Pastorale melanconico op. 11
Un ricordanza op. 12
En Sommeraften op. 15 ( a summer evening)
Melodisk Vals op. 16
Notturno op. 17
Blandt Bjergene op. 19 (among the mountains)
Transcriptions
Daniel Francois Esprit Auber (1782-1871)
Den Stumme i Portici (The dumb in Portici)
Andante con moto
J. S. Bach/ Gounod (1688-1750)
Meditation
Robert Emil Bockmühl (1820-1881)
Soire Musicales, Quatre Serenades op. 43
1. Valse Melancolique
2. Au Bord de la Mer, Chant du Pêcher
3. la Gavotte
4. Plasites Amoureuses du Gondoler
J. F. L. Dotzauer (1783-1864)
Potpurri op.21
Franz von Flotow (1812-1883)
Arie fra operaen Martha
George Goltermann (1824-1898)
Quatre Morceaux Caracteristiques op. 43
2. Inglitude
3. Notturno
4. Humoresque
W. A Mozart (1756-1791)
Larghetto op 87. II mov. from k. 581
F. Schubert (1797-1828)
Ständschen /Dotzauer/Degen
Ludwig Spohr (1784-1859)
Die Rose/Dotzauer/Degen
J. W. Ludwig Zinck (1776-1851)
Barcarole from the opera Prindsesse Isabelle
Cello part ISMN M-706787-45-9
Guitar part ISMN M-706787-46-6