The obvious influence of the compositions of F.Sor on Rung may have been transmitted directly by the famous Danish balletmaster August Bournonville. As a young man Bournonville danced the solo part in Sor´s ballet Le Dormeur Eveillé/Hasan et le Calife at the King´s Theatre in London on 12 January, 1828. It is thus possible that he was instrumental in introducing Henrik Rung to the guitar music of F. Sor, since both Rung and Bournonville were employed at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen and they even collaborated when Bournonville did the choreography for a ballet in one of Rung´s operas. It is at least certain that music by Sor (a piano accompaniment to S. Mayr´s Sei cinga d´una spada from Le bizzarrie dell´amore) and most of Sor´s music guitar solo was included in Rung´s private music library and the influence of Sor´s seguidillas is clearly evident in Rung´s use of elements from Spanish folklore in his guitar accompaniments. It is also worth observing that Rung in his Op. 1, no. 6 uses an unusual tuning of the guitar (the low E-string tuned up to F), which I have only otherwise seen used, in music of the romantic period, by Sor in his Op. 10. The difference between Sor´s and Rung´s ways of writing for the classical guitar, it seems to me, derives from their different musical backgrounds - Spanish church music and C. E. F.Weyse´s chorale style, respectively - which has resulted in different concepts of voice-leading and consequently of sound and technique.

Henrik Rung  (1807-1871), article