Passacaille by Robert de Visée (PDF)

Passacaille in E Minor by Robert de Visée (1655-1733). From Livre de pièces pour la guitare (Paris, 1686), Suite in E Minor. Originally for Baroque guitar. PDF sheet music arranged for classical guitar. Comes with both a notation edition with left hand fingering and a separate tab edition. Late-Intermediate (Approximately Grade 7). This is a PDF download.

Free Unfingered Edition

• Passacaille by Visée (Free Unfingered)

Robert de Visée (c. 1655 – 1732/1733) was a lutenist, guitarist, theorbist and viol player at the court of the French kings Louis XIV and Louis XV, as well as a singer and composer for lute, theorbo and guitar. This work is relatively easy depending on what level of ornamentation you include and the tempo you choose. A slower approach without ornamentation is relatively easy. My performance treats the repeated A section in a stable and more stately rhythmic character while letting the variations be more expressive and free. I also do a small rit and fermata at the end of each section but I've heard performances that are more strict with the rhythm to great success as well (see alternative video below or on post). Video Lesson Link.

• I have replaced all repeats with double bar lines, repeat each section or just the variations.
• All slurs are from the original tablature.
• All ornaments are from the original but should be freely interpreted. The mordent symbol has been used to represent trills,
• appoggiaturas, mordents, or any other type of ornament. Visee generally used one symbol for all ornaments.
• Visee did not have a 6th string so the range has been expanded for the strummed chords, final E chord, and logical musical
• lines that nicely fit the lower octave of the modern guitar. I generally try to leave the rest in the original octave.

Video Performances and Lessons: See the sheet music for the extensive performance notes.

Also see Robert Strizich on Baroque guitar which I quite like as well.