Christmas on E strings by Jorge Codina

ALMOST A CHRISTMAS TALE…

Thanks Alpho and Ruchir.

Well, I started composing the piece at the end of November. It has been probably the one that has taken me the longest to complete and, in fact, I finished it right on the edge of Christmas Eve. My mother's hospitalization two weeks before Christmas prevented me from having more time. But it was all right and she returned home recovered for the holidays.

This year I wanted the Spanish classical guitar to be the protagonist. It is the national instrument par excellence of Spain and, nevertheless, I have not used it much in my compositions. And that was the first instrument that I fell in love with in my adolescence. Soon after, my first love was a girl who studied piano and performed some concerts in local auditoriums. She ended up transmitting her passion for the keyboard to me. The girl fell in love with a football player, but my love for the piano has already stayed in my life forever.

Just as you don't forget your first love, I don't forget the beauty of a guitar strum or a good solo. And this year, it was time to pay tribute to such a beautiful instrument. Although (and keep me the secret), the initial mockup was on piano that I later adapted to the range and interpretation of the guitar. I was tempted to leave the solo guitar piece because it sounded pretty good, but it didn't have enough Christmas mood and that led me to orchestrate it to reinforce the ambience including the typical percussion: glockenspiel, tambourine, sleigh bells ...

And that's all.

Oh well, some more. The girl and the footballer ended up working in my same company four years later. He left it some time later and went to another enterprise, but she has been my workmate for over forty years and remains. And she is still one of my best friends, almost a sister.