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The three books of the CD 'Alcßzar de cristal' are a new addition to Enrique Vargas's 'The Great Flamenco Guitarists of Today Library' collection.

'Alcßzar de cristal,' the latest work by Rafael Riqueni, is extremely interesting for a variety of reasons. First, there is the wide palette of influences found in the work, from baroque to Spanish musical nationalism, and from jazz to nineteenth-century romanticismùall of which Rafael implements within an unmistakably flamenco musical idiom. Second, there is the complexity of the arrangements, which sometimes include three guitars, a string section, piano, etc...

Since there is practically no flamenco literature for more than one guitar, great effort has been made to include these arrangements in the transcriptions, which can be used in both professional settings and for didactic purposes. All the parts where there are more than one guitar have been transcribed in their entirety, making these scores ideal for duets or trios. This opens up some very interesting possibilities for professional flamenco groups or for students who prefer to play with another guitarist. For example, musicians who work in dance companies or who accompany singers can use various falsetas from this album that are arranged for more than one guitar. Flamenco guitar students can also interpret these pieces to learn to play with other musicians.

Finally, this work includes a series of pieces that don't come from the world of pure flamenco, and therefore don't demand a deep knowledge of flamenco forms and techniques, which makes them accessible to guitarists of other stylesùclassical, jazz, Brazilian, etc.ùinterested in the flamenco guitar, making these pieces a sort of link between the flamenco guitar and other genres.

Each transcription includes the following:

1. A history of the form
2. Scales, chords, and flamenco tonalities
3. Compßs, palmas and foot-tapping patterns, which, though indispensable for under-standing flamenco rhythms, are rarely analyzed in publications about flamenco.
4. Analysis of the most difficult falsetas with explanations and suggestions on their techni-cal execution.

In addition, each book includes
1. A list of basic rasgueados
2. A glossary of flamenco terminology
3. The symbols used in flamenco writing

Since altogether this work is over 600 pages long, it is presented in three books in order to make it possible to use. This is the habitual format for transcriptions in ' The Great Flamenco Guitarists of Today Library' series, since contemporary fla-menco pieces are much longer than they used to be in the past and often include more than one guitar. Enrique Vargas transcribes all the additional guitars, which obviously makes the musical text much longer. In addition, the commentaries, sug-gestions, and analysis sections make each book a mini-manual of flamenco in general, and the style of each artist in particular.