All sources are Wikipedia.
Matteo Carcassi (8 April 1792 – 16 January 1853) was an Italian guitarist, teacher and composer.
Carcassi wrote a method for guitar (Opus 59), first published with Schott in Mainz in 1836. Which is still valuable, relevant and interesting. He even wrote at the close of the preface: “I can assert that any intelligent person who will attentively study this book from beginning to end will acquire a perfect knowledge of the mechanism of the guitar.”
His most famous works are collected in his 25 Études, Opus 60. In these, he managed to blend technical skills with brilliant Romantic music. This is the reason his music is still played by so many classical guitarists today.
Selection of Pieces for Inclusion in this Book
I played many pieces by Matteo Carcassi as a student of the classical guitar and still perform them today. So, I searched my music books, anthologies, collections and recordings to identify the best pieces used for teaching, yet are still enjoyable as miniatures on their own. Of course, most technical studies were eliminated but there were many pieces to include and I arranged some of these for ukulele.
Organization of Music in this Book of Arrangements
I own a copy of Carcassi’s method book for the guitar (opus 59), reprinted and edited in 1972, and it was influential in my classical guitar training. The book is organized into three parts.
The first is an introduction to the guitar and music, mainly organized by key with an exercise/prelude and two to three pieces of increasing difficulty for beginners. I’ve kept that structure for this book of arrangements.
The second part focuses on other techniques and exercises (most of which are not included in this book of arrangements) and the third part is a set of 50 progressive study pieces, some of which I’ve arranged for more advanced studies and performance pieces.
I also own a copy of Carcassi’s book of 25 etudes (opus 60), reprinted and edited in 1971 and it is literally falling apart from use. These are much more advanced for inclusion in this book of arrangements but I did include #3, the Andantino, which I performed in a recital in the 1990’s and still play.
For this book of arrangements, I sourced copies of the original folios but also looked at my teacher’s notes in my copies of the books shown below for fingering and performance information.
These are the results. Enjoy!