“Spiritual” (1926) by Pierre-Octave Ferroud: Reflections and Criteria for Constructing a Practical Edition

The present article explores the methodology, the resources, and the transcription procedures used in the creation of a practical revised edition of the solo classical guitar work “Spiritual” (1926) by Pierre-Octave Ferroud (1900-1936). The work, originally destined to Andrés Segovia but never revised nor played by him, was later recreated by Ferroud for other instrumentations in 1927 (piano four hands) and in 1928 (orchestra). The new solo classical guitar transcription was prepared under directives that are grounded in the concepts of thème et version by Pierre Schaeffer (1966), together with the speech acts theory by John Langshaw Austin (1962), a combination that was used by Bittencourt (2020) to determine the nature of a music score and its function inside the communicative process between composer and interpreter. Thus, the transcription process attempted to triangulate a new solo guitar version for that work from its three different instrumental versions existent in score, summarizing the composer’s line of evolution through the identification of a possible “original idea” imagined by him. Throughout the process, the memory of the composer and the sound space in music were explored, with these elements being connected by means of an interdisciplinary approach. Keywords: Transcription Procedures, Solo Classical Guitar, Pierre-Octave Ferroud, Thème et Version, Interdisciplinary Approach.