Quartet (scordatura) by Ben Franklin, arr. Hirsh

A curiosity piece!

This work was originally scored for 3 violins and cello.  Each part was ingeniously written in a scordatura tuning so that no left hand was necessary to play the piece—only open string bowing!

To recreate the campanella effect and with left-hand minimalism in mind, the guitar version has been arranged with three scordatura guitar tunings:

Each part is limited to only 4 notes.  The arrangement is a setting of 3 of the 5 original movements: Intrada, Minuetto (1:25), and Siciliano (2;28).  The Siciliano in 6/8 has some odd harmonic/rhythmic clashes near cadences, which perhaps are Benjamin Franklin’s sense of musical humor.

The score and parts file comes with 2 versions—scordatura written as sounds, and transposed.