Annotated Bibliography of Works by the Brazilian Composer Sérgio Assad

Sérgio Assad (b.1956) and his brother, Odair Assad, are considered today one of the most important guitar duos in the world. Sérgio Assad's compositions and arrangements for the guitar are no less significant than his performance skills. He has composed more than forty pieces for guitar and different consorts of instruments, including guitar and clarinet; choir and two guitars; guitar and flute; guitar and orchestra; and many others. The purpose of this project is to identify the composers, styles, and techniques that had a direct influence on Sérgio Assad's music, to describe his works, and to evaluate his significance in the history of Brazilian guitar music. Chapter 1 gives a brief history of the guitar in Brazil as well as a survey of the main composers and genres of guitar music in Brazil since the early days of the choro until the late fifties, when Assad was born. Chapter 2 is divided in three parts: "Sérgio Assad," "The Duo Assad," and "Assad's Compositional Style." The first part is based on an interview made by the well-known Brazilian guitarists Fábio Zanon and Luciano César de Morais. This section will describe Sérgio's early education and guitar training. The second part will demonstrate how the successful developments of the duo's career determined Assad's future as a composer and an arranger. The last part is a description of the compositional techniques that Assad applies in his music. Chapter 3 is an annotated bibliography of Assad's works. The annotations will be organized chronologically. It will contain information such as publishers, instrumentations, recordings and approximate performance duration. Comments about the genesis of each piece and its main compositional features will be added based on several private interviews that I conducted with Assad.