1. Introduction et Variations Brillantes sur un Air National

Stanislaw Szczepanowski is reputed to have published a considerable number of compositions for the guitar with the English publisher Robert Cocks. They are only known by literary reference. The only composition found so far, dedicated to Giulio Regondi, is the present Introduction et Variations Brillantes Sur un Air National, the air being the Polish National Anthem. The second piece in this volume, titled Une Larme, (A Tear), was published in the Illustrirte Zeitung in 1852, as a transcription for solo piano, from an original for cello. While we do not know this for a fact, it is entirely plausible that Szczepanowski would have transcribed the same piece also for guitar. The present transcription is therefore a speculative reconstruction of what this evocative example of mid-nineteenth century romanticism would have sounded like, had the composer himself transcribed it for his main instrument—the guitar.