Manuel Maria Ponce (hereafter referred to as Manuel M. Ponce, 1882-1948) was one of themost prolific and significant composers for the guitar. His output extends from 1923 to 1948and includes thirty-three separately published works, comprising thirty original works andthree published arrangements, including a collection of three previously published songs, theTres canciones populares mexicanas (1924), the Canción popular gallega (EI Noi de la mare, c.1927) and the Prelude(1936) for guitar and

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... rpsichord, based on the earlier Prelude in E Major (1931) forguitar. His original compositions encompass solo, chamber and orchestral media and adiverse range of compositional forms, including a concerto, five sonatas, a sonatina, twotheme and variations, two suites, numerous preludes and dance forms, and the monumentalVariations sur "Folia de España" et fugue (1929). These works reflect an eclectic range ofcompositional styles that embraced the folk and popular music traditions of Mexico, Cubaand Spain, the Mexican salon genres, baroque, classical and romantic characteristics, as well asthe harmonic language, and melodic and rhythmic techniques of impressionism andneoclassicism. From the second decade of the twentieth century, Ponce was a leading musical and culturalvoice within Mexico. Beginning around 1912, critics in the popular press defined him as amodernist. His efforts at this time were concentrated on performance and teaching and thepresentation of an all-Debussy recital by his students in 1912 in the salon of the Casa Wagnerwas received as being of character" and "introducing the new and exquisite music of Claude Debussy".7 The description of Ponce as a "modernist" at this time is a reflectionof the dominance of imported European and North American popular music, and also salonmusic in middle and upper class Mexican musical life. His compositions up to this pointreveal an eclectic but conservative style encompassing popular salon forms, histori [...]