Un Sueño en la Floresta

Agustín Barrios Mangoré's Un Sueño en la Floresta (A Dream in the Forest, c. 1918) is one of the most beloved and evocative pieces in the South American guitar canon, a shimmering nocturne that conjures the sounds of a tropical forest at night through an unbroken stream of right-hand arpeggios supporting a singing upper-voice melody. Technically demanding in the manner of the tremolo étude tradition, it requires a perfectly even arpeggio pattern maintained for the full duration while a lyrical melody sings above — a challenge Barrios, himself a virtuoso of the highest order, built into the very DNA of the piece. The work exemplifies the Paraguayan master's unique blend of European Romantic idiom and South American sensibility.