These Six Divertimentos by Sor were first published in London by Monzani & Hill in about 1815-19. Like the Six Divertimentos op. 1 they consist of a set of six short and charming pieces evidently designed as a whole. Two minuets, nos. 1 and 4, each introduce a longer waltz in the same key, while the remaining pieces contrast with them both in key and in musical style. Performers, again, would do well to treat the set as a whole and to perform it complete.
The original edition contains no opus number, which appears only in later Meissonnier editions and does not by any means indicate the order of composition.
The dedicatee, Emanuel Palacio Fajardo, was a South American from what is now Venezuela. A trained lawyer and doctor of medicine and an emissary of Simón Bolívar, he was in Europe to obtain guns and money for the liberation movements against Spain, and he returned to Venezuela in 1818. He and Sor could have met either in Paris or in London, and their friendship is no coincidence, for Sor, too, held liberal political views. Palacio Fajardo was a man of literary accomplishments who wrote a book entitled Outline of the Revolution in South America, by a SouthAmerican (London, 1817), and he evidently had musical tastes as well. For further details on him, see my book Fernando Sor, Composer and Guitarist.
This edition is based on the first issue of the Monzani & Hill edition. The later Meissonnier and Simrock editions have been compared. Further notes about these pieces will be found at the end of the pdf.
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