The Melody Spin Song Encyclopedia

This famous Spanish solo guitar work “Romance“ or “Romanza” has been recorded by many guitarists, but Darren Curtis Skanson’s New Age Classical version was the first to add the new age electronic instrument component to the timeless song. The term Romance has a centuries long history. Beginning as narrative ballads in Spain, it came to be used by the 18th century for simple lyrical pieces not only for voice, but also for instruments alone like this Spanish version. Romance is most famous for its selection as the backbone and tilte music of the French film “Forbidden Games”. The Spanish classical guitar work was written over 150 years ago is among the most famous and loved of the Spanish guitar repertoire.

“To this day, this Spanish Romanza remains a beautiful mystery. Although legend has it that a blind Spanish monk penned Romance, the reality is that the composer never signed it. I think that romantic notion is much better than whatever the truth is anyway! When I created Peace, Earth, and Guitars, I did not realize that what I was marrying was the world of New age music and its above mentioned charactaristics with classical guitar and its charactaristics of purity of sound and technical level of proficiency. It was a fresh new sound for classical guitar music and the tens of thounsands of copies of both recordings are proof of its universal appeal. ” - Darren Curtis Skanson