1796–1870 · Poland, Russia · Classical
Guitarist, teacher and composer Feliks Horecki (1796–1870) studied under Mauro Giuliani in Vienna and built his career mainly in Britain, eventually settling in Edinburgh for his later years. Today guitarists know him chiefly through pieces of different levels — arrangements of folk, opera and other well-known tunes from various countries.
Feliks Horecki was probably born on 1 January 1796 in Horyszów Ruski, land that then belonged to the Habsburg Monarchy. Around 1815 he worked for the Treasury Commission in Warsaw, but soon gave up that work for music.
Around 1818 Horecki left for Vienna, where he became a pupil of the Italian guitarist Mauro Giuliani and stayed there for a year. To pay for tuition and lodging, he began teaching guitar himself in the homes of the Viennese aristocracy — among them members of the imperial court.
After his year in Vienna, Horecki toured Germany, Belgium and France. In the summer of 1824 he settled in Frankfurt am Main and lived there until December 1825, then gave a concert in Paris in April 1826.
Horecki probably lived in the British Isles from 1827. He again toured English cities extensively, then spent several years in Dublin, Ireland.
Later Horecki settled in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he spent most of his life, though he continued to perform regularly in other British cities as well. In Britain he was friends with Leonard Schulz and performed with him as a duo. He was one of the editors of La Giulianiad, along with Schulz and Ferdinand Pelzer, the earliest periodical focused solely on the guitar.
Among his pupils in Edinburgh, the Polish guitarist Stanislaw Szczepanowski (c. 1814–1877) stands out.
Horecki died in Edinburgh on 6 October 1870, aged 74, and was buried there; his death certificate gives 12 Clarence Street as his last address.
Horecki wrote many works for guitar — solo and duo pieces — and published most of them, though six Ländler, Op. 13, for example, remained unpublished. He wrote polonaises, waltzes, Ländler, rondos, studies and songs with guitar accompaniment.
One of his works for two guitars, the Polonaise nationale, Op. 1, was published in Vienna in 1820.
Many of his pieces are arrangements of other composers' melodies: for example, a Schubert waltz arranged for one or two guitars, pieces on melodies by Bellini and Carafa, a serenade based on Flotow's opera Stradella, and an arrangement of a melody by Jakob Rosenhain, published in 1846.
Among his songs with guitar accompaniment are a serenade about a crusader and a bolero about a Spanish bride.
Horecki wrote few large-scale works — he was more a master of the miniature. Among his more extended pieces is the Fantasia, Op. 40, cast as a theme with variations, a form popular in his day.
Horecki's music was published in Vienna, Paris, Mainz, London and Edinburgh; his publishers included Diabelli in Vienna, the Schott house in Mainz, and Wood & Co. in Edinburgh.
The site brings together 60 pieces for solo guitar by Horecki, arrangements of tunes. Most are at intermediate level, with a few elementary pieces such as Au Clair De la Lune and Kelvin Grove, and three upper intermediate pieces, Tyrolian Air, Air from the Ballet of Nina and March by Rossini. It is convenient to start with the easier pieces and then move on to the more extended arrangements.