Ernest Shand

Who was Ernest Shand?

Ernest Shand was a Victorian guitarist and composer.

His compositions impressed Sidney Pratten in 1888. She said she had nothing to teach him, and that his pieces were superior to hers. His playing remained unsurpassed until the emergence of Julian Bream in the late 1940s. As a composer, Shand was able to sustain its growth against the popularity of large orchestras by writing music that brought guitar composition to a more modern approach. Shand produced a pot-pourri of music, salon pieces, dances, variations, fantasias, sonatas, a guitar concerto, duets, music for voice and guitar, voice and piano, piano pieces, transcriptions and pedagogical works. All of these compositions are filled with unbridled individualism; lyrical pieces that are peppered with the suggestion of song.