When a friend played Carlo Domeniconi's "Variations on a Turkish Theme" for me a few years ago, I was immediately attracted to its "folk-rock" feeling and energy. Its occasional rhythmic and harmonic surprises reminded me of things that happened on stage while I was playing in a rock band in Montana. Dedicated to guitarist friends and to the composer's wife, Leo Brouwer's "Preludios Epigramaticos" are six concise pieces, each represented by a short poem from Miguel Hernandez' Poemas de amor. The poems translated from the Spanish read as follows: 1. Since dawn wanted to be dawn, with your whole being you have been mother 2. Sad is the man who does not die from love 3. Around your skin, I twine and intwine my own 4. Laugh, for everything laughs: for everything is tender, and gentle, like motherhood 5. You captured my heart, and today you hasten its flight 6. He came with three wounds: one from love, one from death, and one from life "Descarga" is a Puerto Rican argot for variations on a theme or, as we say in English "jamming". It comes from the verb descargar, to unload; in a "Descarga" we have an unloading of the emotions in a musical way. Using two musical ideas heard at the very beginning of the piece, the composer Ernesto Cordero spins five variations of diverse character, evoking emotions which he feels have most shaped his personality: joy, tenderness, faith, nostalgia, and courage. The first classical guitar album I ever bought was a John Williams recording of J.S. Bach's Cello Suite III. I had just dropped out of engineering school and was soon to begin a music degree program. I would listen to the Allemande and dream about the day when I could play it.