Like many of his contemporaries, Alfred Cottin earned part of his living from music lessons. He wrote a method for this purpose, entitled Méthode Complète de Guitare.
The French publisher Alphonse Leduc published the work. This music publisher started as a family business in 1841 and it still exists, although it has now been bought by the British Wise Music Group.
In the Méthode, Cottin explains the guitar and gives instructions for the playing posture. The exercises with explanations follow, 110 in total. There’s even a chord chart included. Here and there Cottin “borrows” something from his famous contemporaries. Cottin characterizes the last exercises (from 92) as Études Récréatives.
If you can play through the final exercises, you’re well on your way. Yet it seems to me that you do need a teacher, especially for playing posture.
At the end of the book I find instructions for transcribing music for use in ensembles. Not surprising, his brother Jules played the mandolin. Together with their sister Madeleine, Cottin formed an ensemble that played in the Paris salons.
Solitude is the penultimate exercise in the book. The piece invites you to a free romantic performance in which the D string is especially important for the melody. It is a piece that enables you to tell a story excellently. The tempo indication Andante is subject to free interpretation, don’t be rushed.
There is a remarkable symmetry in the piece. Bars 1 – 12 include a scale passage (1-4) and a melody line (5-12). These are repeated in reverse order at the end.
The middle section (bars 13 – 33) requires the most technical attention. You can tell my fingering from the string numbers.