In the 19th century the fashion emerged to use folk music as thematic material for ‘serious’ music. Scottish and Irish folk tunes became very popular.
Mauro Giuliani was no exception, he arranged Irish folk songs in his Six Airs Irlandois nationales (op. 125) and Scottish tunes appeared in his Sei Aria Nazionali Scozzesi. He arranged this song Last Rose of Summer. The melancholic theme appears in more places in the early Romantic era. For instance, Madame Pratten had her own arrangement of this song.
In the G major theme, Giuliani extensively uses the Alberti bass. The minore, the G minor section, brings some interesting harmonic and rhythmic variation. The maggiore brings us back to G major with a variation in scale fragments and of course the dramatic conclusion. It takes some effort to master this piece in the right tempo. Well, in the end you’ll play a nice folk song arrangement in a highly classical setting.