Guitar Ensemble
The ensemble pieces below were written or arranged specifically for my students, keeping both their technical ability and aesthetic enjoyment in mind. Since I have 1st – 4th-year students in my program, you should be able to find pieces to match the skill level of your ensemble. All are gratis, with some restrictions (*please see below.)  
   "I am a music teacher in the Brazilian public school system. I have been rehearsing your ensemble pieces for about a month now with my advanced students in Rio de Janeiro, and we all love them! I wanted to express my profound gratitude for your work in arranging these pieces. Not only are they very  well arranged, but they are also extremely didactic. Thank you so much and I hope to honor these pieces with great performances!" – Regards, Alan Orlandi, Brazil
        "I want to thank you and congratulate you on your wonderful compositions, arrangements, and guitar curriculum. My high school guitar ensemble have performed Tango, Moon Rising, and Long Road Home and your arrangement of In the Hall of the Mountain King. The pieces are appropriate for high school students, challenging, and musically fulfilling." – Steven Sabet, Music Teacher, Thomas Jefferson Arts Academy
        "Your ensemble arrangements are fantastic and accessible - a tough combination!" – Tim Locke, Oakwood Collegiate Institute, Toronto, Canada
      "My dream was to teach my students to play as a group. I tried it once, but the pieces that I used were either too hard or too easy and uninteresting...that is, until I found your work on the internet. I am so enthusiastic with your work! Your website is so organized with extremely nice music, arrangements, and of course,  your compositions.   Soooooo, I tried to use some of them to see how it would work for my students  My students were suddenly inspired by the new music!  Thank you so much for the flame that you put in my heart. – Manos Miriagos, Thessaloniki, Greece

Guitar Ensemble Library

(🎄While being appropriate for any concert setting, these pieces also work well in a Christmas/Winter concert.)

BEGINNING QUARTETS​ 

Ode To Joy (beethoven)
arr. Lou Warde
Finale (Saint-Saens)
Finlandia (Sibelius)
Be thou my vision (Trad. Irish)
Here is love (TRAD. welsh)
yosemite (WardE)

BEGINNING  DUETS

ARIETTA (D. Turk)
In this duet, the key signature is introduced.
Bouree (j.s. bach)
The rhythmic independence of each part can be a challenge for my first-semester students.
Allegro (Mozart)
An introduction to 16th notes.
Four-string melody (Warde)
As part of the beginning book curriculum, this duet is a uses a melody played on the first four string of the guitar only.

​INTERMEDIATE - ADVANCED DUETS & TRIOS

GYMNOPÉDIE NO. 1 (SATIE)
TWO-PART INVENTION NO. 1 (J.S. BACH)
Cibel (Jean Baptiste Loeillet)
ORIENTAL (ENRIQUE GRANADOS)
Recording coming soon...
A LITTLE FUGUE –Trio (WARDE)
A short and relatively simple little fugue. 
Suite for two (Warde) 2019
​The three pieces that make up this suite were intended to be performed together, as a set.  Below is a pdf of  the set. However, for those who wish to perform individual pieces from the set, I've made separate the scores and parts for your convenience, which will be in the corresponding cells.
          1. Suave
          2. You are me
          3. cirCUS PARADE
ave maria (F. schubert)
Below are two versions of this arrangement. The "1st Position" version, is perhaps slightly easier since it incorporates open strings, but as a result, it is less warm and expressive than the other version. 
South American Duets & Trios
I discovered these duets hand-written and without any fingerings. I transcribed and edited them only.  Below, I've placed them generally in order of difficulty, starting at a beginner level to beginning/intermediate level.

1. Chanson Indienne

3. A Que Has Venido

4. Carneirunho

5. Cururu

6. La Llorona

7. Caminito de la Sierra

8. Quisiera Que Se Muera

ARRANGEMENTS FOR QUARTET

three Songs from Great Britain

The three pieces that make up this collection,  Dacw 'Ngharia, The Water is Wide and Scarborough Fair, were intended to be performed together, as a set.  For your convenience, I've made a singe pdf of the three scores with  parts. For those who wish to perform individual pieces from the set, you can download (and listen to) these pieces below.

        1. Dacw 'Nghariad (Wales)​
         2. The Water is Wide (Scotland)​
        3. Scarborough Fair​ (England)
CAROL OF THE BELLS (M. LEONTOVYCH)🎄

Trad. Carol by Mykola Leontovych, arr. Lou Warde

CHORALE (J.S. BACH)🎄

from St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, arr. Lou Warde

AIR (J.S. BACH)

from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068

IL EST BEL ET BON (PIERRE PASSEREAU)🎄
HABANERA (GEORGES BIZET)

​from Carmen, Act I, arr. Lou Warde

IN THE HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING (GRIEG)
GYMONOPÉDIE (SATIE)

​from Peer Gynt, Suite I, Op. 46, No. 4, arr. Lou Warde

​NEW INTERMEDIATE – ADVANCED QUARTETS  (Warde)

bella (2016)🎄

South Carolina Music Educators Association
2020-2021 All-State virtual Guitar Orchestra 

 France Guitar Ensemble
of Francis Poulenc Conservatory,
Rosny sous Bois, France

first snow (2016)🎄
"I love how subtle First Snow begins and then increases in complexity like wind throwing the snow around."   – J. Petri
tango for four (2016)
The musical content between the two versions is identical. The only difference between the two is that in Version 2, Guitar 3 and 4 switch parts at the repeat of the first section (mm. 9-24).
Étude (2016)
This piece works well towards the beginning of the second year as a study focusing on two areas:
1.) Playing a melody note (with a rest stroke) and bass note  at the same time. This can be technically  challenging at first.
2.) An introduction to playing out of first position.
long road home (2016)
"We performed Long Road Home in a competition earlier in the year and our performance was described as ‘hypnotic beauty’. Thank you so much for the inspiration." – ​Richard Monks, U.K.
spanish garden (2016)
november (2016)🎄
Moon rising (2016)
GESTURES suite (2018)
Gestures is a collection of four miniatures for guitar quartet, each less than two minutes long. The imagery and feelings each piece evokes in me are very poignant, and I was going to title each piece accordingly. In the end however, I didn't want to influence the listener's own visual and emotional reaction, so, I kept the titles neutral.

Obviously, being a suite, these four pieces are intended to be performed together. Of course, you have the option to perform them separately. To accommodate that, I provided the score and parts for each piece, rather than one file containing all four pieces.​
      1. march
      2. Passacaglia (2016)🎄
      3. Waltz
      4. Rhapsody
Sunset paradise (2019)
Six Bells (2019)🎄
Technical ​Levels:
​Guitar 1 & 2: Intermediate/Advanced
Guitar 3: Intermediate
Guitar 4: Beginning/Intermediate
Wind & Willows (2020)
Dance de montebello (2021)

In Memory of Bob Croghan

Shades of Green (2021)
she dreams of argentina (2021)
A thanksgiving (2021)
Blue Mango (2022)
volo (2022)
galya's dance (2022)
Teta (2022)
balips (2022)
the rocks cry out (2023)
Green Pastures, Still Waters (2023)
The last trumpet (2023)

GUITAR QUARTET & STRINGS (Warde)

MAMA'S LULLABY (2017)
GUITAR QUARTET & VIOLIN or cell0
MUSIC FOR A LOONIE (2018)
GUITAR ENSEMBLE AND STRING SYMPHONY
Commissioned by the
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music
for its Orpheum Showcase Concert, June 24, 2018
This commission was written specifically for a beginning to intermediate string and guitar ensemble. Therefore, from a technical perspective, this piece should be manageable for 2nd – 3rd year a high school or college string and guitar ensemble.
The performance in the above video was taken at a much slower tempo than I intended. Below is a recording with guitar quartet and sampled strings at the appropriate tempo.
*You are free to download these scores and parts and are encouraged to perform these works.  However, like any of the material on this website, you are strictly forbidden to repost, publish and/or receive compensation from this music in any form or context.  If you record your performance of any of my compositions and arrangements (including those on the Vocal & Chamber page), you are free to share that performance on social media platforms, such as YouTube, and free to receive monetization.  However, if you intend to record any of this music with the purpose to distribute and sell it in any format, including CD, digital platforms and streaming media services such as Spotify or iTunes, or, if you plan to sync it, or any portion of it, with film, gaming or other interactive media, please contact me first to obtain a license.  Thank you. ​