Guitar World

          Exploring the Relationship Between Andres Segovia and Agustin Barrios.

There have been much speculation among guitarists over the years regarding the relationship between two of the classical guitar’s greatest exponents, Segovia and Barrios Mangore. Barrios, the great guitarist composer from Paraguay, and Segovia, one of the few guitarists at the time with enough technique to play the charming but challenging works of Barrios.

What is known is that Segovia never played Barrios, and John Williams said that Segovia banned all his pupils from ever playing Barrios music, which was “bad” for their musicianship, he claimed. Barrios himself, in later years, claimed Segovia was “deaf in the heart”.  Guitarists have many times speculated why the two had apparent indifference towards the other. Or did they? Moreover, is it any wonder that two performers had differences of opinion, and musical divergences? If not, why should guitarists be any different?

The fact that Segovia enjoyed worldwide acclaim for his talents, in his lifetime,  and Barrios, save for a comparative few dedicated pupils, died penny less in El Salvador, nearly all his music unpublished, underlined the gap between the two men, yet today, thanks largely to the transcriptions of Barrios music from Gramophone records, Barrios music is one of the guitars most recorded and best loved in the repertoire.

So, guitarists have asked themselves, how can Segovia fail to appreciate the beauties of works such as Julia Florida, Choro Da Saudade, Vals opus 8, to name just aa few…All the more baffling because Segovia was a great romantic, often romantasising his transcriptions and interpretations. Here, below though, is an overlooked document that sheds a new light into the matter, a letter written in his own hand, by Segovia, dated January 1985, two years before he died, on the work of Agustin Barrios;

segovia letter

As near as I can translate, the gist of this letter is below; A more full translation will be appreciated, as well as thoughts, experiences of guitarists on the subject.

“Senor Agustin Barrios was a maestro of the poetic guitar. The beauty of these compositions is that they instruct, as well as entertain, both for the student and the aspiring professional. Many felicitations to my friend Agustin, for their nobleman effort.”

Here, finally, Segovia is acknowledging the place of Barrios music, as he himself saw it,  into the guitar repertoire..

Rare archive video of Julian Bream playing Serenata Espanol by Malats, and Villa Lobos Choros no. 1.

Paco Pena playing Granadias, followed by Fandango, joined near end by Williams, as their two pieces for Bosnia contribution.

John Williams playing Una Limonsna Por El Amor De Dios by Agustin Barrios Mangore

I can remember the days when it was hard to find classical guitar video recording…These days there are thousands, aided by websites like Youtube. A popular youtube guitarist, and in my opinion, one of the best, Bernard, alias Cryloud was kind enough to allow me to interview him for my site. First though, here is Bernard playing theme from Schindlers List, possibly the most passionate rendition I have heard of the work…

Mark; What is your full name?

Cryloud; Bernard is my real first name, cyrloud  is a pseudonym…

How long have you been playing guitar?
i began guitar at 15 years so i play since 30 years but during 20 years i dont play much; Only since two or three years, i play more serously.

Which guitarists do you admire most, and why?
Many many guitarists, Segovia, Yepes, Lagoya, ida Presti , but for the living of course : John Williams, Julian Bream, Alberto Ponce, Manuel Barrueco, David Russel, Gerard Abitton, Roberto Aussel, Anielo Desiderio…and many more …like Alirio Dias or Catcho Tirao, and on flamenco music : Paco de Lucia, manolo San Lucar, Vincente Amigo and of course the master of master SABICAS…

What music do you enjoy playing most?
Difficult question : if I must choose only one composer, I take J.S BACH.
But I like all music not only classical music, and you can see the different videos on youtube: classical, flamenco, South America, Celtic music, modern songs etc…music is universal.

You play a number of transcriptions…Are these your own arrangements, and do you intend to publish? How do you go about arranging a piece of music, do you have any guide or theories.

Most frequently, I use transcriptions from other guitarist like a “support” but I change some things, or add part, or I improvise; so the exactly transcriptions I play are not written and of course not publish .it is a problem for me when I want to play again a old arrangement, like Manha de Carnaval, some parts were improvised and I didn’t write it !!
For me, a good arrangement, must push forward the melody, it is the most important, and I don’t like sophisticate arrangement where the melody is buried in the accompaniment, or when the technical difficulties of the arrangement lead to forget the melody. The most important is the music.

I agree with you there, it should be reembered that many of these pieces are songs! People listening to them like to “go with” the melody…

Exactly!

Schindlers List is very interesting arrangement..Is there any significence to you taking off your ring before playing, as in the video? (Or can you tell us a little about your arrengement or association for this piece, what it means to you..It’s played with great emotion)

The Schindler List’s video, was a very intense emotion to play for me, relation to the movie and also to the history of 20 th century- When I began the study of the piece, it was not possible play it totally without crying. Taking off my ring before playing it is a evocation of the end of the movie when Schindler said “how many people could have been saved with my ring” So human being is money !? but money or ring it is not important, only human being and the life are important; so ring or money are derisory so I take off my ring, it is symbolic to mean that money is nothing, only life is important. Of course, this video, it is my little contribution for the history and for never forget the millions of people died without any reason, it is so crazy ! The violin version by Isaac Perleman it is absolutely fabuolus, and I want to make my own arrangement of this piece,with the tremolo on the end, but is not possible to reach the emotional intensity of the Violin version.

What has playing the guitar given you, or the difference it’s made to your life?

Well, playing guitar is very important for me, for my equilibrium. It permit to travel in the time and the space, and sharing emotion with people in the world. Guitar is a gift for the life, it is a difficult but fascinating instrument.

Finally, how long approximately do you practice each day?

Some day I don’t play guitar because my job, I play especially the week end, so I play 6 or 8 hours/week, and I am not a professional musician, I am a doctor, a cardiologist.

Thank you very much for your time, Bernard, and a warm welcome to my website!

I decided to add a page to this site, where I am offering free music for guitar. These are my own compositions, arrangements, or other free music by different composers which were previously available and were offered copyright free.

I will be adding to this page as time allows

For this weeks guitar technique lesson, I am indebted to Elysa of Myspace, who is demonstrating Rasguedo technique better than I could ever do.

One thing I will further add regarding  Rasguedo technique…Playing with right hand fingers in the opposite direction helps to strengthen the fingers, and this also assists with Tremelo playing. Practice using a simple chord, eg. E major open position, and play a single strum downwards with right hand finger a, followed by finger m, then i, then come straight back with an upstroke using finger i. This creates a four beat rasguedo pattern. If you then repeat this pattern, you can create multiple rasguedo groups.

Rasguedo is employed often in classical guitar reportoire, examples Turina Sevilliana, Stepan Rak works, John Duarte Catalan Variations, and many others. Don’t neglect this form of practice, even if it frustrating at first (because it makes an awful row if you don’t do it properly! ) By adding this technique to your armourey it opens up a new range of exciting pieces, as well as to strengthen your right hand fingers for tremolo playing. Have fun

Scintilating performence by Pepe Romero playing Bulerias by Sabicas. Rasguedo technique at it’s finest.