ETUDE
July 1930
volume XLVIII
number 7
page 472

The Romance of the Guitar

Based on an Interview with

ANDRÉS SEGOVIA

By Sophocles Papas

---

Folk Tune Variations
“IN ALL PARTS of Spain we find the guitar just as we find the castanets, but not all the people are equally musical although every province may be identified by indigenous fold tunes. It is wholly impossible for the people of the United States to realize these geographical distinctions. For instance, in the northeast corner of Spain we find Catalonia, the adjoining province of Aragon. The two groups are so entirely different in their thought, customs and music that one is forced to recognize the racial divergence. It is as though you were to find on the opposite side of the Delaware river instead of two identical races two wholly different peoples.

The immensely varied topography and scenery of Spain, with the tropical beauty of Andalusia and the grim severity of the bleak mountains of the north, had their influence on the Spanish fold tunes of the different provinces. In Andalusia we find some of the most ingratiating melodies ever written, whereas in the north we find tunes of great ruggedness and vigor. This does not mean, however, that we do not find strong and dominant themes in Andalusia.

“Many attempts have been made to write down the local fold tunes for the guitar, and some of these have been especially fine; but there is a great deal of variation. This is due to the face that the people themselves have taken great liberties with the themes. Get a hundred singers together in Andalusia and ask them to sing the same tune in unison and the result would be terrible. Why? Because the very enthusiasm of the singers would make each one insist upon his own particular version or rendering of the melody. You see, every Spaniard is an individualist – a society in himself. He resents direction, control and repression unless it comes from within. He is the freest of souls.

“My itinerary has taken me to all the principal cities of Europe, the two Americas and the Orient, and my experiences in these countries are not without their humorous side. Russia and Germany can be named among the countries where the guitar is very much appreciated. When in Russia I saw minute, medium-sized and enormous guitars. Why, I have seen some with seemingly fifty-thousand strings!

“When playing at the court of one of the queens in Europe the following rather amusing incident took place. Her Majesty, after having heard me play several pieces, addressed me with, ‘How nicely you play!’ Then after a slight pause to find an adequate comparison, she added, ‘It is almost like a music-box.’

“‘Madame,’ I replied, ‘I do not flatter myself that I have yet attained such perfection.’

“‘What modesty, sir!’ replied the queen graciously.

Modern Composers

“OF MODERN composers for the guitar Ponce deserves special mention as his works are of more elaborate character, His Sonate Classica (Hommage a Ferdinando Sor) was no doubt inspired by Sor’s Sonata Op. 25, the structure and general character of which he has very cleverly imitated. This work in its logical development bears a strong resemblance to the style of Beethoven. It also is evidence of Ponce’s versatility as a composer, all his other guitar works being written in the modern idiom, some of which are the following: Theme Varié et Finale, Sonate (modern), Tres canciones populares mexicanas and Preludio.

“Other composers are Ravel, Stravinsky, Roussel, Samazeuilh, Pierre de Bréville, Raymond Petit, Pedrell, Vittoria, Tansman and Raoul Laparra who has come nearer even than Bizet to capturing the Spanish spirit and romance in his music.

“What is the guitar? All that has been said is inadequate to describe its charm.

“The immense variety of tone of which it is capable is a matter of constant surprise to the listener. Now we hear piano tones, the cello, the violin; and yet it has its own peculiar quality. It might be said that the guitar is an illusion, a pretense, that holds one by its uncertainty. ‘It is because of this variety of tone,’ says G Jean-Aubry, the distinguished French critic and essayist, ‘that people, to their profound astonishment, can listen to the guitar for a longer time than to any other instrument played alone – with the exception, perhaps, of the piano. There are those – and I own I am one of them – who cannot listen for long to the harpsichord, even when played by Mme. Wanda Landowska, without experiencing some tediousness of this delicate sound which is charming at first, but is always accompanied by a tiny noise of scrap iron and which keeps an anachronistic character that renders it interesting to one for a moment on account of its strangeness, but does not hold one by its actual vital quality. The harpsichord is an instrument of the past; the guitar is an instrument of the present, which succeeds in preserving the sonority belonging to ancient works without, however, erecting a barrier of several centuries between the listener and the music, The harpsichord has the charm of a bygone thing, amiable and refined; the guitar has that of a thing of today, warm and, one could almost say, fraternal.'”

(This article closes this interesting discussion of the Guitar and its music, sections of which have appeared in the last three issues of THE ETUDE.)