ETUDE
June 1930
volume XLVIII
number 6
page 398, 452

The Romance of the Guitar

By ANDRÉS SEGOVIA

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Sor, Master of the Guitar
“THREE OF the 16th century Spanish guitarists whose works are now extant are Luis Milan, Gaspar Sanz and Miguel de Fuenllana. At the end of the 18th century Spain produced not only the greatest guitar composer that has ever lived but one of the greatest of all composers, Ferdinand Sor (1780-1839), who was undoubtedly a great genius and a prodigy. Fetis tells us that he played his own compositions at the age of five years; a little later he was placed in a monastery at Barcelona to receive a thorough general education and instruction in harmony and composition. There he heard the guitar played by the monks and became so fascinated that he immediately began an assiduous study of it. At the age of sixteen he left the monastery equipped with a technic of the highest order and a profound knowledge of composition and counterpoint. In 1797 he wrote his first opera, ‘Telemacco,’ which was performed with great success in Barcelona and later in London. In 1818, during the Peninsular war, he joined the Spanish army and was commissioned as a captain. Later he was compelled to take refuge in France where he met Cherubini and several other great musicians who prevailed upon him to again devote himself to the guitar.

“Sor is known as the precursor of the guitar in England where his playing created a furor. As has been stated before, the lute was very popular there even up to his time, but Londoners had never even dreamed of the possibilities of the guitar as revealed by Sor. Philip Bone who made and exhaustive research of the lives of the guitarists tells us that Sor was the first to perform at the London Philharmonic concerts. ‘He also appeared as soloist at the Society’s concerts in the season of 1817 at the Argyle rooms, playing his own compositions, a concertante for the guitar, and he electrified his audience by the wonderful command he possessed over his instrument.’ George Hogarth, in his Memoirs of the Philharmonic Society writes, ‘He astonished the audience by his unrivalled execution.’

“Sor’s works exceed four hundred and are of the highest musical value. Several of these are operatic and orchestral. His guitar compositions include studies, fantasies, theme variés and sonatas. His Variations on a Theme by Mozart which I frequently play in my concerts is among the finest compositions of the sort ever written, even including those of Beethoven, that great master of the variation form.

“An analysis of Sor’s sonatas would require too much space. We shall therefore confine ourselves to saying that they are comparable to those of the great German genius. His Opus 15 which must have been written while he was still in the monastery is in sonata form proper but consists of only one movement. In his Op. 22 and Op. 25 he demonstrates his great mastery of form, together with intellectual and emotional depth which has justly won him the title of “The Beethoven of the Guitar.”

Likeness to Beethoven’s Works

THE SIMILARITY of Sor’s works to those of Beethoven is so marked that it is recognizable even in the smallest of his studies. Most of his works are quite difficult to perform and require a perfectly normal and supple hand. Napoleon Coste, one of the great guitarists of the 19th century and the greatest French exponent of that instrument, was an argent admirer of Sor and, in a letter to one of his friends, wrote concerning the latter’s technic, ‘Sor had an admirable left hand whose suppleness permitted a reach that it would seem impossible to attain.’

“It has been said that great artistry is always accompanied by great modesty, and a great artist and composer was Francisco Tarrega (1854-1909) of whom Bone writes: ‘Of humble origin and ceaselessly engaged in struggles against adverse circumstances he gave to the world and example of genial personality, ardent temperament and of extraordinary intelligence all of which he devoted with fervent spirit to his instrument with the noble idea of raising it to the highest category of art.’

“Tarrega was a graduate of the Madrid Conservatoire where he won first prize for composition and harmony and where subsequently he was appointed professor of guitar. Although some of his predecessors had seen the possibility of adapting many of the works of the great masters to the guitar, it was left to Tarrega to prove to the world by his supreme artistry and deep insight into the intellectual and emotional value of these works that the guitar is a worthy medium for the interpretation of a Bach fugue, a Beethoven sonata or a Chopin nocturne. Among the compositions which he transcribed are works of almost all the great composers. His original works include studies, miscellaneous pieces and fantasies. Although self-taught I myself have been greatly influenced by the style of this guitarist.

(Other articles on this interesting subject have appeared in the last three ETUDES.)