Not sure if there’s anything I could say about Andrés Segovia that hasn’t been said yet.
His career accomplishments span seven decades and literally every major venue in the world, finally obtaining for the Spanish guitar the prestige as a concert instrument that his predecessors had worked for. When he was born, there were no important music academy that would teach guitar, and by the time of his death, every conservatory and university’s music department had a guitar class. When he died in 1987, he had been already a legend for many years.
Also, his shining presence on the world of classical music marked the definitive sucess of the Spanish way of making guitars. And that’s the topic of this post (and youtube video).
Throughout Europe, there were several schools of guitar building, the most prominent being the French, the Italian and the German. Segovia’s guitar was very different from those used by the great masters of the 19th century such as Sor, Giuliani or Mertz, and even in Spain, the one used by Dionisio Aguado. By the mid-19th century, the guitars made by Antonio de Torres, which introduced several innovations, became the most sought-after by the finest Spanish guitarists of their time, such as Julián Arcas, Francisco Tárrega, Miguel Llobet or Federico Cano. They also became the model for other guitar makers such as Enrique García or Manuel Ramírez, who were favoured by the next generations of guitar players and luthiers.
We could define periods on Segovia’s carreer according to the guitars he used. The first part of Segovia’s carreer (1913-1937) marks his permanent ascension as a figure on the classical music scene all around the world, giving concerts in places as far away as Buenos Aires, Moscow or New York. I’ve never had the pleasure to be in Moscow, but I cherish the memories of having been in the places in which Segovia played his first concert outside Spain, the Salón la Argentina in Buenos Aires, and his New York debut, in the Town Hall Theater.
Salón La Argentina, Buenos Aires
When Segovia arrived for the first time in Madrid he had a modest guitar built in Granada by Benito Ferrer and he wanted to secure a good one for his upcoming debut in Madrid. That’s when a very famous anecdote on Segovia’s life happened. Segovia went to the workshop of Manuel Ramírez looking to rent a guitar. This was the best idea Segovia could come up because he had no money to buy one. Ramírez seemed to be flattered by the proposal and gave him one of his guitars to Segovia for him to test it.
That guitar had been built by Ramirez’ most important employee, Santos Hernández, and it was originally made for Antonio Jiménez Manjón, a famous guitarist of his time who by died in Buenos Aires, where he settled in 1893. Manjón was famous for using 11-strings guitars, so he ordered one from Ramírez. For some reason, they didn’t agree on the sale and Ramírez modified the guitar to be a regular 6-string. In the photograph below, you can see how there is a filled peghole, indicating that this was a bigger head, in which the wooden pegs were replaced by mechanical ones.
When Segovia started playing, everybody in the workshop was certainly amazed about him. We can only imagine the impact of hearing Segovia for the first time in 1913. So, Ramírez, in an act of generosity that certainly paid off in terms of making a name for his brand, decided to give that guitar to the then unknown Andrés Segovia. Segovia quotes these beautiful words coming from the mouth of Manuel Ramírez: “The guitar is yours, young man! Carry it with you the world ahead, and may your work make it fertile…. As for the rest, don’t hurry; you’ll pay me without money.”
With this guitar Segovia had a meteoric rise in his career that made him the number one figure in classical guitar that he was by 1940.
Several luthiers made copies of this guitar. The first one was the swiss violin maker Pierre Vidoudez. But the most important was Hermann Hauser, who was already a established guitar maker, but making guitars on the old Viennese style. He then began to admire Spanish guitars, especially after meeting Segovia and Miguel Llobet.
Segovia explains himself the story of his meeting with Hauser in this interview he had with the BBC, one of my favourite videos of Segovia available on the internet:
The Hauser family is still today one of the most respected in classical-guitar making, crafting guitars in the style that Hermann Hauser I learned from the Spanish masters. By the way, the Ramirez guitar also cimented Santos Hernández’ fame as a guitar builder. Manuel Ramírez died in 1916 and Santos took over his workshop, creating guitars for the most important players of his time. He made several repairs here and there on Segovia’s guitar, and he got Segovia to let him paste his own label on the guitar.
The friendship between both artists ended when Segovia started using the Hauser, or probably a little before, when Santos realized the original headstock had been replaced, probably as a repair. You can see how the tuning machine still present today on the guitar is identical to those used by Hauser on his guitars.
As you can see, this guitar was the protagonist of a lot of key moments in guitar history. Fullfiling his final wish, both the Ramírez and the Hauser are shown today at the Metropolitan Museum of New York.
Segovias’ next stage in his life was the most triumphant one, with his Hauser guitar with which he made his most famous concerts and albums. He used the Hauser until it had irreparable damage in 1956 due to the difficult conditions it was put through after many years of touring around the world. But that is another story, I guess.
Apparently, it was Segovias’ wish that nobody would play these two guitars again, so I won’t be able to show you a modern recording of them. But I was able to get a very good taste of the sound of Manuel Ramirez’ guitars because a friend of my family owned a 1908 guitar which came out of the same workshop as Segovia’s. So, I’ll leave you with some footage of a concert I gave (when it was very generously lent to me by its owner) at the Andrés Segovia Museum at Linares, Spain. I not only had the privilege of playing that guitar, but I did it in the town in which Segovia himself was born, and I got to meet Mr. Alberto López Poveda, who wrote the most extensive Segovia biography and was the head of the museum until his death. He passed away shortly after I met him in 2014, at over 90 years of age. I played, among other pieces, Segovia’s Estudio Sin Luz, just a few steps away from the crypt in which his body is resting for eternity, together with his invaluable legacy for the guitar and arts.
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