On the occasion of the 20 year death anniversary of Andrés Segovia, I would like to dedicate through TAR’s columns, a few lines in the memory of this true Mentor of the guitar, the artist whose passing marked in a determinative way the music proceedings of the instrument throughout the 20th century.
AndrésSegoviaTorreswas born in the 21st of February 1893, in Andalusia’s Linares - a town south of Spain near Granada - and died in Madrid in the 2nd of June 1987. He has been one of the top music performers of the 20th century and undoubtedly the most important personage in the history of the guitar. Strong willed, witty and talented, he instantly became famous, not only in Spain (giving his first recital at the age of 16), but in Europe, where he gave remarkable performances in big cities. In 1923, he toured Latin America and in 1928 the United States and Japan. A tremendously hard working man, he always set high goals, which he reached with persistence and determination. More than any former artist, he considered the guitar to be a concert instrument – equal to all the other instruments – and he constantly fought his battles to establish it. He had to face the negative climate of prejudice over the role of the guitar, because most people knew it as - or wanted it to be - an escort instrument, an instrument of entertainment and Spanish folklore. Soon realising the ‘nakedness’ of its repertoire, Segovia influenced significant composers of his time (F. Moreno-Torroba, J. Turina, A. Tansman, M. Castelnuovo-Tedesco, M. Ponce, H. Villa-Lombos, H. Rodrigo, and others) to write for him, while he did many adaptations which he performed in his recitals. Segovia’s contribution goes beyond the excellent executions. Most importantly, he contributed in elevating a decadent and downgraded instrument, to an instrument of high artistic demands. That’s the transformation of the guitar from an escort instrument to a ‘soloist’. Of course, the tradition of the guitar does not begin with Segovia. During the past two centuries, the Spanish Sor, Aguado, Tàrrega, Llobet,Pujol, the Italian Julianni, Carruli, Carcassi, Leniani, Regondi, and the South American Barrios, improved and drove forward the technique and development of the instrument. But it was Segovia who performed at the most famous concert halls of the world, it was Segovia who inspired composers to write for him, it was this artist who fought for the guitar’s detachment from the heavy heritage of the folk instrument and lent it the glamour of the ‘classic’.
During the post-war years, and with the break-through of technology, Segovia tours the world from one end to another. He replaces gut strings with nylon ones, he establishes long nails on the right hand, he publishes the works of composers dedicated to himself and he transcribes pieces for other instruments. With Segovia, the guitar performs everywhere, in concerts with symphonic orchestras and, lastly, it is he who teaches the technique of the instrument internationally for the first time, from 1950 at the Academy Chigiana in Sienna (Italy) and from 1959 at the Academy of Santiago de Kompostella in Spain. His reputation from his tours throughout the world, his records and the Media, gained legendary proportions. In a century of intense competition and antagonism, he continued being unique and above competition for decades, giving hundreds of recitals at the most prestigious concert halls, continuously recording for radio and television, performing with orchestras, making new friends of the guitar. There are not many musicians who managed to connect their names with their instruments to that extend. During the decades of ’60 and ’70 – when there was an unprecedented explosion of the instrument’s popularity, the word ‘Segovia’ meant ‘guitar’ and vice versa. Andrés Segovia was the inspiration to hundreds of guitarists throughout the 20th century, and the ‘idol’ of millions of friends and fans of the instrument.
Lisa and I were lucky enough to meet this great Spanish artist, having guitar lessons with him for three consequent seasons at the Academy of Santiago. However, our relationship continued for many years, with meetings in different corners of the earth. This way, we had the opportunity to get to know, not only the teacher and performer, but most importantly, the person. Segovia was one of the few artists who could communicate with the audience and, literally, fascinate it. He possessed this gift the Spanish call a ‘duende’. His fingers were big and fat but extremely trained and agile. His nails were wide and particularly hard, and that made his sounds deep, rich and meaty. It was especially Segovia’s sound that characterized his playing, something that can be witnessed today by listening to his records, many of which were recorded directly to vinyl… Segovia was a man of rare intelligence. He had extraordinary memory, judgment, aesthetics, and a great sense of humour. He spoke four languages fluently and worked for hours every day. He was stubborn, selfish and, sometimes, spiteful, caustic and sarcastic, while other times he was deeply human, tender and generous. And it is certain that if we, personally, don’t have anything to remember that would shadow his image; there are more than few people who can’t hide a grimace, when remembering their acquaintance with him. However, for a personage who lived and acted for a whole century, we would be exaggerating to ask for a flawless, model stance in every phase of his chequered life. Plus, we must not forget that Andrés Segovia lived through two world wars, one civil war, was banished from his country, married four times, lost some of his children and, like all the great generators with intense presence and contribution, gained close friends and sworn enemies. There are many known guitarists who started their careers thanks to Segovia, as there are many who, with their out of date criticism, they lash out against him. In our eyes he was the gracious, generous, wise teacher, whose standpoint on life, his judgment of people, his ideas about music, we come across even today. For others, he was a conservative and possessive personality or a bad educator. A living example, the Australian John Williams, who lashed out against his teacher right after his death, perfectly affirms the Euclidean quote ‘no enemy surer than the one you benefited’.
A. Segovia - E. Ormandy
Of all his recitals that Lisa and I happen to attend in different halls around the world, I will intensely remember one of his last, in New York, in February 1983. Segovia was 90 years old and he walked across the stage with great difficulty, in the crammed with 3000 people ‘Ivery Fisher Hall’, where he was royally welcomed by the audience with a standing ovation, before he even started playing. It was a touching sight, a thrilling one I would say, a tribute given from the New Yorkers to this one of a kind artist. And he, without his familiar lofty mien, but always with the tax suit, the patent leather shoes, ceremonious and dignified, emphasizing the ‘status’ of the instrument he was holding. I felt that that moment was his moral victory or, if you’d like, the ‘revanche’ of an original artist who fought his whole life with vision and goals to impose the guitar as a concert instrument through unimaginable difficulties, irony, sarcasm and humiliation. And at the end of the concert, when the audience brought him back on the stage for the fourth time, I saw in his face the double satisfaction for the success of the recital and the establishment of the instrument as well. That moment, the endless conversations with him were spinning in my head: the stories he told us about the empty halls in the beginning of his career, the parlour ladies who stated how ridiculous is the sound of Bach coming from a guitar, the difficulties and the challenges he faced with the adaptations, the humiliations from the ‘specialists’, and the music establishment of the time about this folkloric instrument he was determined to make soloistic, the irony of the music critics who suggested that he should go back home and perform in cabarets, the offers to advertise coffee in American TV wearing a sombrero or to play flamenco with a dancer in order to be more agreeable, his complaint regarding his students who adulterated their program with shoddiness. At that moment of his deification, I was contemplating the amounts of strength and stubbornness that old man on the stage held, in order to continue having rough time with airport delays, bad weather and jet-lags, the agony and the stage fright, the sleepless nights and the tension. After all, he wasn’t someone willing to compromise and cut back. He was performing a long, demanding program and, regardless the weaknesses in technique and memory, he managed to give moments of emotion with an oddly fresh performance. But, it was this freshness that characterised him when a few hours later we had our dinner together at the reception given for him at the Augistin mansion, and I felt that I was talking with a ninety year-old teenager who, past midnight, ate, drank, joked, and remembered every detail about us, our son, Greece and its wonderful audience, Miliaressi, Famba, the Greek agent who invited him in 1951 and robbed him blind!
The music heritage of Segovia is huge. Beyond the many recordings, he left behind him many adaptations, projects, articles, studies. He published most of the acts he composed, among which the orchestral concerts. In our days, the composers who wrote and continue to write for the guitar are plenty. As plenty as his students and his student’s students who carry on his tradition, his repertoire, and his technique. And above all, of course, the millions of the friends of music, in every corner of the planet, who have been added among the fans of the instrument. Finally, it’s the recognition of the guitar, the justification of his vision, of his battles. Today, at the most known Academies, Universities and Music Schools there is a guitar section and the instrument is officially teached (in our country since 1987). Segovia was honoured for his contribution to music with 14 gold medals and Grand Crosses in many countries, awarded with an honorary doctor’s degree in 9 universities, while he was declared honorary citizen in 3 cities. He died at the age of 94, performing till the end, and he is beyond any doubt – along with the other centennials: Casals, Chaplin, Picasso, Rubinstein, Horovitch - one of those ‘titans’ whose path and lifework marked their century.
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