Andrés Segovia
Encyclopedia
Andrés Torres Segovia, 1st Marquis of Salobreña (anˈdɾes ˈtores seˈɣoβja) (February 21, 1893 – June 2, 1987), known as Andrés Segovia, was a virtuoso Spanish classical guitar
ist from Linares, Jaén, Andalucia, Spain. He is widely considered to be one of the best known and most influential classical guitar personalities of the 20th century, having a considerable influence on later guitarists, particularly because of important guitar works that were dedicated to him by composers such as Federico Moreno Torroba
.
Segovia is credited for his modern-romantic repertoire, mainly through works dedicated to him by modern composers, but he also created his own transcriptions of classical works that were originally for other instruments. He is remembered for his expressive performances: his wide palette of tone, and his distinctive (often instantly recognizable) musical personality in tone, phrasing and style.
, who has worked at the Fundación Andrés Segovia in Spain, noted: "Though it is not yet completely documented, it seems clear that, since his tender childhood, [Segovia] learnt playing as a flamenco
guitarist. The first guitar he owned had formerly been played by Paco de Lucena
who died when Segovia was five years old. Since then, Segovia was given some instruction by Agustinillo, an amateur flamenco player who was a fan of Paco de Lucena." Nevertheless, Segovia did not really play flamenco. Instead he preferred expressive art-music such as that by Federico Moreno Torroba
, and revived interest in the instrument as an expressive medium for the performance of classical art-music.
As a teenager, Segovia moved to the town of Granada
, where he studied the guitar. However, his father had wanted him to become a lawyer. After his time in Granada, he returned home and spent much time at the Alhambra
palace, a Moorish relic overlooking the town which he regarded as his spiritual awakening.
, playing works by Francisco Tárrega
and some guitar transcription
s by J.S. Bach
, which he had transcribed and arranged himself. Although he was always discouraged by his family who wanted him to become a lawyer and he was looked down on by some of Tárrega's pupils, he continued to diligently pursue his studies of the guitar.
He played again in Madrid in 1912, at the Paris Conservatory in 1915, in Barcelona
in 1916, and made a successful tour of South America in 1919. The status of the classical guitar at the beginning of the twentieth century had declined, and only in Barcelona and in the Rio de la Plata
region of South America could it have been said to be of any significance. When Segovia arrived on the scene, this situation was just beginning to change, largely through the efforts of Miguel Llobet
. It was in this changing milieu that Segovia, whose strength of personality and artistry coupled with new technological advances such as recording, radio, and air travel, succeeded in making the guitar more popular again.
In 1921, Segovia met Alexandre Tansman
in Paris
who later wrote a number of guitar works for Segovia, among them Cavatina, which won a prize at the Siena International Composition contest in 1952.
At Granada in 1922 he became associated with the Concurso de Cante Jondo
promoted by the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla
. The aim of the "classicizing" Concurso was to preserve flamenco
in its purity from being distorted by modern popular music. Already Segovia had developed as a fine tocador of flamenco guitar
, yet his direction was now classical. Invited to open the Concurso held at the Alhambra
, he played Homenaje a Debussy para la guitarra by Falla.
In 1923 Segovia was in Mexico for the first time. There Manuel Ponce was so impressed with the concert, that he wrote a review in El Universal
. Later Ponce went on to write many works for Segovia, including numerous sonatas.
In 1924, Segovia visited the German luthier
Hermann Hauser Sr. after hearing some of his instruments played in a concert in Munich. In 1928 Hauser provided Segovia with one of his personal guitars for use during his United States tour and in his concerts through to 1933. When Hauser delivered the new instrument Segovia had ordered, Segovia passed his 1928 Hauser to his U.S. representative and close friend Sophocles Papas
, who gave it to his classical guitar student, the famous jazz and classical guitarist Charlie Byrd
, who used it on several records.
Segovia's first American tour was arranged in 1928 when Fritz Kreisler
, the Viennese
violinist who privately played the guitar, persuaded F. C. Coppicus from the Metropolitan Musical Bureau to present the guitarist in New York.
After Segovia's debut tour in the U.S. in 1928, the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos
composed his now well-known Twelve Étude
s (Douze études) and later dedicated them to Segovia. Their relationship proved to be lasting as Villa-Lobos continued to write for Segovia. He also transcribed numerous classical pieces himself and revived the pieces transcribed by predecessors like Tárrega.
In 1932, Segovia met and befriended composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
in Venice. Since Castelnuovo-Tedesco did not play the guitar, Segovia provided him with guitar compositions (Ponce's Folias variations and Sor's Mozart Variations) which he could study. Castelnuovo-Tedesco composed a large number of works for the guitar, many of them dedicated to Segovia. The Concerto Op. 99 from 1939 was the first guitar concerto of the 20th century and Castelnuovo-Tedesco's last work in Italy, before he emigrated to the United States. It was premiered by Segovia in Uruguay in 1939.
In 1935, he gave his first public performance of Bach's Chaconne, a difficult piece for any instrument. He moved to Montevideo
, performing many concerts in South America in the thirties and early forties.
After World War II
, Segovia began to record more frequently and perform regular tours of Europe and the U.S., a schedule he would maintain for the next thirty years. In 1954, Joaquín Rodrigo
dedicated Fantasía para un gentilhombre
(Fantasy for a Gentleman) to Segovia. Segovia won the 1958 Grammy Award
for Best Classical Performance, Instrumentalist
for his recording Segovia Golden Jubilee.
John W. Duarte
dedicated his English Suite Op.31 to Segovia and his wife (Emilia Magdalena del Corral Sancho) on the occasion of their marriage in 1962. Segovia told the composer "You will be astonished at the success it will have".
In recognition of his contributions to music and the arts, Segovia was ennobled on 24 June 1981 by King Juan Carlos I, who gave Segovia the hereditary title of Marqués de Salobreña
(English
: Marquis of Salobreña) in the nobility of Spain
.
Andres Segovia continued performing into his old age, living in semi-retirement during his 70s and 80s on the Costa del Sol
. Two films were made of his life and work—one when he was 75 and the other, 84. They are available on DVD called Andrés Segovia — in Portrait. His final RCA LP record (ARL1-1602), Reveries, was recorded in Madrid in June 1977.
In 1984, Segovia was the subject of a thirteen part series broadcast on National Public Radio, entitled Segovia! The series was recorded on location in Spain, France, and the United States. Hosted by Oscar Brand, the series was produced by Jim Anderson, Robert Malesky, and Larry Snitzler.
Segovia died in Madrid of a heart attack
at the age of 94. He is buried at Casa Museo de Linares, in Andalusia
.
. Both Segovia and Miguel Llobet
(who taught Segovia several of his transcriptions of Granados
' piano works) plucked the strings with a combination of his fingernails and fingertips, producing a sharper sound than many of his contemporaries. With this technique, it was possible to create a wider range of timbre
s, than when using the fingertips or nails alone. Historically, classical guitarists have debated which of these techniques is the best approach. The vast majority of classical guitarists now play with a combination of the fingernails and fingertips.
After World War II
, Segovia became among the first to endorse the use of nylon
strings
instead of gut
strings. This new advance allowed for greater stability in intonation, and was the final missing ingredient in the standardization of the instrument.
, Federico Mompou
, and Joaquín Rodrigo
, the Mexican composer Manuel Ponce, the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
, and the great Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos
. Secondly, transcriptions, usually made by Segovia himself, of classical works originally written for other instruments (e.g., lute, harpsichord, piano, violin, cello) by Johann Sebastian Bach
, Isaac Albéniz
, Enrique Granados
, and many other prominent composers. Thirdly, traditional classical guitar works by composers such as Fernando Sor
and Francisco Tarrega
. Segovia's influence enlarged the repertoire, mainly as a commissioner or dedicatee of new works, as a transcriber, and to a far lesser extent as a composer with such works as his Estudio sin luz.
Segovia's main musical aesthetic preferences were music of the early 20th century (and turn of the century) especially in the Spanish romantic-modern and nationalist style. This is perhaps best typified by Segovia's own work Estudio sin Luz. Many works of this and similar style were written especially for him and formed part of his core repertoire: particularly the guitar works of Federico Moreno Torroba
(1891–1982), such as the Sonatina, which was first performed by Segovia in Paris in 1925.
Segovia was selective and only performed works with which he identified personally. He was known to reject atonal works, or works which he considered too radical, even if they were dedicated to him; e.g. he rejected Frank Martin's
Quatre pièces brèves, Darius Milhaud's
Segoviana, etc. Even though rejected by Segovia, the works are today all published and available.
in the northern Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela
..
Segovia also taught at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana
in Siena
for numerous years, where he was aided by Alirio Diaz
. Later it was Oscar Ghiglia
who continued the Siena class.
His teaching style is a source of controversy among some of today's players, who consider it to be dogmatically authoritarian. John Williams
for instance criticized his scope as a teacher and spoke of the atmosphere of fear in his classes.
who said: "The musical interpreter who fascinates me the most is Andrés Segovia". He can be credited to have dignified the classical guitar as a legitimate concert instrument before the discerning music public, which had hitherto viewed the guitar merely as a limited, if sonorous, parlor instrument.
In Linares the Segovia Museum "Fundación Andrés Segovia" was established in May 1995 and this birth-town of Segovia, also has a bronze statue in his honour, created by Julio López Hernández and unveiled on 25 May 1984.
Segovia influenced a generation of classical guitarists who built on his technique and musical sensibility, including such luminaries as Christopher Parkening
, Julian Bream
, and Oscar Ghiglia
, all of whom have acknowledged their debt to him. Further, Segovia left behind a large body of edited works and transcriptions for classical guitar, including several transcriptions of J S Bach, in particular, an extraordinarily demanding classical guitar transcription of the Chaconne
from the 2nd Partita for Violin (BWV 1004).
His editions of works originally written for guitar include newly fingered and occasionally revised versions of works from the standard repertoire (most famously, his edition of a selection of twenty estudios by Fernando Sor
, as well as compositions written for him, including by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Federico Mompou, and Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Many of the latter were edited by Segovia, working in communication with the composer, before they were first published. Because of Segovia's predilection for altering the musical content of his editions to reflect his interpretive preferences, many of today's guitarists prefer to examine the original manuscripts, or newer publications based on the original manuscripts in order to compare them with Segovia's published versions, so as to accept or reject Segovia's editorial decisions.
There are guitar festivals and competitions that were named after Segovia.
(English
: Marquis of Salobreña) in the nobility of Spain
in recognition of his contributions to music and the arts. He received the Danish Sonning Award in 1974, the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize
in 1985, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
in 1986.
recordings. From 1944, he maintained a relationship with Brazilian singer and guitarist Olga Praguer Coelho, which was to last for over a decade. In 1962 Segovia married Emilia Magdalena del Corral Sancho. They had one son, Carlos-Andrés de Segovia y del Corral. On his death the marquessate passed to his son.
|-
Classical guitar
The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...
ist from Linares, Jaén, Andalucia, Spain. He is widely considered to be one of the best known and most influential classical guitar personalities of the 20th century, having a considerable influence on later guitarists, particularly because of important guitar works that were dedicated to him by composers such as Federico Moreno Torroba
Federico Moreno Torroba
Federico Moreno Torroba was a Spanish composer, born in Madrid.-Biography:Moreno Torroba is often associated with the zarzuela, a traditional Spanish musical form. Directing several opera companies, Moreno Torroba helped introduce the zarzuela to international audiences...
.
Segovia is credited for his modern-romantic repertoire, mainly through works dedicated to him by modern composers, but he also created his own transcriptions of classical works that were originally for other instruments. He is remembered for his expressive performances: his wide palette of tone, and his distinctive (often instantly recognizable) musical personality in tone, phrasing and style.
Early life
Segovia stated that he began to play the guitar at the age of six. Angelo GilardinoAngelo Gilardino
Angelo Gilardino is an Italian composer, guitarist and musicologist.During his concert career, from 1958 to 1981, he premiered hundreds of new works for the guitar. He taught at the Liceo Musicale G. B. Viotti in Vercelli from 1965 to 1981, and held a professorship at the Antonio Vivaldi...
, who has worked at the Fundación Andrés Segovia in Spain, noted: "Though it is not yet completely documented, it seems clear that, since his tender childhood, [Segovia] learnt playing as a flamenco
Flamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
guitarist. The first guitar he owned had formerly been played by Paco de Lucena
Paco de Lucena
Paco de Lucena, born Franscico Diaz Fernandez was a Spanish gipsy guitarist, and one of the most influential flamenco players of the late nineteenth century....
who died when Segovia was five years old. Since then, Segovia was given some instruction by Agustinillo, an amateur flamenco player who was a fan of Paco de Lucena." Nevertheless, Segovia did not really play flamenco. Instead he preferred expressive art-music such as that by Federico Moreno Torroba
Federico Moreno Torroba
Federico Moreno Torroba was a Spanish composer, born in Madrid.-Biography:Moreno Torroba is often associated with the zarzuela, a traditional Spanish musical form. Directing several opera companies, Moreno Torroba helped introduce the zarzuela to international audiences...
, and revived interest in the instrument as an expressive medium for the performance of classical art-music.
As a teenager, Segovia moved to the town of Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
, where he studied the guitar. However, his father had wanted him to become a lawyer. After his time in Granada, he returned home and spent much time at the Alhambra
Alhambra
The Alhambra , the complete form of which was Calat Alhambra , is a palace and fortress complex located in the Granada, Andalusia, Spain...
palace, a Moorish relic overlooking the town which he regarded as his spiritual awakening.
Career
Segovia's first public performance was in Spain at the age of 15 in 1908, and a few years later he held his first professional concert in MadridMadrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, playing works by Francisco Tárrega
Francisco Tárrega
Francisco de Asís Tárrega y Eixea was an influential Spanish composer and guitarist of the Romantic period.-Biography:Tárrega was born on 21 November 1852, in Vila-real, Castelló, Spain...
and some guitar transcription
Transcription (music)
In music, transcription can mean notating a piece or a sound which was previously unnotated, as, for example, an improvised jazz solo. Further examples include ethnomusicological notation of oral traditions of folk music, such as Béla Bartók's and Ralph Vaughan Williams' collections of the national...
s by J.S. Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, which he had transcribed and arranged himself. Although he was always discouraged by his family who wanted him to become a lawyer and he was looked down on by some of Tárrega's pupils, he continued to diligently pursue his studies of the guitar.
He played again in Madrid in 1912, at the Paris Conservatory in 1915, in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
in 1916, and made a successful tour of South America in 1919. The status of the classical guitar at the beginning of the twentieth century had declined, and only in Barcelona and in the Rio de la Plata
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
region of South America could it have been said to be of any significance. When Segovia arrived on the scene, this situation was just beginning to change, largely through the efforts of Miguel Llobet
Miguel Llobet
Miguel Llobet Solés was a classical guitarist, born in Barcelona . Llobet was a renowned virtuoso who toured Europe and America extensively. He made well known arrangements of Catalan folk songs for the solo guitar and is also the composer of original works.-Biography:Some details of Llobet's...
. It was in this changing milieu that Segovia, whose strength of personality and artistry coupled with new technological advances such as recording, radio, and air travel, succeeded in making the guitar more popular again.
In 1921, Segovia met Alexandre Tansman
Alexandre Tansman
Alexandre Tansman was a Polish-born composer and virtuoso pianist. He spent his early years in his native Poland, but lived in France for most of his life...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
who later wrote a number of guitar works for Segovia, among them Cavatina, which won a prize at the Siena International Composition contest in 1952.
At Granada in 1922 he became associated with the Concurso de Cante Jondo
Concurso de Cante Jondo
El Concurso del Cante Jondo was a well-known celebration of the art of flamenco, its music, song, and dance, held in Granada, Andalusia on Corpus Christi, the 13th and 14th of June, 1922.-Falla's purpose:...
promoted by the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla
Manuel de Falla
Manuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spanish Andalusian composer of classical music. With Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and Joaquín Turina he is one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century....
. The aim of the "classicizing" Concurso was to preserve flamenco
Flamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
in its purity from being distorted by modern popular music. Already Segovia had developed as a fine tocador of flamenco guitar
Flamenco guitar
A flamenco guitar is a guitar similar to a classical guitar. Flamenco guitar also refers to toque, the guitar-playing part of the art of Flamenco.-Brief history:...
, yet his direction was now classical. Invited to open the Concurso held at the Alhambra
Alhambra
The Alhambra , the complete form of which was Calat Alhambra , is a palace and fortress complex located in the Granada, Andalusia, Spain...
, he played Homenaje a Debussy para la guitarra by Falla.
El Universal (Mexico City)
El Universal is a major Mexican newspaper.El Universal was founded by Félix Palavicini and Emilio Rabasa in October 1916, in the city of Santiago de Queretaro to cover the end of the Mexican Revolution and the creation of the new Mexican Constitution...
. Later Ponce went on to write many works for Segovia, including numerous sonatas.
In 1924, Segovia visited the German luthier
Luthier
A luthier is someone who makes or repairs lutes and other string instruments. In the United States, the term is used interchangeably with a term for the specialty of each maker, such as violinmaker, guitar maker, lute maker, etc...
Hermann Hauser Sr. after hearing some of his instruments played in a concert in Munich. In 1928 Hauser provided Segovia with one of his personal guitars for use during his United States tour and in his concerts through to 1933. When Hauser delivered the new instrument Segovia had ordered, Segovia passed his 1928 Hauser to his U.S. representative and close friend Sophocles Papas
Sophocles Papas
Sophocles Papas was an internationally renowned classical guitar pedagogue. He began teaching classical guitar in Washington, D.C., in the 1920s, when the lack of published guitar music led him to found the . The company publishes many arrangements and original compositions for the guitar,...
, who gave it to his classical guitar student, the famous jazz and classical guitarist Charlie Byrd
Charlie Byrd
Charlie Lee Byrd was a famous and versatile American guitarist born in Suffolk, Virginia. His earliest and strongest musical influence was Django Reinhardt, the famous gypsy guitarist. Byrd became the American guitarist who best understood and played Brazilian music, especially the Bossa Nova genre...
, who used it on several records.
Segovia's first American tour was arranged in 1928 when Fritz Kreisler
Fritz Kreisler
Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...
, the Viennese
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
violinist who privately played the guitar, persuaded F. C. Coppicus from the Metropolitan Musical Bureau to present the guitarist in New York.
After Segovia's debut tour in the U.S. in 1928, the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works...
composed his now well-known Twelve Étude
Étude
An étude , is an instrumental musical composition, most commonly of considerable difficulty, usually designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular technical skill. The tradition of writing études emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidly growing popularity of the piano...
s (Douze études) and later dedicated them to Segovia. Their relationship proved to be lasting as Villa-Lobos continued to write for Segovia. He also transcribed numerous classical pieces himself and revived the pieces transcribed by predecessors like Tárrega.
In 1932, Segovia met and befriended composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was an Italian composer. He was known as one of the foremost guitar composers in the twentieth century with almost one hundred compositions for that instrument. In 1939 he migrated to the United States and became a film composer for some 200 Hollywood movies for the next...
in Venice. Since Castelnuovo-Tedesco did not play the guitar, Segovia provided him with guitar compositions (Ponce's Folias variations and Sor's Mozart Variations) which he could study. Castelnuovo-Tedesco composed a large number of works for the guitar, many of them dedicated to Segovia. The Concerto Op. 99 from 1939 was the first guitar concerto of the 20th century and Castelnuovo-Tedesco's last work in Italy, before he emigrated to the United States. It was premiered by Segovia in Uruguay in 1939.
In 1935, he gave his first public performance of Bach's Chaconne, a difficult piece for any instrument. He moved to Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, performing many concerts in South America in the thirties and early forties.
After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Segovia began to record more frequently and perform regular tours of Europe and the U.S., a schedule he would maintain for the next thirty years. In 1954, Joaquín Rodrigo
Joaquín Rodrigo
Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre, 1st Marquis of the Gardens of Aranjuez , commonly known as Joaquín Rodrigo, was a composer of classical music and a virtuoso pianist. Despite being nearly blind from an early age, he achieved great success...
dedicated Fantasía para un gentilhombre
Fantasia para un Gentilhombre
Fantasia para un gentilhombre is a concerto for guitar and orchestra by the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo. It is Rodrigo's second most popular work after the famous Concierto de Aranjuez....
(Fantasy for a Gentleman) to Segovia. Segovia won the 1958 Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Classical Performance, Instrumentalist
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra)
The Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance was awarded from 1959 to 2011. From 1967 to 1971 and in 1987 the award was combined with the award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance and awarded as the Grammy Award for Best Classical Performance - Instrumental Soloist or...
for his recording Segovia Golden Jubilee.
John W. Duarte
John W. Duarte
John William Duarte was a British composer, guitarist and writer.Duarte was born in Sheffield, England, but lived in Manchester from the age of 6...
dedicated his English Suite Op.31 to Segovia and his wife (Emilia Magdalena del Corral Sancho) on the occasion of their marriage in 1962. Segovia told the composer "You will be astonished at the success it will have".
In recognition of his contributions to music and the arts, Segovia was ennobled on 24 June 1981 by King Juan Carlos I, who gave Segovia the hereditary title of Marqués de Salobreña
Salobreña
Salobreña is a town on the Costa Tropical in Granada, Spain. It claims a history stretching back 6000 years.The old town of is a cluster of whitewashed houses and steep narrow streets set around a 10th century Moorish castle. The town sits atop a rocky prominence surrounded by sugar cane fields...
(English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: Marquis of Salobreña) in the nobility of Spain
Spanish nobility
Spanish nobles are persons who possess the legal status of hereditary nobility according to the laws and traditions of the Spanish monarchy. A system of titles and honours of Spain and of the former kingdoms that constitute it comprise the Spanish nobility...
.
Andres Segovia continued performing into his old age, living in semi-retirement during his 70s and 80s on the Costa del Sol
Costa del Sol
The Costa del Sol is a region in the south of Spain, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, comprising the coastal towns and communities along the Mediterranean coastline of the Málaga province. The Costa del Sol is situated between two lesser known costas: Costa de la Luz and Costa Tropical...
. Two films were made of his life and work—one when he was 75 and the other, 84. They are available on DVD called Andrés Segovia — in Portrait. His final RCA LP record (ARL1-1602), Reveries, was recorded in Madrid in June 1977.
In 1984, Segovia was the subject of a thirteen part series broadcast on National Public Radio, entitled Segovia! The series was recorded on location in Spain, France, and the United States. Hosted by Oscar Brand, the series was produced by Jim Anderson, Robert Malesky, and Larry Snitzler.
Segovia died in Madrid of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
at the age of 94. He is buried at Casa Museo de Linares, in Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
.
Technique
Segovia's technique differed from that of Tárrega and his followers, such as Emilio PujolEmilio Pujol
Emili Pujol Vilarrubí was a composer and the leading twentieth century musicologist and classical guitar teacher.- Biography :...
. Both Segovia and Miguel Llobet
Miguel Llobet
Miguel Llobet Solés was a classical guitarist, born in Barcelona . Llobet was a renowned virtuoso who toured Europe and America extensively. He made well known arrangements of Catalan folk songs for the solo guitar and is also the composer of original works.-Biography:Some details of Llobet's...
(who taught Segovia several of his transcriptions of Granados
Enrique Granados
Enrique Granados y Campiña was a Spanish pianist and composer of classical music. His music is in a uniquely Spanish style and, as such, representative of musical nationalism...
' piano works) plucked the strings with a combination of his fingernails and fingertips, producing a sharper sound than many of his contemporaries. With this technique, it was possible to create a wider range of timbre
Timbre
In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, such as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the...
s, than when using the fingertips or nails alone. Historically, classical guitarists have debated which of these techniques is the best approach. The vast majority of classical guitarists now play with a combination of the fingernails and fingertips.
After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Segovia became among the first to endorse the use of nylon
Nylon
Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers known generically as polyamides, first produced on February 28, 1935, by Wallace Carothers at DuPont's research facility at the DuPont Experimental Station...
strings
Strings (music)
A string is the vibrating element that produces sound in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family. Strings are lengths of a flexible material kept under tension so that they may vibrate freely, but controllably. Strings may be "plain"...
instead of gut
Catgut
Catgut is a type of cord that is prepared from the natural fibre found in the walls of animal intestines. Usually sheep or goat intestines are used, but it is occasionally made from the intestines of cattle, hogs, horses, mules, or donkeys.-Etymology:...
strings. This new advance allowed for greater stability in intonation, and was the final missing ingredient in the standardization of the instrument.
Repertoire
Segovia's repertoire consisted of three principal pillars. Firstly, contemporary works, including concertos and sonatas, usually specifically written for Segovia himself by composers he forged working relationships with, notably Spaniards such as Federico Moreno TorrobaFederico Moreno Torroba
Federico Moreno Torroba was a Spanish composer, born in Madrid.-Biography:Moreno Torroba is often associated with the zarzuela, a traditional Spanish musical form. Directing several opera companies, Moreno Torroba helped introduce the zarzuela to international audiences...
, Federico Mompou
Federico Mompou
Frederic Mompou i Dencausse was a Catalan Spanish composer and pianist. He is best known for his solo piano music and his songs.-Life:...
, and Joaquín Rodrigo
Joaquín Rodrigo
Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre, 1st Marquis of the Gardens of Aranjuez , commonly known as Joaquín Rodrigo, was a composer of classical music and a virtuoso pianist. Despite being nearly blind from an early age, he achieved great success...
, the Mexican composer Manuel Ponce, the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was an Italian composer. He was known as one of the foremost guitar composers in the twentieth century with almost one hundred compositions for that instrument. In 1939 he migrated to the United States and became a film composer for some 200 Hollywood movies for the next...
, and the great Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works...
. Secondly, transcriptions, usually made by Segovia himself, of classical works originally written for other instruments (e.g., lute, harpsichord, piano, violin, cello) by Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish Catalan pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms .-Life:Born in Camprodon, province of Girona, to Ángel Albéniz and his wife Dolors Pascual, Albéniz...
, Enrique Granados
Enrique Granados
Enrique Granados y Campiña was a Spanish pianist and composer of classical music. His music is in a uniquely Spanish style and, as such, representative of musical nationalism...
, and many other prominent composers. Thirdly, traditional classical guitar works by composers such as Fernando Sor
Fernando Sor
Josep Ferran Sorts i Muntades was a Spanish classical guitarist and composer. While he is best known for his guitar compositions, he also composed music for a wide range of genres, including opera, orchestra, string quartet, piano, voice and ballet...
and Francisco Tarrega
Francisco Tárrega
Francisco de Asís Tárrega y Eixea was an influential Spanish composer and guitarist of the Romantic period.-Biography:Tárrega was born on 21 November 1852, in Vila-real, Castelló, Spain...
. Segovia's influence enlarged the repertoire, mainly as a commissioner or dedicatee of new works, as a transcriber, and to a far lesser extent as a composer with such works as his Estudio sin luz.
Segovia's main musical aesthetic preferences were music of the early 20th century (and turn of the century) especially in the Spanish romantic-modern and nationalist style. This is perhaps best typified by Segovia's own work Estudio sin Luz. Many works of this and similar style were written especially for him and formed part of his core repertoire: particularly the guitar works of Federico Moreno Torroba
Federico Moreno Torroba
Federico Moreno Torroba was a Spanish composer, born in Madrid.-Biography:Moreno Torroba is often associated with the zarzuela, a traditional Spanish musical form. Directing several opera companies, Moreno Torroba helped introduce the zarzuela to international audiences...
(1891–1982), such as the Sonatina, which was first performed by Segovia in Paris in 1925.
Segovia was selective and only performed works with which he identified personally. He was known to reject atonal works, or works which he considered too radical, even if they were dedicated to him; e.g. he rejected Frank Martin's
Frank Martin
Frank Martin may refer to:*Frank Martin , Swiss classical composer*Frank Martin , ice hockey player*Frank Martin , head men's basketball coach...
Quatre pièces brèves, Darius Milhaud's
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
Segoviana, etc. Even though rejected by Segovia, the works are today all published and available.
Teaching
Segovia viewed teaching as vital to his mission of propagating the guitar and gave master classes throughout his career. His most famous master classes took place at Música en CompostelaMúsica en Compostela
Música en Compostela is an annual summer course in music performance and composition held in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. It was founded by the Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia and the diplomat José Miguel Ruiz Morales in 1958...
in the northern Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain.The city's Cathedral is the destination today, as it has been throughout history, of the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James...
..
Segovia also taught at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana
Accademia Musicale Chigiana
The Accademia Musicale Chigiana is a music institute in Siena, Italy. It was founded by Count Guido Chigi Saracini in 1932 as an international centre for advanced musical studies. It organises Master Classes in the major musical instruments as well as singing, conducting and composition...
in Siena
Siena
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
for numerous years, where he was aided by Alirio Diaz
Alirio Diaz
Alirio Díaz is a Venezuelan classical guitarist.The eighth of eleven children, Díaz was born in Caserio La Candelaria, a small village near Carora in western Venezuela. From childhood he showed a great interest in music. At age 16 he ran away from home to Carora, where he sought better schooling...
. Later it was Oscar Ghiglia
Oscar Ghiglia
Oscar Ghiglia is an Italian classical guitarist.Born of an artistic family - his father and grandfather were both famed painters, his mother an accomplished pianist – Oscar Ghiglia had to choose between a path strewn with brushes and colours and a world cut into harmony and melody.Though his early...
who continued the Siena class.
His teaching style is a source of controversy among some of today's players, who consider it to be dogmatically authoritarian. John Williams
John Williams (guitarist)
John Christopher Williams is an Australian classical guitarist, and a long-term resident of the United Kingdom. In 1973, he shared a Grammy Award win in the 'Best Chamber Music Performance' category with Julian Bream for Julian and John .-Biography:John Williams was born on 24 April 1941 in...
for instance criticized his scope as a teacher and spoke of the atmosphere of fear in his classes.
Legacy
Segovia can be considered a catalytic figure in granting respectability to the guitar as a serious concert instrument capable of evocativeness and depth of interpretation. It was Federico Moreno TorrobaFederico Moreno Torroba
Federico Moreno Torroba was a Spanish composer, born in Madrid.-Biography:Moreno Torroba is often associated with the zarzuela, a traditional Spanish musical form. Directing several opera companies, Moreno Torroba helped introduce the zarzuela to international audiences...
who said: "The musical interpreter who fascinates me the most is Andrés Segovia". He can be credited to have dignified the classical guitar as a legitimate concert instrument before the discerning music public, which had hitherto viewed the guitar merely as a limited, if sonorous, parlor instrument.
In Linares the Segovia Museum "Fundación Andrés Segovia" was established in May 1995 and this birth-town of Segovia, also has a bronze statue in his honour, created by Julio López Hernández and unveiled on 25 May 1984.
Segovia influenced a generation of classical guitarists who built on his technique and musical sensibility, including such luminaries as Christopher Parkening
Christopher Parkening
Christopher Parkening is an American classical guitarist.Parkening was born in Los Angeles, California, and pursued music in part because of his cousin Jack Marshall, a studio musician in the 1960s. Marshall first introduced Parkening to the recordings of Andrés Segovia when he was 11, and...
, Julian Bream
Julian Bream
Julian Bream, CBE is an English classical guitarist and lutenist and is one of the most distinguished classical guitarists of the 20th century. He has also been successful in renewing popular interest in the Renaissance lute....
, and Oscar Ghiglia
Oscar Ghiglia
Oscar Ghiglia is an Italian classical guitarist.Born of an artistic family - his father and grandfather were both famed painters, his mother an accomplished pianist – Oscar Ghiglia had to choose between a path strewn with brushes and colours and a world cut into harmony and melody.Though his early...
, all of whom have acknowledged their debt to him. Further, Segovia left behind a large body of edited works and transcriptions for classical guitar, including several transcriptions of J S Bach, in particular, an extraordinarily demanding classical guitar transcription of the Chaconne
Chaconne
A chaconne ; is a type of musical composition popular in the baroque era when it was much used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line which offered a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and...
from the 2nd Partita for Violin (BWV 1004).
His editions of works originally written for guitar include newly fingered and occasionally revised versions of works from the standard repertoire (most famously, his edition of a selection of twenty estudios by Fernando Sor
Fernando Sor
Josep Ferran Sorts i Muntades was a Spanish classical guitarist and composer. While he is best known for his guitar compositions, he also composed music for a wide range of genres, including opera, orchestra, string quartet, piano, voice and ballet...
, as well as compositions written for him, including by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Federico Mompou, and Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Many of the latter were edited by Segovia, working in communication with the composer, before they were first published. Because of Segovia's predilection for altering the musical content of his editions to reflect his interpretive preferences, many of today's guitarists prefer to examine the original manuscripts, or newer publications based on the original manuscripts in order to compare them with Segovia's published versions, so as to accept or reject Segovia's editorial decisions.
There are guitar festivals and competitions that were named after Segovia.
Awards
Segovia was awarded many prizes and honours including Ph.D, honoris causa from ten universities. On 24 June 1981, he was ennobled by King Juan Carlos I, who gave Segovia the hereditary title of Marquis of SalobreñaSalobreña
Salobreña is a town on the Costa Tropical in Granada, Spain. It claims a history stretching back 6000 years.The old town of is a cluster of whitewashed houses and steep narrow streets set around a 10th century Moorish castle. The town sits atop a rocky prominence surrounded by sugar cane fields...
(English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: Marquis of Salobreña) in the nobility of Spain
Spanish nobility
Spanish nobles are persons who possess the legal status of hereditary nobility according to the laws and traditions of the Spanish monarchy. A system of titles and honours of Spain and of the former kingdoms that constitute it comprise the Spanish nobility...
in recognition of his contributions to music and the arts. He received the Danish Sonning Award in 1974, the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize
The international Ernst von Siemens Music Prize is an annual music prize given by the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste on behalf of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung , established in 1972. The foundation was established by Ernst von Siemens...
in 1985, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the Recording Academy to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording."...
in 1986.
Personal life
Segovia's first wife was Adelaida Portillo (marriage in 1918). Segovia's second wife (marriage in 1935) was the pianist Paquita Madriguera, who also made some piano rollPiano roll
A piano roll is a music storage medium used to operate a player piano, piano player or reproducing piano. A piano roll is a continuous roll of paper with perforations punched into it. The peforations represent note control data...
recordings. From 1944, he maintained a relationship with Brazilian singer and guitarist Olga Praguer Coelho, which was to last for over a decade. In 1962 Segovia married Emilia Magdalena del Corral Sancho. They had one son, Carlos-Andrés de Segovia y del Corral. On his death the marquessate passed to his son.
See also
- Michele Pittaluga International Classical Guitar CompetitionMichele Pittaluga International Classical Guitar CompetitionThe "Michele Pittaluga" International Classical Guitar Competition is an annual music competition for young classical guitarists held in Alessandria, Italy. It was founded in 1968 and has earned an international reputation, entering membership of the World Federation of International Music...
founded with his support
External links
- Andrés Segovia by Mark Small (Acoustic Guitar, November 2010)Cronología de la Vida y Obra de Andrés Segovia (1893-1987)
- Segovia's life before he left Spain for the first time (1920) info by Angelo GilardinoAngelo GilardinoAngelo Gilardino is an Italian composer, guitarist and musicologist.During his concert career, from 1958 to 1981, he premiered hundreds of new works for the guitar. He taught at the Liceo Musicale G. B. Viotti in Vercelli from 1965 to 1981, and held a professorship at the Antonio Vivaldi...
(3 June 2007, rec.music.classical.guitar)Andrés Segovia. Síntesis biográfica. Honores y distinciones. by Alberto López Poveda (Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Boletín de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. Segundo semestre de 1986. Número 63.) ref.Andrés Segovia y Federico Mompou ante el centenario de su nacimiento. by Antonio Iglesias (Boletín de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. Segundo semestre de 1992. Número 75.) ref. - In Memory of Andres Segovia by Vasilios Avraam (www.guitarramagazine.com)
- [ Biography] by Joseph Stevenson (Allmusic)
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