The heart of
the music of the great Andrès Segovia
"Another
element deemed pertinent here is that
whereas many will assert that the technique of the
concert guitar has evolved since its emergence from beneath
the magisterial
canopy of the Maestro's active concert career, it is
nevertheless easily discernable (to all who care to make the
comparison)
that the pool of used resources generally employed has been,
in the main,
actually shrinking."
by Phillip de
Fremery, Foreword from "Andres Segovia Trascripciones"
Ed. Bèrben (A. Gilardino, P. de Fremery)
Andrés
Segovia Video Archive
F. Sor : Tema y variaciones
Op. 9 (sobre un tema de Mozart)
J. S. Bach :
Gavotte I & II BWV 1012
F. Moreno - Torroba :
Sonatina in A
J. S. Bach :
Preludio Suite I BWV 1007
3rd February
2007
I will try to analize the elements concerning the Segovia
Style starting from
this foreword Becouse I'm sure studying Segovia Style is important
for every classical guitarist as a starting point and then
to find a personal style.
The aim is to avoid guitarists to become perfect in tecnique
but all anonimous and interchangeable.
However, I'm
going to give you my opinion about all methods and DVD on
the Segovia style: I will add information about all Segovia
records but I can assure you that all Deutsche Grammophon
CD are absolutely fantastic.
Just to begin
it I shared the Segovia style in 5 main points:
1) A personal way to fingering
2) Various types of vibrato
3) Various types of rubato
4) Slurs
5) Glissando
10th February
2007
Andres Segovia
(1893-1987)
His style origin
During the romantic
period the performer was the king, the music was only
a vehicle to express one's individuality. A pianist as Franz
Liszt could change the tempo and composer porpouses even when
playing Beethoven. Rubato ad libitum was the rule of the day.
The Segovia style began to take shape during the romantic
period.
Segovia lernt
a lot of pieces of his early repertoire from Llobet (Tarrega's
apprentice) watching him at play. Moreover the luthier Antonio
Torres (1817-1892) devoloped some of the major structural
characteristics of the modern classic guitar. Torres fixed
standards of fingerboard dimension and standardized the vibrating
string lenght at sixty-five centimeters: above all Torres's
guitars were well tuned and sound good at the higher positions
too. Thanks to these guitars Francisco Tarrega could develope
a horizontal approach to fingering, that's the style he teached
to Llobet and then Llobet teached it to Segovia.
The interpretation
by Segovia are highly subjective and individualistic because
as remembered from the concert artist Eliot Fisk (one of the
most famous Segovia Style expert) "We do not have to
copy everithing that Segovia did, but understanding his approach
does give us an invaluable insight...".
Segovia didn't
copy Llobet style for sure, but he learnt the great possibility
offered by the classical guitar to express ourselves and tell
our history.
Andrés
Segovia on his personal music learning backgrounds
H. Villa-Lobos
: Prelude no.3
Segovia scales
Ed Columbia Music
Co., cover design by Vladimir Bobri
Segovia scales
are, on my opinion, the first step to learn Segovia mouvements
on the fingerboard and the style applyed by the andaluzo Maestro
in his pieces: he used various standards to memorize faster
the music.
I want to remember that Segovia was engaged in a concert tour
for 77 years: when not in a concert he busy on recording,
it's about 30 records from 1927 to 1977.
I advice you
to purchase these scales and to play them every day for 10
minutes at least.
Segovia worked
dayly to ensure that his nails were in the right conditions
as Vladimir Bobri wrote in his book "The Segovia Technique".
Segovia varied
the sound in terms of its coloristic quality or its dynamic
level. Segovia's example shows us that many nuances of shading
are possible, and a simplicistic "ponticello" to
"dolce" description really does not do justice to
the many artistic application of color. It is necessary to
listen to Segovia's records, but above all it is necessary
to watch the Film Documentaries by Chrisopher Nupen www.allegrofilms.com
:
"Segovia
at Los Olivos"
Shot in Segovia's
home in the Costa del Sol in Andalucia on 1967 when he was
75, and thought by Segovia to be the best thing he ever did
for television.
"Segovia:
the song of the guitar"
Filmed in Granada
and the Palaces of the Alhambra on 1976 when the Grand Master
was 84 years old.
We can admire
Segovia technique, his hands mouvements, all the coloristic
timbre variety from these astonishing films shootings.The
Segovia interview is very interesting, here we can find Segovia
speaking about himself plainly and truly, talking about his
victory against the audience fear and its battles to enlarge
the classical guitar repertoire aiming at persuading the greatest
composer to write for classical guitar. In Segovia's statements
we can see that what allowed him to state him as a concert
guitar player was his strong will to do not ditract himself
from others talents he owned.
November 1st,
2007
Segovia
Vibrato Style
Vibrato's origins
comes from the vocal technique. Vocalists describe it as a
tune oscillation adding vitality and harmonics richness to
the sound. Segovia was accused of exceeding in vibrato usage
sometimes but his vibrato gave a natural quality to his music.
Thanks to the Vibrato Segovia made the guitar sing.
Segovia
Rubato Style
This term is
an italian word wich litterally means 'robbed' and applied
to Segovia's music it's robbing time from the rhythmic pulse
of a piece.
F. Sor : Minuet
in C
November 17th,
2007
A new
look at Segovia
Do you really
want to improove your knowledge about Andres Segovia ? I suggest
you 'A new look at Segovia' by Graham Wade and Gerard Garno,
it' two vulumes, 500 pages each ed Mel Bay Publications. In
this books you'll find:
- Andres Segovia
bioghraphy and all his perfomance programs
(votes *****)
- The Segovia
style : four pages explaining Segovia's way of playing (votes
***)
- A lot of scores
taken from Segovia's repertoire, with historycal explanation
and comparations betwwen the original composer version and
Segovia's early interpretations and Segovia's late interpretations.
(votes ****)
(maximum votes
***** five stars)
Segovia
style videos here
Daniele Magli
plays using Segovia style on this three pieces
according to Ed. Schott,
fingered by Andres Segovia, Daniele Magli just added a few
changes taken from Andre's Segovia videos on YouTube. You
can find them too at guitar
video history pages on this site.
Andrés
Segovia demonstrates different timbres of the guitar
"La Filla
del Marxant" (1967) - Andres Segovia
Three
good records by Andrés Segovia
There are three
CD's by Deutsche Grammophon, they are very important to learn
Segovia's style
1) The Art Of
Segovia *****
It contains works
by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Frederich Chopin, Claude Debussy,
John Dowland, Manuel de Falla, Cesar Fanck, Nicolò
Paganini, Joaquin Rodrigo, Fernando Sor, Joaquin Turina and
others...
2) Segovia The
Great Master *****
It contains works
by Antonio Lauro, Silvius Leopold Weiss, Alexandre Tansman,
Heitor Villa-Lobos, Luis Milan, Luis de Narvaez, Domenico
Scarlatti, Robert De Visee, Oscar Espla' and others...
3) Andrés
Segovia Dedication *****
It contains works
by Manuel Maria Ponce (Sonata Romantica, Sonata Clasica, Sonata
Mexicana, Sonata n. 3), Heitor Villa-Lobos, Alexandre Tansman
(Cavatina), Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (Platero y Yo), Joan
Manén (Fantasia-Sonata), Albert Harris (Variations
and Fugue on a theme of Handel), John W. Duarte (English Suite).
"La Maja
de Goya" - E. Granados
Andrés
Segovia on the Torres, Ramírez, Hauser, Fleta guitars
Segovia
masterclass Chaconne J.S.Bach 1/4
Segovia
masterclass Chaconne J.S.Bach 2/4
Segovia
masterclass Chaconne J.S.Bach 3/4
Segovia
masterclass Chaconne J.S.Bach 4/4
September 16th, 2008
L'hereu Riera
Playing the Segovia
style now a day means playing classical guitar as it was used
in another age. The Andalusian Maestro was influenced by the
romantic style of LLobet and by the music surrounding him
during his studing years, surely he was influenced by jazz
music and by 1920 - 30' music as well. The Segovia style is
really a pleasent and funny way to play classica guitar although
reproducing all his expressice coluors (Segovia was used to
put them inside a musical piece) it's really difficoult to
achieve. Let's watch for example the catalan song L'hereu
Riera :
At first sight we can
notice that Segovia is not playing exactly the arrangement
by Llobet but he changed it for the following reasons:
1) To fit the arrangement
for his left hand
2) to make the arrangement
easier or more expressive
3) to increase the staging
effect
Referring to this last
point we want to remember that Segovia was used to play a
hundred or two hundreds concerts a year without using amplifiers
or microphones becouse he absolutely disliked such things.
We should say, anyway, that today's microphones are far better
now and, for example, the classical guitarist John Williams
can play being amplified without lack of the caratheristics
of his sound.
Segovia needed arrangements
to highlights the power of his sound spreading his music untill
the last seats of the theatre. It's true, anyway, that Segovia
was used to grant him a lot of musical freedom, when transcribing
a piece by Handel or Albeniz and when playing pieces by contemporary
composers and friends as Castelnuovo-Tedesco or Manuel Ponce.
It's just since a few
years that we have found the original scores by this great
composers and seldom they are so much different from Segovia's
versions. However it's really inspiring to study the playing
style by Andrés Segovia.
Regarding the Segovia
left hand athletic shape we could say he had a really strong
little finger and very well trained too : he could alternate
the little finger use to the frequent barré (index
finger). That's why we could say that the little
finger and the index finger where the most important fingers
for the Segovia's left hand.
Daniele Magli
Many great musicians of
today have been heavily influenced by Segovia. It is a great
experience to listen to these players live.
