The Romantic Guitarist-Composers and their

Music.
By Erling Mldrup
During the first half of the 20th Century the great Spanish master
Andrs Segovia and others revived classical guitar playing. But
doing that they let a repertoire sink into oblivion although it
represented a great part of the true soul of the guitar. It was no
longer considered quite respectable to play those styles of music
which Segovia left out from his repertoire. The great guitar
romantic Francisco Tarrega found favour in his eyes, but not many
other of the composers who belonged to the circle which I have
called "The Romantic Guitarist- Composers", and to whom this cd
is devoted. They were men who wrote music for an instrument
which most of them mastered to perfection. The stylistic
foundations of their music may be called Southern European
brilliant Romanticism. They moved in a musical culture which
emerged in the undercurrents of musical life after the golden age
of the guitar in the first half of the 19th Century. The great decline
of interest in guitar playing became manifest towards the end of
the century and was clear to everyone.
New kinds of musical taste, the flamboyant virtuosos of the big
concert halls, at not least the piano were the sinners of this
somewhat unfortunate turn of events. The guitar no longer had
the attention of the educated audience.
Nevertheless the guitar lived on in private enthusiastic circles,
exclusive guitar societies and other places of little recognition. In
some people's opinion the aesthetics of the guitar repertoire froze
into sugary frills and show offs that might impress an audience
briefly, but which was not attributed any lasting significance in
musical history Not until the Twentieth Century, and especially
because of Andrs Segovias' incredible effort did the guitar regain
its public reputation as a respectable instrument. The master and
his disciples set the agenda to promote a repertoire that mirrored
the highest spiritual quest of Man. A fine goal to set, but one
might ask if that ambitious project really succeeded.
The neglect and rejection of the "nave" Romanticists in this
master plan had its effects. The repertoire of Segovia assumed the
position of truly serious music whereas music by "the others" was
not to be touched unless you had a dubious taste and did not
quite understand true art.
From today's point of view this seems a somewhat simplified

problem and it might be useful to give it a look .

In painting there is "naive art". Today this school is fully
recognized by art historians and other experts. One might ask if
not the "Naivism" of music also has fine qualities, e.g. as shown
by the guitarist-composers, even if their music doesn't shake the
grounds of our existence and perception of the world. I of course
mean yes, or I would not have made this cd!
In these works I have found important values. Simplicity, lyricism,
melody, sonority and romantic sensitivity - what more can one
want? Sometimes, anyway
About the composers
Miguel Llobet (1878 - 1938)
Spanish guitarist and composer who at the age of fourteen
became a pupil of Francisco Tarrega. Llobet made his debut in
Paris in 1905, after that he had an extensive concert career. The
audience loved his characteristic intimate and refined timbre and
his romantic execution. Llobet has had a great influence on the
following generations of guitarists and has composed a large
number of works for the instrument. He also made many
innovatory arrangements of which several have become part of
the standard repertoire. Together with Andrs Segovia, Llobet is
regarded the most influential guitarist in the first half of the
Twentieth Century. On a release like this he is an obvious choice
even though he is far from forgotten. This time however, he is
represented only with his arrangement of the famous romance
which in Llobet's version so to speak appears in an original
version, free from both clever harmonies and cheerful
introductions and transitions. There is great insecurity of the
origins of this piece and Llobet quite honestly called it Romance
Anonimo. It is also heard under many other names.
Luigi Mozzani (1869 -1943)
Italian guitarist, composer and guitar maker. In guitar magazines
and books he is often pictured with his beloved but monstrous
romantic lyre-guitar. Mozzani came from very straitened
circumstances and to begin with he played the clarinet and the
oboe, thus for two years he was first oboist in the San Carlo
Theatre in Naples, but when he heard guitar music for the first
time it made such a strong impression on him that he decided to
learn to play it himself and make it his way of living.
All through his life he made many successful trips in Europe,

Africa, Japan and Russia.

From 1894 to 1896 he lived in USA and published two volumes of
his collection of etudes. Back in Italy he met some of the most
important guitarists of his time. Later, during a stay in Paris, he
started building guitars which brought him lots of success. In 1912
he took out a patent for a special kind of lyre-guitar. But it did not
make him give up his teaching or his concert tours. In 1942 he
founded a school for guitarists in Roverto. Luigi Mozzani is best
known for his composition Feste Lariane, also played here, but he
did not write it himself. Maybe the story of the 'theft' of this
composition has overshadowed his numerous own compositions
which are really fine.
Quentin Esquembre (1885 - 1965)
Esquembre was born in Alicante. He was a pupil of Francisco
Tarrega, and together with another pupil of Tarrega, Daniel Fortea,
he was among the most sought guitar teachers in Madrid.
Contrary to Fortea, Esquembre died neglected and forgotten by
the guitar scene. Maybe this was due to the fact that he was too
nervous to play in public and therefore chose to live from his job
as a cellist in Madrid along with pursuing his activities as a
guitarist. He was both a teacher and an industrious composer of
solo and duo pieces for his instrument. They were often written for
his two favourite pupils Angel Iglesias and Vicente Gomez who
performed them frequently. Today these pieces are as good as
unknown or very difficult to trace, but the music that we know
such as his Cancione Playera played on this recording,
demonstrates fine musical qualities and interesting technical
details. Esquembre spent some time in jail because he took sides
with the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War.
Julio Martinez Oyanguren (1905-1973)
was among the very first to introduce Latin American guitar
tradition to the rest of the world.
At a tender age he gave his first recital in Montevideo, Uruguay. In
1920 he heard Segovia play for the first time and this was a great
inspiration for the young guitarist towards building his own
international career. In the Thirties he moved to the USA where he
had great success as a
concert guitarist. Along with his career as a guitarist he had a job
in the US Navy, probably because he wanted some financial
stability in life. He also was a military attach at the Embassy of
Uruguay in the United States. Through the years 1936 to 1940 he

frequently appeared in radio concerts as well as in guitar recitals

in New York.
In the Sixties he went back to Uruguay and stayed there until his
death in 1973. Gradually he drifted away from music. His
recordings are available on cd and they are definitely worth
hearing. About twenty of his compositons were printed, today they
are very difficult to find. Arabia is a rather unique and daring piece
for guitar with its somewhat banal, but yet charming and moving
attempts of imitating an Arabian sound on the classical guitar.
Jos Vinas (1823 - 1888)
A Spanish composer who both began and ended his life in
Barcelona, one of the centres of guitar mythology .
Vinas also showed great talent for both violin and piano but chose
the guitar as his main instrument. He had great success with his
brilliant style different places in Europe. Later his home in
Barcelona became the meeting place of many celebrities of guitar
history, among which Francisco Tarrega. Vinas was especially
famous for his execution of the great classical guitar composers,
namely Fernando Sor and Dionisio Aguado. He published 35
compositions for guitar. The title of the piece heard here could not
be more characteristic for the guitar romantics and their style.
Andante Sentimental
Antonio Cano (1811 - 1897)
A Spanish guitarist and composer born in Madrid where he also
had his musical training. In 1847 he met Aguado, a meeting that
was to prove very important to Cano. In 1852 he published a
"Metodo de guitarra", followed 1868 by a renewed edition that
included a treatise on harmony with particular reference to the
guitar. That same year he was appointed professor at the
conservatory in Madrid. About 50 compositions and arrangements
were published in his own lifetime and twenty more posthumously.
His most famous piece El Delirio has lent its name to this cd. It is
almost extraordinarily typical of his style. Delirio can mean daydream, but it also means enthusiasm, madness and fantasizing.
Francisco Calleja (1891 - 1950)
Spanish guitarist and composer. Today Calleja is almost forgotten
and thus shares the fate with many of Segovia's contemporaries
and several on this cd. As a fourteen year-old he performed for the
famous violin virtuoso Pablo Sarasate who praised the boy's
musicality. At the age of twenty he left for South America where

he met the great guitar virtuoso Agustin Barrios with whom he

played at some private recitals in Montevideo. He gave recitals,
among other places in Mexico City and Buenos Aires. Two years
later he returned to Spain and toured the larger cities. He left a
large number of compositions, many of which are still
unpublished. He was the first in Spain to publish guitar transcripts
of Bach's 'works for lute'. He lived the last part of his life in
Uruguay and Argentina where he taught and composed. His
Cancion Triste played here used to be a favourite among
guitarists. It is already recorded in excellent and very different
versions by both Iglesias and Gomez. It is an impressive piece in
terms of sonority and emotion and really deserves a renaissance.
Angel Iglesias (1917 - 1977)
Spanish guitar virtuoso and composer (more of the first) with an
extensive and impressive career which brought him around the
world with an almost sensational success.
Because of his great interest for Spanish folk music he mostly
played in the prestigious world of cabaret and theatre, and that
may be one of the reasons that he has been little known in guitar
circles until now. Those who were fervent worshippers of the pure
and classical guitar may not have appreciated "noisy flamenco
guitar" as Segovia elegantly put it. However Iglesias was also a
distinguished classical guitarist, and his roots in folk music gave a
unique quality to his performance of classical music in terms of
expression.
During his career Iglesias gave both solo recitals and accompanied
various dancers, but he always created great attention with his
very popular solo sections. For a number of years he toured with
the breathtaking and beautiful Spanish dancer Nati Morales, who
also was his partner privately.
Over the years Angel Iglesias formed a special attachment to
Scandinavia and especially to Denmark where he had several long
stays. During a visit in Aalborg, Nati Morales gave birth to a son,
an event which forever formed a bond with the small Northern
country.
Both through teaching and performing Iglesias had an invaluable
influence on the development of what might be called the vogue
for the Spanish guitar. He taught several young Danish guitar
pioneers among which were Jytte Gorki Schmidt who later became
my teacher.
In 1943 and 1953 he made some historically important recordings.
On these you hear a uniquely brilliant style of playing, influenced

by his roots in Spanish folk music which he mastered with equally

eminent skill as the classical repertoire. Especially because of
these recordings there is a growing interest about his role in the
history of the guitar*.
The pieces and arrangements by Iglesias on this cd are first
recordings. The exception is Arabesca which was recorded by the
composer and which he wrote at an early stage in his carreer, a
piece designed to really bring out the enthusiasm of an audience.
Later on he composed more since he cut down on the concert
tours and to some extent replaced in with teaching, only
performing now and then. Towards the end of his life he made
long stays in France. His last few years were marked with serious
illness and he died in 1977, only 60 years old.
When the piano works of the legendary Russian composer,
conductor and piano virtuoso Sergey Vassilievich Rachmaninov is
transcribed for guitar one must admit that Rachmaninov nearly
disappears and the composition more or less is the transcriber's,
in this case Angel Iglesias. But if you put away the original i.e. the
famous prelude, and simply listen to the music for what it now is, namely an excellent piece of guitar music - you might experience
something new!
The other arrangement by Iglesias on this cd is the gavotte from
Ambroise Thomas' opera Mignon. He wrote nine operas of which
Mignon was extremely popular. The Gavotte was and is a very
popular show piece to be heard in very different arrangements
and its unpretentious elegance works well in Iglesias' transcription
for the guitar.
Sffren Degen (1816 - 1885)
Danish guitarist and composer. He has been called "Denmark's
Enigmatic Guitar Genius". He was trained as a cellist and a
composer, but Degen was one of the few persons in 19th century
Denmark who tried to live from the guitar. He played recitals and
taught but the waning popularity of the instrument from around
1850 caught up with him. His performance is said to have been
extremely brilliant and is described in literature. He also worked
as a singing teacher, actor, cellist and even became one of the
first Danish photographers. Degen left a number of solo pieces for
six as well as seven stringed guitars and a large number of pieces
for cello and guitar **.
The andante played here is one of Degen's later works, written for
a so-called heptachord (seven stringed) guitar constructed by

himself. The Andante on this recording, or as I call it, Andante

Melanconico because he himself used both words to describe the
mood in the music, is modified to be performed on a modern six
stringed guitar.
Jos Ferrer (1835 - 1916)
Spanish guitarist and composer with a large production. Besides
works for solo guitar it includes church music, guitar duos, duos
for guitar and piano, guitar and flute etc, one hundred pieces,
more or less. His first teacher was his father and from 1860 he
pursued his studies with the renowned virtuoso Jos Broca in
Barcelona. A few years later he began to play in public. In 1882
Ferrer made a trip to Paris where he among other things played at
the Comdie Franaise and taught. Later he returned to Barcelona
where he had been appointed professor at the Conservatoire del
Liceo. He has written a book about the history of the guitar,
Resena historica de la guitarra.
On this cd you can hear how this profoundly religious composer
describes the dance of the 'naiades', who are creatures of legends
and fairytales. Maybe their world is not religious in a Christian
sense of the word, but still filled with other kinds of magic.
Emilio Pujol (1886 - 1980)
Spanish guitarist, composer and musicologist who at the age of
fifteen became a pupil of Tarrega's. As the author of the extensive
four-volume guitar school , "Escuela Razonada de la Guitarra" he
is considered the most important exponent for the so-called
"Tarrega School". In several ways it points the guitar into the
Twentieth Century.
Besides giving recitals he was a highly appreciated teacher. From
1949 and on he was a professor at the academy of music in
Lisbon. In the book "El Dilema del Sonido en la Guitarra" he was a
strong advocate of playing without using the nails, a speciality of
the Tarrega School. Hardly anyone uses that technique today but
it does give the performance a unique sonorous and hushed
charm. However it only works in surroundings smaller than a
concert hall. As a musicologist Emilio Pujol had an important part
in recovering the history of the Vihuela, a kind of renaissance
guitar or lute used in Spain in the 16th Century. Several of his
compositions are part of the standard repertoire for the
instrument whereas others like this Barcarolle have been
neglected.

Francisco Tarrega (1854 - 1909)

On a release with this kind of music, the great master of Spanish
guitar Francisco Tarrega cannot be ignored and his name has
already been mentioned several times in this booklet. He was a
guitar virtuoso, teacher, musicologist and the composer of a
number of harmonious works and arrangements, all belonging to
today's standard repertoire. His concert career which brought him
much fame took place of course in his native Spain, but also in
many other countries.
His travelling activities did not stop him composing, arranging or
teaching. On the contrary, today his teaching activities are almost
mythical. He taught both privately and as a professor at the
conservatories in Madrid and Barcelona. Among his pupils were
both Llobet and Pujol, both represented on this cd. Pujol's
monumental guitar school is loaded with technical ideas and
directions mainly based on Tarrega's teaching principles. He also
worked with the Spanish guitar maker Antonio Torres in giving the
instrument the shape it has today. He is also the master of a
number of ground-breaking transcriptions of i.e. Bach, and many
Spanish composers among which Albeniz is especially notable.
Albeniz is supposed to have said that Tarrega's guitar
transcriptions were superior to his own original piano versions.
There may be some truth to that since Albeniz' work mainly is
known in transcriptions by Tarrega and others. Here I have chosen
to play some of the most beloved of Tarrega's pieces.
*)Today these recordings can be found on the cd Arabesca, the
Danish Odeon Recordings, distributed by Classico
**) Degen's compositions for cello and guitar have been recorded
on Classico by the cellist Morten Zeuthen and Erling Mldrup