How did I end up going to Spain to study guitar? As part of my discovery of classical music I discovered that classical guitar existed. One of the first albums I owned was Christopher Parkening's debut album. which contained a recording of the Chaconne from the Partita no. 2 for solo violin in D minor. This is one of the greatest pieces of music ever written, probably the longest single movement in the whole Baroque period. When Segovia decided to transcribe it for guitar, that was a moment of sheer genius. It sounds great on guitar and went a long way to win the classical guitar a place on the concert stage.
As I started my classical guitar journey I was surprised to discover that the only people I could go to for lessons were themselves amateurs of limited ability. The classical guitar did not exist in the West Coast Canadian musical scene. So after going to a succession of guitar teachers and leaving them after six months when I had learned everything they had to teach I ended up commuting to Vancouver which involved a four-hour bus and ferry trip. I had discovered a good teacher named Teo Bagchus who had studied in Spain with José Tomás. After a few months with him he suggested that I needed to go to Spain as well. He told me a little about Tomás and I realized that this was the maestro I had been looking for. In some ways the classical guitar world is a little like a medieval guild--you have to go sit at the feet of a master.
So I said to Teo, "what do I do? Phone him? Write a letter?" Teo said, "well, he doesn't answer letters and he doesn't have a phone. You have to go and knock on his door." In order to get ready for this trip I needed some cash so I went to work for the BC Ministry of Education in the data services branch--the only normal job I have ever had. I realized I had to have a proper concert guitar and my research revealed that there was a builder in Madrid, José Ramirez, that had made guitars for Segovia, so I wrote to them and ordered one to be picked up when I arrived in Spain. The cost back then was a mere $650 CAN.
I arrived in Madrid in January of 1974 and spent most of the year there. My visit to the Ramirez store was interesting. They gave me a guitar to try out and after hearing me play a little Manuel Ponce, they escorted me downstairs to a private room. The walls were lined with guitars in glass cases, some once having belonged to Segovia.
I keep mentioning Andrés Segovia assuming you know who I mean. He was born in 1893, played his first concert in 1909 and his last in Los Angeles in 1987 when he was 94. He passed away a few months later. He never retired. He put the classical guitar on the international concert stage almost single-handed. His notable disciples included Alirio Diaz from Venezuela, Oscar Ghiglia from Italy, José Tomás from Spain and a later generation including Michael Lorimer from the US and John Williams from England. I had the good fortune to study with Oscar Ghiglia as well as José Tomás. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
I got to choose among three or four Ramirez guitars, all of them first-class concert instruments. Then I jumped on the train to Alicante. The folks in the Ramirez store kindly gave me Tomás' address. I remember it was Taquigrafo Marti something. So I went and, somewhat apprehensively, knocked on his door. He lived in a second floor apartment. A rather large man answered the door and when he heard I was a student of Teo, he was quite friendly. He asked what I was working on and when I mentioned a couple of etudes by Villa-Lobos that seemed to be an adequate audition. He said he was leaving for Japan to give master-classes there and would be back in three weeks and we could start lessons then.
Speaking of auditions, I forgot to mention my audition for UVic. When I first arrived at the music department a few weeks before classes were due to start, they told me I had to audition which I hadn't realized. I didn't even have my guitar with me. The secretary beckoned a tall distinguished gentleman over. This was George Corwin, the conductor of the choir and orchestra. He took me into a little practice room with a piano and had me sing back some high and low notes. Then he played some intervals for me to sing back and finally some chords asking if they were major, minor or diminished. It took about two minutes. As I had been singing in a rock and blues band for a few years, it was not difficult. The truth is, you can actually tell if someone has much musical ability this easily.
Here I have written a whole post and I haven't even gotten to my first lesson with Tomás. Next time! Let's end with one of those etudes by Villa-Lobos. This is no. 8 and sorry I don't have my own recording of it.
This is John Williams:
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