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PACOP~A 
Paco Peria is one of the foremost flamenco guitarists in the world. He has 
dedicated himself to conserve pure flamenco music, following in the footsteps of 
great guitarists like Ramon Montoya and Sabicas. 
His reputation as one of the outstanding exponents of flamenco guitar has spread and he has performed all 
over the United Kingdom and in most of the European countries. He has also played in Canada, Japan, 
made three highly successful tours of Australia and given a recital at the Hong Kong Festival. 
Paco Peria appears regularly on British Television and has made several best-selling records for DECCA 
and PHILlPS. He has played a season of Flamenco at Ronnie Scott's jazz club, and taken part in a concert 
performance of Falla's La Vida Breve with Victoria de los Angeles at the Royal Albert Hall. His shared 
recitals with John Williams have been a great success both in England and abroad. 
Paco Peria uses D'Addario Pro Arte guitar strings exclusively. 
For full 
details of this year's 
International Flamenco 
Guitar Seminar 
Write: Centro Flamenco 
Paco Pena 
Calle Reloj. No 7 
Cordoba, Spain 
CLASSICAL GUITAR 
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1982 Vol. 1, No. 1 
5 Classical Guitar News - Colin Cooper 
7 Concert Diary - Colin Cooper 
9 Julian Bream, The Contribution - John W. Duarte 
11 Los Romeros - Graham Wade 
14 Scales - A Necessary Evil? - Neil Smith 
16 Paganini and the Guitar - Harvey Hope 
18 Harmony for Guitarists - John W. Duarte 
20 Music Supplement - Edited by Neil Smith 
31 Analysis of Prelude by J. S. Bach - Oliver Hunt 
35 Music Reviews 
39 Record Reviews 
42 Concert Reviews 
49 Classical Guitar Teachers 
Features Editor: Martin Beaumont 
Reviews Editor: John W. Duarte 
Correspondence Editor: Graham Wade 
Concert Diary Editor: Colin Cooper 
Historical Editor: Harvey Hope 
Music Supplement Editor: Neil Smith 
Regular Contributors: Alice Artzt, Raymond Burley, 
Mary Criswick, Prances Gray, Oliver Hunt, Chris Kilvington, 
Ivor Mairants, Jorge Morel, David Russell, Charles Scott, 
Maurice J. Summerfield, June Yakeley 
Advertisements: J. Bell 
ADVERTISEMENTS 
All advertisements to be addressed to: 
J. Bell, Classical Guitar, 
Saltmeadows Road, Gateshead NE8 3AJ 
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3 
Julian Bream - page 9 
Los Romeros - page 11 
Paganini - page 16 
-------------------------------
EDITORIAL.........................._ 
This is the first issue of the only magazine in Britain to be 
devoted entirely to the interests of players of the classic 
guitar. The exclusion of guitars of other kinds, except where 
they are relevant to our main interest, does not mean that 
we disapprove of them; it does mean that we are not in the 
business of providing classic guitarists with halfa magazine 
- or, if you put it another way, with one whose real cost is 
twice the cover-price. What you may expect to find in our 
pages is spelled out elsewhere and need not be repeated 
here; it's more or less what you might expect and our first 
concern will be to maintain a high quality and level of 
interest. Though we shall have our own, regular writers our 
pages are open to anyone with something worthwhile to 
communicate, whether in the form of articles, news, music 
or a simple letter to the Editor. This will be your magazine 
in every good sense of the word. 
Just as important is what you will not find in our pages. 
They will be closed to cheap sensationalism, politics 
(professional or amateur), personal attacks and feuds, and 
all matters that might give employment to the legal profes­
sion on either side of a case of libel. Those who, like the old 
ladies who knitted at the foot of the guillotine in 18th­
century France, revel in such things will have to seek them 
elsewhere. Neither will we print bad language with the 
excuse that it is 'telling it like it was' or preserving the 
'flavour' of the interview. 
If this is a policy that appeals to you, read on - and 
carry on doing it. Your suggestions for the improvement of 
the magazine will be welcomed and, where practicable, 
acted upon. It remains only to say 'Welcome to our pages 
- and help up to keep them worthwhile, live and clean'. 
MARTIN BEAUMONT 
(Features Editor) 
The review pages will cover records, sheet music and books; 
among these will be a proportion of outstanding issues from 
other countries which may be difficult (or even impossible) 
to buy in Britain. In these latter cases we shall give the 
addresses from which they may be obtained. From time to 
time we shall publish reviews of records that are not new 
issues, since all readers will not be familiar with everything 
available, and comparative surveys of recordings or printed 
editions of particular music. In the case of concerts we plan 
to cover the majority of those given in London and, in addi­
tion, a selected number of events in the provinces. In short, 
we shall try to give maximum coverage of what is on ofTer. 
JOHN DUARTE 
(Reviews Editor) 
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CLASSICAL GUITAR NEWS 
Tsuyoshi Horiuchi with Andres Segovia 
Tragic echo 
The Segovia International Guitar 
Competition at Leeds Castle last 
October generated a fitting euphoria 
that has been sadly muted by a subse­
quent event, surrounded by less 
certainty than even the more 
responsible media reports have 
suggested. 
It concerns the winner, Tsuyoshi 
Horiuchi. At the end of the television 
programme based on the Competition 
it was stated, with fitting solemnity, 
that, five months after the event, 
Horiuchi had suffered permanent 
damage to his left hand and would 
never play again. 
That statement is precisely true. 
However, rumours and 'from the 
horse's mouth' reports had preceded 
the official statement by quite some 
time and, together with reports in the 
national press, created a confused 
impression. Having investigated the 
matter as fully as possible, we have 
established that after the Competition 
Horiuchi was delighted by his success 
and was looking forward to the 
prospect of making the recording and 
fulftlling the numerous concerts that 
were a part of it. He took a brief 
holiday in Japan at Christmas and 
returned to England early in the new 
year, after which his attitude seemed 
to change. Sometime during February 
he suffered the loss of the first one or 
two phalanxes of his left-hand little~CII_~ 
-
i 
ANONYMOUSWhy Ask You? ARRANGED FOR GUITAR 
BY 
JOHN W. DUARTE 
No. 161 
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ANONYMOUSWatkin's Ale ARRANGED FOR GUITAR 
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No. 180 
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26 
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ANONYMOUS 
ARRANGED FOR GUITAR ~ ~ Can She? 
BY 
JOHN W. DUARTE 
No. 188 
1 
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,/....r, 
A Theoretical-Practica l Method for the Guitar 
Based on the Principles of Francisco Tdrrega 
VOL U M ES 1 & I1 
(publ ished ' IS a , ing k vo lulllc) 
hanslated hy BrJan Jef/ery 
Special pre-publication price (until October 1, 1982): £I0 pas/free. 
Exclusive di stribut ion for the U.K . and Brit ish Commonwcalrh: 
Te cla Edit ions , Preachers ' Court, Chartcrhousc, London EC1M 6AS. 
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1 October 1982 in order to qualify fo r the speci al pre-publication price. 
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29 
" 
Analysis of the Prelude from the 
Prelude, Fugue and Allegro (BMV998) by Bach 
by OLIVER HUNT 
THIS is the first in a series of three articles. The second will 
consider the phrasing and interpretation of the Prelude and 
the last will be concerned with the fingering. I recommend 
the Kalmus Study Scores which can be obtained from 
Universal Edition. This is a publication of the original 
Gesellschaft edition. 
One cannot make intelligent choices about phrasing and 
dynamics or for that matter even fingering until one has 
analysed the piece. Since music takes place in time, a good 
analysis should also concern itself with the passage of 
musical events in time and the way these events interlock 
and diverge. I therefore think it a good idea to organise ones 
analysis on different levels. When one talks about levels, one 
refers to the highest level and then a succession of levels 
moving down to lower ones. High levels take in relatively 
longer stretches of time and lower levels take in relatively 
shorter stretches of time. One may list these starting with 
the highest. There are certain other aspects which are not 
necessarily so neatly time-centred, Modulation, Harmony 
and Rhythm are other aspects that will be considered later. 
These are not necessarily hierarchic in their time-spans. 
Repetition and variation must also be looked for in any 
analysis. Repetition is not confined to themes; the're are 
repetitions of processes, structures and keys. All these 
things should be shown in good analysis. 
I have analysed this piece in the form of a matrix. The 
horizontal axis shows the duration of the piece in bars and 
the vertical axis shows the compositional parameters. 
Looking at this matrix I believe that one can make an 
observation about good continuation in a composition. This 
law, roughly speaking, is stated as follows: Rarely do all the 
parameters in a piece change at the same time. I shall now 
explain the terms used in the vertical axis of the matrix. 
1. Section. A represents a recurring idea, B, C, D etc, 
represent variations. 
2. Phrase. Phrases always end with perfect cadences and 
represent self-sufficient ideas or groups of ideas. Sub­
phrases represent modifications or changes of ideas within 
phrases not usually ending with perfect cadences unless 
they occur between sequences as they do in between bars 
11, 12 and 21. These are not generally regarded as cadences 
because they do not coincide with the end of a process. 
3. Modulation. T = Tonic, D = Dominant, ST = Super 
Tonic, R = Relative, M = Mediant, SD = Sub-dominant 
and lower-case m = minor. All keys are reckoned from the 
tonic. 
4. The Motive. The auxiliary note motive which occurs on 
the 1st and 2nd beat of bar 1 is repeated throughout the 
entire piece. The shaded areas represent the bars in which it 
appears. 
5. Rhythm. The rhythm likewise remains constant except 
for bar 40 which is also shaded. It can be seen from this 
matrix that at no point do all parameters change 
simultaneously; there are constant overlaps. Even at bar 40 
where the degree of change is most striking, i.e. the division 
of the sub-phrase, the modulation and the absence of the 
principal motives and a break in the rhythm. There remain 
two constants. First, there is no clearly defined cadence. 
Second, the break does not coincide with the final return of 
a 5. I believe this whole question of parametric overlap to 
be one of the principal hallmarks of good composition. 
Repetition and variation alone will not guarantee good 
continuation. 
Formal aspects not shown in the matrix. Space does not 
allow a complete harmonic analysis but it shouldbe done as 
follows: 
I quote bars 11 and 12. For chord symbols I recommend 
a combination of Roman numerals and figured bass. 
Modulations are illustrated by a double set of numerals 
which show the pivot chord connection between the two 
keys. The different keys are shown by the above abbrevia­
tions in the matrix. The letter U means an unessential note 
not belonging to the prevailing harmony. The distinction 
between chord tones and unessential notes is most 
important when deciding upon good fingering, which I shall 
discuss in the final essay. 
Higher Level Harmony Analysis, 
I quote a condensed form of bars 1-11. It can be seen that 
scales can be excised from the welter of melodic activity on 
a . higher level. I will propose a tentative set of axioms in 
order to determine what gives these scale tones their 
MOVEMENT p R E L u D E 
FinalSECTION Al c A3 D A4 E As Section 
PHRASE 
SUB PHRASE 
MODULATION 
MOTIVE 
RHYTHM 
30 
--,
 
privileged position - tentative because this form of 
analysis, based on the theories of Heinrich Schenker, is 
rather controversial. 
1. They are usually harmony notes. 
2. They may be mobile while other notes remain static. 
3. They are often to be found in the highest and lowest 
registers, when they fulftl some but not all of the above con­
ditions, e.g. the E in bar 4, the D in bar 5, the B in bar 9 and 
the A in bar 10. They will be harmony notes which occur 
either more often than others or their duration; explicit or 
implied, will be longer. In other words, they must be 
prominent in some way to justify their privileged position. 
BARS 11 AND 12 
UFig. 2 
## J J .J J J~ ­(T)r r 
11611 
BARS 1 to 11 
Fig . 3 .L~ .. 1­ .. • 
Schenker attempts to prove that these higher level scales or 
Uhrlinien, as he calls them, dominate entire movements. I 
think, however, that the consistency of this idea is difficult 
to demonstrate over longer time-stretches. I believe that the 
concept of the Uhrlinie is useful on a fairly low foreground 
level and that one should never attempt to force music into 
a priori concepts which do not fit the musical facts 
satisfactorily. The purpose of the Uhrlinie is to demonstrate 
the main thrust and direction of the music in order that the 
performer may not be bogged down by too much 
extraneous detail. 
There is much more that I could say about this move­
ment. What I have said can be only an outline of a method. 
U U u 
.J J J J rJ J j [J J 
r r (Rm) r r
y6 yl6Y 5 I 6 YI 5 
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32 
'MY FIFTY FRETTING YEARS' 
by 
IVOR MAIRANTS 
What the Press said . .. 
"Essential reading for anyone having the slightest interest in the guitar, played in whatever 
genre of music." ACOUSTIC MUSIC 
"The book is essential reading for guitar lovers, but it will also appeal to dance band 
enthusiasts and jazz collectors." JAZZ JOURNAL 
"This book will be a source of abiding pleasure to all guitar lovers and must find a place on their bookshelves." FRETWIRE 
"My Fifty Fretting Years" is going to be a must for guitarists of all styles." MUSIC TRADES INTERNATIONAL 
"This week-end I read with complete delight a book called "My Fifty Fretting Years". I think it's a tremendous and very 
entertaining book." BRIAN MATTHEW, BBC Radio 2 
"A detailed description of this master guitarist's involvement with the guitar in all its forms." MUSIC WORLD 
"To celebrate his 50 years associated with the field of fretted instruments, Ivor Mairants has put pen to paper and 
compiled a book written in an easy to read chatty style." GUITAR MAGAZINE 
"Most people who have never done more than merely strum on a guitar, in no matter what style, will want to 
know about "My Fifty Fretting Years". I should have found this squat volume enjoyable had it contained no 
more than the autobiographical part. Without any pretentious straining after a literary style, Ivor ~~ 
fills in some fascinating detail about the history of popular music and jazz in this country ON '"' Available 
from goodfrom the late 20s onwards. The larger portion of the book is a detailed examination G 	 book shops everywhere 
but in case of difficultyof guitars and guitarists." 	 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH available direct from the publishers 
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", 
REVIEWS(§II~~~~~~music 
IMPRESSIONS FOR GUITAR by Ruth 
Nunn 
Punchbowl Music. £2.50. 
First impressions are important and I 
think a cover that only grudgingly reveals 
the title will not help this book. There are 
seven pieces which, I recaiI, were 
originally written as illustrations for a 
series of teaching notes in a magazine; 
this may be why two have helpful sub­
titles - 'The Shepherd Piper - a legato 
study in 3rd position' but why not the 
others? The pieces appear to have been 
assembled in suitable 'batting order' but 
with littlethought of inspection before 
taking the field. Only one, for instance, 
has a metronome-marked speed. The 
sunken Cathedral is the only one with an 
alternative part 'for small hands' but the 
replaced chords are not really difficult 
anyway - and are small-handed 
guitarists going to buy the book for one 
piece, one invoking comparisons with a 
rather better-known, French depiction of 
the same unusual subject? Fire Dance is 
claimed to be 'a study in 2nd position' but 
I see little evidence of this, except in the 
little run of quavers in the last two bars 
- when the fire has gone out; the rhythm 
is less insistent than the title of 'dance' 
implies. 
Birds migrating is quite pleasing to 
play, the fmgers 'migrating' up and down 
the fmgerboard in shifting positions, and 
the 'cuckoo' in harmonics adds a wistful 
charm to the end - do cuckoos migrate? 
The Shepherd Piper calls for the remark­
able feat of making a crescendo through a 
tied note, four times. Winter Landscape is 
pleasant enough, and falls well under the 
hand, but I feel that, as in most of these 
pieces, the musical ideas are less fully 
developed than they might be. In this and 
four of the others the composer resorts to 
an A-B-A plan; ternary form is con­
venient to work in, but not necesarily 
expressive of the way one sees a land­
scape, migrating birds, or any of the other 
subjects. Snatches of ticks, tocks, chimes 
and cuckoos are put together, not very 
convincingly, in Clock Fantasy. Clocks 
are mechanical things and seem to call for 
a steady (crotchet) beat amid the other 
goings-on, even if the spring does run 
down from time to time. 
By a Sussex River Bank has long, 
sustained, six-note chords alternated with 
rippling arpeggios that make full use of 
different sonorities by having the lowest 
two strings retuned, but again the music 
leads us nowhere, too brief a glimpse. 
The music is clearly fingered and 
printed; the composer rates the level of 
difficulty as Grade Ill-IV. The book is 
unlikely to be snapped up greedily by 
younger or less experienced players since 
there is music of a more appealing (even 
exciting) nature readily available. The 
34 
pieces are, by their very nature, inward­
looking statements of their composer's 
own 'impressions' and not, I feel, likely to 
appeal to a wide 'market'. 
Frances Gray 
Punchbowl Music, Leigh Heights, 
Haslemere Road, Hindhead, Surrey. 
HOMAGE TO ANTONIO LAURO 
(THREE WALTZES) Op. 83 for guitar 
solo by John Duarte. 
London/Universal Edition UE 29170, 
£1.50 
The guitar works. of the Venezuelan 
guitarist and composer, Antonio Lauro 
are popular throughout the world, due 
principally to guitarist and fellow 
countryman, Alirio Diaz. The most 
popular pieces are, without doubt, the 
various Valses Venezolanos. 
John Duarte's Homage to Antonio 
Lauro consists of three waltzes in 'el 
estilo Venezolano', written firmly in the 
Lauro tradition, including much use of 
the 3/4, 6/8 hemiola rhythm. As we have 
come to expect from John Duarte, the 
three pieces are skillfully and thoughtfully 
constructed. 
The Waltzes are marked Moderato 
con grazia. Andante espressivo (with D 
tuning), and Ritmico e con brio (in rondo 
form). 
The Homage to Antonio Lauro is 
, slightly easier to play than the majority of 
the published Lauro waltzes and could be 
programmed very effectively alongside 
Lauro's original compositions, or indeed, 
as a welcome alternative. 
The printed fingering is adequate and 
the few misprints are easily identifiable. 
Raymond Burley 
INSIEME Op. nfor guitar and 
harpsichord (or piano) by John Duarte 
Ancona/Berben 2366, n.p. 
The repertoire for guitar and harpsichord 
is far from large, in fact, works of sub­
stance can virtually be counted on the 
fingers of two hands. The publication of a 
new work for this medium is indeed an 
exciting event, particularly when it is an 
item of quality, as in this case. Insieme is 
dear to me as I was 'present at the birth' 
and, together with harpsichordist Stephen 
Bell, gave the first performance at the 
Wigmore Hall in June 1978 and the first 
broadcast performance on BBC Radio 3 
shortly aftwards. Insieme is the result of a 
suggestion from Segovia to Duarte in the 
late 1960s, that he and Mario 
Castelnuovo-Tedesco should exchange 
themes in order that each might write 
works based on the other's material. At 
the beginning of 1968 a theme arrived 
from Castelnuovo-Tedesco, however, 
before Duarte could send his contribu­
tion, Tedesco died. The theme remained 
unused until 1978 when Op. 72 was com­
menced. 
Insieme (meaning 'together' in 
Castelnuovo-Tedesco's native language, 
Italian) consists of a haunting chromatic 
theme followed by five contrasting varia­
tions and a Finale. The variations are 
marked, Un poco agitato, Alla marcia, 
Largo e dignitoso, Scherzoso and Alla 
siciliana. The Finale, which is in the form 
of a Passacaglia may also be considered 
as an extended variation. 
The work is tonal and effective use is 
made of the chromatic scale and 
chromatic harmony. Castelnuovo­
Tedesco's style is very much in evidence 
at all times. The playing standard of the 
individual parts is moderate and no feats 
of virtuosity are called for. 
The music is printed in full score - a 
separate guitar part not being necessary 
as page turns are in convenient places. 
The absence of fingering should not deter 
the guitarist from attempting the work as 
any problems in this direction can be 
easily overcome. The few misprints that 
exist are obvious with, perhaps, the 
exception of the missing ties connecting 
the fmal two chords in the guitar part. 
Raymond Burley 
ENGLISH SUITE No. 2 Op. 77 for two 
guitars by John Duarte 
London/Universal Edition UE 29169, 
£2.00 
During the last century there has been a 
renewal of interest in the English 
folksong, which can be attributed largely 
to the collecting and cataloguing by Cecil 
Sharp and Ralph Vaughari Williams 
amongst others. There is no better way of 
keeping this valuable music alive, than by 
performing it. 
John Duarte's English Suite No. 2, like 
English Suite No. 1 for solo guitar, No. 3 
for four guitars and No. 4 for recorder 
and guitar, comprises English folksong 
melodies and composed material which 
together provide a work which is both 
interesting and charming. The Suite was 
written at the request of the Gre.ek guitar 
duo, Evangelos and Liza, who also gave 
the first performance in the Wigmore Hall 
on the 2 May 1980. 
The work is in three movements 
marked, Cheerfully, Lyrical and Smooth, 
and Brightly. The opening movement 
uses the Somerset folksong, The Brisk 
Young Widow as its main theme, consist­
ing of two-part writing in the outer sec­
tions and a chordal' accompaniment in the 
slower central section. The slow second 
movement uses the Essex song, The Lost 
Lady Found and is both expressive and 
••••••• ••• 
moving. The final movement is in the 
form of a rondo and uses the Hampshire 
song, Sing Ivy, together with Gently, 
Johnny, my Jingalo as the central couplet. 
Percussion on the sound board is featured 
in the 2nd guitar part at both the begin­
ning and end of the movement. 
English Suite No. 2 is extremely well 
written and is of moderate difficulty. It is 
almost impossible to detect where 
folksong ends and Duarte begins. The 
work as a whole has immediate appeal 
but any duo contemplating its inclusion in 
a recital programme need not fear that 
the quality is in any way inferior. 
The printed layout of the music does 
not allow for page turns in performance 
and duos must find their own solution to 
this problem. Having played this Suite 
from a manuscript copy in concerts and 
recordings since April 1980, together 
with John Mills, I found the printed 
fingering (supplied by Evangelos and 
Liza) seemed foreign to me. This, of 
course, does not make it ineffective but I 
found it unimaginative and did not find if 
helpful. 
The Foreword, as with all Duarte edi­
tions, is clear, concise andinformative. 
Raymond Burley 
PETIT NOCTURNE for guitar solo by 
Stepim Rak. 
Helsinki/Chorus Publications. £1.25. 
Ashley Mark Publishing Company, 
Gateshead NE8 3AJ 
Stepiln Rak is a very resourceful guitarist 
and composer who lives in 
Czechoslovakia but lived and worked for 
some time in Jyviiskylii (Finland); his 
most eloquent advocate is Vladimir 
Mikulka, to whom this piece is dedicated. 
The Petit Nocturne, despite its spicing 
with diatonic dissonances, is an agreeably 
sentimental A lbumblatt whose melody 
overcomes passing harmonic nudges in 
other, 'flatter' directions. Hardly long 
enough to stand alone in a concert 
programme, its two pages are a little 
harder to play than its mainly clean 
appearance suggests (about Grade VII, 
I'd say) but they would make an accept­
able change for players (and audiences) 
not yet ready for what the 20th century 
has brought. A barre given at III instead 
of 11 (page 1, system 3, bar 1) is the only 
printing error I have detected. 
John Duarte 
THREE EQUAL THOUGHTS fur 
guitar solo by Kari Karjalainen. 
Helsinki/Chrous Publications. £1.25. 
Ashley Mark Publishing Company, 
Gateshead NE8 3AJ 
A ternary structure (largo, allegro, largo) 
frames a somewhat austere work in free­
atonal language; the complete unfolding 
of the note-row ends with the first note of 
bar six but not before six repetitions have 
intervened. The piece is pervaded by a 
three-note cell, appearing at various 
levels, with variations of its pitch-profile 
and many rhythmic transformations. Its 
avoidance of 'tonal' patterns of rhythm, 
though not via serialization, calls for 
careful counting and much slow practice. 
The two pages of music need about four 
minutes to play and to describe the 
required technical level as not higher than 
Grade VII is insufficient - a far more 
developed grasp of music is needed than 
that rating usually implies. This is a study 
piece rather than concert material. 
Imprint is needle-sharp but fingering, 
often mildly cryptic, is shown in hair-line 
figures that are not always as clearly 
visible as they might be. 
John Duarte 
PIERROT for two guitars by Gilbert 
Biberian 
London/Chester 55158 
To keep Colombine company, what could 
be more fitting than a substantial Perrot, 
with Harlequin soon to complete the 
trilogy? It's not simply a matter of instru­
mental weight - her 600 bars (ca) are 
topped by his 879, two lengthy works by 
any reasonable standard. It is the whole, 
rather than the component parts, which is 
long; Biberian describes the work as: 'A 
collection of short, study-like pieces 
bound together organically in order to 
make a large-scale composition. The 
structure is very simple: Prelude; Theme 
(Au Clair de la Lune Mon Ami Pierrot) 
and six variations; Cadenza; Waltz; Link 
passage recalling the Prelude; Round 
Dance; Postlude'. Those dependent on 
the good old-fashioned crutch of tonality 
will fmd little to cling to; and what little 
there is soon becomes a tantalizing 
chimera. Two variations confirm their 
bitonality by employing different key­
signatures for the two parts, though 
bitonality arrives elsewhere without 
benefit of advertisement. in his foreword 
Biberian says that the piece should be 
well within the grasp of students who 
have played for three or four years, 
having learnt the studies of Carulli, Sor, 
Aguado and Carcassi. Technically speak­
ing this is true, though a little more must 
be added to offset the difficulty of playing 
such duo music, but those brought up on 
such a utilitarian diet will suffer severe 
culture shock! If this seems to be spelling 
out a deterrent, it is not. No feat of 
virtuosity is required in either part (most 
of the activity is within the first seven 
frets), successive changes of metre and 
timing problems will yield to careful 
counting, and what may at first sound 
offensive will become piquant if goodwill 
persists; even such delicacies as caviare, 
olives and escargots seldom appeal to 
unsophisticated taste-buds and it takes 
time to learn to love dry wines. The 
avoidance of such aural challenge helps 
to keep the guitar in the retarded state in 
which unrelieved exposure to the early 
19th century all too easily leaves it. Try 
this, persevere with it and reap your 
rewards. 
As with Colombine there are move­
ments that invite (virtually compel) free 
dance or mime and others which sustain a 
constant metre and permit a more formal 
treatment. The two works, indeed the 
trilogy when completed, are designed to 
be performed successively, in one large­
scale enterprise of music and movement, 
occupying dimensions that are new to the 
realm of guitar music. To bring it to 
reality demands more, however, than the 
Old Brigade, singing its Old Songs, is 
likely to offer at the moment. More's the 
pity. 
John Duarte 
FINGERSTYLE GUITAR ­
FURTHER STEPS by Doug Kennedy. 
pp 48. 
Punchbowl Music. £2.95. 
Seeing a guitarist on the front cover 
apparently playing his instrument while 
resting it on someone else's knee, I felt 
uneasy about this book before even 
opening it. Reading that here was yet 
another attempt to 'bridge the Great 
Classical/Folk/Rock Divide' did nothing 
to dispel my fears. 
Why does an author attempt this 
daunting task when it is obvious to most 
that the objective is not attainable in a 
book of this size, and is probably 
unnecessary anyhow? Most musicians, 
guitarists included, are quite capable of 
bridging gaps if that is what they really 
desire. Is there really a Great Divide? At 
classical guitar Summer schools I never 
cease to be amazed at the wide variety of 
(musical) activities that take place after 
the beer has started to flow in the evening. 
The choice is ours - classical, folk, jazz, 
flamenco, blues. We can be as broad- or 
as narrow-minded as we choose; no-one 
needs to be wooed with empty promises 
that, for £2.95, we can have all, or at least 
some, of our musical desires satisfied. 
The present book is a hotch-potch of folk, 
classical, ragtime and blues, with an 
occasional page of 'theory' thrown in. 
As a folk-song repertoire book it 
rather overdoes things: having described 
four different 'clawhammer' techniques 
(for nail players?) the author needs only 
to give melody line, words and chord 
symbols for the reader to have fun with 
Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Ralph McTell 
and the other numbers included. The 
essence of folk music is individual 
interpretation, but Kennedy gives his 
own, rather ordinary accompaniments in 
full, in staff notation and in tablature. 
Most of the songs are set too high for the 
average voice - I can't reach so many 
high Gs, even after opening time. 
In the 'classical' solos he gives too 
little, apart from the fact that the chosen 
pieces are readily available in better 
printed editions - yes, the Spanish 
Ballad is here? The negligible help with 
36 
technique or interpretation appears in the 
general scheme of things much as a home 
decorator ft11s in cracks in the plaster and 
woodwork. 
It is difficult to believe that pupils 
learn happily by this 'whim and fancy' 
method; on page 25, for example, the 
author has a whim to give some helpful 
information on minor scales, but you 
have to turn a good 15 pages either way 
before meeting any minor-key music. 
'Followed from page to page, this book 
plots a gradual logical course', the 
introduction states: on page 31 we learn 
that 'When two or more notes are played 
together, this is called a CHORD' ­
Basic chord progressions are dealt with 
on page 3 and barre chords on page 22. 
Some information is misleading and some 
downright incorrect: 'A major triad con­
sists of TONIC, major 3rd and perfect 
5th', the misuse of 'tonic' (instead of 
'root') continues for a whole page - no 
misprint here. 
The illustrations, some of the poorest 
I've seen, simply add to ones general 
apprehension regarding what seems to be 
a hastily assembled book. It is unlikely to 
cause any real damage to potential 
guitarists butcertainly does nothing 
worthwhile. 
Frances Gray 
FANT ASIAS AMAZONICAS for 
guitar solo by Francis Schwarz 
Editions Musicales Transatlantiques 
(U.M.P.) £1.57 
The titles of the various sections ­
Totem, Mystery canoe and The bat cave, 
are certainly evocative of the Amazonian 
jungle, as are the trilingual passages from 
an unidentified travel book attached to 
them. They are three quite effective little 
free-style pieces: Totem uses tambora 
effects to create a sinister sound from an 
unusual chord; the second piece, using 
'fmgernail rasps' on the bass strings, is 
less successful. The bat cave is perhaps 
the best movement, with eerie trills, 
chromatic slides and slurs to paint its 
picture. The signs and symbols are 
explained. Pleasant amusement for a 
player of Grade 5 (or better) but, for a 
mere three pages, distinctly pricey. 
Neil Smith 
PLEIN CIEL for guitar solo by Marc 
Bleuse 
Editions Choudens (U.M.P.) £2.90 
Dedicated to Alexandre Lagoya, this is a 
modern, free-style work, straight­
forwardly written without 'special effects'. 
The tritone, with which it opens, plays an 
important role and the rhythmically 
attractive opening phrase recurs fre­
quently, giving the work a measure of 
unity. A player at or above Grade 7, 
looking for a forceful single-movement 
piece and 'in tune' with the music of 
Stephen Dodgson, might find this 
interesting; there are 7 pages of music. 
MORGONRODNAD for flute and 
guitar by Jack Mattesson 
Helsinki/Chorus Publications. £1.50. 
Ashley Mark Publishing Company, 
Gateshead NE8 3AJ 
The title means 'morning blush' (dawn) 
but its red sky holds no warning for 
sailors, shepherds, flautists or guitarists. 
The flute (or violin, a piacere) sings a 
simple, sustained melody above arpeggios 
that ripple from start to fmish. A third 
stave gives the bass line alone, for use by 
a cellist who, in the interests of not 
obscuring the guitar, would do well to 
consider using a nicely rounded pizzicato. 
The music is firmly tonal- home-base is 
G major, its harmonic surprises being 
gentle and easily fmgered (comfortably 
within Grade Ill-IV); one might 
paraphrase Thomas Morley by saying 
that 'no extraordinary motions are used 
in the playing of it'.> Total absence of 
tempo or dynamic markings leaves the 
field open for the imagination to move in. 
With a mere 42 bars (including a repeat 
of 16) it is too brief for a concert piece 
but it might make a pleasant little encore 
item. 
John Duarte 
COLOMBINE (SUITE) for solo guitar 
by Gilbert Biberian 
London/Chester 55260 
Even more economically than those 
baroque composers who rewrote some of 
their works for different media and 
purposes, Biberian suggests varied uses to 
which this one work, Colombine, may be 
put - as music for pleasure or study 
(like most worthwhile music may be 
treated) and as accompaniment to perfor­
mances of ballet or mime. He suggests 
also that shorter suites may be 'con­
structed' from selections from its eight 
movements, as was the case with many 
baroque suites. Though the music is by 
no means baroque there are thematic and 
motivic atTmities among the movements, 
giving them a feeling of unity - shared 
by many suites of Bach, Handel et al. To 
reinforot"the study aspect there are notes 
defming the main points of musical 
and/or technical interest in each move­
ment, though one might reasonably 
expect many students to be both familiar 
with and proficient in these after three 
years or more, the level of player to which 
the work is addressed. The music is not 
difficult to play, though not quite as easy 
as its clean appearance suggests, and it is 
both gratefully guitaristic and attractive; 
much of the difficulty resides in negotiat­
ing the changes of time and tempo in 
some movements - recource to a 
metronome is advisable in the pre­
paratory stage. The same changes, some­
times approaching the kaleidoscopic in 
pace and mood, enhance the suitability of 
the music as a substrate for free ballet or 
mime, inviting matching movements and 
gestures rather than the classic framing of 
dance steps within a steady pulse 
maintained over long periods. However, 
setting aside such ancilliary purposes, this 
is most enjoyable guitar music, clean-cut 
and, though deploying compatible idioms 
the 19th-century would not have 
welcomed, never abstruse or gratuitously 
intellectual. Fingering is comprehensive, 
with few unavoidable awkwardnesses 
imprint is clear, spacing is generous, 
without overcrowding and, horizontally, 
roughly proportional to note durations. 
PIECES FOR POLITA for guitar by 
Richard Stoker, ed. John Duarte 
London/Ricordi LD678. £3.50 
FIFTEEN MINUTES for guitar by 
Colin Head, ed. John Duarte. 
London/Ricordi LD667. £3.50 
GREAT BAROQUE ARIAS for voice 
and guitar, arr. John Gavall. 
London/Ricordi LD660. £4.00 
Richard Stoker's contribution to the 
repertoire at recital level is by now well 
esteemed for both quality and quantity. 
Here in six 'moderately easy pieces', 
written for Polita Estarellas (spelt 
incorrectly in the Foreword!) Mr Stoker 
provides playable, idiomatic music for the 
competent guitarist. The pieces here are 
middle of the road in vocabulary and 
technical requirements, yet lyrical and 
shapely. They will prove ideal teaching 
material as each piece is reasonably 
concise and digestible in the space of a 
week for even the more indolent type of 
student. Teenagers may find these a 
useful introduction to contemporary 
musical patterns without being put off by 
a surfeit of atonality. 
Colin Hand's fifteen pieces are easier 
still, and once again fulfil a real need for 
contemporary material. Teachers and 
pupils will find this book a most useful 
compendium of approaches in terms of 
styles, techniques and musical forms. 
Some of the pieces in John Gavall's 
latest offerings such as Bist du bei mir of 
J. S. Bach and Handel's Laschia ch'io 
pianga appeared in quite different 
arrangements in another book of his 
published in 1959. Words of translations 
and accompaniments have been subjected 
to considerable revision. A most useful 
book, albeit somewhat expensive. 
Graham Wade 
THE FABULOUS 
'BOSSA IN RE' 
BY 
JORGEMOREL 
NOW AVAILABLE 
£1.50 
including post and packing UK 
from 
Ashley Mark Publishing Company 
Saltmeadows Road, Gat••head 
NEB 3AJ 
37 
NEW PUBLICATIONS FOR ALL GUITARISTS 
MUSIC FOR THE CLASSICAL GUITAR 
Fine contemporary music for classical guitar 
AM30S Bossa in Re: - Jorge Morel ........... . ........................£1 .25 
AM309 Sonatina to David Russell - Jorge Morel ..........................£2.50 
AM310 Th(ee Equal Thoughts ­ Karl Karjalainen ....................... . . . £1.25 
AM311 Petit Nocturne ­ St~pan Rak ...................................£ 1.25 
AM312 Five Etudes: I - Juan Antonio Muro .............................£ 1.25 
AM313 Four Episodes - Harri Wessman ......... . . . ....................£2.20 
AM314 Works of Preliminary Character: Veli Salonen .......................£2.50 
AM315 Nattens Akvareller - Kai Nieminen ..............................£ 1.S5 
MUSIC FOR FLUTE AND GUITAR 
AM316 Morgonrodnad ­ Jack Mattson .................................£ 1.50 
AM317 Romance - Juha Leinonen ....................................£ 1.50 
).!EU lIlY .\ :\1 ) 11.\]{).[(l\ Y 
FI)[{ 
( ;I'!T.\]{ [SrS 
MELODY AND HARMONY 
FOR GUITARISTS 
by John Duarte 
An easily readable, step-by-step account, from simple 
beginnings to the 20th century, with over 300 playable 
examples drawn from more than 200 works written for 
the guitar and its earlier relatives. By far the most com­
prehensive book of its kind ever published. 
Price: £6.90 
Universal Edition 
(Alfred A. Kalmus Ltd.) 
London Showroom: 2/3 Fareham Street, Dean Street, London 
WIV 4DU 
Trade department: 38 Eldon Way, Paddock Wood, Tonbridge 
TNl26BE 
Fingerstyle Guitar Further 
Steps 
by Doug Kennedy 
A graded logical guitar method for 2nd year guitarists, bridg­
ing the gap between classical/folk and rockstyles. It is highly 
instructive while being fun to use; and packed with technical 
tips and information never before published in one volume. 
Popular solos and duets are laid out in MUSIC AND 
TABLATURE notation, and include: 
Streets of London - Stairway to Heaven - Spanish Ballad, 
and many more. 
£2.95 + 30p post and packing 
IMPRESSIONS FOR GUITAR 
by Ruth Nunn 
Seven lovely descriptive solos for the intermediate or 
advanced guitarist. Particularly useful for students of a grade 
IV standard or above. Full of life and interest, these pieces 
explore the full range of the guitar's moods the guitarist's 
power of expression. 
£2.50 + 20p post and packing - (or post-free if ordered 
along with 'Further Steps') 
A vailable from many retailers, or direct from 
~ New .~!/IIJ 
~~CWhoWf +.$D 
Leigh Heights. Haslemere Road, Hindhead, Surrey 
, Telephone: Hindhead (042 8731 4941 
PUBLICATIONS 
KULMAVUORENKATU 7. 00500 HELSINKI 50. FINLAND 
EXCLUSIVE UK DISTRIBUTION - ASHLEY MARK PUBLISHING COMPANY, SALTMEADOWS ROAD, GATESHEAD NE8 3AJ 
38 
REVIEWS mll~~~~~~records 
F. SO~: Fantasie Op. 54; GUIDO 
SANTORSOLA: Sonata a duo; JOHN 
DUARTE: Variations on a French 
nursery song Op. 32; PIERRE PETIT: 
Toccata. 
Lars Karlsson, Michael Ljung (guitars) 
Opus 3 8201 
Karlsson and Ljung are two young 
Swedish guitarists who began playing in 
duo in 1977 under the name Duodecima 
and this is their first recording. The extent 
to which playing standards have risen in 
the last two decades is shown in the 
current work of duos no less than soloists 
since, as with the great duos of the past, 
many are composed of players of out­
standing solo ability; the duo medium is 
no longer simply a refuge for those who 
could not have made it individually. 
Shortly before her death, Ida Presti told 
me that the above two works by Petit and 
myself were the most difficult the Presti­
Lagoya duo had in its repertoire; indeed, 
after her death I was convinced that my 
own work would die also because no-one 
else would be able to play it. The conclu­
sion was mistaken - several perfor­
mances in concert were given by a few 
duos that came into being in the following 
few years. Then, in the late 70s, the piece 
was recorded by the Frankfurter Gitarren 
Duo with remarkable virtuosity but in a 
strange acoustic that left something to be 
desired. Now, to my even greater surprise 
(the Frankfurter Duo celebrated the 10th 
year of its establishment in 1981) it has 
been recorded again, this time without the 
cuts made in the 4th Variation and the 
Finale by the Frankfurt players, and 
adhering precisely to the published score. 
Other than in the making of some 
unmarked ral/entandi and pauses, and a 
few uneasy tempo transitions, I fmd this a 
magnificent performance of a work that 
demands the utmost virtuosity. 
Petit's Toccata, a pert and bustling 
piece with jazz overtones in its episodes, 
is one of the most immediately attractive 
pieces in the duo repertory, previously 
obtainable only from Presti-Lagoya on a 
long-deleted disc. Duodecima have not 
modelled their view of it on that earlier 
recording but have found their own, 
equally winsome approach - in the 
episodes, that of a younger generation to 
which jazz is a more 'natural' language, 
and they despatch it with no less 
virtuosity. The Fantasie of Sor is the only 
item available in another recording, by 
Bream and Williams (RCA RL03090), 
and it must be said that Duodecima 
match their more famous counterparts 
every step of the way in sensitivity, 
flexibility and quality of sound and, with 
the natural advantage of constant 
working as a duo rather than an 
occasional encounters, achieve a higher 
level of 'togetherness' in everything from 
timing to unanimity in articulation. 
Though Santorsola wears a variety of 
musical hats in his guitar (and other) 
works his most familiar language is that 
of 12-note writing in which rhythm is not 
serialized and the note-row itself is very 
freely treated. 'Everyman', even today 
when the technique is half a century old, 
tends to regard 12-note writing as dry, 
tuneless (it all depends what you regard 
as a 'tune') and generally 
incomprehensible; so it Can be, even in 
Santorsola's hands, but the Sonata a duo 
is a very accessible work, here played 
with the expressive freedom and propul­
sive energy usually and easily applied to 
more familiar musics. 
Duodecima play with a good range 
of clear tone, a high degree of unimity 
and precision, and sensitive (if somewhat 
'unromantic') expressiveness; the record­
ing is pristine and well balanced. On all 
counts. this is one of the most remarkable 
guitar-duo records to be issued since the 
demise of Presti-Lagoya, a required 
possession for all guitarists who are not 
guided solely by Famous Names and 
well-worn music. 
John Duarte 
Address of Opus 3 records: Box 2024, S­
691 02 Karlskoga, Sweden. 
COUPERIN: Le Tombeau de M. 
Blancrocher. McGUIRE: Suite No. 2 in 
Popular Style. BIBERIAN: Monogram. 
PONCE: Variations and Fugue on La 
Folia de Espaiia. 
John Holmquist (guitar) 
Cavata CV5001 
John Holmquist's performance of the 
Ponce work earned him a standing 
ovation and the first prize by a 
unanimous decision in the Guitar '78 
Toronto International Competition. He 
has now recorded it, and it rightly forms 
the main substance of this, his debut 
recording. At his Wigmore Hall recital 
some longish tuning intervals between the 
variations tended to destroy cohesion; 
here all such difficulties are overcome, 
and the work is presented as one full and 
flowing entity. 
From the darkly intense statement of 
the theme and the crisply buoyant 
rhythms of the frrst variation, through to 
the fmal fugue in which the player's 
measured solemnity imparts a rare 
grandeur, we are taken through an 
astonishing variety of music. These 
brilliant pieces, some of them lasting only 
a few seconds, explore and test every 
aspect of guitar technique. Everyone of 
the 20 variations provides some kind of 
musical interest. Marred only by a slight 
tendency to occasional over-emphasis, 
this is a performance well able to stand 
beside its predecessors. 
As in Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, one 
can scarcely move in French music 
without stumbling over a tombeau, or 
'tombstone'. These musical tributes from 
the living to the dead are usually short, 
frequently sincere, occasionally dull and 
from time to time intensely moving. Louis 
Couperin's is tragic and eloquent, and 
Holmquist makes the most of it. Mr 
Blancrocher had no fewer than three 
tombeaux written for him, which must be 
some sort of compensation for an 
untimely end caused through getting 
drunk and falling downstairs in 1652. 
James McGuire's Suite No. 2 is 
dedicated to Holmquist. It is 
unpretentious, straightforward, tuneful 
and not too hard for most of us to play. 
The performance here will make a 
number of new friends and gladden the 
heart of its composer. As will the perfor­
mance of the following work, Gilbert 
Biberian's Monogram. Once described by 
your reviewer as engimatic, it is gradually 
revealing its mysteries. This performance 
strips away more veils. What will remain 
when all is laid bare? It is not, like Oliver 
Hunt's The Barber of Baghdad, directly 
inspired by the East, but a contemporary 
Western work that uses the conventions 
of spatial development that characterise 
much Eastern music. In case that sounds 
too much' like an entry in 'Pseuds' 
Corner', Biberian's own words should 
make matters clearer .. Talking about a 
performance by a Turkish musician on 
the ancient keman (a kind of fiddle) he 
says "Everything would just float in the 
air, full of anticipation for the next 
phrase. There is ... development of the 
sense of space, a lack of hurriedness'. 
Everything, in short, must take its time 
- and that goes for the listener too. It is 
also, again in the words of the composer, 
a work about the sound of the guitar 
itself. 
The Middle Eastern resonances are 
well broughtout in Holmquist's 
meticulous observance of the often 
complex playing instructions. The har­
monics at the end could have been give a 
little more plangency (perhaps, to be 
realistic, by the engineers). There is also 
some fmgerboard squeak, nothing new in 
guitar recordings. The sound is clear and 
spacious without being over-resonant. 
John Holmquist's stimulating blend of 
vigour, sensitivity and musical penetra­
tion make this an impressive debut. 
Colin Cooper 
'CLASSICAL GUITAR' 
BY 
NEILSMITH 
This superb recording available now from 
Ashlay Mark Publishing Company 
£5.50 including post and packing 
39 
RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE 
MUSIC FOR TWO GUITARS. Ed 
Flower, David McLellan (guitars). 
ANON: La Rossignol, Greensleeves, 
Drewries Accords, My Lady Careys 
Dompe, Lesson; JOHN JOHNSON: The 
Flatt Pavin; JOHN DOWLAND: My 
Lord Chamberlains Galliard, Tarletons 
Riserrection, My Lord Willoughbys 
Welcome Home; FRANCIS PILK­
INGTON: Echo; LE SAGE DE 
RICHEE: Echo; J. S. BACH: Musette, 
Menuet, Prelude, Fugue, Invention; C. P. 
E. BACH: Marche, Polonaise; 
WILLIAM LA WES: Suite; G. P. 
TELEMANN: Canon. 
Music Minus One MMO 5043 £6.99 
(including score) 
CLASSICAL AND ROMANTIC 
MUSIC FOR TWO GUITARS. Ed 
Flower, David McLellan (guitars). 
F. SOR: Andantino, Marche, Duo in A, 
Andante, Allegretto; F. CARULLI: 
Study in A, Duo in E, Largo, Allegretto, 
Duo in F, Rondo; C. G. SCHEIDLER: 
Romanze; G. FAURE: Sicilienne; 
JORGE ANCKERMAN: El Arroyo que 
Murmura; E. GRANADOS: Spanish 
Dances 2 and 5; I. ALBENIZ: 
Malaguena. 
Music Minus One MMO 5044 £6.99 
(including score) 
The music-minus-one device must be 
close to celebrating its 50th birthday and 
it is perhaps surprising that it has not 
been more fully exploited. One of its valu­
able applications is that of giving 
guitarists the opportunity to break out of 
solitary confmement by playing with 
unseen partners, widening experience and 
developing discipline. These recordings 
were made by a split stereo process, the 
two players being in aural but not visual 
contact (resulting in a certain lack of 
'togetherness' in a few of the slower 
items), so that either part may be isolated 
by turning the stereo-balance knob hard 
to the left or right; that is the principle but 
the fact is that 'cross-talk' prevents total 
separation and the ghost of the 
suppressed part cannot be exorcized~ If 
this results in less than a whole loaf it still 
leaves enough to be well worth the eating. 
The track given to tuning (confus­
ingly, not mentioned on the sleeve) which 
begins each disc is invaluable, for reasons 
too numerous to mention. Each item is 
preceded by an appropriate number of 
ticks of a metronome, defined in the 
printed scores accompanying the discs; 
the metronome settings are useful only in 
establishing target speeds in practicing, 
before playing with the record. If the 
performances sound somewhat stiffer 
than one would hope to hear in concert 
this is natural, given the circumstances of 
the recording process, and more 
appropriate to the purpose of the 
enterprise. - to enable (mainly 
inexperienced) guitarists to develop the 
necessary discipline rather than to learn 
to follow particular 'bendings' of the 
written text. 
The music in the booklets is crisply 
reproduced (photographed, hand-written 
manuscript) and easy enough to play 
from once one become accustomed to its 
somewhat spidery appearance; redundant 
fingering directives are unhelpful in this 
connection. If much of it is inevitably pre­
dictable the music in the 
renaissance/baroque book is quite well 
chosen but the ancillary notes are brief, 
not always particularly informative or 
well-informed: a ground is not necessarily 
a chord progression, the anonymous 
Dompe, 'probably played on the virginals' 
is in fact one of the earliest known 
examples of idiomatic writing for that ins­
trument, the Telemann Canon is for two 
'equal' instruments - of which violins or 
flutes would be apt examples, and last 
three pieces by J. S. Bach are inade­
quately identified. Tempos are well 
judged in performances, though the 
Dompe is usually ta.ken a fraction faster 
by keyboard players, and the renaissance 
items are welcomely free from left-hand 
slurs; some fmgerings· are made that bit 
harder by dogged adherence to guitar 
tuning (3rd string at G). On page three of 
the booklet it states that 'all but one' of 
the pieces on the 'renaissance' side were 
written for two lutes; the Dompe is a key­
board work and Tarletons Risserection is 
a perfectly easy lute solo. The Suite by 
Lawes is the one published by Bream 
(Faber edition) in 1967 but it is presented 
here in A major (versus Bream's D 
major), in which key it is rather easier to 
handle. The baroque music is well 
arranged except for the Prelude, in which 
octave-compression leads to some 
undesirable part-crossings and one nasty 
accident at the beginning of bar 5 (page 
24). The attentive user will find the slurs 
indicated in some baroque pieces to be 
only the majority (not the whole) of what 
is actually played on the recording. 
Likewise he/she will be well advised to 
follow the recording of Greensleeves 
rather than the score where, in bar 8, the 
correct rhythm is played and the wrong 
one printed. 
The music of the classical/romantic 
volume is of more variable quality, with 
an overlarge ration of Sor, Carulli and 
Scheidler, much of it inocuous time­
passing - and unidentified, rescued by 
rather better music in the later period. 
Sor's birth date (1778) is given as 1776 in 
the notes, from which we learn also of a 
hitherto unknown accomplishment of 
Granados: ' ... besides compositing (sic) 
was a virtuoso pianist'. In the score of the 
Malagueiia it is impossible to play bar 21 
(page 36) as it is printed, and if you want 
to stay with the performers you had 
better cross out bars 11-14 on page 37. 
To round off your orientation, of the two 
Spanish dances of Granados No. 2 prece­
des No. 5 in the book but they appear the 
other way round on the record. Perfor­
mances of the Spanish music are more 
mechanical and bloodless than one would 
wish, but too much should not be 
expected in such a context and all but the 
most adaptable players will have some 
difficulty in keeping in touch with the 
comings and goings of tempo in Spanish 
Dance No. 5 as it is, some of them not 
marked on the score. 
The playing is clean and workman­
like, the recording is the same. To those 
inexperienced in the discipline and 
pleasure of duo playing these recordings 
may be recommended. Though one might 
describe the difficulty of the separate 
parts as falling within a maximum of 
Grade Six it would be misleading to use 
this as a guideline; if one is unused to 
playing in duo the experience can easily 
knock ones rating a notch or two lower. 
John Duarte 
RAY SEALEY: Platero (An elegy for 
two young guitarists and narrator) 
Ray Sealey (narrator), Karen Chapman, 
Andrea Hayman (guitars) 
Hyperion A66046. £4.99 
Ray Sealey's declared object is to provide 
a work that is in line with both the 
spiritual and technical levels of young 
players, and he achieves it signally. His 
texts are taken from Jimenez' Platero y 
yo, in excellent English translations by 
William and Mary Roberts, narrated with 
clear enunciation and without trace of 
either the exaggerated emphases of an 
adult telling stories to children or Sealey's 
Canadian nationality. The 12 items: 
Platero, Nursery school, Angelus 
(Sunset), The canary escapes, Sunday, 
The fright, Interlude and lullaby, Car­
nival, The canary dies, Donkeyography, 
The thorn and Nostalgia, are framed in 
charming music, simple in language but 
atmospheric in effect, using dissonance as 
an expressive, not an intellectual, device. 
Economy, directness and simplicity 
without triteness are characteristic of 
Sealey's writing in those works I have 
heard. 
The work's subtitle is fulfilled, the 
guitarists being 14 and 12 years old. 
Thoughtheir familiarity with the music is 
to be assumed, since they are Sealey's 
students and the work is dedicated to 
them, their clear-bright tone, firm attack, 
precise timing and control are impressive; 
youth per se holds at bay the fear of 
microphones that can develop later. The 
recording could hardly be bettered. This 
is a delightfully imaginative work and a 
valuable addition to the guitar's 
Platerography, far more accessible than 
the settings by Castelnuovo-Tedesco and 
Eduardo Sainz de la Maza, and in no way 
competitive with them. If and when the 
score is published it should succeed in a 
big way with enterprising teachers - or 
enterprising young people who may guide 
their teachers in its direction. It comes 
like a breath of fresh air. 
John Duarte 
DEDICATION. Julian Bream 
RCA Red Seal RL25419 
When Julian Bream offers a recording to 
the public it is always a significant event, 
the musical equivalent of a new play by 
Stoppard or a novel by Fowles. That it 
seems necessary to say this may be an 
adequate commentary on the pre­
dominance of the commercial over the 
artistic in the policy of many recording 
40 
companies and their attendant artists. 
The ever-simmering pot-boilers are more 
characteristic of new guitar records these 
days than are those albums which cause 
us to revaluate our notions about the 
guitar and its directions. 
That Julian Bream has been for 
many years liberated from the com­
mercial pressures that grind other players 
into pre-formed moulds may be a truism. 
It would be better to put it the other way 
round and afTtrm Bream's determination 
to offer a positive artistic lead, not to be 
swept along on the prevailing commercial 
tides and certainly not to be blown off­
course. After all, Bream's early records in 
the late fifties were not considered hot 
property by his recording companies at 
the outset. Neither could his forays to the 
Wigmore Hall with lute in hand ready for 
an evening of Dowland be judged at that 
time as the stuff from which fortunes 
might later be made, even if every ticket 
was sold. 
Bream's essential seriousness, the 
total integrity that informs his playing, is 
a special tonic in our age of compromise. 
Whilst a number of players have jumped 
on other band-wagons, for financial gain 
but artistic loss, Bream has continued to 
explore, to evolve and to reveal. From his 
first recording to his most recent the 
journey has been exhilerating and, in 
retrospect, not arbitrary. Bream's 
personal development through a mul­
titude of phases, involving technique, 
choice of repertoire and even of instru­
ment, has been at one with the progress of 
the guitar itself. Following Segovia's 
similar but earlier creation of a congenial 
repertoire, Bream has done more than 
any other artist to shape and direct the 
guitar's destiny. 
In terms of contemporary repertoire 
the process has been subtle and inclusive. 
From the first recital offerings of works 
such as the Sonatina by Berkeley, Smith 
Brindle's El Polifemo de Oro, and Drei 
Tentos by Henze (between 1958 and the 
early 1960s), Bream moved inexorably 
toward the unveiling of Britten's 
Nocturnal, Walton's Bagatelles, and 
Berkeley's Theme and Variations. After 
dozens of concerts in which these pieces 
were well received by the public, the 
landmark was ratified by the issue of an 
appropriate recording. Bream's record­
ings emerge only when he fmds it possible 
to present the work with the fullest 
experience and authority. 
The significant steps can, for the 
interested listener, be charted from The 
Art of Julian Bream (1958) to 20th 
Century Guitar (1967), and from Julian 
Bream 70s (1973) to this new recording 
just issued. Each of these recordings 
explored new areas of guitar sonorities 
and the latest can only be properly 
understood against this background of 
development of the repertoire. 
To commemorate Walton's 80th 
birthday, Bream allows something fairly 
rare for him, a re-recording of one of the 
contemporary masterpieces. The Five 
Bagatelles (1971) gain considerably from 
this digital recording, and avid students of 
interpretation will gain much from com­
paring how Bream's playing of these 
pieces has changed in just under a 
decade; the first recording in 1973 was 
remarkable - this one is better still. 
Certain note-values have been suitably 
amended, the range of tone-colour is 
broader and yet more dazzling. 
Richard Rodney Bennett's 
Impromptus (1968) at last find their way 
onto a record. These works, so often 
trotted out in recitals by inferior perfor­
mers and occasionally set for students in 
diploma examinations, can be suffocat­
ingly tedious in the wrong hnds. Bream 
here touches each phrase with a sprink­
ling of magic and conviction and the 
potentially arid sparseness of the 
atonality is shaped into meaning. One 
could hardly imagine a better perfor­
mance of these 'unlovable' compositional 
sketches. 
Hill Runes (1981) by Peter Maxwell 
Davies evokes the Orkney landscape. It is 
an esoteric, introverted composition, 
perhaps more appropriate to Maxwell 
Davies' states of mind than to specific 
impressionistic images of Scottish barren­
ness. This is a work whose absorption 
into the nervous system, let alone the 
blood stream, could take time. At this 
point the composer's intensely private 
world, united with our ears through 
Bream's masterly playing albeit, can be 
entered only with due permission and a 
certain interval of knocking at the portal. 
As yet its ultimate coherence has eluded 
me and, like a number of lunar rocks, the 
cound clusters lie distinctly in the ear 
without total integration into a musical 
statement. However if the work does not 
in the end grow into unity, it is certainly 
not the fault of Maestro Bream. 
If Hill Runes provide something of a 
sticking point where good solid resistance 
is encountered in the teeth of something 
entirely new, then Henze's Royal Winter 
Music (1976), 'A Sonata on 
Shakespearean Characters' may provoke 
outright mutiny. Purchase of the score 
from Schott Ltd (£4.50) may help to 
elucidate quite a few of the immediate 
problems. I have already heard this work 
acclaimed as a masterpiece by one Henze 
fan (though unaware that the music was 
published) and a composer of my 
acquaintance found the whole thing a 
colossal bore when Bream premiered the 
work at the Wigmore Hall. I have also 
endured a mediocre performance by a 
recitalist, of two or three sections of the 
work, no doubt to baffle us by science. 
The characters depicted in this 
sonata include Gloucester, Romeo and 
Juliet, Ariei, Ophelia, Touchstone, 
Audrey and William, and Oberon. Henze 
tries to seek out in this work the 'many 
unexplored spaces and depths' of the 
guitar. But the Shakespearean context of 
the composition will not necessarily help 
the listener. Henze's response to 
Shakespeare is at its best intellectual in 
the German tradition rather than 
emotional in the traditions of Stratford. 
The characterisation of each movement is 
an elaborate peg on which to hang 
sustained workings out of very complex 
and very inward musical labyrinths. 
The future of this work is fairly 
problematical. I hear that it has already 
been prescribed for a Guitar Competition, 
a report I would prefer to disbelieve. In 
Bream's hands the Royal Winter Music is 
a magnificent challenging entity, a monu­
ment to something of musical substance 
attempted through the guitar with its 
whole range of timbres, moods and 
echoes; in performances by lesser mortals 
this piece could quickly empty the 
theatre. Attempts to impress the average 
audience by hitting it over the head with a 
work of this specific density could lead to 
a charge of assault, and I do hope not too 
many younger players try to prove their 
intellectual virility by wheeling this one 
out too often. Such a work, like 
Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata, 
does demand rather more than technique; 
it asks for a commitment that very few 
have to offer.Anything less than the best 
simply will not do for this kind of work. 
But here we have the best and Bream 
enables us to quarrel with the music 
creatively. His playing is a total tour de 
force and one of the finest performances 
he has ever put on record. Where Bream 
goes from here, or whether he slips back 
into consolidation, is anyone's guess. I 
would imagine that for Bream, as always, 
the road points forward and uphill to 
fresh summits. At certain points the air 
may be quite rarified, but it will be an en­
thralling expedition. 
Graham Wade 
SARABANDE. Gregg Nestor 
Spartan Records SALP 001 
Gregg Nestor was pne of the semi­
finalists in the 1981 Segovia International 
Competition and is establishing a reputa­
tion as both a virtuoso performer and a 
prolific arranger. 
This recording is perhaps a rather 
strange way to begin a career which 
surely will produce many worthwhile 
albums. The programme ranges from 
Grieg's Sarabande Op. 40, No 2, to 
Sondheim's Send in the Clowns, and 
includes such rarities as Seventy-Six 
Trombones, Singin' in the Rain, Berlin's 
suite Annie Get Your Gun, and Gra­
inger's Country Gardens and Shepherd's 
Hey. 
The playing of this material is not 
what you might expect; it is actually 
virtuosic, ebullient and extremely 
accomplished. The music is delivered with 
that mixture of exuberance and discipline 
which characterises Gregg Nestor on the 
concert platform. Normally such a menu 
could indicate a flight from reality or a 
desire to please by concentration on the 
trivial; in fact the playing has such 
integrity and commitment, and is so well 
arranged for the guitar, that the record­
ing, though lighthearted, is actually 
delivered in a most professional and 
serious manner. The album has all the 
qualities of spontaneity and originality, 
rare virtues in the hothouse conditions of 
the contemporary guitar scene. 
Graham Wade 
41 
" 
REVIEWS I§II~~~~~~concerts 
John Mills 
JOHN MILLS 
Purcell Room, London. 5 June 1982. 
In launching the five-recital series Music 
Jor Guitar, organized by the BBC in 
collaboration with the GLC, John Mills' 
watchword was 'value for money'; his 
last exit to the green room came 2 hr 
10 min after his first entrance, the two 
events separated by numerous views of 
the old and new 'faces' of Mills. He has in 
the past been firmly linked to the 
romantic image of Segovia, not least in 
his pursuit of tonal beauty, but a harder, 
post-romantic element has recently 
entered his programming and playing 
approaches. In a programme that was 
part of a declared 'International Festival 
of Light Music' there was naturally a 
liberal supply of 'traditional Mills' music 
by Sor, Ponce, Villa-Lobos et ai, 
despatched with his customary charm, 
eloquence and vibrato - the last not 
always applied logically viz. as an orna­
ment, but doubtless relished by those who 
have tried (and failed) to emulate its 
opulence. To enumerate the items would 
be to retravel familiar ground; to describe 
the excellences of their perfomance would 
be superfluous, for he is a master of 
musical seduction and this kind of music 
is his mistress. 
The new 'face' is not without effect 
on the old for there is an almost aggres­
sive strength in Mills' approach to some 
items of his established repertoire, 
notably the minuet of Sor that must have 
been astonished to find itself attacked 
with such vigour. The gentler end of the 
new territory was inhabited by a clean­
cut, four-movement Sonatina (of 
undeclared provenance) by Haydn, 
arranged and delivered with excellent 
style and moderation by Mills. It was in 
Reginald Smith-Brindle's Sonata No. 4, 
'La Breve' and Brouwer's Canticum that 
Mills moved Jorward onto ground on 
which he would, not long ago, not have 
been found. It was not that they were well 
played (Mills seldom comes close to 
doing less) but that they were delivered 
with such intensity and conviCtion. Life, 
like its musical reflection, is not all beauti­
ful 'nor does beauty always equate to 
sentimentality; when one comes to 
accept, and learns to handle, this situa­
tion, new doors are opened and entered 
with confidence. It is a watershed Mills 
has crossed in recent times and in the 
crossing his stature has grown. That is no 
light musical matter. 
John Duarte 
Costas Cotsiolis 
COSTAS COTSIOLIS 
Purcell Room, London. 19 June 1982. 
It was as a juror that I first heard Costas 
Cotsiolis in 1973 (and again in 1974) as a 
formidable competitor in the Concorso 
Internazionale di Chitarra (Alessandria) 
and I had not had the opportunity to 
repeat the experience since then. During 
the intervening years he has acquired a 
considerable reputation in Europe, so it 
was particularly interesting to be able to 
assess eight years of development 'at a 
stroke'. 
Perhaps remembering 1974, when 
we discussed the work, he opened with 
the so-called Fantasia No. 7 of Dowland, 
setting a moderate pace and presenting 
the voice-leading with clarity; a few 
hiccups probably stemmed from memory 
lapses, technical strain seeming as prob­
able as snow in August. Stephen 
Dodgson was present to hear his Fantasy 
Divisions and, whilst one cannot speak on 
his behalf, it is hard to imagine that he 
was less than delighted with the com­
manding performance they received. 
There is little in this work to help the 
player who lacks technical mastery; 
Cotsiolis has it in abundance and in the 
following item it was to come into its 
own. Guitarists who attempt the Caprice 
No. 24 by Paganini usually succeed in 
making it sound as difficult as it is ­
which, if not accompanied by technical 
breakdown, adds to the excitement and 
tension; Cotsiolis made it sound easier 
than even a violinist would consider it to 
be. His opening tempo seemed to invite 
disaster, or at least a charge of reckless 
driving, but the notes flowed with awe­
inspiring freedom, crossing even position 
shifts without the slighest trace of 
discontinuity. In the face of such all­
embracing virtuosity the question of 
interpretation became almost irrelevant, 
indeed it had little time to get a word in 
edgeways. Seldom has the guitar's finger­
board been scoured with such con­
temptuous ease. With this the programme 
climaxed; the three items by Cardoso, 
leading to the interval, sounded even 
more limp then they would otherwise 
have done - even in a programme of 
'light' music. The second half was 
devoted to six pieces by Albeniz, played 
(a few slack moments apart) with con­
summate ease but little warmth, the 
expressiveness that was certainly present 
appeared to be 'applied' to the music 
rather than to spring from the heart. 
Cotsiolis has a prodigious technique and 
sensitivity but, as I would have written in 
1974 - albeit more emphatically, he is 
inclined to lead with his mind and fmgers; 
if he ever manages to involve his heart to 
a comparable degree he will conquer the 
guitar's musical world. 
John Duarte 
David Russell 
DAVID RUSSELL 
Purcell Room, London. 3 July 1982. 
When someone mentioned light music to 
Sir Henry Wood he said 'I often wonder 
what dark music sounds like'. Bach's 
Chaconne is neither dark nor heavy; but 
by no conceivable stretch of the imagina­
tion can it be called light. One can only 
admire the cheek of whoever it was who 
decided to include it in a festival of light 
music. 
In the same programme we heard 
42 
Bernard Steven's version of the folk song 
in which various members of an 
unfortunate girl's family turn up to see 
her hanged, all of them apparently with 
their faith in British justice undimmed. 
Not exactly Palm Court material; but 
what's in a name? 
The Bramble Briar is based on The 
Briary Bush, in the Sharp collection. The 
girl's true lover arrives in the nick of time 
with enough gold to purchase her release 
(what would Lord Denning say about 
that?), so all ends happily. Bernard 
Stevens makes an ironic comment on the 
modality of much English folk song by 
introducing his melody witha major 
scale. 
Albert Harris is remembered by an 
earlier generation as a guitarist before he 
went to Hollywood and took to writing 
film music. His Variations on a theme by 
Handel have been accorded the seal of 
respectability in the form of a Segovia 
recording. Undoubtedly light music, but a 
well-jointed evocation of Handelian style 
without Handelian pastiche. David 
Russell paid it the compliment of taking it 
seriously and making a lot if it. Sir Robert 
Feuerstein is a Hungarian-speaking 
Rumanian who lives in Canada. His Four 
Epithets are couched in the reasonably 
universal language of tonality, and are 
properly short. Written six months ago, 
they contain enough harmonic 
abrasiveness to demonstrate the com­
poser's awareness of his times, though 
not enough to provide a challenge to the 
listener. Pleasant, urbane and civilized­
and that is no mean achievement in these 
times. 
The three pieces by Emilio Pujol, 
who died in 1980 at the age of 94, are so 
often deemed unplayable that one almost 
begins to believe that they are not worth 
playing. They may not contain the 
profoundest musical thought, but they do 
express their composer's devotion to the 
music of his native Spain, cloaked in a 
fabric of complex guitar technique that 
even skilled piers fmd daunting. To object 
that the technique obscures the simple 
message of Seguidilla, Tango and 
Guajira is to miss the point. Pujol uses 
whatever material he fmds around him in 
order to demonstrate his understanding of 
the guitar's fmgerboard. Russell made 
them sound so easy that one wonders 
why they are not performed more often. 
Coste's Andante and Polonaise is a 
fair example of good, professional 19th 
century music. If we are going to have it 
at all, let us have it played as it was here; 
romantically, but without any hint of that 
sentimental desire to linger which 
disfigures so much performance of music 
from this period. Three Scarlatti sonatas 
followed, K.14, 202 and 232, in arrange­
ments by the player. David Russell made 
one of these arrangements during a flight 
to Greece; it seems a sensible alternative 
to the in-flight movie. Scarlatti is not 
Bach and he is not Handel; his music is 
not imbued With the same kind of 
humanity, and Russell did not make the 
mistake of trying to impose it. We may 
talk about Scarlatti's cool wit, but the 
point of his music is entirely musical and 
difficult to write about in any other way. 
Secure phrasing and impeccable techni­
que made minor masterpieces out of all 
three. 
And so to the old warhorse. This is 
not the place to resurrect old arguments 
about the desirability of turning good 
violin music into good guitar music. The 
Chaconne from the Violin Partita BWV 
1004 will still be played by guitarists 
when the last pundit has drawn his last 
breath in talking about it. Like Everest, it 
is there; and there is more than one way 
to climb a mountain. Russell takes a 
poetic view, though without mysticism 
(no clouds around this peak). A precise 
working-out of dynamics helped towards 
this clarity. Rumour has it that Mr 
Russell was at one time considering a 
crescendo lasting over three pages ­
evidence of a creative, approach, at least. 
Not often are the arpeggios and scale 
passages executed with such security. 
Accuracy plays its part in the overall 
impression. 
One of David Russell's strengths is 
his phrasing. One feels he could present a 
phrase in a number of different ways 
without losing cohesion. The effect is an 
impression of spontaneity that belies the 
hard work he, like every other guitarist, 
must put in. Not only you but he appears 
to be experiencing the music for the first 
time and that is one of the secrets of 
music-making the textbooks cannot 
impart. Clarity, incisiveness, simplicity, 
power - any of these in combinations of 
one, two or even three can carry a recital, 
but David Russell can combine all four in 
a way that makes him one of the most 
exciting young guitarists on the scene. 
Colin Cooper 
lORGE MOREL 
Purcell Room, London. 26 June 1982. 
Tuning problems beset the Argentinian 
guitarist from the outset. There was so 
much activity of the snatch, twist and 
hope-for-the-best variety that one feared 
for Mr Morel's ability to project his 
famed virtuosity. Matters were not helped 
by a drastic retuning to E major (or 
GLCBBC, as a wag put it) for a 
Paraguayn dance by Escobar. The effect 
was dramatic, but the disturbed guitar 
was never properly in tune again. 
There were unlooked-for benefits in 
this approach. In the following piece -
Chopi, also by Escobar - adjustments to 
the tuning while harmonics filled the hall 
with their silvery radiance actually 
enhanced the music. Such aleatoric 
possibilities might be explored with profit 
by adventurous composers. Notwith­
standing the player's tempering, this item 
contained the best playing of the evening: 
dazzling fingerwork, intuitive 
musicianship, melodic strength - Mr 
Morel has all the virtues, and here he 
managed to get them all together at the 
same time. 
Jorge Morel is surely unsurpassed in 
milongas, choros, bossa novas and every 
kind of danza from the tip of Venezuela 
Jorge Morel 
to the bottom of Argentina. Where other 
South American guitarists like to prove 
themselves in Britten and Rawsthorne, 
Mr Morellikes to demonstrate his skill in 
clever arrangements of Gershwin and 
Bernstein. The audience appreciated it all 
hugely, even those who had been sur­
prised and delighted by the same pieces at 
the Wigmore Hall in 1979. Black is the 
colour, West Side Story, Nortena, Mis­
ionera - these formed part of the pre­
vious programme, as they did of this. The 
printed programme, however, showed a 
substantial difference. Presumably Mr 
Morel wanted to give everybody another 
generous portion of what they had so 
much enjoyed on the first occasion. 
For all that, Jorge Morel is a superb 
guitarist, and will always be welcome in 
London so long as he maintains his 
attitude of spirited and joyous celebra­
tion. 
Colin Cooper 
(The choice of programme resulted from a mis­
understanding between Jorge Morel and the BBC 
concerning what the latter required, and from the 
former's wish not to repeat items from his previous 
recital in the Riverside Studios in November 1981 
- J.W.D.) 
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Jorge Morel 
Plays Broadway 
This second recording by Jorge Morel for 
Guitar Masters features a selection of his 
outstanding arrangements of popular 20th 
century American music and more of his own 
compositions. Included are 'West Side Story 
Suite'-Bernstein; Variations On A Gershwin 
Theme'-Morel; 'Prelude No 2'-Gershwin; 
'Take Five'-Oesmond; 'Yesterday/ 
Norwegian Wood'-Lennon & McCartney; 
'Bossa In Re"-Morel; 'Romance'-Morel and 
'Oanza In 'E' Minor'-Morel. 'Jorge Morel 
Plays Broadway' is an outstanding record by 
one of today's most brilliant guitarist/ 
composers. 
Available from leading record shops throughout Great Britain, 'Jorge Morel-Plays Broadway', costs £4.95; 
in case of difficulty itfmger; shortly after that he returned 
finally to Japan, his career obviously 
brought to an early and tragic end. 
by COLIN COOPER 
These are only the clear facts of 
the matter; anything else remains an 
area of speculation and is likely to 
continue to be so, no matter how 
tempting it may be for reporters with 
a taste for sensationalism to enter it. 
In the end it does not matter ­
whatever the circumstances, what 
would almost certainly have been a 
brilliant career was brutally ter­
minated before it could take flight. 
There the matter should be allowed to 
rest decently. 
Re Cycles 
At the Harrogate Festival in August 
Carlos Bonell gave the first perfor­
mance, with soprano Margaret Field, 
of a song cycle by Douglas Young. A 
setting of verses by James Joyce, the 
work comprises about twenty songs 
in all, with a total duration of some 35 
minutes - a substantial work by any 
standards. The BBC are recording it 
later this year. 
Success for one song cycle; only 
the promise of it for another, as yet 
unwritten. Composer Oliver Hunt, 
attending the first performance of his 
guitar trio Circles Around a Still 
Centre, was so impressed by the tenor 
voice of Sergio Martinez in a group of 
Italian songs that he there and then 
announced his intention of writing a 
song cycle for the Martinez-Dunlea 
duo, probably to verses by Pablo 
Neruda. Thus Martinez, who has 
sung here in English, Italian and 
German, may at last be given the 
opportunity to sing a substantial work 
in his native Spanish. 
Britten's Songs from the Chinese 
may have opened one or two doors 
that had remained closed for too long. 
It would seem that composers are 
becoming more aware of the 
possibilities in the voice-and-guitar 
form. Indeed it is somewhat surpris­
ing, in view of the generally 
acknowledged suitability of the guitar 
as an accompanying instrument, that 
there have not been more song cycles 
for voice and guitar in recent years. 
Cheryl Grice Master Class 
Players and observers from various 
parts of the country converged on 
Shrewsbury for Cheryl Grice's 
Master Class in June, writes John 
Dodd. Works by Bach, Sor, Villa­
Lobos, Carcassi and Torroba were 
studied, and guidance was given in 
technique, even to the extent of some 
pretty basic right hand positioning. 
The proceedings were conducted in a 
relaxed and informal atmosphere, as 
might be expected. Cheryl is to give 
another class there next year, and 
early booking is recommended. 
Long run 
The series of broadcasts on BBC 
Radio 3, The Classical Guitar, began 
with a programme in June 1973 given 
by Alirio Diaz; its long continuity 
was broken after the programme of 
last May, by Monika and Jiirgen Rost 
(East Germany) and it was succeeded 
by a new programme 'Music for 
guitar' which began with a 'Summer 
season' of six programmes that were 
edited repeats of earlier ones from the 
original series. The Classical Guitar 
resumed its pilgrimage on 17 July 
with the first of nine programmes; the 
last of these, by Julian Bream, seems 
certain to mark the end of the 
marathon. This does not however end 
the guitar's years of benefit in terms 
of air-time for, in mid-September, a 
new series begins, retaining the title 
'Music for guitar' and scheduled to 
run well into 1983 - beyond which 
there is as yet no decision; as it is not 
impossible that the wishes of listeners 
may be taken into account, your 
letters of appreciation to the BBC 
might pay dividends. The original 
series had its weaknesses and· its 
critics (who on the whole offered 
nothing of constructive substance for 
the improvement of the programme) 
but its span of more than nine years 
and its accomplishments within that 
period were considerable. In the next 
issue of Classical Guitar we will give 
an overview of the series as an 
appreciative postscript. The new 
series of 'Music for guitar' will follow 
the pattern of the series it replaces in 
that it will include programmes by 
both domestic and visiting guitarists, 
recorded in a variety of venues, but its 
programme-length will be a uniform 
30 minutes and there will be no con­
versation between the artist and an 
anchor-person - only music. 
5 
Star in west 
Admirers of Vladimir Mikulka, one of 
the players for whom the epithet 
Vladimir Mikulka 
'brilliant' is no mere advertiser's hype, 
will be pleased to know that he is now 
living permanently in Paris. His 
improved accessibility takes 
immediate effect in the form of a 
Wigmore Hall concert on 3 October, 
a bold recital of premieres of works 
by East European composers that 
promises to be one of the events of the 
year. 
Obituary 
The name of Martha Nelson (b. 1922) 
first appeared in the Guitar Review 
(published by the Society of the 
Classic Guitar in New York) No. 21 
(1957) as 'Brazilian Editor', later as 
'Contributing Editor' and finally as 
"Associate Editor' in No. 34 (1971). 
In reality her devotion to the Society 
and to the journal was total, and their 
interests absorbed her waking life; the 
organization of some 270 guitar con­
certs represented only a part of her 
contribution. During the last two 
decades her work on behalf of Guitar 
Review was essential to its wellbeing, 
as it was selflessly given. Her gentle 
and leisurely speech proclaimed her 
place of origin as the Deep South, to 
which she withdrew at the end to die 
of cancer in Atlanta, Georgia, on 7 
November 1981. In every way she 
will be sadly missed by her countless 
friends, all those - from the world­
famous to the humble amateur ­
who knew her, and, for what she gave 
to the world of the guitar, by even 
more who never knew her except by 
name. We are all the poorer for her 
passing. This brief tribute does not 
represent stop-press news but, as this 
is our first issue, it is one we must 
pay, however late in the day. 
International contest 
The 25th Concours International de 
Guitare under the direction of Robert 
Vidal has been announced. Works 
required for the selection tests in 
interpretation are: Sarabande, Gigue 
and Double from the 2nd Lute Suite 
(Bach); Fandanguillo (Turina); 
Impromptus for Guitar (Richard 
Rodney Bennett). 
Full details from 25" Concours 
International de Guitare, France­
Musique, 116 Avenue du President­
Kennedy, 75786 Paris-Cedex 16, 
France. 
Early Guitar seminar 
Harvey Hope 
For the fourth year in succession the 
Baroque guitar exponent Harvey 
Hope has organised two one-day 
courses on the early guitar, on 
Sunday 31 October and Sunday 7 
November. Players may bring either a 
classical guitar or a five-course guitar, 
although a number of Baroque guitars 
will be available for those who attend. 
The courses cover repertoire, playing 
styles, tablature, technique and the 
history and development of the instru­
ment. Some remarkable guitars from 
Mr Hope's collection will be 
displayed, among them instruments 
by the 17th century makers Voboam, 
Tielke and Platestainer, as well as 
18th and 19th century guitars by 
Pages, Panormo, Lacote, Stauffer and 
others. The course fee of £ 12 includes 
a 'ploughmans' lunch with wine. 
More details from The Guitar Study 
Centre, 64 Ashmore Grove, Welling, 
Kent DA16 2RY. 
Nonsuch contest 
Two new competitions have been 
announced by the Nonsuch Guitar 
Society, one for players and one for 
composers. The winners will be 
chosen at the Nonsuch Guitar 
Festival 83 at Ewell Court House, 
Surrey, on 13 and 14 May 1983. 
Prizes include an Asturias guitar, 
money, a Wigmore Hall recital and, 
for the winning composition, a first 
public performance by Raymond 
Burley. The adjudicating panel 
includes John Mills, Reginald Smith 
Brindle, John W. Duarte, Raymond 
Burley, Michael Doughty,Gareth 
Waiters and one or two others. The 
terms of both competitions appear to 
imply solo work only, but further 
information can be obtained from 
Terry Pamplin, Little Critchmere, 
Manor Crescent, Haselmere, Surrey. 
Please enclose a stamped addressed 
envelope. 
Chester Guitar Circle 
One ofis available direct from 'Guitar Masters Records', a division of Summerfield Ltd, 
Saltmeadows Road, Gateshead NE8 3AJ - £4.95 + £0.75 post and packing. 
44 
A warm welcome and best wishes toLetters to the Editor 
We look forward to publishing many 
interesting and informative letters in our 
correspondence column in Classical 
Guitar. This is your forum to express 
your views and we shall be delighted to 
hear from you. 
In the meantime we are pleased to 
publish some of the letters of welcome 
from home and abroad. 
GRAHAMWADE 
(Correspondence Editor) 
I am very happy to hear that a real 
classical guitar journal will appear in 
England. I wish you great success for the 
journal and I will do my best to make it 
popular. It is fine to know that some good 
people are working to spread good infor­
mation about our beautiful instrument, 
The Guitar. 
SIEGFRIED BEHREND 
Wall in Bayern 
Germany 
Congratulations on the birth of your 
magazine! I eagerly look forward to it, 
and wish you lots of success for the 
future. 
CARLOS BONELL 
London 
It was good news to hear about Classical 
Guitar magazine, which I know will be 
keenly welcomed by many people. I want 
to wish the magazine great success, both 
here and abroad, in achieving its com­
prehensive and literary aims. 
Best of luck! 
ROBERT BRIGHTMORE 
London 
Over the years I have watched Great 
Britain become far outclassed in classical 
guitar periodicals by other countries. 
By now the instrument is beginning to 
get an authoritative musicological 
support we never dreamt of 25 years ago, 
and I have felt some regret that our best 
writers in this field have had to go abroad 
in order to get publication. 
I strongly hope that with Classical 
Guitar they will find a proper outlet in 
our own country. We need just such a 
magazine to maintain our prominence in 
the guitar world. Everyone looks to 
Britain for its performers. Let us hope 
they have reason to do the same with its 
musicologists and publications. 
REGINALD SMITH BRINDLE 
London 
What wonderful news, the birth of the 
Classical Guitar magazine! We say 
'wonderful' because, unfortunately, there 
is today a great lack - in many guitar 
magazines - of serious, moral and high­
standard publications. We have no doubt 
that, with the experience, knowledge and 
good taste of your Editors, you can make 
up for this lack and can produce a most 
valuable and reliable magazine of the 
classical guitar. We look forward to the 
first issue. Please accept all our best 
wishes for a really great success. 
EVANGELOS & LIZA 
Athens 
Greece 
I warmly welcome the birth of Classical 
Guitar with my hope that it will carry on 
the important work of diffusing informa­
tion and contributing to the good fortune 
of our instrument all over the world. 
RUGGERO CHIESA 
Editor 'It Fronimo' 
Italy 
May I take this opportunity of wishing 
Classical Guitar every success with its 
official launch and subsequent issues. The 
literary, critical and musical abilities of 
your editorial staff and contributors will 
ensure a good following from classical 
guitarists everywhere, and will help in 
achieving an aim which all of us involved 
with the classical guitar must have, which 
is to further the interest in what we 
believe to be one of the most beautiful of 
all musical instruments. 
JOHN MILLS 
London 
Delighted to hear the news. I look 
forward to reading (and contributing) to 
what I know will become the magazine 
for classical guitarists worldwide. 
JORGEMOREL 
New York 
USA 
The future of the guitar depends not only 
on increasing its repertoire, but also 
expanding its respectability through top 
publications and pUblicity. I am certain 
that this new addition, with a superb 
selected staff of writers and contributors, 
will do much towards that end. I wish it 
well. 
GREGG NESTOR 
London 
Classical Guitar. 
TURIBIO SANTOS 
Rio de Janeiro 
Brazil 
The demand for a magazine, published in 
Europe and treating the subject of the 
classical guitar and its music, has grown 
from year to year. Thus, I and my 
colleagues in Finland happily welcome 
your new magazine and wish it success 
and a long life. 
JUKKA SA VIJOKI 
Helsinki 
Finland 
We are guitarists and we love the guitar, 
yet the most important thing still to 
happen to us is our emancipation in the 
musical world. The guitar needs to be 
recognised by contemporary composers, 
guitarists should mix with other 
musicians, new ensembles should be 
formed to explore new musical ways, and 
so on. 
A serious periodical with scholarly 
articles, international news of the guitar 
and guitarists in the setting of the world 
of music as a whole, and with impartial 
and reasoned reviews, will strongly 
stimulate this development. There is a 
need for such a magazine, especially in 
countries that, like Holland, do not have 
their own. 
We wish the team of the Classical 
Guitar every success in producing a high­
standard, international music magazine. 
We in Amsterdam are waiting for it! 
THE AMSTERDAM 
GUITAR TRIO 
OLGA FRANSSEN 
HELENUS DE RIJKE 
JOHAN DORRESTEIN 
Amsterdam 
Holland 
On hearing the news about the birth of 
Classical Guitar: Admiration - for the 
courage of those who undertake the pro­
ject. 
Respect - for the qualifications of the 
Editorial staff and its avowed 'clean' 
policy. 
Hope - for the growing success of the 
endeavour, and its permanence. 
In friendship, and with all good wishes. 
RICARDO FERNANDEZ IZNAOLA 
Miami 
USA 
Good luck to Classical Guitar! 
MICHAEL LORIMER 
California 
USA 
45 
Magazines for guitarists are generally full 
of news and information about the private 
affairs of various Maestros and there is 
nothing wrong in this, providing readers 
are so interested to know how much 
sugar their beloved hero puts in his 
coffee. 
About 10 years ago in Italy, the dis­
tinguished musicologist and guitarist 
Ruggero Chiesa, with funds provided by 
Suvini Zerboni (publishers), gave birth to 
a magazine for guitarists (Il Fronimo) 
based on musical and musicological 
purposes; its small concern with the 
reporting of guitar 'news' has been 
reduced to nothing, whilst the polemics, 
at least in the style of the editors, have 
related only to the subject matter, with an 
approach that does credit to the civilisa­
tion of the 20th century, and not directed 
against persons. This review has 
blossomed well and I have been glad to 
contribute to it. 
I am delighted to learn that a new 
publication, sharing the same outlook, is 
to be issued in Great Britain. Due to my 
Mickey Mouse English I cannot promise 
contributions but, if the subject of the 
magazine is music, I will remain at least 
among its readers. 
ANGELO GILARDINO 
Italy 
I wholeheartedly welcome the new 
magazine Classical Guitar. I have long 
felt a periodical devoted exclusively to the 
classical guitar would be of great interest 
and benefit to professional and amateur 
players, and indeed to guitar students 
studying at colleges of music. I therefore 
wish the new venture every success. 
GORDON CROSSKEY 
Royal Northern 
College of Music 
Manchester 
My best wishes for the success and high 
standards of Classical Guitar. 
BRIAN JEFFREY 
London 
As an ardent student of the history of 
guitar journalism, I am keenly aware of 
the prominent place of honour English 
guitar publications have enjoyed. What a 
joy to have learned that, after a long 
absence, once again there will be a serious 
classical guitar magazine published in 
England. 
My sincere wishes for your continued 
success in providing all English-speaking 
people with a forum in which their 
involvement with the classical guitar can 
be aptly expressed. 
MAT ANY A OPHEE 
Boston, Mass. 
USA 
About 150 years ago The Giulianiad 
appeared in London. This was probably 
the first organ to serve the guitar com­
munity in that great city. In the introduc­
tion the Editor stated the objectives of the 
journal, from which I quote: 'To bring 
their (Giuliani,Carulli, Sor and others) 
compositions better to the notice of the 
English amateur and professional - to 
discuss the relative merits of their 
developments, to instil in those who are 
just beginning, and keep alive in those 
who are already advanced, an interest in 
their instrument - and fmally to provide 
food for a little chit-chat among the best 
professionals themselves .. .'. This 
magazine set a precedent in the English­
speaking guitar world in recording a part 
of guitar history. 
Let me extend a big welcome to this 
new publishing venture, and to wish you 
and your staff success in preserving 
impartial columns in this long tradition of 
guitar news. 
RONALD PUR CELL 
Professor of Music, Guitar Department 
California State University 
USA 
May I wish you all the best of luck in this 
new publication, urgently required, I may 
add. 
BRIANPENNY 
Coventry 
Good luck with the magazine, it's about 
time something like this came along. 
STEVEMARSH 
Chesterfield 
Derbyshire 
There is a place in the world for a serious, 
respectable, classical guitar magazine ... 
I wish it every success and I await the 
first issue with great interest - and 
impatience! 
KONRAD RAGOSSNIG 
Basel 
Switzerland 
For us in Sweden, as well as for guitarists 
in other Nordic countries, there is a 
strong need for international contacts. As 
English becomes more and more our 
second language we are happy to hear 
that a new source of information will be 
opened to us. We look forward with 
interest to the first number of your 
magazine. The Swedish Guitar and Lute 
Society, and the Swedish guitar and lute 
magazine SGLS welcome CLASSICAL 
GUITAR and wish it all success in the 
future. 
ANNUNDBACK 
Secretary 
Swedish Guitar and Lute Society 
and Publisher of SGLS 
David Russell 
plays 
Antonio Lauro 
Gl 'ITAR ~IASTERS RECORDS mIR 1001 
On this recording, the fi rst devoted entirely to the 
music of Antonio Lauro, David Russetl fully captures 
the authentic spirit of Venezuela as was intended by 
the composer. From the delightful rhythmic simplicity 
of the nine beautiful waltzes, to the dramatic excite­
ment of the 'Suite Venezolana', the 'Sonata ' , and then 
to the breath -taking finale - 'Seis por Derecho', this 
fi rst 'Guitar Masters' recording will delight the listener 
over and over again. 
Without dOUbt this David Russell recording is the 
definitive performance of Lauro to date establishing 
David as one of the greatest guitar talents to have 
emerged in the last few years. 
Jorge Morel 
Virtuoso South 
American Guitar 
This second Guitar Masters Recording features the 
guitar genius of Jorge Morel. The fourteen selections 
include seven original compositions by Jorge, 
'Malambo' , 'Cancion', 'Danza', 'Romance Cr;ollo' , 
'Choro' , 'Prelude' and 'Danza Brasilera' , have proved to 
be extremely popular with audiences throughout North 
and South America during the last few years and also 
in Great Britain, following Jorge's first concert 
appearances th ere in 1979/1980. Other titles on this 
outstanding record are 'El Condor Pasa' (Traditional), 
'Misionera' (Bustamantel, 'Milonga' (Mores), 'Nortena' 
(Crespo), 'Chopi' (Escobarl, 'CarnavalilO' (Zaldivar), and 
'Homage to Antonio Lauro' Op,83 (Duarte). 
Ava ilable from leading record shops throughout Great Britain 
Guitar Masters Records cost £:4.95 ' in case' of difficulty 
they are available direct (add £0.75 post and packing) from 
Guitar Masters 
Records 
SALTMEADDWS ROAD, GATESHEAD NE8 3AJ 
46 
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he has developed with D'Addario, the worlds fin­
est string makers, the ideal string for flamenco 
guitarists. He calls this new product' Flamenco 
De Concierto'-a set of strings which combine 
an absolute purity oftone with a sharp clarity 
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Exclusive world distribution. 
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The Justina is manufactured exclusively for Zen-On, one of 
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Exclusive UK distribution is through Summerfields of Gateshead 
and it is available from leading music shops throughout Great Britain. 
Tuning Accuracy: ±1 per cent (0.06%); Tuning Range: -100 to +200 cents (approx. 415 Hz to 490 Hz against 440 Hz = A) 
47 
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THE CF MARTIN ORGANISATION 
48 
Classical Guitar Teachers 
A FREE SERVICE FOR ALL TEACHERS WHO ARE SUBSCRIBERS 
AVON 
Jonathan Baker Dip.Univ Valencia (Jose 
Tomas), 18 Royal York Crescent, Clifton , 
Bristol 8. Tel 733214. 
BERKSHIRE 
Robert Passmore AlCM, 36 Montrose 
Walk, Calcot, Reading. Tel 22800. 
John Canning, 60 Fifth Road, Newbury, 
Berks. Tel 0635 83660. 
BIRMINGHAM 
Roy Bull, Birmingham Music Studios, 40 
Horse Fair. Tel 021-421 4275. 
DaYid Carroll B.Mus.Dip.Ed., 66 Cam­
bridge Rd, Kings Heath. Tel 021 -444 3472. 
CAMBRIDGE 
Chris Kilvington BA PGC Ed l TCl AlCM, 
67 Montague Rd. Tel Cambridge 68871 . 
CHESHIRE 
Charles Scott, 1 Sandhill lane, Hartford , 
Northwich. Tel 0606 74237. 
CORNWALL 
Spanish Guitar Centre, 36 Barncoose 
Tce, IlIogan Highway, Redruth. Tel 0209 
214525. 
DERBYSHIRE 
Stephen Marsh, 5 Shaftesbury Ave, 
Ashgate, Chesterfield. Tel 33496. 
DURHAM 
Frank M. Pert BA A.Mus lCM, 57 Blanch­
land Ave, Durham. Tel 69327. 
ESSEX 
Terry Spooner FlCM ARCM llCM (TD), 
172 Milwards, Harlow. Tel 4 18015. 
GLOUCESTERSHIRE 
M.P. Dunn lGSM l TCl, Classical Guitar 
Studios, 297-299 High Street, Cheltenham. 
Tel 0242 583408 
HAMPSHIRE 
Pamela J. Poulton AClM, 60 Barton 
lane, Barton on Sea, New Milton. Tel 
616560. 
HERTFORDSHIRE 
Peter Cracknell AClM, 149 George St, 
Berkhampstead. Tel 4570. 
KENT 
Adrian Harriaon ARCM, 127 Croydon Rd, 
Bromley. Tel Farnborough 50052. 
Harvey Hope, 64 Ashmore Grove, 
Welling. Tel 01-856 4876. 
Rayrnond Love, Elizabeth Cottage, The 
Green, Keigh, Nr. Tonbridge. Tel Hiden­
borough 832459. 
Peter Wild, 8 Middle Field, Pembury, Tun­
bridge Wells. Tel 2498. 
THE GUITAR 
LANCASHIRE 
Paul J. Fowles AlCM, 5 laxford Grove, 
ladybridge, Bolton Bl3 4PW. Tel 652322. 
Alan Jones, Wilvere Drive, Little Bispham, 
Blackpool. Tel Chevelys 821831 . 
H. Walkden, 11 Kingsway, Penwortham, 
Preston. Tel 743335. 
Christopher Susans, Kirkland Hse, lower 
Church St, Asbhy-de-Ia-Zouch. Tel 0530 
416564. 
LONDON 
Colin Arenstein lRAM FlCM, 92 Station 
Rd, Hendon NW4 3SR. Tel 202 7279. 
Gareth Balch, 2 Barberry Rd, Boxmoor, 
Hemel Hempstead, Herts. Tel 0442 53437 . 
William Baulch, Blackheath Conservatoire 
of Music, 20 Courtlands Avenue, London 
SE12 8HZ. Tel 01-852 4043 
David Catling ARCII.(I, 18 Dryburgh Road, 
Putney, London SW15 1Bl. Tel 788 3512. 
L. R. Gallo, 61 6 Green lanes, Harringay 
N8. Tel 888 4666. 
Peter Howe ARCM, 11 Palmerston Rd, 
Wimbledon, London SW19. Tel 01-504 
7049. 
Bill Keville AlCM llCM, 34 Foster Rd, 
Chiswick, W4. Tel 747 0992. 
Graham Newling ARCM, 18 Dryburgh Rd, 
Putney, SW15. Tel 788 3512 . 
John Taylor MA(Oxon) l TCl, 5a Southend 
Rd, Hampstead, NW3. Tel 794 3605 or 
435 5389. · 
John Taylor ARCM, 19 Berryhill , SE9. Tel 
8500578. 
Raynond Urcell ARCM , Dominic Miller, 19 
Oxford Rd, Putney, SW15. Tel 788 8556. 
Tricia Walker, 32 Thornton Ave, Chiswick, 
W4. Tel 994 7266. 
MIDDLESEX 
Charles Bolton, 48 Alicia Ave, Kenton. Tel 
01-907 0519. 
Oliver Hunt, also theory and composition, 
Harrow on The Hill. Tel 01 -864 9424. 
Tony McMahon l TCl, 36 Morgans lane, 
Hayes End. Tel 08-573 3589. 
NORFOLK 
Bob Parslow BA (Hons)(Music), 21 Ashby 
St, Norwich. Tel 20261. 
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 
Christopher Bell lRAM ARCM, 9a Well ­
ington Cres, West Bridgeford. Tel 0602 
812547. 
OXFORDSHIRE 
Arthur Brown, 13 Kingsway, Banburym, 
Oxon. Tel 65133. 
John Whitworth MA DPhil. 30 Helley 
Cres, Headington. Tel Oxford 61273. 
SHROPSHIRE 
Cheryl Grice GRNCM ARNCM ARM CM, 
2 / 3 Drinkwater St, Mountfields, 
Shrewsbury. Tel 246208. 
Chaz Hart lRAM, 7 Culsac Rd, Surbiton. 
Tel 01-390 0013. 
Richerd (Steve' Stephenson, 40 
langdale Ave, Chichester. Tel 785062. 
SURREY 
Simon James lTCl, 23 lansdowne Court, 
Brighton Road, Purley CR2 2BD. Tel 01­
668 5269. 
TYNE & WEAR 
Brian Arthur, 1 5 Dene Tce, South 
Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 1QP. 
Tel 853275. 
Alan Clark, 29 Cloverfield Ave, Fawdon, 
Newcastle 3. Tel Gosforth 850904. 
John Ferguson, 12 Alice St, Winlaton. 
WARWICKSHIRE 
C. P. Beasley, 167B Albany Road, Earl­
sdon, Coventry. 
D. Shepherd AlCM, Warwickshire 
Classical Guitar Centre, 16A Providence 
Street, Coventry. Tel 0203 713112. 
WILTSHIRE 
Gerald Kerr, Spanish Gtr Workshop, 79 
Wilton Rd, Salisbury. Tel 26151. 
YORKSHIRE 
David Ashworth, 43 The Garlands, 
Clifton, York. Tel 36905. 
Graham Wade MA l TCl ATCl, Leeds 
College of Music, Cookridge St, Leeds. 
WALES 
Jeff CoUina MA l TCl ARCM, 113 Con­
naught Rd, Roath, Cardiff. Tel 499540. 
AUSTRALIA 
Dekroo Bros, PO Box 319, Caringbah, 
NSW 2229. 
FRANCE 
Gerard Rebours, 90 Rue de la Jonquiere, 
Paris 75017. 
GIBRALTAR 
Judah Benaadon AlCM, 3 Stanley Bldgs, 
Prince Edward Rd. 
ISRAEL 
Ovadia Heske!. 36 Abarbanel St, Bnei­
Brak 51242, Israel. Tel 03-791302. 
IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF 
APPRECIATION SOCIETY 'CLASSICAL GUITAR' 
OF 
JORGE MOREL 
NORTH EAST ENGLAND 
MONTHLY CELEBRITY RECITALS JOHN WILLlAMS 
AND HARMONY FOR GUITARISTS 
SOCIAL EVEN I NGS GUITAR TECHNIQUE 
For details write to the Secretary G.A.S. 
Summerfield, Saltmeadows Road, 8 PAGE MUSIC SUPPLEMENT 
Gateshead NE8 3AJ ON SA LE ­ 1 NOVEMBER 1982 
49 
Books on Guitar Making and Repair 
AM187 
Classic Guitar 
Making 
Arthur Overholtzer 
£9.95 
This complete reference work, 
containing more than 350 
photographs and drawings, 
offers far more than just the 
most detailed instructions of 
any guitar making manual. It 
provides simple easy-to­
understand principles 
underlaying every 'how' and 
'why' each step of the way, 
from selecting wood in the 
lumberyard to stringing up 
and tuning the finished guitar, 
told in the down-home style 
of this master craftsman who 
has been making guitars for 
more than 40 years. 
Post and packing £ 1.00 
A vailable from: 
AM189 
Guitar Repair 
Irving Sloan 
£3.95 
Drawing on many years' 
practical experience Irving 
Sloan has put together the 
first and only manual for 
repairing and improving 
acoustic guitars. Wherever 
possible and with sacrificing 
satisfactory results the author 
has simplified the technique 
and anyone capable of do-it ­
yourself woodwork will be 
able to effect the repairs 
described here - 96 pages. 
Post and packing 60p 
AM191 
Classic Guitar 
Construction 
Irving Sloan 
£3.95 
A thorough workbook on 
guitar making. This manual is 
understandable and practical 
for the layman, the beginning 
guitar student, the more 
advanced craftsman. 
Practically every page of this 
volume is illustrated with 
diagrams and excellent 
photographs - 96 pages. 
Post a nd packing 60p 
AM262 
Make Your Own Classical 
Guitar 
Stanley Doubtfire 
£15.00 
Step by step instructions, text, 
diagrams and interviews. Beautifully 
illustrated - 240 x 275 mm, 192 
pages. 
Post and packing £ 1.00 
ASHLEY MARK PUBLISHING COMPANY, SALTMEADOWS ROAD, GATESHEAD NE8 3AJ 
Small Ads 
Rate is 20 pence per word, minimum 10 
words. Box number 50 pence extra. 
Ignacio Fleta concert guitar. 1980. Superb and very power­
ful instrument. Offers to Box 9101. 
Bryn Jones Rubio workshop concert guitar 1978. £950 
with case. Tel 021-426 1084. 
Classical Guitar made by Taurus of Spain £440. Tel 
Templecombe (Somerset) 70323. 
Ten String Classical Guitar - Mitsura Tamura, cost £900 
with case - as new sell £650.00. Tel (0632) 813166. 
GARETH BALCH BMus (Hons, London) 
Teacher in Guitar, University College, London 
I HAVE VACANCIES FOR KEEN STUDENTS, 
BEGINNER TO ADVANCED, AT THE 
BLOOMSBURY THEATRE, 
GORDON ST, LONDON WC1 
- GRADE THEORY, GCE COACHING ALSO TAUGHT­
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50 
THE CLASSICAL GUITAR 
ITS EVOLUTION AND ITS PLAYERS 
SINCE 1800 
BY 
MAURICE J. SUMMERFIELD 
312 pages - hard or soft bound - size 11" x 8" - high 
quality paper. 
The most complete work on the classical guitar since 1800. An 
essential book for classical guit~rists and music lovers alike. 
* The evolution of the classical guitar from 1800 to 1982.
* Biographies and photographs of over 180 of the world's greatest classical guitarists and guitar personalities, past and present. 
* Over 350 photographs and illustrations. 
* Details of the most important classical guitar records ever issued. 
* Charts showing the evolution of the classical guitar and its major players since 1800.
* Details of important classical guitarmusic and books. 
* History of the most important classical guitar makers. 
* Appendix listing specialist sources of supply - where the records, books and music 
detailed in the book can be obtained. 
HARD COVER - £9.95 ISBN 09506224/8/6 
SOFT COVER - £6.95 ISBN 09506224/7/8 
AVAILABLE NOW 
From Good Book and Music 
Shops Throughout Great Britain 
IN CASE OF DIFFICULTY AVAILABLE 
DIRECT FROM THE PUBLISHERS 
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Gateshead 
Great Britain NE8 3AJ 
PLEASE ADD £1.20 TO COVER POST AND PACKING 
AIR MAIL £8.00 
_ t, 
JORGE M:OREL 
unique guitar ' 
artistry of Jorge Morel, 
the brilliant Argentinian 
guitarist composer, 
is today renowned 
throughout the world. 
Whether it be one of 
his beautiful original 
compositions like 
the 'Suite del Sur' 
for guitar and 
symphony orchestra, his 
.arrangements of traditional 
South American melodies, 
or his exciting arrangements 
of Broadway musicals like the 
'West Side Story' suite, the guitar 
sound of Jorge Morel is a happy 
mixture of infectious melody and 
rhythmic excitement. 
Hear for yourself Jorge's magnificent 
guitar on his new 'Guitar Masters' recording 
'Virtuoso South American Guitar' 
(GMH 1002), we know you will agree that 
it is one of the most outstanding guitar 
records ever made. Jorge seen here with his 
Ibanez G500 'Recital' guitar, recommends 
without reservation the wide range of 
Ibanez classical guitars as being the finest 
value for money available today. 
Summerfield, Saltmeadows Road, Gateshead NE8 3AJ, 
Send 20p for latest colour catalogue 
Printed by CampbeU Graphics Ltd, Newcastle upon Tyne NE6 1AS lInd Suite 108, Temple Chambers, Temple Avenue, London EC4, TeL 01-583 3190 ;the main functions of the 
Chester Guitar Circle is to encourage 
the members, particularly the younger 
ones, to perform to a live audience, 
writes Charles Scott. The members' 
evening on 7 July found no shortage 
of enthusiasts willing to play. From a 
wide age range, they included Philip 
Holt, Dawn Jenks, Ian Powick, Roy 
and Rebecca Crosby (father and 
daughter), Adam Crook, Dave Sharp, 
John Pardoe, Brian Hewitt, Tom 
Davis, Chris Birtles, Peter Thorne 
and our own Charles Scott himself, 
who took the opportunity of 
announcing the impending launch of 
Classical Guitar. Chester Guitar 
Circle must be one of the very few to 
draw its members from more than 
one country; some come from as far 
afield as Bangor-on-Dee and Cefn-y­
Bedd, in Wales. 
Rebecca Crosby was con­
gratulated on achieving entrance to 
the Royal Northern College, where 
her ability will fmd opportunities for 
development and advancement. 
Next meeting: first Wednesday in 
September (Members' evening). 
October: recital by Katy Caws, with 
high calibre programme of Dowland, 
N arvaez, Brouwer, Walton, Lauro, 
Smith Brindle and Rodrigo. 
6 
CONCERT DIARY 
September 
6 Monday 
London: MARC ONGLEY 
Wigmore Hall, 7.30 pm 
7 Saturday 
Salisbury: HILL/WILTSCHINSKY 
GUITAR DUO 
Salisbury Festival - Medieval Hall, 
Salisbury, 7.30 pm 
10 Friday 
Lewes: HARVEY HOPE 
(Baroque Guitar) 
All Saints Art Centre, 7.30 pm 
11 Saturday 
Sawbridgeworth: DAVID and 
RACHEL BURDON (Guitar, violin, 
oboe) 
The Old Malthouse, Knight St. 
(Tel: 0279 722318) 8 pm 
14 Tuesday 
Hull: HARVEY HOPE 
Feren Art Gallery, 7.30 pm 
October 
2 Saturday 
Coventry: CARLOS BONELL 
Cothedge Theatre, The Butts 
3 Sunday 
London: VLADIMIR MIKULKA 
Wigmore Hall, 7.30 pm (Rak, 
Koskin) 
6 Wednesday 
Chester: KATY CAWS 
Chester Guitar Circle, 8 pm 
(Brouwer, Walton) 
7 Thursday 
Coleraine: CARLOS BONELL 
Coleraine Univ., N.I., 8 pm 
8 Friday 
Derry: CARLOS BONELL 
Derry Univ., N.I., 8 pm 
9 Saturday 
Omagh: CARLOS BONELL 
Omagh Arts Festival, 8 pm 
10 Sunday 
Salisbury: HARVEY HOPE 
St Edmunds Guitar Festival 
13 Wednesday 
Tiverton: HARVEY HOPE 
East Devon College, 7.30 pm 
14 Thursday 
Aldenham: 
OMEGA GUITAR QUARTET 
Herts College of Higher Education, 
7.30'pm 
Exeter: HARVEY HOPE 
(ring 0392 78396 for details) 
15 Friday 
London: MANUEL BARRUECO 
Wigmore Hall, 7.30 pm 
(Bach, Cimarosa, Sor, Gonzalez, 
Granados, Rodrigo j 
Wells: OMEGA GUITAR 
QUARTET 
Wells Centre, Wells next the Sea, 
Norfolk, 7.30 pm 
16 Saturday 
Sawbridgeworth: KATY CAWS 
The Old Malthouse, 8 pm 
Oxford: OMEGA GUITAR 
QUARTET 
St Edwards School, 7.30 pm 
21 Thursday 
London: THE LUTE GROUP 
Wigmore Hall, 7.30 pm (Pacoloni, 
Milano, Dowland, Valderrabano, 
Mudarra, Besard, Hume) 
Sussex: CARLOS BONELL 
Gardner Centre, Sussex Univ., 
7.45 pm 
22 Friday 
London: LUIS ZEA 
Wigmore Hall, 7.30 pm (Bach, 
Lauro, Duarte, Barrios, Holborne, 
Morley, Milano) -
Nottingham: CARLOS BONELL 
Nottingham Guitar Centre. 
Guest appearance 
(for venue and details: 0602 622709) 
23 Saturday 
Kettering: CARLOS BONELL with 
ENGLISH SINFONIA 
(Rodrigo, Carulli. Further details: 
0602 43653) 
26 Tuesday 
Camden: HILL/WILTSCHINSKY 
GUITAR DUO 
Camden Festival - Shaw Theatre, 
London, 1.05 pm 
28 Thursday 
Bangor: CARLOS BONELL 
Bangor Univ., N. Wales, 7.30 pm 
29 Friday 
London: CAROLlNE 
McCAUSLAND 
(Songs with guitar) 
Wigmore Hall, 7.30 pm (Songs of the 
Country and of the Sea) 
Preston: HILL/WILTSCHINSKY 
GUITAR DUO 
Preston Poly Arts Centre, 7.30 pm 
30 Saturday 
Lincoln: HILL/WILTSCHINSKY 
GUITAR DUO 
Lincoln Guitar Society, 7.30 pm 
GUITAR APPRECIATION SOCIETY 
OF 
NORTH EAST ENGLAND 
proudly present 
GRAHAMWADE 
17 OCTOBER 
BARNEV KESSEL 
31 OCTOBER 
HARVEVHOPE 
21 NOVEMBER 
PEOPLE'S THEATRE - 8 pm 
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE 
BARBICAN CENTRE 
SILK STREET 
LONDON EC2Y 80S 
NEIL 
SMITH 
WITH THE 
LONDON CONCERT 
ORCHESTRA 
PLAYING THE 
'CONCIERTO DE 
ARANJUEZ' 
by 
JOAQUIN RODRIGO 
TUESDAY 26 OCTOBER 1982 
at 1.00 pm 
7 
8 
JULIAN BREAM 
The Contribution 
by JOHN W. DUARTE 
THE Julian Bream I first met in the 1940s was a small boy 
in short pants; when playing he was virtually obscured by 
his guitar, face and arms appearing on its perimeter like 
those of a musical Mr Chad. By the time this appears in 
print he will, incredibly, be in his 50th year. His fame is now 
such that he could, if it were in his nature to do so, join 
Segovia in adopting a surname-only billing. We so naturally 
accept his presence and stature that we are in danger of 
taking him for granted; it is perhaps a good moment at 
which to survey the path that has led him to his position of 
well-deserved eminence as, in a worthwhile sense, Segovia's 
truest successor. 
In relation to the guitar itself as a musical medium, 
Segovia's principal achievements were: 
(i) 	 The establishment of the instrument on concert 
platforms around the world, to a hitherto undreamed-of 
extent. 
(ii) 	The winning of respect from other musicians for the 
guitar and its potential in high-quality music-making. 
This had a variety of consequences, one of the most 
important of which was his persuasion of non-guitarist 
composers to write for this humble and previously 
undervalued instrument. 
Technological advances - in jet-assisted air travel and in 
creating the long-playing record - greatly enhanced the 
spreading of Segovia's influence and strengthened the situa­
tion of the guitar in the post-war years. At the same time 
there were those who viewed the matter with some 
apprehension: if Segovia were for any reason to disappear 
from the scene, what would happen to the instrument that 
was virtually identified with him? Such thoughts may well 
have passed through Segovia's own mind at that time. 
It was into this scenario that Julian Bream was the flrst 
'young hopeful' with genuine talent to enter as the 1950s 
unfolded. To all intents and purposes a self-taught guitarist, 
as Segovia was, he acquired a formal musical education 
(which Segovia did not) at the Royal College of Music in 
London though, in a haughty establishment where he was 
requested to carry his guitar in through the back door, there 
was no-one to help him in developing his instrumental 
studies with the guitar. His official debut, in London's 
Wigmore Hall, was in 1950 and announced his long­
awaited arrival - his reputation had preceded him in the 
guitar-musical world. Through the 1950s it became 
'fashionable', not least among the politically motivated, to 
acknowledge Bream's remarkable musicianship - but to 
express regret that his guitar playing per se left much to be 
desired. Such myopic carpings may have hurt his feelings at 
the time but they did not retard his development (they may 
even have provoked its acceleration!) or the spread of his 
reputation in the world. 
Since then he has continued to develop in his own way, 
shaping his own path and attitudes, and contributing to the 
prestige and resources of the guitar to an extent unequalled 
by anyone since Segovia in the years of his most passionate 
evangelism. At the beginning of his performing career 
Bream used what has come to be known as the 'Segovia 
repertoire' - it would have been surprising had it been 
Julian Bream 
otherwise at that time - but within half a decade he was 
already moving away from that territory; he has of course 
never entirely deserted it but it now forms only a segment of 
his working stock. Segovia had lobbied the sympathetic 
composers of his youth on behalf of the guitar - Torroba, 
Turina, Ponce, Villa-Lobos, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and 
others, some of whose music he found unacceptably 
'dissonant'. In his turn Bream had little difficulty in extract­
ing new works from a galaxy of composers - Bennett, 
Berkeley, Britten, Arnold, Fricker, Rawsthorne, Searle, 
Walton, Davies and Henze are names to conjure with in the 
widerworld of music; many of these works, like those to 
which Segovia acted as midwife, have become standard 
items in today's programmes. 
The high reputation of many of those who wrote for 
Segovia now rest heavily on their guitar works and, indeed, 
some are currently represented in the record catalogue by 
little else. It is difficult to believe that a like fate will befall 
many of those on Bream's 'list', though time alone will tell. 
That Bream has been so richly successful is in part owed to 
what Segovia did, causing reputable composers to take the 
guitar seriously, but it is equally important that Bream's 
artistry has made it possible for their efforts to be reward­
ing. If Bream has not so far embraced anything beyond the 
friendlier manifestations of 12-note music (a reaction shared 
by most contemporary audiences) his catalytic effect has 
been greater than that of any other guitarist of his time; his 
contribution has been vital to the well-being of the guitar. It 
has been just as important that it has been Bream who has 
done it: when an artist of his quality and reputation presents 
new music guitarists listen - to his concerts and his 
recordings - and learn, flrst to tolerate and then to 
9 
understand, love and perform the music that at first 
sounded uncomfortably strange, far-removed from the 
guitar's traditional 'image'. This in turn helps talented, but 
less influential, performers by creating a climate in which it 
is more readily accepted that guitar music, like any other, 
inhabits an evolving rather than a static area. 
Today there are other guitarists whose musical educa­
tion and technical prowess at least match Bream's but, 
though working in the favourable ambience he has done so 
much to foster, none is so universally respected as he is, a 
musician's musician. He has worked with others in a variety 
of fields but, though he possess skills in the 'lighter' forms of 
music (he is, for instance, a deft improviser in the jazz of the 
Django Reinhardt era), he has been careful to keep only to 
those areas in which his abilities genuinely match his reputa­
tion and standards. In no 'external' area has he been more 
influential than in that of renaissance music, one for which 
he has deep affection and which strikes resonances in his 
own personality. He took to the lute for the simple reason 
that he felt was best able to express the music written for it 
(though he has never come to terms with the baroque lute) 
and not because he viewed it as an instrument with a 
developing future beyond that of re-creation. The revival of 
interest in the lute had gained momentum before Bream's 
involvement with it but the world of the lute was still an 
esoteric one, inhabited by performers whose abilities were 
technically ill-equipped to attract the affection of a nascent 
public. Bream approached the lute with a guitarist's right 
hand and used his nails, a thing that was and still is 
regarded with the same horror as would be the playing of 
the classic guitar with finger picks; he also used a lute that 
was far from 'authentic', with a single second course that 
took root only in Dowland's last years - to mention only 
one anomaly. Lutenists were so busy tut-tutting that they 
tended to overlook the important point; their trees got in the 
way of the wood. Bream had an instinctive feeling for the 
music and posssessed the technique to present it with 
burning conviction and the virtuosic fluency that purist 
lutenists then lacked; while they talked, criticized and 
researched, Bream communicated with the public and 
opened its ears. There are now many lutentists of superb 
musicality and high (authentic) technique - most of them, 
ironically, ex-guitarists - but Bream remains one of the 
very few who can ftll a concert hall. Few are the diehards 
who now refuse to acknowledge that Bream played a key 
role in stimulating and accelerating public interest in lute 
music. 
Within that same field the Julian Bream Consort 
virtually pioneered the revival of the Elizabethan broken 
consort. Working with modern instruments and players 
who, no matter how versatile, were not specialists in early 
music, the Consort made a very great impact in concert and 
on record. It was disbanded after the tragic, early death of 
the violinist Olive Zorian but was revived in the 70s and is 
now active once more, Bream the only member not qualify­
ing for the medal of Authenticity - but who cares? He is 
still the great communicator and that is what early music, 
like any other kind, is about. 
Julian Bream has been the most influential guitarist of 
the post-Segovia years, not merely because he is a mag­
nificent performer and consummate musician who has 
earned the genuine respect of musicians of all kinds; his 
influence has been much wider than that. Segovia 
established the guitar within the musical world in which he 
himself de~~loped, that of Spanish and romantic (albeit late) 
music, a massive achievement in itself. Bream gave a firm 
bur affectionate push to a repertory that was severely in 
danger of ossification and stagnation, imparting a 
momentum that others can now maintain more easily 
because of what he did; he created the climate in which they 
can now work. Others may trumpet loudly about the things 
they have done for the guitar, but a simple count of the new 
music they play and a head-count of the composers whose 
interest they have stimulated will easily sort the wheat from 
the chaff. The world of lute music too owes him a debt that 
is now more freely acknowledged than it once was. Five 
men in the history of the guitar made different, key con­
tributions to the progess of the guitar: Sor, Torres, Tarrega, 
Segovia and Augustine, a list that should now be extended 
to a total of six by the addition of Julian Bream. 0 
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Large selection of top quality instruments, for 
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GUITARES 
by 
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PHOTOGRAPHS 
BY 
MAURICE BERARD 
The most beautiful book on guitars as 
works of art ever published . Text in 
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Magnificent photographs illustrate th.e 
book, and most of these are in colour. 
Price £40.00 UK, post and packing 
£2.50. Available from Ashley Mark 
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Road, Gateshead NE8 3AJ 
10 
LOS ROMEROS 
by GRAHAM WADE 
OVER the last three centuries many musical families have 
aroused a special fascination. In recent years the names of 
Dolmetsch, Menuhin, and Tortelier have represented on the 
concert platform not only the patriarch but families of out­
standing ability. That music definitely runs in families has 
been demonstrated by the sons of J. S. Bach as well as by 
Leopold and W olfgang Mozart, the Lawes brothers, and the 
Strausses of waltz fame including Johann I, II and Ill. 
In instrument making, famous dynasties range from the 
Stradivaris, the Amatis, and the Guarneris, to the Ramirez. 
Famous family units of modern times include Len Williams 
and son, Shostakovich and son, the Oistrakhs, Sir Lennox 
Berkeley and composer son Michael, Waiter and Alexander 
Goehr, and the amazing Abreu brothers. 
Los . Romeros have established themselves over the last 
twenty years as formidable exponents of the principles of 
'music in the family'. In ensembles of various kinds, includ­
ing quartets, quartets with orchestra, and duos, as well as 
outstanding solo performances, Los Romeros have assilmed 
a unique significance in the crowded world of the inter­
national recitalists. For one thing, at a time when record 
companies are distinctly discouraging to many guitarists 
who deserve a wider audience, the Romero family between 
themhave made at least two dozen recordings with massive 
international sales. 
Los·-Romeros consist of father Celedonio and his three 
sons, Pepe, Angel, and Celin. As well as the unique renown 
the family has achieved through their Guitar Quartet, the 
reputations of Pepe (b. 1944) and Angel (b.1946) as 
important solo recording artists specialising in both Spanish 
and early 19th century music (including Boccherini, Sor, 
and Giuliani) are now secure in the international hierarchy. 
A constant stream of world-wide tours (Angel Romero is 
visiting Britain this autumn) ensures that the esteem built up 
by their albums is underpinned by frequent personal 
appearances. 
Moreover, at a time when leading Spanish players of 
the classical guitar seem peculiarly thin on the ground, Los 
Romeros have reasserted the Spanish identity of the guitar 
and provided a necessary corrective to the abundance of 
northern European and Anglo-Saxon viewpoints of the 
guitar and its repertoire which have threatened to dominate 
the commanding heights. It is essential that the three pillars 
of the guitar's contemporary appeal - north European, 
Spanish, and South American - should be well represented 
by a balance of recitalists from all three areas. 
For a healthy awareness of the repertoire we must, 
from time to time, hear Spanish music interpreted by 
Spanish players, Villa-Lobos played by Brazilians, 
Venezuelan music in the dazzling hands of Alirio Diaz, and 
the works of Walton, Britten, and Arnold as demonstrated 
in the strictly untarnished urtext versions of Bream. The 
internationalism of the guitar is now irrevocably founded on 
solid ground. Yet how necessary to go back to interpreta­
tions originating from the native soil of the composer's art. 
Los Romeros, as Joaqum Rodrigo remarked, have their 
Spanishness as 'their special stamp of identity'. This 
Los Romeros 
characteristic has been well nurtured despite a long 
residence in the United States. Celedonio Romero, the found­
ing father, was born in Malaga in 1917, and gave his 
Madrid debut in 1937. He was the youngest son of a 
Spanish architectural engineer (the man who designed the 
harbour of Gibralter) and graduated from the Madrid Con­
servatory Celedonio left Spain in 1958 after some years of 
friction with Franco's regime, and emigrated with his family 
to America. 
Celedonio was a student of Daniel Fortea (1878-1953), a 
pupil of Tarrega. If Llobet (1878-1937), Barrios (1885­
1944), Pujol (1886-1981), Segovia (b.1893), and Regino 
Sainz de la Maza (1897-1982) might be regarded as the 
vanguard of the twentieth century guitar movement, then 
Oyanguren (b.1905), Maria Luisa Anido (b.1907), Scheit 
(b.1909), Luise Walker (b.1910), Gomez (b.1911), Azpiazu 
(b.1912) and Almeida and Rey de la Torre (both born 1917) 
represent the second generation. It is in this group that 
Celedonio Romero belongs, and he is clearly a most sig­
nificant player of this generation. 
Comparison of Celedonio's own solo recordings with 
others of his era shows that he can easily hold his own with 
most of them, Rey de la Torre, perhaps Llobet's most 
brilliant pupil, being the most formidable, and Laurindo 
Almeida the most well-known. In historical terms this 
generation of players has probably had the least apprecia­
tion from the critics, being sandwiched between the 
illustrious forefathers and the brilliant breed of the 1920s 
and 30s. Yet it was to this intermediate group that the 
generation of Diaz (b. 1923), Presti (1924-67), Yepes 
(b. 1927), Ragossnig (b.1932), Behrend (b.1933) and Bream 
(b.1933) often had to turn where possible for a little 
guidance if geographical opportunities permitted. 
11 
Los Romeros - Pepe, Angel and Celin Romero with their father Celedonio Romero 
Like that other teacher, whose influence on the guitar 
scene was like a tidal wave, Len Williams (b.191O), 
Celedonio Romero has achieved a remarkable pedagogic 
feat, that of equipping his sons with both technique and ins­
piration. It is a fascinating exercise to compare Celedonio's 
own recording of, for example, Narvaez' Guardame las 
Vacas, with that by his eldest son, Pepe, or the two versions 
by father and son of Sor's Variations on a Theme of 
Mozart, Op. 9. The distinctions are not only technical but 
also stylistic, that much misunderstood aspect of 20th 
century guitar history. 
Celedonio has succeeded in teaching his sons so well that 
their musical development is not constricted yet continuity 
of generations is maintained. This example of guitar evolu­
tion within a single family is extraordinary and unique. It 
has even been revealed that, initially, Celedonio demanded of 
the boys that they should play without nails, in the true 
Tarrega tradition, before going on to master the modern 
technique (Guitar Player, January 1981). Thus Celedonio 
has provided an important historical link between the early 
20th century traditions of the guitar in the Tarrega school, 
and later developments in the contemporary guitar world. 
The ensemble playing of Los Romeros is in itself an 
innovation, both in its excellence and in its repertoire. As an 
ensemble they have a distinctive, immediately recognisable 
quality of timbre, warm, elegant and expressive, and above 
all an ease and naturalness other quartets just have not 
achieved. Family togetherness is obviously at a premium 
here as they cohere the wilful spirits of four guitars into one 
musical entity. Their sonorities in quartet performance 
provide an object lesson in that blending of tone so elusive 
to more spasmodic attempts at ensemble music one hears 
occasionally. Los Romeros manage to deliver the impres­
sion of one large resonating guitar rather than four guitars 
played by separate individuals. Such musical closeness can 
surely be achieved only by performers intimately related. 
But the Romeros are probably aware that the sound of 
four guitars is not entirely satisfactory as a musical 
medium. Guitar ensemble material is greatly inferior to the 
richness and variety of ensemble music for other instru­
ments. The balanced voicing of a string quartet, superbly 
exploited by all the leading composers over the last two and 
a half centuries, is quite unlike the homogeneity of four 
guitars (even when a requinto or two may be added to take 
the soprano line). The chemistry of four guitars can quickly 
induce monotony with a rather cloying textural brew, at 
first delightful but later repetitive. 
The Romeros have tried to solve these problems. 
Though the deficit in the ensemble repertoire cannot be 
made up, and transcriptions of Vivaldi, Telemann, Haydn, 
provide no real answer, the Romeros have inspired such 
composers as Rodrigo and Torroba to look afresh at the 
challenges of ensemble music. Rodrigo's Concierto Andaluz 
for four guitars and orchestra, like Torroba's Concierto 
Iberico, attempts to bring in variety and contrast by using 
orchestral colour as a foil to the tones of plucked sound. 
12 
MUSiC 
( 
As a medium for sustained listening, the combination of 
quartet and orchestra is perhaps limited. The music is 
always melodious and imaginative, sometimes even evoking 
the pictorialism of mm music. Yet the range of available VIRTUOSOsurprises soon diminishes and once the initial pleasantness 
of the music has been absorbed, it is difficult to listen 
A beautiful music album of original guitar solos and 
arrangements of traditional South American themes by 
the brilliant Argentinian guitar virtuoso, Jorge Morel. 
SOUTH 
repeatedly to such sonorities. When, as in the Andante AMERICANmovement of Torroba's work, the melody enters played by 
the guitars, sweetness is paramount. But the purple intent of GUITAR 
the writing leads towards prettiness and pleasure rather than 
to that depth of emotion which takes us far beyond mere 
delight. JORGE MOREL 
The fault here is perhaps less with the nature of GUITAR SOLOS Torroba's inspiration than with the medium itself. To 
incorporate the orchestrawith the quartet was, as in 
Rodrigo's Concierto Andaluz, a valuable development. 
What is required now is a series of such works by many 
other composers, with or without orchestral backing, to 
exploit the potential of the guitar ensemble. The credit for 
the initial pioneering impetus and its dissemination on disc 
to a wide public goes to Los Romeros. Their very existence The 32 page book contains the following titles, 'El 
has thus opened another window on the world of the guitar. Condor Pasa', 'Misionera', 'Carnavalito', 'Danza 
Brasilera', 'Romance Criollo', and 'Danza in E Minor', 
arranged note for note by Jorge Morel as he plays them 
on his latest Guitar Masters recording GMR 1002. 
Available from good music shops throughout Great 
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at £3.99. DANDA :?:.t~ 
In case of difficulty it is available direct from the 
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CONTENTS :­
Tutors & Didactic Material 
Scale, Theory Books & Manuscript 
student Repertoire - all graded 
Solo 
Duo 
Trio 
Quartet 
Quintet 
Concert Repertoire - solo & duo 
Clarinet & Guitar 
Flute & Guitar 
Oboe & Guitar 
Recorder & Guitar 
Violin & Guitar 
Viola & Guitar 
'Cello & Guitar 
Harpsichord & Guitar 
Piano & Guitar 
Voice & Guitar 
Chamber Music ... Trios 
Quartets 
Quintets 
Sextets 
Concertos 
Index of Composers & Arrangers 
OVER 2,000 entries ~ 104 pages. 
£ 1.29 including postage from 
1982 	 Spanish Guitar Centre 
CATALOGUE 	 44, Nottingham Road, 
New Basford, 
NOTTINGHAM. 
13 
------
SCALES A NECESSARY EVIL? 
by NEIL SMITH 
SOME years ago my harmony teacher, a fine pianist, drew 
my attention to a document he kept by him during piano 
lessons; it contained an impressive list of names - Brahms, 
Chopin, Liszt, Kreisler, Rubinstein and others - attached 
to single-sentence quotations relating to scales and their role 
in the life of a professional musician. None of these quota­
tions were from guitarists. At that time I was beginning to 
understand the value of scales to a guitarist, though I knew 
that many abhorred the word itself let alone the work that 
was involved. 
There are good reasons why work with scales is valu­
able in both the physical (performance) and academic 
(theory) sense. First, without probing too deeply, the 
academic view: even a cursory examination of music before . 
1900 (and much of it after that) will show that it is con­
structed with scales as its raw materials; melodies and har­
monies are largely built from scale notes. Through this one 
may obtain a modest insight on the processes of composi­
tion in 'traditional' music and may begin to relate them to 
more recent musical trends. 
In the physical sense the development is usually con­
fined to major, minor, chromatic, whole-tone and intervallic 
(thirds, sixths, octaves and tenths) scales but, however 
limited they may seem in theoretical range, they can be used 
to develop power, agility, speed, good tone, accuracy and 
endurance - and because their notes are the very fibres of 
the musical fabrics they relate directly to the vitally 
important area of interpretation. One difficulty is that 
melodies, usually couched in scale notes, often refuse to 'fit' 
on the guitar in a technically simple way. A theoretically 
simple sequence of notes such as CEFDC can result, with 
an inexperienced player, in an unmusical jumble of sounds; 
even a player who is fairly advanced may produce a poor 
result if such a sequence is played at high speed in any 
octave and with any fingering. 
Although there are many scale books in print, most 
give little indication as to how their contents are to be 
practised; however, some do. Pascual Roch (a pupil of 
Titrrega), in his tutor of 1921, tells the player to keep the 
left-hand fingers depressed for as long as possible, releasing 
the pressure only when necessary. A similar approach is 
advocated in Hector Quine's Introduction to the Guitar 
(1971) though it is stated that fingers should be removed 
from one string after the first note on the next string has 
been sounded. The Roch tutor states that, in descending 
passages, all fingers should fall simultaneously on to their 
respective notes, preparing them in advance; on this point 
Quine is less specific. One thing is certain - descent along 
one string is very different from ascent in that one is com-
XEx.l 
pelled to prepare the next note, discontinue the sounding 
note and time the right-hand stroke precisely. In ascending 
one is not compelled to remove the finger(s) from the pre­
vious note(s); this makes one less problem for the hands and 
mind to deal with. 
If we play the single-string scale of Ex. 1 at half-note 
(minim) 200 the ascending and descending portions will 
require different treatments. Leaving the fingers in place 
works well in ascent, but what sounds best in descent? Very, 
very slow practice is essential and close listening is needed 
to eliminate problems with the left hand and to synchronize 
the action of the right. 
Further techno-musical problems arise in playing the 
simple scale in Ex.2. If we play the first note, C, and keep it 
held down while placing the 4th finger on the next note, D, 
we achieve a legato so far as the left hand is concerned (but 
not a slur); this is potentially the smoothest way to join the 
D with the C. The role of the right hand at this point must 
however be considered: once the first note is sounding it 
may be stopped in three ways: 
1. The 2nd finger can be lifted. 
2. The 4th finger may arrive early on its note. 
3. The right hand can arrive early in approaching the next 
stroke, touching the already vibrating string. 
The full note-length of the first note can be realized only 
if the right-hand finger begins to touch and move through 
the string at the precise moment when the next left-hand 
finger stops its note. If this movement is not perfectly con­
trolled a small silence will result (of practical value in 
staccato passages) and this will become an annoyance, 
interrupting a flowing melodic line. This difference in 
depressing, striking and releasing accounts for the effect 
produced by outstanding performers in playing any 
particular passage. The length of each sound is decided by 
each player, guided by the ears and controlled by the hands; 
intelligent scale practice can make this possible. This 
element of articulation helps to give life, depth, interest and 
meaning to a passage. 
To return to the fmgerboard: let us examine more 
carefully the playing of successive notes - second and 
third (DIE), and the return journeys from third to second 
(E/D) and second to first (DIC). Though pre-placement of 
the 2nd finger on the C secures that note without interrup­
tion the movement is difficult when the music is moving 
quickly or in a complex way (or both) since we may not 
have time to do it. If the D is lifted before the C is prepared 
a brief silence will result and one may lose security of touch. 
Ideally, the fingers should exchange one note for another; 
this requires great care, very slow practice and, above all, 
VV -------­ I -----­I 4 II -I 3 3... ----~- 14 42 21 1 , 
1 1, ~ r 
3 
IT ~ ~ f= t ~ ~ ~ IT f IT r 
3 
IT IT :11 
repeat several times 
Ex.2 
IT 
2 4 2 4 3 4 
11 
0 110o ~ .e- •• () 0 
14 
attentive listening. Problems arise in crossing from one 
string to another: in following the D with the E (or vice­
versa), for instance, the first of the two notes must stop 
sounding at some point.If the two notes overlap they will 
produce a transient major 2nd, which may not be what the 
music calls for - and this should be detected by listening 
carefully. In moving from D to E a gentle apoyando on the 
second note will cut short the first, even if it is still 
depressed. In the reverse direction the following may be 
helpful: 
1. 	 The 4th froger may 'lean' against the higher string ­
many good players will do this instinctively. 
2. 	 The 1 st finger may be lifted but kept in contact with the 
string. 
3. 	 A right-hand froger may damp the first note by touching 
its string. 
These, singly or in combination, can eliminate unwanted 
overlaps and the results are to be judged by listening. 
This is the tip of the iceberg. If the reader remains 
unconvinced of the value of work with scales he/she should 
tape-record scales played at a metronome speed of 100, 
with four notes to each beat (400 notes per minute), for a ' 
minimum of 30 beats. If the playback reveals any problem 
with rhythm, clarity, tone or evenness, or if any trace of 
difficulty is apparent, it would be wise to establish a daily 
routine, of work with scales without delay. 0 
Recommended study: 
DIA TONIC SC ALES by A ndres Segovia. 
Washington/Columbia Music CO 127. 
SLUR EXERCISES by Andres Segovia. Wash­
ington/Columbia Music CO 197. 
FOUNDAnON STUDIES IN CLASSIC GUITAR 
TECHNIQUE by John Duarte. London/Novello. 
Barney 
Kessel 
Proudly presents his 
10th Annual British 
Guitar Seminar 
THE 
EFFECTIVE 
GUITARIST 
28 to 31 October 
1982. For free 
booklet containing 
detailed information 
of this proven course 
which is valid to 
guitarists of all styles 
write to: 
SUMMERFIELD 
Saltmeadows Road 
Gateshead NE8 3AJ 
The BRISTOL SPANISH GUITAR CENTRE presents 
the sensational Cuban-American guitarist 
MANUEL BARRUECO 
in concert 
THURSDAY 14 OCTOBER 1982 at 7.45 pm 
BRISTOL POLYTECHNIC 
Redland Hill, Redland, Bristol 
Tickets £3.00 
on the door or in advance from the Spanish Guitar Centre 
(SAE with postal bookings please) 
The BRISTOL SPANISH GUITAR CENTRE (Principal Michael Watson) has provided an unequalled service 
for over 27 years. We have the most comprehensive selection of student and concert guitars in the 
country and our professional private and class tuition is much in demand. A 'by return' postal service will 
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accessories and our 'no deposit' HP scheme simplifies your guitar purchase. Please ask us to quote for 
sending a guitar direct to your home. Send 20p in stamps for our catalogue ­
Spanish Guitar Centre, 2 Elton Road, Bishopston, Bristol 7. Tel. (0272) 47256 
15 
PAGANINI AND THE GUITAR 
by HARVEY HOPE 
PERHAPS the most romantic figure in the history of the 
violin was the virtuoso Nicolo Paganini. His accomplish­
ments remain a source of wonder to violinists to this day. 
He was born in Genoa on 28 October 1782. His father, who 
managed to make a living as a merchant, was passionately 
fond of music and encouraged the young Nicolo at an early 
age to play the mandolin - some might say too 
enthusiastically. There is little doubt that his father was a 
strict disciplinarian and forced his son to practice for many 
hours each day. It must have been obvious that Nicolo was 
no ordinary beginner, and indeed he showed such an 
aptitude that he was very soon placed under the guidance of 
some of the most highly esteemed teachers, with whom he 
studied the mandolin, the guitar and the violin. He was soon 
giving concerts and, realising his capacity for earning 
money, his father sought to tighten the control he had over 
his son. When Nicolo was 17 he went to perform at the 
festival at Lucca, and took the opportunity to run away 
from home. 
Having been under such an authoritarian rule for so 
long, it is little wonder that he went to the other extreme. 
His time was spent in the taverns, with the ladies, or at the 
gambling tables. He was always in debt and was reduced to 
pawning his treasured violin. 
At one time he was associated with Eliza Bonaparte, 
Napoleon's sister. It was said that 'she fainted often during 
his concerts'. She wasn't the only one - a good many 
young ladies went into raptures and swooned with excite­
ment when they heard Paganini play. 
Following a brilliant early career, Paganini disappeared 
from the musical scene and lived with a certain aristocratic 
lady of Tuscany. He never revealed her identity. The only 
clue to her name is the compositions he dedicated to her, 
bearing the pet name 'Dida'. As she preferred the guitar, 
and may well have been a fine player, he laid aside the violin 
for the three years he spent at her villa; his first composi­
tions for the guitar date from this period. For several years 
he lived with the singer Antonio Bianchi, who bore him a 
son, Achille. 
The guitar continued to play an important part in 
Paganini's life. When he was asked by a friend why he spent 
so much time with it he replied 'I love it for its harmony; it 
is the constant companion of my travels'. 
A number of guitars have been said to have belonged to 
Paganini. One such instrument and a mandolin were 
originally in the Heyer Museum, Cologne, but were 
transferred to Leipzig in 1925; their location is not now 
known. They are illustrated in The Guitar and Mandolin by 
P. J. Bone. The photograph shows the mandolin to be in 
fact a mandore, or liuto soprano. This was a small lute, 
about the size of a mandolin, with six pairs of strings. At 
some time it had been altered to take four pairs of strings 
arranged in the Neapolitan style, and tuned to the same 
intervals as the violin. 
Another guitar, sold at auction in London in 1906, was 
described as 'an interesting guitar, formerly, the property of 
the great Paganini'. The where-a bouts of this instrument is 
also now unknown. A mandolin and a guitar are reported to 
have been given to the town of Genoa by Paganini's 
grandson in the early 1900s. 
Nicolo Paganini 
On his second visit to Paris, Paganini visited the 
famous instrument maker and dealer Vuillaume, who 
showed him a guitar that had been made by Grobert, a 
violin maker of Mirecourt. The instrument appealed to 
Paganini, who borrowed it. When it was returned, 
Vuillaume suggested that Paganini autograph the table. 
Later, the same instrument was lent to Berlioz, who added 
his signature opposite to that of Paganini; it is now in the 
museum of the Paris Conservatoire. 
Paganini appeared able to achieve the impossible on the 
violin. It was rumoured that he was in league with the devil 
~ for how else could such amazing sounds be produced? It 
is easy to understand how these rumours began. His every 
appearance both hypnotised and inspired his audience. He 
was a tall, thin man with a striking if haggard face and 
piercing eyes. When he performed on stage, the odd 
shadows cast by the flickering candles and oil lamps served 
to heighten the impression of the supernatural. Always with 
an eye to publicity, Paganini encouraged the mysteries that 
surrounded him. He took to wearing black clothes and let 
his hair grow long. When he was asked about his system of 
playing, he would smile mysteriously and say 'everyone has 
his secrets'. Only when Satan began to get the credit for his 
playing did he take the trouble to refute the rumours! He 
delighted in astonishing his audiences. A favourite trick was 
to break a string in the middle of a piece, preferably in some 
fiendishly difficult variation, and to continue as if nothing 
had happened. Once he played a series of variations using a 
walking stick instead of a bow. When the composer May­
seder challenged him to play one of his most difficult com­
positions, believing it impossible to be played at sight, 
Paganini handed him his violin and asked him to put if out 
of tune; he then proceeded to play the work faultlessly. 
16 
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He was a close friend of the composer Rossini. In 
Rome during the carnival of 1822, the two dressed up as 
beggar-women and strolled the streets strumming their 
guitars and singing a begging song composed by Rossini. 
They must have appeared a comical pair, for Paganini was 
tall and very thin, whilst Rossini was short and fat. They 
collected the composer Meyerbeer from his lodgings and, 
while Paganini and Rossini played and sang, Meyerbeer 
passed the hat round. 
In the Summer of 1834 Paganini purchased a large 
country villa, the Villa Gaiono. He shared it with the guitar 
virtuoso Luigi Legnani for several months and they spent 
much of the time rehearsing for a proposed tour to London. 
They gave a number of concerts in the towns of Northern 
Italy, and on 27 June 1837 gave a recital together in Turin. 
This was destined to be Paganini's last public performance. 
They had planned to give a recital in a new casino in 
Paris, on the way to London. Paganini had invested heavily 
in this venture and, when the authorities refused to license 
the building for gaming, he suffered considerable financial 
loss. The directors of the establishment sued him for breach 
of contract and these legal and financial worries contributed 
to the deterioration of his health. He was already a very sick 
man and the plans for a joint tour fell through. In the hope 
that a change of air would help him to regain his health, he 
moved to Marseilles and then to his native Genoa. With the 
onset of Winter he moved to the warmer climate of Nice. 
Sadly the moves were in vain for he died in Nice on 27 May 
1840. 
As a violinist Paganini had been incomparable. As a 
guitarist, he was considered by many to be the equal of the 
virtuoso Giulio Regondi. The celebrated guitarist Carulli, a 
contemporary of Paganini, says in his tutor that 'he was a 
fine performer on the guitar'. 
A commemorative plaque affixed to the house where he 
died bears the inscription: 
'Nicolo Paganini died in this house 27 May 1840. 
His magic notes still vibrate in the soft breezes of Nice'.D 
Bibl. 
Paganini of Genoa by L. Day. 
Paganini by L. Sheppard. 
~____________________________________ 
0­"' o 
:I:,. 
to 
> 
-should be easy to recog­
nize and to differentiate, the 5th has a much 
'stronger' effect, reminiscent of a bagpipe drone, 
than the more 'neutral' 4th. 
3rds versus 6ths - the former sound 'closer' and 'tighter' 
than the latter. 
2nds and 7ths - 2nds are vicious (like hand-ta-hand fight­
ing), 7ths are just disagreeable (like throw­
ing stones across the street). 
18 
I 
Tritone - has its own, unique identity, unchanged by nota­
tion (A 4th or D 5th). 
Hence once more your obliging friend will be useful in 
helping you to test your grasp on this form of recognition. 
The final step is to learn to differentiate between major 
and minor intervals of the same numerical size - is it a 
major or a minor 3rd? If you cannot readily recognize the 
character of each one within a pair, even with practice, put 
to use the basis on which the intervals are named. Regard 
the lower note as the tonic of a major scale, sing through the 
scale (out loud or, better, in your mind's voice) until you 
come to the appropriate degree; does it agree with the upper 
note of the interval? If so it is major; if not it is minor. The 
same method will help you if you have difficulty in dis­
tinguishing a perfect 4th from a perfect 5th - sing along 
the scale. There are various ways of accomplishing this last 
step but the simplest is the one I have described. The final 
objective is to be able to identify an interval when you hear 
it and to recognize the kind of emotional effect is has, a very 
difficult thing to do without the help of a friend since it is 
almost impossible to give oneself an 'unknown' test. 
However, the vital thing is to listen carefully and 
objectively; if one does this conscientiously one will succeed 
- and tests will only confirm the fact! 
1 Melody and harmony for guitarists by John Duarte (Universal Edi­
tion) 
Harmony for guitar by Lance Bosman (Musical New Services) 
2 See also The guitarist's ABC of music by John Duarte (Novello) 
Answers­
'1I1S p