Topic: Andres Segovia place in guitar history.
Every week I try and learn about something new mostly to do with history. I regularly visit our local library as part of my weekly routine, This week I read about Andres Segovia someone I had never heard about.
Andrés Segovia was born in southern Spain and began playing the guitar as a child. In those days, it was considered little more than a folk instrument; serious composers and musicians didn’t respect it. But Segovia saw the potential for classical music on the guitar. He began studying the techniques of classical musicians who played the violin and cello. He then applied those techniques to his guitar playing, and developed other methods on his own. He adapted compositions of the old masters such as Bach, and learned to play them on his instrument. In 1909 Segovia made his debut at age sixteen. In 1919 he toured the world and won over the classical music establishment.
For the first time composers started writing classical music for the guitar, and a whole new musical genre was born. Over the course of eighty years, Segovia changed people’s perception of the instrument. And like many big dreams, his dream made an impact far beyond what he imagined. It could be argued that his efforts opened the door to the guitar in concert halls and jazz bands, which in turn led to the electronically amplified guitar. Today if you enjoy the music of the Beatles or Eric Clapton, and so on, thank Andrés Segovia. If it wasn’t for his dream, much of the music from the twentieth century may have gone in an entirely different direction.
