Before the 20th century, the guitar was seen as a humble if not inferior instrument. So how did the instrument become so immensely popular around the world, in a relatively short span of time? The answer to this question involves several musical and cultural developments, a bunch of guitar builders, and Andrés Segovia. He’s been called “the father of the classical guitar.” Beatle George Harrison once paraphrased this when he said, “Segovia is the Daddy of us all.”
Segovia invented several new right-hand techniques, one being to play closer to the bridge, and not with the hand over the sound hole as had been customary, and, according to the latest research, to play with only nails, rather than a combination of flesh and nail, or flesh alone. This allowed him to create a larger sound, that projected further, and to play with a greater variation in tone. Nails have to both strong and soft, for the right tone, explained Segovia, adding, “If nature has not given you strong nails you need to give up playing the guitar.”
As Segovia travelled the world as the ultimate ambassador for the guitar, he also found time to fulfil his other aim: to greatly enlarge the repertoire for the instrument. While he wrote very little music himself, many composers composed for him, including Alexandre Tansman, Manuel de Falla, Federico Moreno Torroba, Manuel Ponce, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Joaquin Rodrigo, and John Duarte.
In his role as ambassador for the guitar, Segovia was lucky to be able to ride the wave of the technological advances of the time. Air travel made international touring possible, and his playing and reputation also spread via radio and recordings. His earliest recordings were in London and date from 1927. His recordings were released on labels like HMV, Doremi, Allegro, Fonomusic, Columbia, Deutsche Grammophon, and mostly on Decca.
Segovia spent most of the Spanish civil war and the entire second world war in exile in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. He returned to Spain after the war. Until the end of his long life he continued to tour and record—by this stage using nylon strings. Segovia also regularly gave masterclasses. Among those that studied with him were two young guitarists who became household names: Julian Bream and John Williams.
Segovia died in 1987, at the age of 94. He continues to be remembered as one of the greatest Spanish artists of the 20thcentury, in the company of greats like Pablo Picasso, Manuel da Falla, Pablo Casals, Joan Miro, and Salvador Dali.
Over the course of a career lasting a stunning eight decades, the dandy-looking young dreamer from Andalucía didn’t only continue to dream until the end of his life, but, nail issues notwithstanding, he managed to convince much of the world to dream with him…
