During 1920s and ‘30s the guitar underwent a renaissance in Spain, which brought with it the creation of modernist repertoire written for guitarists Miguel Llobet, Andrés Segovia, Regino Sáinz de la Maza, and Emilio Pujol. This PhD project presents my historically inspired performance of this repertoire. It focuses on canonical works by such giants as Manuel de Falla, as well as a wealth of music that only recently resurfaced after long being buried in the turmoil of the Francoist regime.
To develop such a practice, I conducted a critical experimental analysis of the guitar practice that existed in Spain from the late 19th to the middle of the 20th century. This practice was at the time commonly referred to as the “Tárrega school,” after the romantic Spanish composer and performer Francisco Tárrega. It has been theoretically analysed by other scholars. However, I am the first to document an analysis that is grounded as much in experimentation on gut-strung instruments from the period, as it is in the investigation of methods, recordings, and scores.
Through performance practice, I mediated the findings of my experimental analysis with the stylistic context of the modernist repertoire that is the focus of this investigation. In this mediation I found historically informed solutions to two important and novel quandaries. I respected the challenge to romanticism put forth by Spanish modernist composers of the interwar period, who wrote for the guitar but did not play the instrument. However, I did so without uprooting my practice from the romantic Tárrega school that was prevalent amongst the guitarists who performed classical repertoire at the time. In addition, I developed a practice that accommodates the marked influence flamenco had on Spanish guitar repertoire from the interwar period. To this end I balanced the inclusion of period-appropriate flamenco techniques with the acknowledgement of the role of prominent Tárrega school performers in the creative process.