Guitar Makers and Guitarists from "El Sol" November 4, 1928

This from the daily El Sol (Madrid. 1917) November 4, 1928 page 3. The writer was born in Northern Spain in 1866, by 1890 he was in Buenos Aires, where he stayed until 1903.

 

He sees and hears the difference between the quickly made guitars of Valencia and the more carefully fabricated instruments of Madrid, it's that I draw your attention to with this article. These comments appear about two thirds of the way into the article.

 

 

For us to understand each other from the first moment, a

little previous explanation is urgent: guitar maker (guitarrero), according to the official lexicon

Dictionary of the Academy, is the one who

makes guitar maker and guitarist, the one who plays or plucks them. The clarification is

necessary, because in the Argentine Republic the guitar maker (guitarrero) is called

the same as the player (guitarrista), and who we are going to deal with here is especially the builder. I ignore the linguistic difference between the gauchos (guitarrero) and the academics (guitarrista), they see the philological reasons. It may be as true that

"the guitarmaker is the one who makes guitars and guitarist is the one who plays them as it is to apply the name guitarist to the one who plays them and guitar maker to the one who makes them. There is no way to resolve this linguistic difference nor does it imply the resolution of the guitar players. These linguistic disputes are difficult because... "it's another thing with a guitar", the gauchesco with which the difficult point,

"busilis" (dificulty), of any problem is expressed. In reality, what

evaluates is the use. When in Argentina it is said "he is

a gaucho guitar player," it is expressed not only that he plays the

guitar, but that he is something vague, bohemian from the Pampas,

the rural, a payador (singer)and a "piringundin" party-goer (dance

of candil). This second translative sense is neglected

in Spain. Given the moral significance, apart from

the strummer, that the noun guitar player has in South

America, it is not easy that, thanks to a limited purism,

it disappears from the popular language. After

that small prologue, which we could well equate

use of the guitar to sing this pamphlet, we enter into the matter.

 

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The history of the guitar, like all histories,

is full of gaps, obscure points, conjectural versions, erudite disputes, hypotheses, conflicting judgments and great confusion, might be said in a word. It appears --

seems nothing more than its origin comes from the

citara venerable by its antiquity and the multitude of

string instruments, almost all, that came from its

fertile and sonorous maternal womb. Before acquiring its current and definitive form, the guitar went through many

evolutions. It is impossible to follow them all through the times and sounds. I will only recall that the Romans called it "Spanish zither".

The word guitar comes from Arabic. This makes certain scholars suppose that the instrument arrived in Spain with the Saracen invasion. But others deny the consequence. In reality, giving a name to an instrument

doesn't imply having built it for the first time. And the

the proof that it was made is that the Romans already called the vibrating instrument "Hispanic zither," to whose beat the legions undoubtedly danced in their forays through the Iberian countryside. The relationship between Andalusian airs and the Arabs is not enough to suppose an Arabic origin for the guitar, since it is also the instrument of the jota, which has nothing languid and

undulating, being, on the other hand, an extremely energetic and vigorous song. The jota is the air of national unity, the lyrical glue of all regions.

 

And let us suspend here what we could call the prehistory

of the guitar. At the beginning of its true history,

it only has four strings Today it has six: three

of goat gut and three of metal, which are made by the

same process as military braid, that is

with a silk cord protected or covered with gold or silver.

 

Every time I hear the violin played I cannot help

remembering the origin of the sublimity of its notes, which

could not be more prosaic: the hairs of a brown

dog's tail scratching on the guts of a goat. Of course, when our emotions are analyzed in this way, almost all of them

are laughable. That is why it is best to give oneself over to its enchanting spell, ignoring cold analytical reasoning about the way to be induced. Let the violin sighs intoxicate our spirit, without us seeing where they come from. Let the alienation of

our soul and the flight of our heart take place, even if the

springboard of departure is a rubbing of such vulgar materials.

 

Within the group of glorious chaplains that make up

our golden century, Vicente Espinel, the greatest cassock-wearer, is the one who best symbolizes the customs of the time in his adventures. To the author of the "Life of the squire Marcos de Obregon" belongs the double

glory of two great inventions: the fifth string of the

guitar and, in poetry, the tenth or espinela, a metrical form

of immediate success, especially in the theater,

because it is suitable for sonorous declamations. Calderon

immediately adopted the new rhythm in "Life is euphemus."

The tenth would later be, almost entirely, the exclusive form

of gaucho poetry in the popular songs

of Hernandez, Ascasubi and Estanislao del Campo.

 

The chaplain of Ronda, Espinel, is an accomplished guitarist. All the great writers of the time dispute his friendship. Cervantes calls him "my admired friend". Lope de Vega showers him with praise in his dedications. The knight of Illescas" and "The widow of Valencia". Quevedo, Gongora, Mateo Aleman, the whole golden galaxy of poets is devoted to the great player

and inspired "decimer". Espinel is the soul of the revels of the classics. A liberal, he leads the

student riots in Salamanca against the inquisitorial process to which Friar Luis de Leon is subjected. Our heroes Lemos and Medina Sidonia take him to Italy so that

he can liven up the governorship of Naples and Milan with the guitar. Later he goes to Flanders, enrolled or enlisted, in the army of Farnesio. He is never in Ronda, but he keeps and collects the cavalry, plus another in Madrid, which he also does not attend. The people of Ronda want him dismissed. Useless effort. He is protected by the king, the ministers,

the dukes and the whole century of gold, which in terms of ethics was far from being pure gold. Do not worry, the people of Ronda if the chaplain escapes now, his presence in bronze will become eternal to the honor of Ronda and the entire nation.

 

Espinel only played in a strummed form. The plucked

music was born much later it was a happy creation of Father Basilio, who, due to this digital skill, which gave new sonority to the instrument, was to be chosen as teacher of Maria Luisa, the wife of Carlos IV the kind monarch who historians say blocked

the arches of the Arcane bridges in their path. While Father Basilio was teaching his new method and Godoy was pleased with the queen's progress in the difficult art, Napoleon's troops invaded the country to put on the throne "Pepe Botellas", one of the few teetotalers

in France.

 

Such is, in broad strokes or very roughly the history

of the guitar. One point remains obscure. We know

that Espinel invented the fifth string. But who

invented the sixth? Mystery. Nobody knows, not even Haeckel himself,

one of the ninety-three German scholars,

author, as we know, of the "History of Creation",

which, to be complete, had to include the sixth string

of the guitar...

 

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No less difficult than playing it well is building a

good guitar. The guitar industry is divided

between two cities: Valencia and Madrid, but it has character. Strictly speaking, the real

industry, the large-scale manufacturing organization, is

found in Valencia, where guitars are made

by the thousands, in series, at breakneck speed. The Valencian

factories have vast and complicated modern

machinery. In an instant, the trunk of a tree, passing through a series of mechanisms, saws,

lathes, planes, chisels, gouges and braces comes out

converted into mandolins and guitars, just as in

Chicago forgive the comparison a live pig enters a machine and, without realizing the transformation, comes out through another converted into hams and sausages.

 

In Madrid there is no industry like that in

Valencia. They are small, almost domestic, personal workshops,

where guitars are built one by one,

by hand, slowly, with concentrated attention on each piece, as a lapidary crafts is a jewel. It is, in short, an artistic work, with exquisite mother-of-pearl inlays

between the frets and fantastic ringorrangos (frills) on

the neck and the body. The superior manual skill of

Madrid workers over all Europeans means that machining is not yet praise the delay a problem in Madrid. Only in Madrid is there

manpower in the rest of the world everything is already machine work.

 

Being a great guitar maker is as difficult as being a

great guitarist, and in reality the success of the guitarist

depends largely on the guitar maker. It seems at first

sight that all guitars are the same. This is a

mistake. Just as there is a great difference between the "Stradivarius" and the other

violins, there is no less difference between a Madrid guitar and those made in

other parts. And even within Madrid there are

categories among guitar makers, just as in

Cremona the genius of Stradivarius dominated overall,

the Cremona makers of the 17th century

 

The secret of the Madrid builder is to achieve

the most beautiful sound. Hence each guitar proclaims

in its vibrations the personality of the guitar maker. The workers why not artists? who achieve purer sounds are very sought after and earn high

wages, but as almost all of them work for their own account,

as independent, self-employed guitar makers, the few workshops that exist suffer from the lack of personnel. The solid reputation that Madrid enjoys in guitar matters means that orders rain down copiously,

not being able to be served in proportion to the demand. And this explains why work is abundant and wages are high. You will have already noticed that there are never any strikes or conflicts in this lyrical and melodious cabinetmaking. A guitar makers' strike would be as inexplicable

as a guitarists' strike.

 

Just as in Toledo each master swordsman carved and polished the weapon from tip to hilt,

imprinting the seal of his personality on the heroic blade,

in the same way the Madrid guitar maker puts

all his spirit and refined manual art into the perfect

construction of the instrument, achieving the purest and most sublime resonances from the boards and strings. From this form of medieval hand-made workmanship comes the excellence of the Madrid guitar. The machine

would be a profanation. Can you explain Stradivarius

with a large machine, a powerful turbine, a

vast sawmill, extensive warehouses for storing wood and goat guts, a formidable factory,

without end, to make his delicate and groaning violins?

Such an assumption would make the ashes of

the sublime son of Cremona shudder with horror.

 

The Toledo swordsmiths made their best pieces with scrap metal and horseshoe calluses. Ah, how many times

has the most worn-out footwear of a tired donkey

shined, transformed into a triumphant sword, under the sky

of Peru, Mexico, Flanders, Naples and Sicily!

Materials of identical value, acquired at the Rastro,

are used by guitar makers. There they buy old furniture,

beds saved by flotation from the flood ancient wardrobes, century-old chests, knick-knacks and rickety and useless

tools. The wood of these venerable things is very dry, very cured, an essential condition

for building good guitars. Nothing dies, everything is transformed. And so, the bed of our most

remote grandparents, where the chain of which we are the last link began, suddenly takes on miraculous youth in the form of strummed jotas, impetuous and

brave. If we emphasize the illusion a little, we can almost see our most distant ancestors resurrected.

 

A very advanced culture and a great social organization are adverse conditions for the development of the guitar industry. Its progress requires the patrol and its consequent derivation: the brawl and the brawl. Only in this way can consumption be encouraged. The guitar, alien to the orchestral discipline, fits admirably with our individualistic character. Hence its diffusion in Spain. An instrument of old romantic tradition, it is

frequent to put on the top, inlaid in relief, a heart, which sometimes represents the handsomeness of the guitarist and other times the tender viscera of the beloved. Of course, these guitars are usually destined for the alert and

ambitious. Be careful, reader: do not cross the path of a guitarist with a heart in his guitar, a sign that he has a very prosperous heart within his chest...

 

Francisco GRANDMONTAGNE