I'm happy to see Tonebase discussing Tárrega at length! I feel the need to correct some errors in the presentation so listeners are not misinformed by your guest: 1. He is spreading misinformation about the history of nail/no nail playing. Both techniques have coexisted happily since at least 1600. He says all theorbo players and lutenists in the Baroque period used nails. This is not exactly right. Some lutenists used nails and some didn't. Weiss talks about both techniques coexisting in the Baroque period. Also, many pioneering guitarists preferred playing without nails without a doubt (Sor and Carcassi). Tárrega taught his students to play without nails because he preferred the sound and it's the reason that his pupils, including Pujol, recommended the same. It's a different approach which is historical and valid. Neither technique is better. Dogmatically claiming there is only one way is misinformation. 2. He claimed the reason each section of Recuerdos de la Alhambra has a repeat is "because they had more time back then?" That's not a serious answer and it will confuse many students watching this. It's likely because one can have many interpretations and the repeat challenges you to play it differently. It tells a story. 3. The suggestion that Tárrega likely improvised ornaments because the Baroque period was only 100 years before his time is also a very poor argument. Styles changes dramatically even within the Baroque period. Even by 1800 they were completely rejecting the heavily ornamented contrapuntal style of the Baroque period. That was what Galant music was all about. After Baroque came the Galant period, and then the Classical period, and only then the Romantic period in which Tárrega existed. So there were two completely different aesthetic styles in between Tárrega and Bach. They lived in completely different worlds aesthetically.
I'm happy to see Tonebase discussing Tárrega at length!
I feel the need to correct some errors in the presentation so listeners are not misinformed by your guest:
1. He is spreading misinformation about the history of nail/no nail playing. Both techniques have coexisted happily since at least 1600. He says all theorbo players and lutenists in the Baroque period used nails. This is not exactly right. Some lutenists used nails and some didn't. Weiss talks about both techniques coexisting in the Baroque period. Also, many pioneering guitarists preferred playing without nails without a doubt (Sor and Carcassi). Tárrega taught his students to play without nails because he preferred the sound and it's the reason that his pupils, including Pujol, recommended the same. It's a different approach which is historical and valid. Neither technique is better. Dogmatically claiming there is only one way is misinformation.
2. He claimed the reason each section of Recuerdos de la Alhambra has a repeat is "because they had more time back then?" That's not a serious answer and it will confuse many students watching this. It's likely because one can have many interpretations and the repeat challenges you to play it differently. It tells a story.
3. The suggestion that Tárrega likely improvised ornaments because the Baroque period was only 100 years before his time is also a very poor argument. Styles changes dramatically even within the Baroque period. Even by 1800 they were completely rejecting the heavily ornamented contrapuntal style of the Baroque period. That was what Galant music was all about. After Baroque came the Galant period, and then the Classical period, and only then the Romantic period in which Tárrega existed. So there were two completely different aesthetic styles in between Tárrega and Bach. They lived in completely different worlds aesthetically.
Wonderful conversation, I learned so much. Thank you!
Дякую за таку цікаву і корисну лекцію! Thank you!
very interesting conversation
Insightful, historically informative and good fun. Thank you. PS: Hooray for,... Savarez!