John Williams BASHES Segovia
paul c
Ha. Ok. Sorry for the tabloid-like subject couldn't help
myself. I was actually going to respond to another post in regards to
Brittens Nocturnal and Williams criticism of iirc this piece as well
as modern classical guitar music at the time. The details of the
interview are sketchy so I searched the web and didn't find what I
was looking for. Instead, I discovered the following interview which
I found interesting particularly the criticism of the icon himself.
Enjoy!
paul
John Williams—Into the New World
by Mark L. Small
In the pantheon of classical guitar greats, John Williams stands as a
most imposing figure. For decades he has been the archetype for
recitalists of the post-Segovia era. His singular technical abilities
and thoroughgoing approach to the music he plays have set very high
standards for those seeking to follow him. His copious discography
contains enduring renditions of all of the monuments of the core
repertoire and forays into musical territory where few other classical
guitarists have trod. History views Segovia as the guitar virtuoso
spanning the 19th and 20th century traditions. In all likelihood,
Williams will be considered the pathfinder leading the classical
guitar from the 20th into the 21st century.
I spoke with Williams during his recent trip to the States for some
advance promotion of his latest Sony album The Guitarist. The
stunning new disc underscores Williams’ passion for finding great new
material in out-of-the-way sources. On it Williams combines music from
many places and times, putting songs of medieval Italy alongside
newer entries shaped by contemporary culture in Australia, Turkey,
Greece, and England. William’s absolute mastery of the instrument,
big-picture approach to musical interpretation, and familiarity with
the far-flung periods and places from which this music sprang make
these disparate selections coalesce very naturally.
I met Williams at New York’s Parker Meridian Hotel, a half block from
Carnegie Hall. He had just returned from Miami where, the night
before, his cameo appearance had wowed the crowd at a convention of
Sony Classical staffers. In conversation Williams revealed himself to
be a gregarious, unpretentious, and deep-thinking man. Not
surprisingly, 40 years in the field have only fanned the flames of
his passion for his profession, guitars, and music as a whole.
In 1958 at 17, Williams made his debut in London’s Wigmore hall and
subsequently launched an extraordinary performing and recording
career. By now, he is not sure himself exactly how many albums he has
released, but estimates the number to be between 80 and 90. Most have
been on the CBS (now Sony Classical) label.
His recorded output includes a staggering portion of the solo,
chamber, concerto, and duo guitar repertoire from the renaissance
through the 20th century. He has also moved in circles well outside
the classical realm. Notable among these departures were a five-year
stint recording and touring with the rock/classical band Sky and a
pair of records and several appearances with English saxophonist John
Dankworth and jazz vocalist Cleo Laine. Williams’ fretwork has also
graced numerous movie soundtracks. From Stanley Myers’ score for the
1978 Vietnam War drama “The Deerhunter,” Williams retained a musical
souvenir; the melancholic “Cavatina,” still a mainstay in his
repertoire.
Other side trips away from solo recitals have included three
albums with fellow classical guitarist Julian Bream and group efforts
like John Williams and Friends (exploring world folk music), and the
contemporary music ensemble ATTACCA.
On the new record, Williams made a conscious move away from the
sounds of Classical- and Romantic-era guitar repertoire choosing
pieces leaning toward Eastern Mediterranean and medieval sounds. The
disc features “Three Epitafios” by Greek songwriter Mikis Theodorakis,
Carlo Domeniconi’s Eastern influenced suite “Koyanbaba,” “Gymnopédie
No. 3” and two “Gnossiennes” by French anti-romantic Eric Satie,
three anonymous medieval melodies, and a multimovment piece by
Australian Phillip Houghton.
The album’s most unexpected treat is “Aeolian Suite,” a work
penned by Williams himself for guitar and orchestra. Writing the
multimovement work was something of a new venture for Williams. I was
surprised to hear of his reservations about approaching his record
company with the piece simply because he had written it. “Sony is
very serious these days, they are not into indulging people,”
Williams said. “I was encouraged by friends who had listened to parts
of it without knowing I had written it. I sent off a demo of the
whole new record including “Aeolian Suite” with synthesizers to the
people at Sony, and the piece seemed to go down very well with them.”
The suite features a main theme, occurring in the first and last
movements, that was written by a friend who Williams says prefers to
remain anonymous. “When he first played his tune ‘ Aeolian Chant’ for
me, I thought it sounded haunting and medieval,” Williams said. “I
originally had the idea of having strings for this piece. I got
carried away with it and the sound of the key of D major. I decided
to use three bass players, all with their low E strings tuned to D.”
Williams scored it for a small orchestra [eight first violins,
six second violins, four violas, three cellos, three basses, two
clarinets, and two flutes]. He composed and orchestrated
simultaneously. “When I started, I wondered if I should sketch it out
and then have someone else orchestrate it,” he said. “I know how to
orchestrate, but not like those who do it all the time. But I figured
I had the time and I was really interested in it. Everything came
out—for ill or good—just as I wanted it to.”
In our conversation, Williams touched several times upon his
strong opinions on the rhythmic basis of music, and his feeling that
a steady rhythmic pulse frees rather than restrains a performer’s
expressive resources. He took a surprisingly “unclassical” approach to
his suite in the studio by opting to prerecord his guitar part to a
click track and then overdub the orchestra.
“The orchestra could have played it without the click if they
had done what rock groups do,” he said. “Those groups spend months
playing their most complex material on tour and they know it inside
and out. You can’t hope that any group—especially an orchestra—will
get locked in on a piece like this in one day.” To Williams, the
click track was invaluable, especially in the last movement that rips
by in 7/8 time.
He assured me that the work is not something only John Williams
can pull off, and he is hopeful that others will try it. “It is
totally playable,” he said. Even the last movement with its
rapid-fire lines and arpeggios he says is manageable. “It has a few of
my little licks in it, but it is a hoot! It actually sounds more
difficult than it is. The other movements are not difficult at all.
My favorite is the slow one.”
Williams described the many different factors contributing to his
selection of material for the new album. He chose to revisit some
works that he had initially encountered years earlier. “I first
played the Mikis Theodorakis pieces in the late 1960s,” he said. “More
than anyone else, he is responsible for the direction of Greek
popular music. I recorded his songs on an album of Greek music,
mainly I was accompanying [Greek vocal star] Maria Farandouri. The
‘Epitafios’ were on that album arranged as solos by Stanley Myers. I
modified them for this recording.
“‘Stélé’ by Phillip Houghton is something I have played on and
off for the past nine years. He was originally a rock and folk
guitarist but is becoming very focused as a composer. I love his
music. I would like it if the classical guitar world thought and felt
more of the affinity and enthusiasm he feels for what is going on in
the wider world of music.”
Two of the CD’s three anonymous pieces were culled from an
anthology of predominantly single-line melodies of 13th and 14th
century Italian songs and dances, the other has English origins.
While Williams renders “Lamento di Tristan” with a warm, even romantic
feel, his arrangement preserves the stark, medieval quality of the
plaintive melody by stating it alone before adding treble
counterlines, bass notes, and finally chords.
“Ductia” features a spare melody accompanied throughout with
chordal harmonics. For the rollicking “Saltarello,” Williams’ sixth
string is tuned to D and his fifth to G for a droning bass
accompaniment. “I was playing a lot of medieval music with some
friends in England when I first came across these pieces,” Williams
said. “The ‘Saltarello’ and ‘Lamento di Tristan’ come from an Italian
collection called ‘Estampie,’ but the middle piece, ‘Ductia,’ actually
comes from an English collection.”
For his orchestration of Satie’s “Gymnopédie No. 3,” Williams
took his lead from the composer’s sketch. Satie’s score had no
guitar, it was Williams idea to play the melody on one guitar and
then the harp accompaniment on a second guitar track. “Satie had
started the orchestration but did not finish,” said Williams. “My
friend [composer] Patrick Gowers did his post grad thesis on Satie,
and he gave me a facsimile of the first page of Satie’s score. When he
laid out the score, he wanted voice, strings, harp, two clarinets, and
an oboe. I am not pretending for a second that I know what he was
going to do with those instruments. But the basis of his
accompaniment pattern is clearly laid out. I followed his spacing of
the triads in the string pizzicatos. The piece has a certain charm
because of the simple texture.”
Williams keeps a very open mind when choosing music for a new
album or tour. “I don’t go in search of new music or new
masterpieces,” he said. “I don’t have that view of guitar music. My
attitude is that interesting music is written as a result of musical
activity, communication, and life in general. This applies to all
music.
“For the past 20 to 30 years, the influence of jazz, blues, and
popular music, and the influence of flamenco, traditional ethnic, and
world music has made things different than they were before. So I
don’t feel it is a necessity to be looking to extend the guitar’s
repertoire by having so called ‘important’ new pieces written for it.
I think it is great when they are written, but for me, it is not an
obsession. In the guitar world, it has been an obsession.
“I don’t want to be misunderstood on this point. Some great
pieces have been commissioned from composers like Benjamin Britten,
Peter Sculthorpe, Leo Brower, and others, but I don’t think that is
the only thing happening in guitar music. Because of the universality
of its sound, the classical guitar links with plucked-string and
percussion instruments from Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Far East.
There are a great opportunities to be a part of many different kinds
of music. I find that as interesting as anything else that has
happened.”
From time to time, Williams would take out his guitar to make a
musical point for me. His natural, effortless technique and beautiful
tone prompted questions about his formative years as a guitarist. He
attributes his facility to the excellent tutelage he received at an
early age from his father. Few realize that he had only a handful of
classes with Segovia. Many people believe that the maestro was
pivotal in Williams’ development. He strenuously denies that notion.
“As many may know by now, I am critical of the legacy of
Segovia’s teaching. He was fantastic to me and a great inspiration to
a whole generation, but he was also a very difficult human being and
he behaved, in personal terms, abominably towards me and my father. I
have to say, with the benefit of hindsight, that I don’t think he was
a good teacher.
“He taught as many of his generation did, by example. That is all
right up to a point, but he never elucidated in class or privately
what the important things in music were. He didn’t tell us what to
aim for in the structure. For example, in a Bach suite, he never spoke
about how the movements should contrast to construct a nicely
balanced whole. He was always talking about little bits of rubato or
fingering, his interpretive mannerisms. He would just say play this
faster or slower and perhaps give an example of his beautiful sound on
the second string. That was all.
“The general mood in all of his classes was one of great fear.
People were frightened because he made such an example of the people
who failed and would get angry. Everyone knew that he was happiest
when they imitated him. As a result, people were totally constipated
musically when they played for him. No one played in their natural
style. Of all the people I knew from that period, none of them played
their best in his class. It doesn’t really matter whether it is
because of his generation or any other reason, I don’t think that is
good teaching.
“I think I learned the most about guitar from my father. He was a
great teacher. He taught me from when I was four or five to 12 or 13.
He wanted me to make that beautiful Segovia sound and spent a lot of
time on hand position and being relaxed. He also wanted no unnecessary
hand movement. He taught about control of tone color and that
technique is not about speed, but is for control of dynamics.
“I continue to learn about music from other musicians;
violinists, pianists, and other contemporaries of mine from that
period and through the years. That is where I learned music, not from
Segovia. My father was very strict with me, perhaps too strict, but I
am really happy with the results.”
I told Williams that in comparing his recent recordings to his
earlier ones, that I felt his playing had gotten more expressive as
the years passed. “I take that as a compliment,” he said. “A number
of people have said that to me. There is a change, but it is not
deliberate. I think that my playing has widened out in general, but
rhythmically, I have become much more emphatic. So my playing has not
become more expressive in a sense that it is less rhythmic. I have
always felt rhythmic pulse whether the piece is fast or slow. The
idea of the rhythm being subservient to a rubato doesn’t appeal to
me. I feel rubato, expressive, improvisational playing happens above
the beat.
“The Segovia gestures—extra vibrato and dwelling on a note or
chord at a cadence—is not musical freedom. There has been a tendency
among guitar players to think that doing these things for their own
sake quite apart from the context of a piece of music as a whole, is
in some way expressive. I view them as simply mannerisms—maybe lovely
ones—but just mannerisms. Freedom happens above the pulse.”
Williams added that after he started playing guitars by
Australian luthier Greg Smallman, he felt the instrument gave him
more expressive resources. This led to a discussion about the unique
characteristics of Smallman’s guitars. Williams explained that the
tops on these guitars are extremely thin, and told me that an early
Smallman prototype guitar had a top made of balsa wood. A unique
lattice bracing supports the top. The sides of the body are very
thick, permitting little if any absorption of sound energy.
“The reason for the lattice bracing of a very lightweight top
and heavy construction elsewhere is to produce a less percussive
sound,” Williams said. “The top is less stiff and springy than a
traditional Spanish guitar with a spruce top and fan-struts. The
Smallman gives a greater variety in tone colors. There is not simply
a difference between playing ponticello and dolce, but all of the
shades in between are there. There is an instant feel under your
fingers and it inspires you to do more. When you play, it is like the
feedback you get in a conversation with a person.
“The Smallman is less percussive even when you play loud. That
is due to the construction. With a traditional fan-strutted guitar,
because the top is stiff and heavy, the stronger you pluck, the more
you hear the fundamental percussive attack. Smallman’s tops work more
like a drum skin, the entire top is working from the word go. Instead
of the stiffer places over the bridge sounding first and then the fan
strutting working next, the whole top is working. On a fan- strutted
guitar, not much energy gets out to the edges of the top. Smallman’s
idea is to get as much energy as possible out to the edges of the
top.
“On his guitars, when you pluck loudly, you get less percussive
sound and more note than you would with a traditional top. If you
play very, very quietly—pianisissimo —you get more response too. The
top is actually responding. If you play like that on the fan-strutted
guitar, there is barely enough force from the string to get the top
to work. You end up hearing only the string vibrating and not the
top.”
Our conversation turned from guitars to music in general.
Williams sees a fin de siècle lyricism coming into vogue in the
waning years of a century which—for better and for worse—has seen
much musical innovation. He reflected on his involvement in the late
1960s avant-garde movement and how it ultimately proved to be a blind
alley. “The avant-garde existed because of the enthusiasm of
performing musicians, me included, who wanted to do new things just
for the sake of doing them,” he said. “It is fun to rehearse for a
week with a chamber group and then perform a new piece. An enormous
amount of money from the BBC, new music committees, and public grants
was poured into producing avant-garde concerts. People simply didn’t
go to them.
“I think that movement has taken its natural place. Generally,
it was a musical vocabulary that was searching for a kind of
artificial originality. It is like saying I can’t find the right
words to express what I want to say, so I’ll have to invent a whole
other language. It is clear, though, that if you can’t find the
words, then you’ve got nothing to say. Undeniably, a few great pieces
survived from that era and we have forgotten the rubbish. Today, there
is a return to lyricism, but it is not a looking back, it’s returning
to a timeless, universal thing that was always there. Sort of social
and communal culture.”
Williams’ shared his opinions on the continuing evolution of
Western music and the guitar’s place in it. “The idea that the best
music is European music is having the ground cut away beneath it,” he
said. “The influence of blues, jazz, American popular songs, and
musicals on the vocabulary of classical music in this century has
been enormous. When you look at the mix of blues and rock with
traditional and folk elements, you see the development of a sort of
worldwide urban culture. Add to that the influence of world music,
and you’ve got an enormous sea of interest in music in general today.
"About 150 years ago the guitar was an amateur instrument and,
frankly, it wasn’t part of what was going on in [classical] music.
You had a Giuliani concerto and some solos, but guitar was only part
of the amateur music scene. Today, in the worldwide musical culture,
across the board, guitar is right up there in the middle of it—I’m
talking about the classical guitar. It is used in films, in
traditional African music, folk and Celtic music, and much more.
Madagascar has a whole history of classical guitar playing in their
traditional music. It’s linked throughout quite apart from
steel-string or electric guitar.
"Culture is mixing and there is no thought about where it is
going—neither should there be. The people who are doing their stuff
know what they are doing. Bob Marley knew what he was doing, he
wasn’t concerned with summing it up for history. Jazz musicians,
African singers, or thumb piano players know what they are doing.
"Earlier in this century, you could have said that most music was
either popular or classical European music. But classical composers
today have been influenced by the harmonies of popular and jazz music
just as jazz itself was influenced by the harmonies in the music of
Ravel and Debussy. The 20th century has seen a total change colored
by this mix. In some ways, it is hard to know where we
are . . . but I think that is good.”
Gearbox:
Williams owns two guitars built by Australian luthier Greg Smallman; a
1992 and a 1995. His Smallmans feature an extremely thin cedar top
reinforced with carbon fiber strands to resist the wear string
vibrations cause to the grain of the top. The thick back and sides are
made from five-ply laminated rosewood. The fingerboard is ebony.
Williams uses D’Adarrio Pro Arté lightly polished composite strings,
and employs a mixture of medium and high tension trebles and basses.
Williams plays live with a small amplification system, even in
medium-sized halls. He uses an AKG 414 figure 8 mic, and two
bookshelf-size hi fi speakers. He has not settled on any particular
brand of speaker and amplifiers.
Williams sets the speakers on the floor about eight feet away, pointed
towards his ears. This keeps the amplified sound from hitting the
audience directly, and keeps him from forcing the sound from his
guitar. “The audience only hears reflected sound and my acoustic sound
goes out directly from the stage,” he said. “It is expensive to bring
a system and someone operate it, but I think it is the right thing to
do. Otherwise the guitar sounds small and percussive, not very
musical.”
paul
Miguel de Maria
Smallman would sound too good for flamenco, though.
Kent Murdick
strong opinions on the rhythmic basis of music, and his feeling that a
steady rhythmic pulse frees rather than restrains a performer’s
expressive resources. He took a surprisingly “unclassical” approach to
his suite in the studio by opting to prerecord his guitar part to a
click track and then overdub the orchestra.
Why am I not surprised by this? When you give up rubato, you give up
playing music. Oh , and he doesn't really use dynamics either except
onece inb a while in an illogical manner.
Louie LaRue
telling the truth about Segovia's arrogant prima donna personality.
Williams didn't kiss up to Segovia and that's why he got the
"treatment" from him. Segovia gives us example after example of his
personality in "Andres Segovia: An Autobiography of the Years
1893-1920." I like Segovia's playing but don't care for his pompous
personality. It's amusing when you see people aping his attitude.
Gordon Bradley
paul c
<gor...@bradl7868.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>I wonder what Segovia would have made of JW using an amplifier!
>
I'm pretty sure he would have dissed him for it. Segovia
stated something along the lines of "these are my bastard
grandchildren" when asked about rock and roll etc. As great as Segovia
was I think he was very narrowminded. If it wasn't to his liking then
it wasn't any good.
paul
richard c spross
paul c wrote:
Well ya know, maybe and maybe not.
Notice, Segovia wasn't opposed to being filmed, and recorded for which
there was sonic loss factor in the end result.
He knew by allowing those events to transpire that he was promoting
the classical guitar to a wider audience.
So if a sound system had been developed that pleased him and provided
enough authentic replication then he might very well have adapted to it
especially if all the other artists were adopting it as well.
We are still a ways off from that, but all the time it is getting closer.
Richard Spross
M. J. Reeve
>chamber, concerto, and duo guitar repertoire from the renaissance
>through the 20th century.
Sorry, but this is nonsense.
I admire Williams for pursuing his own path, but he deliberately cut
out a huge portion of the repertoire.
David Raleigh Arnold
He had something to prove, namely that he could fill a concert hall
without a sound system. There is no way he would have let the
camel's nose into the tent unless it got to the point where *all*
instrumentalists, including whole orchestras, routinely used a sound
system. Then maybe, only because that would take away the whole
point of not using one.
> We are still a ways off from that,
I don't think that the state of the art is unacceptable for the
reason you give. For Segovia, the state of the art was
irrelevant altogether. I think that his writings indicate that
quite clearly. daveA
--
The only technical exercises for all guitarists worth a lifetime
of practice: "Dynamic Guitar Technique". Nothing else is close.
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daveA David Raleigh Arnold dra..at..openguitar.com
David Raleigh Arnold
> particularly the criticism of the icon himself. Enjoy!
He was criticizing the post-Romantics. He needs to read
Leon Fleischer on the subject. He also needs to realize
that the Romantics and those who preceded them knew
how accents were produced, and those who followed
during the tyrrany of the piano really didn't. His criticism
barely misses the point. daveA
Kent Murdick
apart the rhythmic framework with his poorly conceived rubatos. Also,
he didn't understand the baisic guitarist's problem of keeping the
phrases unbroken. Just like JW (but worse), he'd be playing along and
you 'd hear this gap in the phrase due to poor fingering.
Having said that, at least Segovia understood intuitively Music
Intepretation 101. See site below for review.
http://staff.mwsc.edu/~bhugh/phrasing-3ways.html
JW does not get this and is boring as hell as a player.
Jeff Gower
"Kent Murdick" <lute...@aol.com> wrote:
> JW..........is boring as hell as a player.
Not when seen live in concert - watching John Williams perform live is
very musically rewarding experience, IMO. But what the hell do I know?
I think Bob Dylan is a great live performer, too. ;-)
Jeff
Louie LaRue
able to hear him while playing with them. He places it towards the
back of the orchestra. He adapts to the situation and and apparetly
they apperciate it.
I speculate that in dealing with Segovia you had to adapt to him
or you were "excomunicated." Check out his heart warming preface to
the his scales.
Kent Murdick
You are right about JW, I'm sure. Conductors probably love him because
he is trouble free and fills the hall everytime.
David Raleigh Arnold
I don't understand your attitude. He had plenty of communicants
and a full plate of repertoire. How can you tell what he couldn't
do from what he wouldn't do? He did very little Latin American
music. That doesn't mean that he hated it and despised everyone
who played it or anything of the sort. daveA
Antony
it.esp since Smallman guitars are so loud anyway! I like to hear the real
acoustic sound of the guitar - the "wood" sound.
Guys like Alexandre Lagoya could play the Rodrigo Concero un-amplified and
still be heard!
Antony
"Jeff Gower" <jeffgowerN...@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:jeffgowerNixThisPart-...@bignews.bellsouth.net...
paul c
<darn...@cox.net> wrote:
>On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 15:33:15 -0700, Louie LaRue wrote:
>
>> One of the reasons JW uses an amplifier is so that orchestras will be able
>> to hear him while playing with them. He places it towards the back of the
>> orchestra. He adapts to the situation and and apparetly they apperciate
>> it.
>> I speculate that in dealing with Segovia you had to adapt to him
>> or you were "excomunicated." Check out his heart warming preface to the
>> his scales.
>
>I don't understand your attitude. He had plenty of communicants
>and a full plate of repertoire. How can you tell what he couldn't
>do from what he wouldn't do? He did very little Latin American
>music. That doesn't mean that he hated it and despised everyone
>who played it or anything of the sort. daveA
I find it curious that he never played the aranjuez as good guitar
concertos were severely lacking. Does the fact that it was dedicated
to Narcisco Yepes instead of him play into it? Anyone know?
paul
David Raleigh Arnold
The way I heard it, Rodrigo sent it to him and he suggested some
changes, so Rodrigo sent it to Ida Presti instead. I've no doubt that
a more complete or corrected version of the story is forthcoming.
Jeff Gower
"Antony" <git...@alphalink.com.au> wrote:
> I don't understand why you would ruin the sound of a guitar by amplifying
> it.esp since Smallman guitars are so loud anyway! I like to hear the real
> acoustic sound of the guitar - the "wood" sound.
When I saw him a few months ago, he did have a mic about a yard in front
of him but I certainly didn't notice that it "ruined" the sound of his
guitar at all. Of course, I WAS on the first row, about 10 feet away
from him, so perhaps that had something to do with it. But it was a
large hall, with a rather loud AC system, so the amplification was
probably advantageous in that situation......or maybe not. At any rate,
I didn't detect any discernible "amplification effect" in his sound - it
was beautiful.
Jeff
Howard Posner
> I find it curious that he never played the aranjuez as good guitar
> concertos were severely lacking. Does the fact that it was dedicated
> to Narcisco Yepes instead of him play into it? Anyone know?
It was dedicated to Regino Sainz de la Maza.
I once spoke to horn player who had played in some concerto in which Segovia
was the soloist. He said it was like trying to blow backward.
HP
Louie LaRue
the only point I was making. Also I used the word "speculate" which
indicates that I could be wrong. I guess he could have been a
compliant little dough boy, but he has left a legacy that shows the
opposite. My opinion is based on books and articles about the man. My
brother in-law saw him in concert and said he was condecending towards
the audience. People don't like to pay to be treated poorly when you
can usually get it for free.
Richard F. Sayage
"Louie LaRue" <lpt...@proaxis.com> wrote in message
news:1121462501.7...@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
I saw the man play a few times, when he came to the NY area. I can't
disagree about the attitude and/or affect that he portrayed to the audience.
He did play freakin' great though :-)
I've always gone by a simple tenet when it comes to peoples. How you
treat someone who can do you no good whatsoever is always a good measure.
There's a saying to that effect, can't really remember it, but you know what
I mean.
I went out with this young lady at one time. She was fabulous in every
respect, looks, personality, laughter, everything was bang, pow and zoom
with her and on her. We got along great.
I took her to a restaurant, one that I favored in the Philly area, down
on extremish end of South St, whenever I was in the neighborhood. All a
sudden, she's ordering the waiters, I want this, ooh, I don't like this,
take it back, and on and on....man, she got downright nasty. Btw, the food
was great, as it always was, and they took care of me as they always do, and
I called her a cab, "what are you doing"? ... I said, "calling you a
cab"....and told her she wasn't welcome, and she called me an asshole as she
got in the car and I went back in and finished my fabulous dinner, asshole
that I was.... By the time I was done, I was drinking with another fab lady
and she really was a sweetheart. Left the boys 20 a piece for dealing with
the moronathon I brought in, and finished the night the right way with the
right lady.
Always treat peoples nice, until they let you know they don't like it
that way. Then it's time to leave.
Sorry for the slight philosophical rhetoric. have a nice weekend!
Rich
Steven Bornfeld
Post pics.
Steve
>
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Cut the nonsense to reply
Richard F. Sayage
"Steven Bornfeld" <dentaltwi...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:42D83344...@earthlink.net...
<
> Steve
>
now now Steven....bad Steve....
Rich :-)
David Raleigh Arnold
> My point is that Segovia was a difficult and demanding person.
That's just not fair. He demanded quiet from an audience, but
that is not unreasonable under the circumstances IMO. Also
he was legally blind. You can't make much of his manner toward
an audience which he couldn't see. daveA
Louie LaRue
>From the "Australian Guitar Journal" interview by Austin Prichard-Levy
(early 1990's)
John Williams :
" I feel it has become necessary for me to become open about what my
reservations with Segovia were. It's all very well hiding behind
respectful statements, but there was a personal gap between us that
began in the mid-1950's.
Segovia had organized, or was involved in organizing, a guitar
competition in Switzerland and asked me to compete in it. At the time,
I would have been the logical winner, so it was an attractive idea. But
my father was against it, partly because I was still at school and also
because he felt I was still too young. My mother, however, supported
the idea of my entering, so in the end it was really left to me to make
the decision
As it turned out, 1 decided not to enter, and very soon after received
an extremely angry phone call from Segovia, in which he abused me
roundly in Spanish and called me all sorts of names of names.
Anyway, we all got over that one, but in the years that followed there
always seemed to be an edge of tension when he was present for Summer
School in Siena. Mostly, the players there like Alirio Diaz and myself
would teach each other, because Segovia wasn't always there a great
deal, but when he did come, it often felt strained.
As I've said on other occasions previously, he taught mainly by example
- four bars here, four bars there, in which you were meant to imitate
him - and I suppose that my training at the Royal College was giving me
a more structured and structural approach to learning music, so it was
sometimes hard to adapt to his very individual teaching style.
Having said all that, of course there were many positive aspects to
Segovia and his influence on me as a guitarist and as a person. You
couldn't help being influenced by him and his sound when you were as
close to it as I was. And he was extremely generous and usually very
sweet tempered most of the time. But it would be wrong, especially now
that he is gone, to assume that there were never any difficult moments
between us, because occasionally there were, especially musically.
As time passed, I found my interpretive approach becoming more direct,
more linear, whereas Segovia's was often shaped by the beautiful
resonant qualities of his Hauser, which didn't suit either my
personality or musical inclinations in either solo or chamber music.
Also, Segovia emerged during the age of the other great soloists like
Kreisler and Heifetz, and some would argue that their period sound is
dated, and it may be, but you can't say its wrong, just different. But
you can't change the fact that it all began with Segovia and his sound.
We wouldn't be here now if it weren't for him. "
David Raleigh Arnold
That's more like it. I don't see how you get "difficult and demading"
out of that.
And I don't agree that the late 19th century "interpreters" were not
wrong, only different. Most of them apparently didn't understand that
accents are *relative* to a beat which is absolute, and for everyone
necessarily exactly the same. daveA
Louie LaRue
abusive. The treatment of John Williams proves this because he
decribed it as such! Just the facts.
David Raleigh Arnold
> Ok David Raleigh Arnold, I can revise "difficult and demanding" to
> abusive. The treatment of John Williams proves this because he decribed
> it as such! Just the facts.
Is he on trial? For the crime of not treating JW the way he should have
been treated or felt that he should have been treated? Somehow
when you take this out of context the POV changes radically. Segovia
was a person who, if you asked him for a pencil, he would give you a
desk. I don't think JW would deny that, either. daveA