Customer Reviews

Mel Bay New Look at Segovia: His Life and His Music (New Look at Segovia)

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This is truly a great addition to the classical guitar world. Everyone from beginner to professional should know the history of the man who established the guitar as a classical instrument, and gave us a vast amount of literature from which to work. It is great to read about his life and view his past programs. This is a must have to a guitarist's library!

To someone who grew up with the Segovia myth, this book is a timely corrective. It gives full credit to Segovia's achievement in inspiring generations of guitarists, and establishing the classical guitar as a concert instrument, but looks frankly at the less attractive sides of the story - Segovia's reinvention of his early life, his failure to acknowledge his debts to others, in particular the work of scholar guitarists like Pujol and Scheit, his support for the Franco regime in Spain, and the development of the myth which helped obscure the less attractive side. It looks at his dislike for trends in 20th century music, and how his repertoire changed little after the 1940's.

The book covers Segovia's life up to the late 1950's, when he was in his late 60's - a subsequent volume which I haven't seen covers his later career. It is in three parts: the first part his life, the second a careful examination of his editing and transcriptions by way of an analysis of some of his favourite works from Narvaez to Sor. The third part contains useful modern playing editions of these same works. The book is in large paperback format.

Fascinating stuff, and essential reading for students of the classical guitar!