Para las seis cuerdas

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As you know, I’m worried about classic guitar decadence. And it was, perhaps, the original live-motive for this blog. I told about guitar only, as is question I better know. But it seems be only a part of a huge, world spread cultural decadence, which is specially noted in my country. I would agree that it can be only a personal misunderstanding of our present society. But as far as I can see, children and young people have a huge excess of stimulus that they have lost the minimum interest on obtain a success trough personal effort. Difficulties are systematically avoided.

But that could have been my personal option (sure) if I had had a lot of virtual resources, play stations and money in my pocket as my daughters have. Under those conditions, people of my generation never would have looked inside theirs souls in a research for anything valuable to develop and show to the world.

But as I say prior, it would be only a personal feeling. There are lots of things to do for our young people. For instance, we can show them classical guitar as a interesting option, not limiting their listenings to the last TV production, that can be good, but usually isn’t. Colleagues tell me that this is not the way, and that I must teach music other than classical, as commercial of any quality, always following he fashion. But I can’t do it. Instead, I will fight all that decadence, looking for new, young guitar lovers that could appreciate the sweetness of a guitar sound. And that will be able to recognize the Villa-Lobos mastery among today’s sound and fury.

Few days ago we were lucky enough to give a concert in a privileged corner of the Pyrenees mountains, a nice Romanesque church in a small village located in a very exclusive tourist area, only for wealthy people, either in winter or summer. Therefore, although the village did not reach the 20 inhabitants, the day of the concert quite public could be expected.

Concert was scheduled to 10 pm, so late!. Although in Spain people often take dinner at 9 PM or even later (especially in summer), go to a concert at that time hours and having eat a lot, does not seem the best of the options. At 10 o clock, church remained closed, They don’t found the key!. When it appears, half an hour later, there was only six banks to accommodate the public. “Every year’s it’s same problem. There are not chairs”, said organizers. We can expect that they are in time to bring the chairs for next year concert?

Prior to start, they offered an interesting slide session on church treasures, that delayed the concert until 11 PM. We finally play, finishing after midnight, when there was no open bar in the whole valley. Nobody think about us. It is assumed that musicians must have dinner BEFORE acting? In other, the public pay more attention to the lighter parts of the repertoire. I think it is increasingly difficult to get minimally deep music, or even little different. At this point, even Piazzolla may be excessive. That’s, perhaps, because in recent years Spain experienced a great economic prosperity, which in any way has resulted in a better cultural level, but rather the contrary. Being a musician in this country, you believe it or not, is far from be easy.

This summer we played a concert in a lovely little city called Chinchón, not far from Madrid, which is famous for its main square and its alcoholic drink also called Chinchón, a kind of anisette. In fact it is a city which has not grown in the last century, conserving the atmosphere of the past. You expect to found something unbelievable in its stone-paved streets. The main square is noted for its balconies, many of them occupied by restaurants. But also for the bull-fights, when during the “fiesta mayor” the square becomes a “Plaza de Toros” (bullring) similar to those painted by Goya.

Right next to the “Plaza” lies the Lope de Vega theater, a century-old building that preserves the original stage and curtain, which shows a romantic view of the "plaza"

Although the concert began at “vermouth time”, a very unusual time in Spain, there were plenty of people. The ladies or “Damas de honor” were dressed with the typical “peinetas”, a kind of head-dress which at present is reserved only for special occasions.

The concert, played by the Trio of guitar, voice and flute, was called “Little Spanish music masterpieces”, and included music by Granados, de Falla, Oltra and others. At the end, many people told us that they especially liked two songs played in Catalan, although they had not understood the lyrics. Theyalso liked several Sephardi songs, which are Jewish medium-age love-songs, sung in old-Castilian. And here we are playing. Look at the “mantón de Manila”, another jewel.