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ORIGINAL: Echi [...] supposedly the hidden peak of Santos’ work [...]
Santos was a master chef and could cook up anything. He made a special guitar to suit an important player and found out that player was looking for something different. Rather than let this specially built guitar affect people's perception of what sort of guitars he built, Santos kept it out of the public eye.
RE: Santos Hernandez La inedita (in reply to Echi)
Both guys with strong personality. I guess the 2 didn’t catch up really. Santos had restored the 1912 guitar he made under Ramirez label and hoped to be given credit as a maker but Segoviia refused. In fact La inedita was the last failed attempt of Santos to have Segovia as endorser. Segovia would made the fortune of Hauser and José Ramirez III. La inedita is anyway a legendary guitar unknown for 90 years and therefore extremely interesting.
RE: Santos Hernandez La inedita (in reply to Echi)
quote:
I always wondered about the guy that was supposed to get Segovia's guitar....interesting individual honestly. Manjon
As you said, Richard Bruné discovered that the 1912 guitar taken by a very young Segovia from Manuel Ramirez had been converted to a normal guitar from an 11 string guitar made for Manjón. That guitar, which served Segovia for 20 years, ( and was restred and studied by Hauser), had to be replaced in 1936. The inedita should have been the natural successor of the 1912 concert guitar but in 1937 Segovia picked a 1936 Hauser for the purpose, which he called “the greatest guitar of the century”. Now, this Santos 1935 was the direct competitor to that guitar and nobody knows how the things went. Either Segovia already decided for Hauser and Santos gave up, given the incomprehensions between the two, or Segovia disliked a this one or a similar guitar. However It’s an interesting guitar. The guitars made by Santos under Manuel Ramirez are more Torres like than the late Santos like this one.
RE: Santos Hernandez La inedita (in reply to Echi)
My personal theory based on absolutely no facts or evidence, purely anecdotal projection, is that Segovia figured German music was more ‘classical’ and accepted, while Spanish or Iberian music was not well recognized in the Anglo/Germanic world. Segovia wanted to legitimize the guitar as a concert classical instrument and choosing a German maker and concertizing a lot in Germany gained him and the guitar a lot of street cred with the German music establishment.
I think consciously or unconsciously Segovia made these moves based on a kind of internalized self dislike or uncomfortableness that he a guy from Spain was taking on the very Germanic oriented western classical canon. Santos was Spaniard and Hauser was German ( basically) and from the country of Bach.
I think Segovia’s career trajectory and ambition played a not insignificant insignificant role in spurning Santos. Then once Segovia became an institution himself it didn’t matter if he played a German guitar. Moving back to a Madrid built guitar was also a political move because Segovia could have picked up Hauser II guitars, but went with Ramirez because now that classical guitar was a legit thing, it could be romanticly linked back to Spain with less cultural bigotry against Iberian culture, which was viewed for most of the 20th century as less than mainstream Europe. Iberia as a cultural force didn’t gain traction until the 1960’s and didn’t get proper scholarship attention until the 1990’s.
For my complete non factual anecdotal opinion, Segovia distanced himself from Spain and the civil war, take a German guitar from the land of Bach. Why? I wish I knew more, but this is what I think.
RE: Santos Hernandez La inedita (in reply to Echi)
As many here will already know, Hauser came up in the European Romantic guitar tradition, though he had also studied Torres. He was well positioned to be able to think both knowledgeably and "outside the box" about Segovia's desire for an "improved" Spanish guitar. His tone conception blends in Romantic guitar characteristics, resulting in more inherent clarity and balance.
The Spanish guitars Segovia was used to had been shaped by the needs of flamenco players. Segovia wanted to refashion the early 20th century Spanish guitar into an ideal instrument for his performance of classical music in modern venues, and he first found someone to do it outside the Spanish mainstream. Segovia was trying to have his cake (Spanishness) and eat it (classical music in modern venues), a blend that, according to Segovia, even Hauser couldn't consistently achieve.
Then Ramirez approached the new conception by evolving the Spanish system. Wouldn't it be funny if "La Inedita" sounded like a Ramirez?
I sometimes wonder whether a "classical" guitar would better have evolved out of the Romantic tradition. For instance the Italians were onto some things, and Hauser himself knew it.
RE: Santos Hernandez La inedita (in reply to Echi)
The guitars of Hauser I are definitely something though. Romanillos worked all his life aiming to make a guitar with the qualities of a Hauser and the beauty of tone of a Santos.
RE: Santos Hernandez La inedita (in reply to Echi)
It’s just me, but I think a big factor in Segovia picking off Hausers was part of his agenda to ‘legitimize’ the guitar away from flamenco and popular notions and create a ‘classical genre’. He probably also had a girlfriend in Germany/ Austria ( because who wouldn’t?) and no big deal. He came crawling back to the Madrid guitars. 😂
He could have kept going with Hauser 2, but didn’t. In this mix, Santos was probably a poetic guy with pride and self respect. He was as principled and kept La Inedita. Or as my late sculpture teacher Richard Berger said, “He was one who suffered from his own integrity.”
RE: Santos Hernandez La inedita (in reply to Echi)
quote:
a big factor in Segovia picking off Hausers was part of his agenda to ‘legitimize’ the guitar away from flamenco and popular notions
This may be a factor. I’d say his main point was to aim for a wider repertoire than just the popular music of Tarrega and Pujol the guitar was known for at the beginning of the century. Segovia - with indiscussed merits imho - knew the guitar is an instrument with the potential for the actual modern repertoire and pushed strongly in that direction. Of course, this meant also to push the development of guitar building toward guitars less Spanish sounding and with more volume and projection. Bream also gave a great contribution ito the fame of Hauser and in widening the repertoire of the guitar. BTW, as Segovia said, he also played Spanish music with an English accent”. Romanillos was part of the Bream phenomenon. We should be grateful to him for his contribution in rediscovering Torres and somehow Santos as for trying to build Spanish guitars with the qualities of a Hauser guitar. The Germans meanwhile invented the double top…..
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