Pedoviejo -> RE: Economical Crisis in Spanish Luthiers (Jun. 1 2012 4:16:52)
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What a thread! Several things come to mind.... Historically: Think of the Spanish luthiers who had to survive the Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939) and the long, long, long recovery from it. They did survive, of course (if you leave out Domingo Esteso dying in 1939 and Santos in 1941), and without any benefits of any kind to speak of. Think of all those "Viuda de..." labels because the widows had no income, no pensions. Many died in poverty, like Antonio de Torres. Which brings me to.... More recent past: I first went to Spain near the end of the Franco period. Relatively speaking, people were still poor, but no one seemed to be starving. One of the smart things the wily old dictator did was keep tobacco and alcohol so cheap that the poorest could afford a drink and a smoke. People didn’t have much, but there was family and camaraderie every day and evening in the bars and restaurants, much more than I’ve experienced over the years since in the affluent U.S.A. Luthiers’ shops were perpetual “hangouts,” with artists, friends and friends of friends stopping by to shoot the breeze while the artisans worked, as Arcángel Fernández once told me, “slowly and with care.” It was a very pleasant way of life. Today: 40 years later, things seem to be definitely out of whack. Good governance is the art of balancing on top of a bubble and it’s very easy to slide off, whether it’s to the right side or the left. And it seems to me that it is a tradition of homo sapiens to look for nice, neat answers when there are none of the sort. Here in the good ‘ole U.S. of A., the Republicans keep preaching that government is the root of all problems, and if we would just get it off our backs all of those “creative energies” would be released and all would rise on that benign tide. The Democrats…. Well, they don’t quite seem to know what they’re about these days. (Personally, I’ve had a problem with the two party system ever since Bill Clinton turned the Democrats into Republicans and the Republicans became fascists.) A good slice of the European technocracy seems to have bought into that chant with “austerity” being the solution to present economic woes… and have run smack into that terrible thing called democracy (witness recent elections in Greece and France). But note that there is something of a failure of communication across the Atlantic: While Germany preaches austerity, it itself still has a very robust “social safety net” which includes a national health plan (i.e, “socialized medicine”) and strong labor laws – and its economy still works just fine, as it has for decades. Ditto for Japan, which we derided for its “moribund growth” which doesn’t look none too bad these days. But those parts have been blacked out in most of the “news” coverage in the U.S. as extremely inconvenient facts that defy the “starve the [government] beast” theory of economics. Again, it’s about balance: The evidence, such as it is, I think shows that a good social safety net and a thriving economy are not mutually exclusive. As far as I see, however, the great majority of the American populace are not only incredibly insular but also have no idea what a real “left” in politics is. If you believe the neo-conservative and Tea Party screams, Obama is the most left, socialist president this country has ever had. What a great, steaming pile. (The art critic Robert Hughes (Australian come American) had it right when he wrote that “U.S.A.” stands for “United States of Amnesia.”) In short, if you have policies that encourage people to take very early retirement and not work; or, policies that hand the laws to the wealthiest few on the “trickle down” theory (i.e., scraps will inevitably fall off the table if it’s piled high enough), you will get equally bad – and unjust – results. Achieving that balance, however, becomes extremely difficult if greed rules the laws, and the greatest vessel of greed in modern times is the publicly traded corporation – which is another whole topic. And beware of “purity” in either economics or politics: “If we have any kind of social welfare state, some people will take advantage!” True – but consider the alternative. Do we want to go back to the days of “Viuda de…..”? No matter what you do there will be abuse. Abuse must be accepted as inevitable, but never tolerated. That requires good laws and good people to enforce them, and just what “good” is, is a topic that should be as continuously debated now just as it was in the Agora of Hellenic Athens. What’s this got to do with luthiers? Nothing and everything. Luthiers can take the corporate-mass production model and prosper economically (and I did NOT use the word “Conde” – a friend of mine said he would love to mount a time-motion camera outside the window of the Felipe V shop to see if anyone ever is at that traditional workbench), which would include careful and focused marketing (a/k/a b.s.). Or continue in the time honored skilled artisan tradition which can, at its best, provide a comfortable, if not wealthy, living and much personal satisfaction in one’s chosen work. The latter becomes more and more difficult, however, if overall prices (real estate, rents, tools, supplies) keep escalating faster than the price one is able to obtain for a guitar. It takes good governance to do that, not the elimination or hampering thereof. Only a government, for example, can make and enforce good and strong environmental laws that, say, protect natural resources. How many old growth trees are left? Brazilian rosewood has been unavailable for quite awhile now; fine, aged spruce is becoming ever more scarce. The loss of fine woods is, in my mind, one of the greatest threats to fine lutherie. So – if fine lutherie could survive the Great Depression, the Spanish Civil War, Franco Spain, etc., it can survive today. As always, however, it will have to morph. Which new luthiers can afford a shop today in downtown Madrid – or New York, or San Francisco, or Tokyo? But you don’t have to be in any of those places – or any city in particular – to build fine guitars. It may require the persistence of Kono, or the humility and calm of Barbero, but it can, and I believe will, be done.
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