An Opinion

Regarding

El Maestro

Andrés Segovia

In which the question is discussed whether one of the 20th Century's greatest musicians achieved his reputation for unbelievable virtuosity at least in part and perhaps inadvertently by electronic enhancement and in which the conclusion is supported by the discovery of a long-forgotten live broadcast of the great guitarist from the early years of the 20th Century.

Decades since he last appeared on stage, Andrés Segovia remains the most famous classical guitarist of all time. In fact, in the popular image, Andrés is the INVENTOR of the classical guitar.

Of course, scholars will point out that there were many guitarists playing classical music long before Andrés was born. In the early to mid-19th Century these included Ferdinando Carulli, Fernando Sor, Mauro Giuliani, Niccolò Paganini (yes, the violin Paganini), and Julian Arcas.

There were also guitarists who can be considered Andrés's contemporaries in the sense that they learned to play independently of his influence and their careers overlapped a good deal with his. Some of these guitarists studied with Francisco Tarrega - widely considered the founder of modern guitar technique and whom Andrés greatly admired. These included Daniel Fortea, Josefina Robledo, Emilio Pujol, and of course, Miguel Llobet. Among Miguel's own students were Luise Walker, the child prodigy María Luisa Anido, José Rey de la Torre, - and some actually think one of Miguel's students might have been a promising young guitarist named Andrés Segovia Torres!¹

Well, then the curmudgeons ask, if there were all these other guitarists, why is it that people THINK Andrés invented the classical guitar?

Although the individual threads of Andrés's career path were by no means unique, what made him sui generis is how things were put together. Like the proverbial doctor's prescription there were a combination of ingredients in Andrés's career that enhanced his reputation to where he eclipsed everyone else.

First, no doubt about it, Andrés was good. Whether he was better than everyone else is a moot point, endlessly debatable, and not really relevant. What IS important was that when Andrés played, people listened.

Another BIG factor for Andrés's rapid rise was he was willing to spend his entire life on the road. Andrés's public debut was in 1909 in Granada when he was sixteen years old and his first professional performance was in Madrid in 1912. People were impressed, and after some wrangling about the contract (which originally required him to reimburse the agent for expenses), Andrés began touring South America to good reviews.

On his tours Andrés not only played recitals - that is, concerts in fairly small rooms before a limited audience - but full fledged concerts in large auditoria. Despite the quiet nature of the instrument² he was soon packing them in.

Andrés's Paris debut was April 7, 1924 and was attended by some of the biggest of the bigwigs in music including a guy named Maurice. Andrés first toured the United States in 1928 where he debuted at Town Hall in New York City. Andrés was always modest about his English skills although his command of the language became quite good. Although he spoke with a Spanish accent, he was articulate and easy to understand.

By the early 1920's Andrés was so famous that newspapers would even print stories when he was just passing through town. His odysseic touring is all the more impressive since when he began his career, travel was onerous, difficult, and at times dangerous. Commercial airlines were in the future, and for long distance travel you crossed the oceans by ship and went over the land by train. But even with today's jet travel, touring can still be a grind, and yet Andrés kept performing throughout the world when he was over 90. So a lot of people saw Andrés.

And last but by no means least, Andrés began cutting records as early as 1927 and he never really stopped. Other early guitarists had made recordings, particularly Miguel Llobet, but the distribution was limited, and truth to tell the discs by Andrés are better both technically and musically. Here Andrés was fortunate in that he began recording soon after electric microphones had replaced the old acoustic horns. So even his earliest recordings are close to modern quality and Andrés garnered many fans who never saw him perform.

Andrés's first release was the "Variations on a Theme by Mozart" by Fernando Sor with Bach's "Gavotte en Rondeau" on the flip side. These were recorded in England and as we said in 1927.

The record was reviewed in The Gramophone magazine the same year. The reviewer clearly didn't know he was listening to a future legend, and he was a bit dismissive of the music and the instrument if not the performer.

Andrés Segovia (H.M.V., D.1255, 12in., 6s. 6d.³) provides us with some truly astonishing playing on the guitar, an instrument which, by the way, appears to record excellently. His rendering of a Bach Gavotte is pleasantly rhythmic and the rubato, though meretricious,⁴ is effective. But the result, interesting as it is, is hardly Bach, and the guitar seems more naturally suited to the pleasant, childish prattling of a Thème Varié by Sor, which is most successful. The playing is, of course, the main thing, and this no one should miss.

Andrés's virtuosity on the "Gavotte" is indeed astonishing. In fact, it's so astonishing that Andrés's friend, the composer (and chemist) John Duarte⁵ - felt something was up. Jack (as his friends called him) was familiar with the early recordings, and when they were re-released in 1979 on a long playing double vinyl album, he wrote the liner notes for which he won a Grammy Award.

Jack owned a copy of the original disc, and he found that the pitch was about a half tone too high. That is, when Andrés plays the first nearly simultaneous notes E (fourth string 2nd fret) and B (open 2nd string) which are followed by a G♯, he sounds like he's playing a D and C♯ followed by an A. Jack also found that some of Andrés's other 78's also sounded higher than concert pitch.

As for what was going on, Jack offered two explanations. One was that Andrés really was exhibiting unbelievable virtuosity and that he tuned his strings a half tone up.

But as Arlo Guthrie might have put it, this wasn't very likely and we shouldn't expect it. For one thing tighter strings would make the guitar harder to play. Sure, Andrés was good, but why make his job harder than it was already?

The other explanation - and one that Jack supported by further research - was that the control of early recording equipment was inconsistent. So when Andrés cut the records, the turntable was apparently rotating at a slower speed than the standard 78.26 rpm.

Recording at a slower speed would have two effects. First it would produce a higher pitch on a 78 rpm playback. And secondly, it would make the tempo seem faster than it actually was.

So a question arises and one that is terrible to contemplate.

Was it possible, just possible, that Andrés's reputation for his amazing performances was aided and assisted - although perhaps unintentionally and in part - by electronic enhancement?

Well, nowadays with the ubiquitous (and free) audio software proliferating the ether, it's easy enough to verify that the pitch of the 1927 Gavotte is indeed higher than standard. And yes, the recording does sound like Andrés's open B-string - B3 - is playing at about 256 Hz (that is hertz, ergo, cycles per second). That's about 9 Hz too high for concert pitch and only 6 Hz from C3 (262 Hz). This is equivalent to tuning the guitar so that the tuning standard, A4, is at 457 Hz⁶ rather than 440 Hz.

The difference is a bit less than a semi-tone - it's actually about ⅓ of a tone - but it does make a noticeable difference in pitch. With some rudimentary arithmetic we can conclude that during the recording the disc was spinning at about 75 rpm rather than 78.

Huh! So it seems that Andrés's reputation WAS aided by artificial enhancement, ¿verdad?

Well, no, no es necesariamente la verdad. Just un poco más research demonstrates that any "enhancement" has little effect on the virtuosity that Andrés displayed.

Over the next three decades Andrés recorded the "Gavotte" a number of times. It was clearly one of his favorites and has since become a classical guitar standard. And what you find - as Artie Johnson might have said - is veeeeerrrrryyyyyy interesting.

After the Second World War Andrés recorded the song in 1947 and 1954.⁷ What will strike the listener is that the style of playing - including the - quote - "meretricious" rubato - unquote - is virtually identical to the 1927 recording. Without close listening the recordings - particularly the 1947 pressing - might be mistaken for the early performance.⁸

But the later two recordings are at concert pitch. Or if not exactly at concert pitch they are close to concert pitch. Admittedly, the later recordings do sound a bit higher than a guitar tuned at standard A4 = 440 Hz. But we will see that whether any difference is due to slight variability in recording speeds or some other artifact of the reproduction, or if Andrés really did tune his guitar on the bright side, there would be little effect on the timing and tempo.

Now it is true that the later recordings have longer playing times than the first - but not by much. The 1927 recording runs for 2 minutes and 41 seconds⁹ and the 1947 recording is only a second longer - 2 minutes 42 seconds. The 1954 record is 2 minutes and 49 seconds.

Without questioning that the 1927 recording was produced at a slower speed, if Andrés's recording in 1947 was only a second longer with the equipment working properly, then it's hard to argue that Andrés's technique needed much help. And with the recording speed in 1927 being too slow, we can conclude that Andrés was actually playing faster twenty years later!

It is tempting to wonder if the 1947 recording was a re-release of the 1927 performance but with the surface noise filtered out and the pitch adjusted. Such adjustments would have been difficult in the pre-digital days, but perhaps not impossible.

But the later recording was clearly NOT an adjustment of the first. For one thing, if the 1927 recording is slowed down to concert pitch, it would have run over 2 minutes and 50 seconds; not 2 minutes 42 seconds. Furthermore, careful listening will reveal some stylistic differences in the playing that distinguishes the earliest and later recordings.

At this point it's helpful to summarize our knowledge acquired so far.

Gavotte Recordings by Andrés
Date of Recording	Duration	Average Metronome Marking (10 = Beats per Minute)	Apparent Tuning Frequency for A4 (Standard = 440 Hz)
1927	2 min 41 sec	80	457
1947	2 min 42 sec	79	445
1954	2 min 49 sec	76	443

At this point, we can sit back in satisfaction. We've heard all of the recordings of Andrés playing Bach's "Gavotte". After all, there's the 1927, 1947, and 1954 records. That's ALL the records. We haven't omitted A SINGLE RECORDING that Andrés made of Bach's "Gavotte"!

Well, hold on, there, guitarristas! There is a performance on a documentary released in 1969. There Andrés plays the "Gavotte" at a bit more languid pace - and if the ear is accurate - at a bit lower tuning.

So we can supplement our table as:

Gavotte Recordings by Andrés
Date of Recording	Duration	Average Metronome Marking ( = Beats per Minute)	Apparent Tuning Frequency for A4 (Standard = 440 Hz)
1927	2 min 41 sec	80	457
1947	2 min 42 sec	79	445
1954	2 min 49 sec	77	443
1969	3 min 4 sec	70	43611

So NOW we have all the recordings Andrés made of the "Gavotte"! Again not a single recording omitted!

¡Pues más despacio, mis amigos! ¡Un momento, por favor!

Andrés made lots of records, and he was the subject of documentary films. But he did a lot more. If you peruse the old newspapers about Andrés's early career, you learn he also appeared on that new fangled vehicle of home entertainment called RADIO. So naturally we would expect him to have performed on what were called variety shows.

Variety shows are now pretty much moribund. But at one time they were a staple of American entertainment and were the electronic remnant of vaudeville. The show was often hosted by a well-known celebrity who introduced a number of unrelated acts one after another. Variety shows were particularly popular in the early days of television where you might have a comedian followed by a singer and the next act could be something like a magician, acrobats, or a performing dog act. The idea was to have something for everyone at a time when households only had a single set.

Of course, on radio the programs were limited to acts that relied on the spoken word or music, and one of these early shows that was intended to have something for everybody was The Magic Key of RCA. It was - quote - "a star studded extravaganza" - unquote. Starting on September 29, 1935, you could tune in and be entertained by the likes of Paul Robeson, Benny Goodman, The Pickens Sisters, Ruth Etting, Tyrone Power, Eugene Ormandy, Sonja Henie, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, the pianist and later Polish prime minister Ignace Jan Paderewski, Fred MacMurray, Metropolitan opera tenor Lauritz Melchior, the megaphone toting crooner Rudy Vallee, violinist Efrem Zimbalist (and father of actor Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.), Tommy Dorsey, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Irving Berlin, Guy Lombardo, the Vienna Boys' Choir, movie mogul Darryl Zanuck, the real life married comedy duo Fibber McGee and Molly, Walt Disney, Donald Duck, Pluto, and Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Oh, yes. And Andrés Segovia.

Yes, Andrés appeared on The Magic Key of RCA on December 29, 1935, and on the same show with George M. Cohan, Benny Goodman, and The NBC Symphony Orchestra. It was about halfway through the show that announcer Milton Cross said that Andrés was standing by at Radio Station EQA in Madrid. From there he would play the "Etude in A" by Francisco Tarrega and the "Gavotte" by Bach.

What was that last song again?

The "Gavotte" by Bach.

A recordings of the program has survived and with it Andrés's playing. So if Milton is to be believed - and who can doubt a radio announcer? - in 1935 we have a live performance of Andrés Segovia playing Bach's "Gavotte en Rondeau".

And what we find is - and we say it again - VEEEEERRRRRRRRYYYYYYY INTERESTING!!!!!.

First of all, at a first hearing Andrés's playing sounds like it's the 1927 recording. Now suspicious minds might harbor the thinking that we really are hearing the 1927 recording. You wonder if Andrés's - quote - "live performance" - unquote - is like an old radio program where the host might announce "Well, today our guest is folk singer Woody Guthrie. So we'll start off with Woody playing his famous tune, 'So Long, It's Been Good to Know You'. Step up to the mike and take it away, Woody!"

And then you hear what is clearly one of Woody's records. Then when the song is over, the announcer then says, "Thanks, Woody. That was great! And now we have a special guest star, Huddie Ledbetter, better known as 'Leadbelly' with his tune, 'Bring Me a Little Water, Sylvie.'"

Fortunately, there are good reasons to think we can rule out any such perfidy and we really are listening to a live and amazing performance.

First, the timing is faster than the 1927 record. In fact, Andrés plays the tune at a blistering

TWO MINUTES AND 27 SECONDS!!!!!

Next, if you check the tuning, Andrés IS playing at concert pitch - or at least as Isaac Newton said "pretty nearly". Again the tuning sounds a bit high - about 3 Hz above A4 = 440. But remember the 1927 recording is off by 17 Hz. Even if the 3 Hz error were from a recording produced at a non-standard speed, the song would still have a live performing time of no longer than 2 minutes and 30 seconds and not 2 minutes 41 seconds.

In other words in 1935 Andrés played the "Gavotte" fourteen seconds faster than an already rapid fire performance whose tempo was aided by sluggish recording equipment. So if you thought the 1927 recording was astonishing, hearing Andrés on the 1935 broadcast really is unbelievable.

Finally and most importantly, that neither the 1935 performance - nor any of the later ones - are modified repeats of the 1927 record is easily proven. If you mosey down to measure 72 (not counting the repeat of the first 8 bars) you find that the 1927 recording can be identified by an almost unbelievable occurrence.

There Andrés begins playing groups of two eighth notes followed by a quarter note. At the quarter note of the third group - again it is unbelievable - you will actually hear that:

ANDRÉS ACTUALLY MISSES A NOTE!!!!

Actually it isn't exactly missed. That is, Andrés doesn't actually play a wrong note. Instead it is slightly mis-fretted. Andrés may have placed a finger on the fret instead of slightly behind it or he may have not pressed down hard enough for the string to sound properly. So the note comes out as a bit of a thunk rather than the nice plink of a treble guitar string.

Today Andrés would simply do another take for just those measures and the engineers would splice it in. But in 1927 Andrés didn't have that luxury. As late as the 1950's some recording companies were still cutting records directly onto a master disc and no splicing was possible.¹² If you made a glaring error you had to start all over again. So just like movie directors who sometimes let a misspoken word remain rather than reshoot an entire scene, it was best just to let Andrés's almost inaudible mistake remain.¹³

But in the 1935 broadcast?

Well, even if the sound quality isn't that great, you can definitely hear that:

ANDRÉS DOES NOT MISS THE NOTE!!!!

So the 1927 and 1935 recordings are NOT the same. And the playing on the 1935 recording IS faster and the virtuosity IS almost unbelievable.¹⁴

So to summarize we can slip in another line into the table:

Gavotte Recordings by Andrés
Date of Recording	Duration	Average Metronome Marking ( = Beats per Minute)	Apparent Tuning Frequency for A4 (Standard = 440 Hz)
1927	2 min 41 sec	80	457
1935	2 min 27 sec	88	443
1947	2 min 42 sec	79	445
1954	2 min 49 sec	76	443
1969	3 min 4 sec	70	436

So what, as Flakey Foont asked Mr. Natural, does it all mean?

Well, it definitely means more than Mr. Natural's famous reply. Instead based on the totality of the evidence we now know:

In 1935 Andrés Segovia performed on the NBC radio program The Magic Key in a remote broadcast from Madrid.

Andrés played the "Gavotte en Rondeau" (BMV 1006) in the same style as his 1927 recording.

The tuning was near concert pitch and the actual performing time was 4 minutes and 27 seconds. This is significantly faster than the 1927 recording whose playback tempo was increased due to a slower recording speed. It's also half a minute faster than many top-notch professional guitarists play it today.

And in conclusion (to quote Shakespeare), we know that:

Electronic

Enhancement?

Andrés didn't need electronic enhancement!

But sometimes he did need a little help. If not in playing the guitar, then in other matters - like negotiating US Customs.

A newspaper story reported that when Andrés arrived in New York for his first American tour, he had two guitars. At that time classical guitars were such an oddity in the United States that the customs agents didn't know how nto classify them. So Andrés declared them in a way that was comprehensible to the inhabitants of Los Estados Unidos.

"Two banjos," Andrés said. "Two big banjos."

References and Further Reading

Segovia: An Autobiography of the Years 1893-1920, Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd, 1977.

Segovia: A Celebration of the Man and His Music, Graham Wade, Allison and Busby, 1983.

Andrés Segovia: As I Knew Him, John Duarte, Mel Bey Publications, 1998.

"Segovia: A Centenary Celebration", Parts 1 - 17, Graham Wade, Classical Guitar, February, 1993 - June, 1994.

"Andres Segovia: Studio Recordings and Discography", David Putnam, Classical Guitar Forum, January 20, 2015.

"Andrés Segovia: Studio Recordings and Discography", Segovia Guitar.

A Little Nightmusic: Intimate Conversations with Jascha Heifetz, Vladimir Horowitz, Gian Carlo Menotti, Leontyne Price, Richard Rodgers, Artur Rubinstein, Andres Segovia, Samuel Chotzinoff, Harper & Row, 1964.

"The History of the Modern Classical Guitar and its Deep Iberian Roots", Mark Small, Classical Guitar.

"The Essential Andrés Segovia", Scott Cmiel, Classical Voice of San Francisco, July 18, 2023.

"Legendary Classical Guitarist Andrés Segovia Plays Timeless Pieces by J.S. Bach", Open Culture, February 17th, 2016.

"Andres Segovia", Augustine Strings.

"Analytical Notes and First Reviews: Guitar, Andres Segovia", The Gramophone, August 1927, p. 102.

"El Gran Guitarerista Andres Segovia Ventra a Puerto Rico", El Mundo [San Juan, Puerto Rico], March 3, 1923, Page 3, Chronicling America, Library of Congress.

"Artist on Romantic Instrument", The [Washington, D. C.], Sunday Star, Part 3, October 16, 1927, p. 5 (p. 77), Chronicling America, Library of Congress.

"The Return of the Razz-Ma-Tazz", The [Washington, D. C.], Doris Kanter, Sunday Star Magazine, April 1, 1956, p. 9 (p. 123), Chronicling America, Library of Congress.

"On This Day: Andres Segovia Starts Last U.S. Tour", United Press International, January 4, 2018.

"Andrés Segovia: Still on the Road", Colin Cooper, Classical Guitar, January/February, 1983.

"30 Years On: Perspectives On the Legacy of Andrés Segovia", Graham Wade Classical Guitar, 2017.

"The History of 78 RPM Recordings", Irving S. Gilmore Library, Yale University.

Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, Random House, 1996.

"Andres Segovia Discography", Discogs

"Andrés Segovia at Los Olivos", Andrés Segovia (performer), Christopher Nupen (producer and director), Allegro Films, Argos Productions, Ltd., 1969.

The Very Best of Andres Segovia, Guitar Genius, Everest Records.

"Bach, Johann Sebastian: 3 Sonaten und 3 Partiten; vl , 1727-1734 (ca.)", Bach Digital, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz.

"I Grandi Interpreti: Andres Segovia", Andrés Segovia (performer), Kirk Browing (director), David Suskind (producer), James Fleming (Producer), Screen Gems, Talent Associates Paramount, Ltd., Rai Italia, 1956.

"Andres Segovia a Fondo", Andrés Segovia (performer), Kirk Browing (director), David Suskind (producer), James Fleming (Producer), Screen Gems, Talent Associates Paramount, Ltd., Rai Italia, 1976.

"Gavotte en Rondeau", Andrés Segovia, Parlophone Records, 1927.

Segovia, Andres Segovia (performer), Patricia Foy (producer), BBC TV, 1961.

Segovia - Bach Chaconne And Other Works By Sor, Mendelssohn, Villa-Lobos, Rodrigo, Decca, 1955 (Reissue: 1969).

The Art of Segovia, Deutsche Gramophone, 1954.

A Bach Recital, Everest, 1965.

The Golden Years of Andres Segovia: 1952 - 1954, Instituto Discografico Italiano.

John Williams: The Four Lute Suites, Columbia, 1975.

The Magic Key of RCA, NBC, December 29, 1935.

"Andrés Segovia", Radio Swiss Classic.

"The Magic Key of RCA", Old Time Radio Catalog.

Measuring Worth, 2024.

"Foreign Exchange Rates, 1922-1928", Federal Reserve Bulletin, January 1929.

"R. & B. Sontheimer, Inc.", The Lexington [Kentucky] Avertiser, February 24, 1927, p. 8, Chronicling America, Library of Congress.

"Richolt's Cash and Carry", The Bismarck [North Dakota] Tribune, August 26, 1927, Page 2, Chronicling America, Library of Congress.

"Brown and Tiedman", The Bismarck [North Dakota] Tribune, September 16, 1927, Page 2, Chronicling America, Library of Congress.

"Cook's Grocery", The Bismarck [North Dakota] Tribune, September 16, 1927, Page 2, Chronicling America, Library of Congress.

"Nicola's Service Grocery", The Bismarck [North Dakota] Tribune, May 20, 1927, Page 4, Chronicling America, Library of Congress.

"Southside Grocery", The Bismarck [North Dakota] Tribune, September 9, 1927, Page 2, Chronicling America, Library of Congress.

"Southside Grocery", The Bismarck [North Dakota] Tribune, August 19, 1927, Page 2, Chronicling America, Library of Congress.

"Leadership in Values", The [Washington, D. C.] Evening Star, July 25, 1927, p. 3, Chronicling America, Library of Congress.

"Music Sales Corp.", The [Washington, D. C.] Evening Star, February 2, 1955, p. 20, Chronicling America, Library of Congress.

"Lansburgh's Friday Bargains", The [Washington, D. C.] Evening Star, March 24, 1955, p. B-8, Chronicling America, Library of Congress.

"9 of the World's Greatest Musical Treasures", The [Washington, D. C.] Sunday Star, February 6, 1955, p. 147, Chronicling America, Library of Congress.