Classical Guitar

Interviews

Here are some of the interviews I was lucky enough to be able do through the years when I was writing for GI and CG:

Carlos Barbosa-Lima (1984)

Manuel Barrueco (1983)

William Coulter (2002), with his arrangement of Carolan’s Cap

Eduardo Fernández (1984)

John Gilbert (luthier) (1986)

Alexandre Lagoya (1981)

The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (1987)

Wulfin Lieske (1985), with his arrangement of a Schubert Menuetto, D 894

Vladimír Mikulka (1983)

David Russell (2003)

David Tanenbaum (1987)

Benjamin Verdery (1984)

Benjamin Verdery (2002)

John Williams (1983) (also available in Spanish))

Arrangements

Bizet: Habanera from Carmen (2 guitars)

The impetus for this arrangement was hearing a (double-tracked) version by a flamenco guitarist that I thought was rather unadventurous. This one is perhaps a bit more challenging.

Couperin: Les barricades mystérieuses (2 guitars)

I did this after hearing Christopher Parkening’s excellent solo version on Parkening plays Bach…. His arrangement is in his book Parkening and the Guitar, Vol. 2, where it appears in C. The recording is in D; but his secretary confirmed (in 2003) that he does, on occasion, use a capo.

My arrangement is also in C, but has the 5^th string to G and the 6^th string to C. This puts it up just a tone from the B♭ original; I only had to change one bass note to get it all within the compass of the guitars.

Transcriptions

For guitar versions of music from before 1650, see the Early tab.

Bach: Prelude from the 1st ’Cello Suite, BWV 1007

The Prelude has of course been a staple of the classical guitar repertory for decades—since, in fact, the days of Segovia. But Segovia’s version featured an added bass-line by Manuel Ponce that made Bach purists froth at the mouth (you can find Segovia’s version on Andrés Segovia: The Paris Film (1954), on YouTube, at 7'53" in).

Christopher Parkening (a pupil, of course, of Segovia’s) also recorded the Ponce version, with (I believe) a few of the extra notes removed; and, pace the purists, I like his recording.

As far as I’m aware, the Ponce transcription has never been published. But I liked the Parkening version so much that I transcribed it. Here it is. (The fingering—for now, at least—is my own.)

Lennon/McCartney: Yesterday & Norwegian Wood

Jorge Morel (1931–2021) was certainly one of the greatest composers and arrangers in the history of the classical guitar. Many of his compositions and arrangements have now been published; but the two here, from 1982’s Jorge Morel Plays Broadway, seem to have slipped through the net. I don’t believe Jorge would have wanted them to disappear.

Tárrega: Lágrima (3^rd part)

Not many people seem to know that Francisco Tárrega wrote a 3^rd part to Lágrima. I found it decades ago, in the old B.M.G. (Banjo • Mandolin • Guitar) magazine (specifically, it was, along with an accompanying article by Jack Whitfield, on p. 198 of the April 1960 edition).

Here it is.

The Coach and Horses guitar clubsunk without trace

The pub is still there, although the club that Richard Lawrence founded is long gone. Its venue was an annexe on the side of the pub, facing Long Lane; within easy reach of the bar, but far enough away to avoid most of the noise. Here is a regrettably small sample of the music you could find there.

Richard Lawrence

himself was quite a character, an archetypal extrovert. He was primarily a flamenco guitarist, although in fact (as the selection below shows) he could play just about any style. He it was who, in 1963, saw Paco Peña performing at Antonio’s Restaurant in London, and invited him back to the club.

Around 1970, Richard moved to Jersey, so I only saw him on occasional visits after that, and he died in 2000. However, in 2014 his sister Angela was kind enough to send me a recording, made at The Old Courthouse in Jersey, and with a portrait she painted for the booklet-cover (no, the picture isn’t back-to-front: Richard was indeed left-handed).

With his family’s permission, I present it here.

Paul Durham

was another character, whose exploits were legendary. Self-taught, his idol was Segovia: in particular, he loved the latter’s tone and strove to copy it, succeeding to a startling extent. He was a labourer by trade, with large strong hands that gave him rock-solid technique. It was his musicianship, however, that won the respect, not just of the modest pub and restaurant audiences he played for, but of people such as Paco, David Russell, Ben Verdery, and Jack Duarte.

Unfortunately, that was a time before decent portable recorders existed, so almost nothing remains of the Coach days. I did, however, manage to catch Paul on a reel-to-reel tape recorder at my house one day in the ’70s. One of his nicknames was The Jolly Green Giant (owing to his resemblance to the B&G Foods mascot); so that gave me the title for the resulting CD I made later. Photo by Max Corrigan.

BBC Radio recordingssunk without trace

Colin Beasley (from Coventry) has kindly provided this amazing collection. See also his contributions to the Early and Flamenco tabs (some of these recordings are around 50 years old, so you may wish to adjust your tone controls accordingly—if you have any).

To avoid cluttering this page further, I have made a separate Contents Listing of all Colin’s programmes, which you can find here.

‘The Classical Guitar’ series

Julian Bream

Andrés Segovia

External Resources

B.M.G. Magazine

This British journal, devoted to the banjo, mandolin and guitar, ran from 1903 to 1976. You can find an archive of most of those issues here, and my index to all the music for classical guitar therein here.

Lance Bosman

My good friend, and also colleague (back in the day) at GI, has his own website, wherein you can learn about his music and find PDFs of the many interviews he did.