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:
On the Road to Mangor:
how Barrios was rescued from obscurity
cv.u.m w.ui
Graham Vade is head of the School of Strings at the City of Leeds College of Music, and
Guitar Tutor for the Universities of Leeds and York. He has written a number of books on
the guitar and many articles for leading guitar periodicals. He is an adjudicator at music
festivals and an examiner for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music.

A
gustn Barrios Mangor died ffy years ago on , August, :. Te posthumous
history of his reputation from gross neglect to a position of permanence in the
central pantheon of the repertoire is one of the most remarkable aspects of recent
guitar developments. Laurindo Almeida, one of the earliest advocates for Barrios, re-
corded two of his works, Preludio para Guitarra opus , and Choro da Saudade, in the
:,os on an album entitled Guitar Music of Latin America (Capitol v8,: :). Preludio
(op. , no. :) had been published by Ricordi Americana (Buenos Aires) in :,,, following
an early edition of La Catedral by Mondo Guarani (Buenos Aires, :,,). Vals op. 8 no.
was published in :,, also by Ricordi Americana. Laurindo Almeidas sleeve notes re-
vealed the following information about an otherwise unknown and somewhat mysteri-
ous composer:
Agustn Barrios was born in Paraguay and died in San Salvador in :. But his
success as a guitarist throughout South America truly made him a kind of interna-
tional citizen. He began playing the guitar as a young boy and quickly became a
virtuoso. To expand the capabilities of his chosen instrument, he frequently tuned
the two lowest strings a whole tone below the normal tuning of i and . and also
used steel strings instead of gut
Te same wording was used almost a decade later when Almeidas edition of La Catedral
appeared (pub. Brazilliance Music Publishing Inc. :o8), by which time he had also
issued his version of Aconquija from Suite Andina (undated, Brazilliance Music, no. o).
Laurindo Almeida must therefore be regarded as one of the pioneer advocates of the
music of Barrios, though neither his recordings nor his editions seem to have attracted
the attention they merited for bringing to light the music of an exciting artist long ne-
glected. Te next recording of music by Barrios appeared on Portrait of the Guitar (cns
o:o,) by Jos Luis Gonzalez (:o8) with an interpretation of Medallon Antiguo. Te
sleeve notes duly mentioned that little was known about the composer except that he
was of Indian descent and was a gifed guitarist and composer.
Te fnal phase of Barrios obscurity was marked by a celebrated recording by Alirio
Daz of Aire de Zamba, Danza Paraguaya, and Cueca, on Guitar Music of Spain and
:
o 1ui vo.u 1o m.covi
Latin America (imi uqs ::,,) in :,o. Daz editions of Danza Paraguaya (:,,), Cueca
(:,o) and Aire de Zamba (:,,) were published by Edizioni G. Zanibon (Padua, Italy),
but by then the veil of mysteriousness had been lifed and the name of Barrios was be-
ginning to feature in concert programmes and guitar periodicals throughout the world.
Tis was a considerable change. Tree popular histories of the classical guitar, Te Art
and Times of the Guitar by Frederic V. Grunfeld (New York: Macmillan, :o), Te Il-
lustrated History of the Guitar by Alexander Bellow (New York: Colombo, :,o), and
Harvey Turnbulls Te Guitar from the Renaissance to the Present Day (London: Batsford,
:,), had not deemed Barrios worth a single mention, such was his apparent insignif-
cance in twentieth-century guitar history. Tis unfortunate embargo was broken in Gui-
tars. from the Renaissance to Rock (London: Paddington Press, :,,) by Tom and Mary
Evans, who provided the reader with several paragraphs of information on the composer
though they dismissed his music, which appears exciting and attractive (and is ofen
extremely dimcult to play), as ultimately salon music. (p ::,)
Te diference in the worlds awareness of Barrios over the course of the :,os was
brought about by the work of John Williams, whose whole-hearted advocacy of the com-
poser gave authority and meaning to new perspectives of twentieth-century guitar de-
velopments. Williams did not allow himself the luxury of dismissing Barrios as a mere
salon composer but recognised in his music enduring qualities of great importance to
our understanding of guitar history. Far from being a minor and obscure fgure from the
Paraguayan jungle, Barrios was acknowledged as a central force in the evolution of the
guitar afer Tarrega. Afer giving many recitals dedicated to Barrios, as well as numer-
ous radio broadcasts and television appearances, Williams eventually released his long
awaited Barrios album, john VilliamsBarrios (john Villiams Plays the Music of Barrios)
(cns ,ooo:, issued in :,,, and later issued on compact disc, Latin American Guitar
Music by Barrios and Ponce, Sony snx ,oo, ::. Williams recorded his frst Barrios
composition, Danza Paraguaya, in :,, on cns ,,:o,.) His sleeve notes to the :,, re-
cording are an enthusiastic statement of missionary zeal:
Barrios is increasingly appreciated today as the outstanding guitarist-composer of
his time, I would say of any time, for the qualities of inventiveness and obvious
love of the instrument. He was the frst guitarist to make records from :o, and
the frst to play a complete Bach lute suite on the guitar. As well as being a
virtuoso player, he composed hundreds of pieces, some in baroque style showing
his afection and reverence for Bach, many inspired by the nineteenth-century
romantics like Chopin, and others simply expressing himself through the popular
song and dance forms of Latin American countries.
In the sleeve notes Williams thanked his friends Robert Tucker and Jason Waldron for
their work in Barrios research, including the making of accurate transcriptions, and
also acknowledged his debt to Carlos Payet of San Salvador, who had provided a number
of unpublished pieces in :o. Over the years a considerable degree of competitiveness
has arisen in the compilation of Barrios editions. Among the earliest compilations to
,
o 1ui vo.u 1o m.covi
be published were the four volumes by Richard D. Stover, entitled Te Guitar Vorks of
Agustin Barrios Mangore (Belwin Mills, New York) issued as Te First Defnitive Collec-
tion. Of these, volume one appeared in :,o, volumes two and three a year later, and
volume four in :8,. Stover collected these works during two trips to Central America
and his preface to each volume sets out his intentions:
Tis collection is the frst comprehensive publication of the entire works of Agustn
Barrios Mangor, frst guitarist/composer from the New World of truly universal
importance. Te signifcance of the works of Mangor centers in their defnition
of a newer, more complex level of technique, infuenced by but evolving independ-
ently from European models. Te maturation of the guitaristic art as it is practised
in the countries of Iberoamrica has fowered in the genius of Barrios Mangor.
Tis edition is not analytical nor comparative in its scope; it is designed for the
performer student and teacher. All accidentals are given as found in the original
manuscripts
Stover also mentions that Barrios made recordings, circa ::,,o, and that when ap-
plicable, the recorded version has been taken as the preferred and fnal form. Te four
books ofer a total of eighty compositions, including transcriptions such as the Adagio
from Beethovens Sonata op. :,, no. : (Moonlight). Items not included in the four vol-
umes were published separately in :, by Belwin Mills and include Sueno en la Floresta,
Maxixe, Cueca, and Vals op. 8, no.,.
A year afer Stovers frst volume appeared, the Zen-On Music Company of Tokyo,
Japan began publication of a four-volume Barrios compendium, edited by Jesus Benites
R. Numbers one and two appeared in :,,, number three in :,, and number four
in :8:. Te collection ofers eighty-seven items, including a few transcriptions. Editori-
ally the volumes ofer few concessions to the West, giving the preface only in Japanese
(though at least the titles are put into English as well as Japanese).
In :,8 Richard Stover published two articles in Soundboard, vol. ,, nos : and ,, under
the title of Agustin Barrios Mangore. forgotten master of the guitar. Tese two biographi-
cal essays provided the forerunner to Stovers monumental full length biography, Six
Silver Moonbeams. the life and times of Agustin Barrios Mangore (Clovis, c.: Querico
Publications ::). Stovers investigations into Barrios had begun in :, when he was
an undergraduate at the University of California at Santa Cruz. In his acknowledgments
Stover comments:
Afer initial feld research in Central America and Mexico, I was somewhat
amazed by the fact that I had discovered something of great importance for the
guitar: the legacy of a genius who died forgotten and whose life and work had
somehow become intertwined with mine as if almost by destiny.
Te focus on Barrios was further intensifed by the publication in :8o of a double iv
featuring none other than the original recordings, entitled simply Agustin Barrios (El

o 1ui vo.u 1o m.covi

Maestro Records im 8oo:), with an accompanying booklet written by Richard D. Stover,
complete with an assortment of photographs. For some time prior to this release, cas-
sette tapes of various kinds of Barrios recordings had been in circulation but the El
Maestro project, emanating from California, was a very signifcant addition to the his-
tory of the early twentieth-century guitar. Te pieces on the album were La Catedral,
Valses nos , o , Contemplacion, Romanza, Tarentella, Un Sueno en la Floresta, Bouree
(Bach), Minuet (Beethoven), Trumerei (Schumann), Capricho Arabe (Tarrega), Danza
Paraguaya, Cueca, Aconquija, junto a tu Corazon, Aire de Zamba, Maxixe, Confesion,
Santa, Madrigal-Gavota, Pericon, Caazapa and Oracion.
Te publishers, Chanterelle, issued a three volume Historical Recording selection of
Barrios recordings on cassette tape in :88, under the title Agustin Barrios. the guitar
recordings (::o:). Tis was ultimately issued on compact disc by Chanterelle Verlag
in :,, with liner notes by Robert Tucker.
Returning to the availability of the central compositions in sheet music form, an
interesting edition was published in :8, by Chris Dumigan entitled Te Recordings
of Agustin Barrios (Northampton, England: Hampton Music Publishers). Te rationale
behind this publication was unashamedly to transcribe the exact notes of the recordings
of Barrios, whatever dimculties (such as difering versions) this might involve, as Dumi-
gan explains in his introduction to the edition:
In the end, I decided that the recordings, whether they were the fnal versions
or not, were a valid document in themselves. Tey were a valuable insight into per-
formances which Barrios was obviously happy with, and was content to have mar-
keted on gramophone records and therefore they were an end in themselvesSo
I decided to commit these recordings onto paper in an efort to provide another
equally valid source of Barrios pieces
Jason Waldrons three volumes (published :8,, :8o, :8, respectively) comprising
twenty pieces by Barrios, also followed the recordings. Te back cover of the editions
comments:
Barrios lef very little manuscript of his original guitar compositions due mainly
to the fact that he would change the music during performance but happily he
did make a series of recordings prior to ::o and it is from these that a lot of the
present edition is based.
Jason Waldron has a special place in the Barrios revival for several of his arrangements
were performed and recorded by John Williams in the :,os.
Te most recent editions of thirty-six pieces by Barrios, in two volumes (published by
Schott, ::), are by Raymond Burley, a British guitarist. Duplicating the preface in each
volume, Burley sets out his approach as follows:
Tis collection of eighteen concert works by Agustn Barrios Mangor has been
compiled as a result of listening to the composers own recordings (Chanterelle
,
o 1ui vo.u 1o m.covi
Historical Recordings, cuv oo:/,), together with my direct practical experience
of performing the music in concert; both activities have made me increasingly
dissatisfed with many of the editions currently available. I am ofering here, not
the defnitive Barrios collection (for such a thing may never exist), but what I
consider to be accurate and practical versions of eighteen of the best works from
this composer.
Te Barrios canon is now presumably as complete as it ever will be, with adequate choice
available when buying the printed music. A few new items have been added by Richard
D. Stover over recent years, including Teme and Variations on Punto Guanacasteco,
Variations on a Teme of Tarrega, Fabinia, and Sargento Cabral (Zamba), as well as Abri
la Puerta mi China, dated :, December, :o, by Stover in the biography (p ::) and there-
fore considered one of the earliest compositions extant.
From the :8os an avalanche of recordings of the music of Barrios has descended onto
the market. so that there is no longer much of an element of surprise in the oferings by
recitalists. It is perhaps worth recalling that the earliest recording of La Catedral, follow-
ing Barrios own work in the studio, appears to have been by Oscar Caceres in :o8 on
his album, Les Grandes Etudes pour Guitare (Erato s1U ,oo:). La Catedral has proved
to be a work which continues to fascinate recitalists; guitarists who have recorded the
work so far include John Williams (:,,), Horst Klee (:8o), Gran Sollscher (:8o),
Vladimir Mikulka (:8o), Wulfn Lieske (:8,), Deborah Mariotti (:88), Sharon Isbin
(:o), and Jesus Castro Balbi (::).
While La Catedral now seems to receive the benediction of an annual recording, there
has also been some interest in ofering an all-Barrios recording. Following Williams pio-
neering album of :,,, Wolfgang Lendle on Romantic Virtuoso Guitar Music (s.vuiv,
i8,o.o, :8,) and Jesus Castro Balbi on Agustin Barrios (ovs -:o, ::), both
ventured to issue an all-Barrios compact disc. It is truly amazing how in the space of two
decades Barrios has gone from being one of the neglected unknowns to his present posi-
tion of eminence. Tough his music has ofen begun to assume the over familiarity char-
acteristic of the guitar works of Villa-Lobos, Barrios continues to speak in a brutal age
directly to the human heart. Te half-centenary of his death in : will be remembered
by guitarists throughout the world and this article gratefully acknowledges the work of
all those who made this grand revival possible.
Published in rc1z Guitar journal , (:), pp :
: Graham Wade