Some instruments are more popular than others, and it’s especially hard to compete with the guitar. Thanks to its popularity, the musical market is flooded with guitar players of every stripe, but there is still one category of guitarist that is rare and most prized: the classical guitarist.
For professional guitarist and singer/songwriter Andy Hackbarth—who performs for the Lompoc Concert Association on Oct. 7—a major step in his musical education began when he decided to study classical guitar. Once he really dove into the tradition, one name loomed large in that world: Andrés Segovia.
“Segovia, essentially he took the guitar from being a sort of background accompaniment tavern instrument to being a main stage concert instrument,” Hackbarth said.
Hackbarth’s concert is a tribute to the great master of classic guitar, featuring his signature Spanish style that moved classical guitar to the forefront of the concert hall. He will also share tidbits about Segovia’s life and influence throughout the program.
Guitarists like Hackbarth owe more than just the guitar’s popularity to Segovia, he said, but a serious amount of repertoire. Segovia transcribed numerous works for the guitar, he explained.
“The amount of music that he transcribed is huge, and one of the pieces that I’m playing is from a Bach cello suite for unaccompanied cello,” he said. “He took stuff from all the stringed instruments, orchestral pieces, even vocal pieces, and transcribed them.
“I personally love all the cello stuff that’s transcribed for guitar, it’s some of my all-time favorites,” he added. “There’s a lot of parallels between cello music and guitar music, and cello music works really well, I think, on guitar.”
Hackbarth’s classical education has informed his style for his solo singer/songwriter work as well, he said. Instead of playing with a pick, Hackbarth uses his right hand fingers to pluck the strings.
That is essential to classical guitar music, he said. The show in Lompoc, which will be at the First United Methodist Church, will include some of Hackbarth’s solo work, which he will contextualize with the classical works he’s studied and loves.
“The thing about classical guitar, people sort of relate it to an orchestra; you can have two, three, four different voices going on at the same time,” he said. “That’s what’s sort of beautiful about it. When people saw Segovia, they thought it was two different people playing guitar.”
A lot of classic music features counterpoint, which includes several melodies simultaneously sounding and creating harmony together. That kind of music has “many levels,” Hackbarth explained, and creates a kind of dancing, dueling melody sound.
When most of that music was written, the guitar wasn’t thought of in its current form. That’s why Segovia and his music are close to Hackbarth’s heart, because he did so much work to elevate the instrument and its repertoire into the classical tradition.
“We literally had so little to play before Segovia,” he said. “He just kind of opened up a whole new realm of possibilities in terms of performance music for guitarists.”
Managing Editor Joe Payne dabbles in finger style guitar. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 28 – Oct 5, 2017.