Miguel Llobet

Miguel Llobet Solés (18 October, 1878 - 22 February, 1938) was a classical guitarist and composer, born in Barcelona (Spain). His early death is probably one of the reasons why he is relatively unknown today. His contemporary and — some say — pupil, Andrés Segovia, is much more famous. Llobet was renowned as a great virtuoso, and toured Europe and America extensively. His music seems to be enjoying a revival, and there have been several CDs published recently. Both Stefano Grondona and Lorenzo Micheli have recorded his works.

Biography

The reported details of Llobet's biography are confused and contradictory. Miguel LlobetSoles was born October 18, 1878 in Barcelona. He was the son of a wood sculptor and washimself trained as an artist, revealing a talent for painting. He continued to paintthroughout his life. His earliest musical training was on the violin and the piano. Later hereceived a guitar as a gift from an uncle. In 1889, Llobet heard Antonio Jiménez Manjón(1866-1919) give a guitar recital in Barcelona and was inspired to seek instruction on theguitar from Magin Alegre.

Llobet first met and played for guitar pedagogue Francisco Tárrega in October 1892. Twoyears later he began to study with him at the Municipal Conservatory of Music in Barcelona.By his own account, his studies with Tárrega seem to have been based on no particularmethodology. Rather, Llobet would observe Tárrega play and then experiment with histechniques at home. "Così, più che impararla, io sperimentavo la mia tecnica sull chitarra".("In this way, more than by learning it, I experimented with my guitar technique.") (Tonazzi1996, 13-14).

He began giving private concerts in 1898 for intimate gatherings. In 1900, he metConcepción Jacoby, Tárrega's patron, who also became his patron, helping him to launch aninternational career. Llobet's first public concert took place in 1901 at the Conservatoryof Valencia. During that same year, he also performed at conservatories in Seville and Malaga and, in the latter conservatory, was awarded the title of Professor Honoris Causa. He also played at the Teatro de la Comedia in 1902 and before the Spanish Royal Family in Madrid in 1903.

Llobet's first concert outside Spain was in Paris in 1904, presented by Ricardo Viñes,the noted pianist and interpreter of Debussy's piano works. It was at this time that he first came into contact with the avant garde. Paris was apparently kind to Llobet, as he returned to live there in 1905, performing at such prestigious venues as the Schola Cantorum,La Trompette and the Société Nationale de Musique. According to Ronald Purcell (Llobet 1989,1: iii), he resided there until 1910. In the biographical sketch given by Bruno Tonazzi (Tonazzi 1966, 12), Llobet returned to Paris in 1910.

As suggested by Purcell, Llobet most likely relocated to Buenos Aires in 1910 as aninterim home. While there, he continued to perform throughout South and Central America andthe Caribbean. This series of tours was largely arranged by Domingo Prat, author of theDiccionario de Guitarristas (1933), Juan Anido (whose daughter, María Luisa, was to become a pupil of Llobet's and a celebrated guitarist in her own right) and Ruiz Romero of the publishing house Romero y Fernandez. In 1912, Llobet gave his first concerts in the United States, performing in Boston, Philadelphia and New York. He then returned to Paris. In the following years, he continued to perform throughout Europe, particularly in Belgium and the Netherlands.

During the years 1913 and 1914, Llobet performed throughout Germany. According toPurcell, "At the outbreak of World War I, Llobet returned to Buenos Aires," and continued to make trips throughout the Americas (Llobet 1989, 1: iv). This stands in stark contradictionto Tonazzi's statement that "Allo scoppio della prima guerra mondiale torna in patria..."("At the outbreak of the First World War he returned to his native land...") (Tonazzi 1966, 12). Llobet's concert itinerary seems to have been dominated by performances in the Americasat that time, lending some support to Purcell's claims. However, it should be noted thatPurcell also implies that it was at about 1915 that Llobet was in Spain, where he taught hismost important pupil, Andrés Segovia.

Segovia's status as a pupil is a matter of debate among guitarists. The Segoviaautobiography, written for mass consumption at the height of his career, depicts him as beingself-taught. There are admissions of his seeking out Llobet's advice only for a short time,but Segovia is quite clear about the lack of any real influence on his playing. Although atthe age of 22, Segovia may well have been much more than a neophyte, he was still youthfulenough to have received valuable instruction, and to have been significantly influenced byit. Indeed, Purcell points out that "Segovia, whose performance style and technique reveals[sic] the principles of Tárrega, was basically influenced by Llobet....This stylisticinfluence can be heard when comparing Llobet's Parlophone Electric recordings (ChanterelleHistorical Recordings CHR 001) with Segovia's Angel recordings, ZB 3896" (Llobet 1989, 1: ii).

Purcell later states, "At the age of twenty-two he (Segovia) pursued what he consideredthe only direct contact to Tárrega, Llobet, for refinement of his technique and especiallyfor the music that both he and Tárrega had written and transcribed for the guitar..."(ibid.).The accuracy of this date (Segovia would have been twenty-two in 1915) seems to be somewhatquestionable. A photograph taken at the exhumation of Tárrega in 1915, clearly shows Segoviaat the foot of the coffin, but Llobet does not appear in the photo, and would likely have beenpresent had he, in fact, been in Spain at the time. It may well have been another two yearsbefore Segovia began to work with Llobet and there seems to be nothing that would contradictthis 1917 date.

Between 1912 and 1917, Llobet is reported to have made at least one attempt at recording. It is known that he toured the East Coast of the United States in 1912, 1914, and again in1917. The prominent guitarist Vahdah Olcott-Bickford, who was living in New York between 1912and 1923, writes that "he tried to make a recording at the Bell Lab in New Brunswick, New Jersey,but was dissatisfied with the sound" (Purcell 1993, 5). This gives little support to eithertheory regarding his wartime residence, but does suggest an early interest in recording.Pending the discovery of any documentary evidence, one can only hypothesize that Llobet resided in Buenos Aires during the war years.

It is known that it was in this city, in 1923, that he began to teach María Luisa Anido(1907-1997). Anido was the daughter of Juan Anido, one of the patrons who had firstintroduced Llobet to South America. By 1925, Llobet was performing duets with María Luisaand, according to Purcell, about 1930 they "recorded some of Llobet's duet arrangements on theOdeon-Parlophone label distributed by Decca. These recordings followed the solo seriesrecorded by Llobet on the Parlophon/Electric series out of Barcelona" (Llobet 1989, 1: iv).These were the first electric recordings of the classic guitar.

These recordings have been reproduced on CD, but the brief recording history given in theliner notes (Purcell 1993) does little to shed light on Llobet's recording career. The solorecordings, for example, are supposed to have been recorded around 1925, but are from twodifferent sources: the Argentina/Odeon recording and the earlier Barcelona/Parlophonrecording. Even the most casual listening reveals a difference in recording technology thatmakes their issue in the same year difficult to accept. In response to an inquiry Purcellstated that "Llobet did not care for the acoustic recording results in 1915 and only recordedelectronically.... His recordings were recorded in 1925 and later with Maria Anido" (Purcell2001).

In 1920-1921, Llobet played in Spain and toured throughout Germany, performing in Munich,Leipzig, Dresden, Cologne and Stuttgart. In 1924, he again toured throughout Germany and Austria, and he concertized in the Americas in 1925. He returned again to the Americas in1930 to perform for the Spanish Arts Festival, under the auspices of the Library of Congress.The violinist Antonio Bossa had recommended him, and he was contracted to play six solos, andto arrange and perform Manuel de Falla's Siete Canciones Españoles with soprano Nina Kochitz.

Llobet toured Europe again in 1930-1931, performing in London, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich,Vienna, Budapest and Bologna among others. On hearing him perform in Berlin in 1930, Paul Hindemith declared an intent to compose for the guitar. He did not follow through with this, however. Hindemith's only work for guitar was the Rondo for Three Guitars, which had beenwritten in 1925, prior to his first documented contact with Llobet.

From 1932 to 1934, Llobet taught the young Cuban virtuoso José Rey de la Torre at his homein Barcelona. He does not appear to have performed much at this time, but maintained hisartistic contacts. Rey writes, "At the time I arrived in Barcelona in 1932, he had almostretired from the concert stage. During the three years that I spent there he left town onlyonce for a month's tour of Scandinavia" (Rey 1985, 24).

Llobet seems to have enjoyed a somewhat reclusive retirement from the concert stage,meeting with a few influential artists at his large apartment at Via Layetana No. 46 inBarcelona. Manuel de Falla is known to have visited there whenever in that city and Emilio Pujol was a frequent guest. Rey de la Torre who, as Llobet's pupil, may well have been hismost frequent visitor, writes that "Llobet did not have many visitors..." (ibid). He did seemto go out to concerts frequently, walking with his wife, to the Palau close to his home.

The statement by Philip J. Bone in The Guitar and Mandolin that Llobet "was killed in1937, in an air raid in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War" (Bone 1954) has been tacitlycontradicted by all reliable sources. However, the emotional devastation over the siege ofBarcelona may have begun his downward spiral of health. On February 22, 1938, Llobet died ofpleurisy in Barcelona.

His complete works as Urtext edited by Professor Ron Purcell is published by Chanterelle Verlag.

Notable students

*María Luisa Anido
*José Rey de la Torre
*Andrés Segovia

Historical Recordings 1925-1929

*Julián Aguirre: Huella
*Isaac Albéniz: Evocación
*Johann Sebastian Bach: Sarabande [2 takes].
*Napoléon Coste: Etude op.38 no.21 [2 takes].
*Miguel Llobet: El Testament d'Amelia, La Filla del Marxant, Plany, El Mestre.
*Felix Mendelssohn: May Breezes*.
*Manuel M. Ponce: 2 Canciones Mejicanas.
*Pedro M. Quijano;: Estilo Popular Criollo.
*Fernando Sor : Andantino op.2 no.3, Estudio op.35 no.2, Minueto op.11, no.12.
*Rogelio del Villar: Canción Popular Leonesa [Canción del Ladrón](* Duetts with María Luisa Anido).

Publisher: Chanterelle, 1990

List of Works

Original Compositions:

* Romanza
*Estudio en mi mayor
*Estudio Capricho en re mayor
*Mazurka, Variaciones sobre un Tema de Sor
*Scherzo-Vals
*Prélude Original
*Preludio en re major
*Respuesta-Impromtu
*Preludio en la major
*Preludio en mi major
*Preludio
*Estilo.

Folksong:

*Plany
*La Filla del Marxant
*El Testament d'Amelia
*Canço del Lladre
*Lo Rossinyol
*Lo Fill del Rei
*L'Heuraux riera
*El Mestre
*La Filadora
*La Preço de lleida
*La Nit de Nadal
*La Pastoreta
*El Noi de la Mare
*Leonesa
*Estilos populares Argentinos nos. 1 & 2.

Transcriptions:

Solo guitar

*Isaac Albéniz: Cádiz, Oriental, Sevilla, Torre Bermeja.
*Enrique Granados: Danzas Españolas nos. 5, 7 & 10, Dedicatoria, La Maja de Goya.
* Joaquín Valverde: Clavelitos.

Guitar Duos

*Isaac Albéniz: Rumores de la Caleta, Castilla, Bajo la Palmera, Evocación.
*Louis-Claude Daquin: Le Cou Cou.
*Enrique Granados: Enrique: Danzas Españolas nos 6 & 11.
*Eduardo López-Chávarri: Leyenda del Castillo Moro.
*Felix Mendelssohn: Romanzas sin Palabras nos.20 & 25.
*Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Minueto de la Sinfonia no.39.
*Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Humoresque, op.10 no.2.

Pieces composed for Miguel Llobet

*Manuel de Falla: Homenaje pour le tombeau de Claude Debussy.

Discography

* Lorenzo Micheli: Miguel Llobet - Complete guitar musicPublisher: [Hong Kong] : Naxos Music Library, [2004] OCLC 57732810

Bibliography

* Bruno Tonazzi: Miguel Llobet, Chitarrista dell' Impressionismo. Ancona, Italy: Edizioni Bèrben , 1966. (Italian) OCLC 12560728
* Robert Phillips: The influence of Miguel Llobet on the pedagogy, repertoire, and stature of the guitar in the twentieth century. Doctoral thesis. ©2002, (English) OCLC 51796355

References

Appleby, Wilfrid M. "Guitar Music. The Artistry of Miguel Llobet (1878-1938).", Guitar News 67 (September â€" October 1962): 14-15.Bone, Philip James. The guitar and mandolin; biographies of celebrated players and composers. London: Schott 1954. Reprint, London: Schott, 1972; cited in Rey de la Torre, Jose. "Miguel Llobet, El Mestre," 31. Guitar Review, no. 60 (Winter 1985)."Francisco Tárrega Segun…" Guitarra (Havana) 2, no. 3 (December 1941): 16-17.Garcia, Hector. 2002. Letter from Miami to Robert Phillips, Lakeland, 9 February. Gilardino, Angelo. Angelo16@inwind.it. 2000. "Llobet." E-mail to Robert Phillips (RguitPhil@aol.com) 16 December."La Musica per Chitarra nel Secolo XX. IX: I Chitarristi-Compositori." Il Fronimo no. 46 (January 1984): 28-33."La Rinascita della Chitarra." Il Fronimo1, no. 1 (October 1972): 10-12.Herrera, F. "Du Nouveau du Cote de Jeux interdits: Quelques Documents qui Parlent d'Eux-Memes." Guitarre, no. 38 (1991): 20. Jones, Allen Clive. "The Judgement of Paris: Part 5 â€" Pujol's Article in Lavignac's ‘Encyclopedia." Classical Guitar 17, no. 4 (December 1998): 24, 26-28.Llobet, Miguel. "Francisco Tárrega." Revista Musical Catalana 7, no. 73 (1910): 9-10.Guitar Works, vol. 1, 11 Original Compositions. Edited by Ronald Purcell. Heidelberg: Chanterelle Verlag, 1989.Guitar Works, vol. 2, 16 Folksong Settings. Edited by Ronald Purcell. Heidelberg: Chanterelle Verlag, 1989.Guitar Works, vol. 3, 10 Famous Transcriptions. Edited by Ronald Purcell. Heidelberg: Chanterelle Verlag, 1989. Guitar Works, vol. 4, 12 Famous Guitar Duos. Edited by Ronald Purcell. Heidelberg: Chanterelle Verlag, 1989.Marsh, William Sewall. "Some Spanish and Spanish-American Guitarists." Crescendo 24, no. 6 (February 1932): 3-4."Some Spanish and Spanish-American Guitarists." Crescendo 24 (September 1932): 3-4."Miguel Soles Llobet." Guitarra 1, no.2 (May â€" June 1963): 13-15.Ophee, Matanya. "The Promotion of Francisco Tárrega â€" a Case History." Soundboard 8, no.3 (August 1981): 152-158."The Promotion of Francisco Tárrega â€" a Case History." Soundboard 8, no. 4 (November 1981): 256-261.Pahissa, Jaime. Vida y obra de Manuel de Falla. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Ricordi Americana, 1947; cited in de Falla, Manuel. Homenaje pour le Tombeau de Claude Debussy, i. Edited by Ronald Purcell. Heidelberg: Chanterelle Verlag, 1989.Pujol, Emilio. Tárrega: Ensayo Biográfico. Valencia: Artes Graf. Soler, 1978.Purcell, Ronald. Hcmus011@krusty.csun.edu. 2000. "Fact or Fiction." E-mail to Publishers List Members (cg-pub@topica.com) 18 December.Hcmus011@csun.edu . 2001. E-mail to Robert Phillips (RguitPhil@aol.com) 5 June.Hcmus011@csun.edu . 2001. E-mail to Robert Phillips (RguitPhil@aol.com) 1 November.1993. Program notes for Miguel Llobet, the Guitar Recordings 1925-1929. Chanterelle Historical Recordings CHR 001.Riera, Juan. "Miguel Llobet, Composer and Guitarist (1878-1938)." Translated by Mrs. A. Korwin-Rodziszewski. Guitar News, 27 (October â€" November 1955): 7-8.Rey de la Torre, Jose. "Miguel Llobet, El Mestre." Guitar Review, no. 60 (Winter 1985): 22-32.Roberts, John. "Miguel Llobet." Guitar 1, no. 5 (December 1972).Spalding, Walter. "Falla's ‘Homenaje pour le Tombeau de Claude Debussy'. A Master Lesson with Rey de la Torre â€" Taped in the Form of a Conversation with Walter Spalding, September '76." Chelys 1, no. 5 (1977): 37-41."Reminiscences of Llobet. A conversational fragment with Rey de la Torre." Chelys 1, no. 5 (1977): 44Summerfield, Maurice J. The Classical Guitar Its Evolution and Players Since 1800. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Ashley Mark Publishing Company, 1996.Tocatimbal. Vol. 4. Barcelona: Eufònic, 1986.Tonazzi, Bruno. Miguel Llobet, Chitarrista dell' Impressionismo. Ancona, Italy: Berben, 1966.Trasi, Rino. "La chitarra di Llobet." Seicorde no. 44 (March-April 1994): 20-27.Turnbull, Harvey. The Guitar from the Renaissance to the Present Day. London: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1991.Vechten, Carl van. "A Critic's View of Llobet." Chelys 1, no. 5 (1977): 42. Reprinted From [Chase, Gilbert] "The Music of Spain." (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1918): 39-41.Weller, Anthony. "Jose Rey de la Torre." Guitar Review (Autumn 1994): 1-7.Yates, Stanley. "Heitor Villa-Lobos' Valsa Concerto no. 2, op. 8 (1904): Rediscovery and Completion of an Early Solo Guitar Work." Soundboard 25, no. 4 (Spring 1999): 7-10.