I've heard "complaints" that I haven't posted anything for a while. This is true. But times have been busy and tumultuous.
This little posting, however, was motivated by a double encounter of Spanish speaking people today. First, at the optician's shop where I was helped to choose glasses by a friendly and pleasant Spanish girl from Segovia. Second, at a restaurant where I helped three Catalan ladies choose food (they didn't speak English well and the Indian waiter was confused).
I spoke about guitar during both occasions. In the second instance, I had a short discussion about Catalan folk songs and when I was asked what my favorites ones where I mentioned, among others, "la filla del marxant".
Here is the version I know by Miguel Llobet.
I discovered the following recording of Llobet himself playing guitar! This is quite rate. At the time (1920s) there was no Andrés Segovia and classical guitar had not become popular yet. Llobet was a student of Tárrega, both great guitarists and composers. The great thing about the recording is that we can hear something about the Tárrega style. This is quite amazing.
Two chance encounters led me to post this. Unfortunately, these people don't know my blog so they'll probably never find out I've been speaking about them here and will never read this.
This little posting, however, was motivated by a double encounter of Spanish speaking people today. First, at the optician's shop where I was helped to choose glasses by a friendly and pleasant Spanish girl from Segovia. Second, at a restaurant where I helped three Catalan ladies choose food (they didn't speak English well and the Indian waiter was confused).
I spoke about guitar during both occasions. In the second instance, I had a short discussion about Catalan folk songs and when I was asked what my favorites ones where I mentioned, among others, "la filla del marxant".
Here is the version I know by Miguel Llobet.
I discovered the following recording of Llobet himself playing guitar! This is quite rate. At the time (1920s) there was no Andrés Segovia and classical guitar had not become popular yet. Llobet was a student of Tárrega, both great guitarists and composers. The great thing about the recording is that we can hear something about the Tárrega style. This is quite amazing.
Two chance encounters led me to post this. Unfortunately, these people don't know my blog so they'll probably never find out I've been speaking about them here and will never read this.
