Los guitarreros en Madrid en el siglo XX

In collaborazione con l’Ing. Massimo Raccosta -Raccosta Collection-

Cremona Musica 27-29 Settembre 2019

This exhibition, of a highly historic and cultural impact, witnesses the unique expressive tension of the Madrid community, where the 20th century saw the merge of its social context and popular expression with the new and relevant building project conceived by Torres, with a more academic dimension, adding value to the instrument that most deeply embodies all these aspects. He produced a new instrument based on the true definition of “artwork”, when the human gesture, by means of a skillful technique, gathers and expresses a broad cultural dimension thus originating an art movement (such as in the case of Cubism and Expressionism in painting) where the educated and popular trends coexist.

The history of lutherie in Madrid in the 20th century originates from the disagreement of thought between the two Ramìrez brothers, which resulted in the creation of two different reference schools. The first and more traditionalist branch with José Ramìrez I continued the tradition belonging to Francisco Gonzàles, the most representative luthier of mid 19th century, who is considered as the link between the important Madrid tradition of the first 19th century and the increase in proportions which occurred in the second part of that century, reaching to the present time through four generations. In his workshop, in addition to his son José Ramirez II, Enrique Garcia and Julian Gómez Ramírez (just a namesake) were trained. Subsequently the latter settled in France where he imported a tradition that set the basis for the development of the modern guitar lutherie there. The second branch was more interested in the innovations brought about by Antonio De Torres, and remained active under the name of Manuel Ramìrez until his death (1916): Enrique Garcia followed this path and brought these innovations to Barcelona where he settled, becoming the forefather of the Catalan lutherie school. This school continued in the individual workshops of those masters who embody the greatest lutherie of the last century in Madrid to which this exhibition is devoted: Santos Hernández, Domingo Esteso, Modesto Borreguero and later on Marcelo Barbero and Arcangel Fernandez.

Thanks to the comprehension and implementation of the new and illuminated concepts of the Torres project, Manuel’s workshop produced the instrument Segovia played in his first twenty-five years of career. Only after Manuel’s death the real authorship of the instrument was revealed and attributed to Santos Hernàndez who at the time was the headmaster of the oficiales in the workshop.

In 1922 Santos made a guitar for the renowned flamenco guitarist Ramon Montoya, therefore defining a personal model for a flamenco concert guitar, the “flamenca negra”.

Santos Hernàndez is therefore nowadays considered a reference for the lutherie school of the 20th century in Madrid as he has been able to show the Madrid expressive spirit, developing two different projects: the classical and the flamenco models.

In collaborazione con Acoustic Guitar Village e Instituto Cervantes Milan