Monday, June 25, 2007

Religious and cultural influences in Barrios' music

Religious beliefs and experiences also played an important role in Barrios' compositional process.
Una Limosna por el Amor de Dios (An Alm for the Love of God) is another example of a religiously-inspired work. This incredible guitar piece is also known as El ultimo trémolo (The Last Tremolo), or El último canto (The Last Song).

A clear sign of Barrios' mysticism is the birth of his new persona, Cacique Nitsuga Mangoré, the “messenger of the Guaraní race”.

Barrios' religious convictions were more theosophical than strict Catholicism. For him God and Nature are inextricably part of one another, and Man, being part of Nature, is part of God.

A Brazilian newspaper, Jornal do Recife, published an interview on January 5, 1931 containing the thoughts and opinions of Barrios' views on religion:

"In spite of a severe religious education, my primitive pantheism has pointed me in the direction of Theosophy, the most human and rational of philosophic
concepts. I believe in the immutable laws of Nature. And Humanity and the Good
impregnate my spirit as the ethical end of all existence."

La Catedral
is undoubtedly a monument to religion but at the same a tribute to Bach.

Click here to read more about La Catedral.

4 comments:

George C. dela Paz said...

Hi Pedro interesting article. I am not deep when it comes to the philosophy of the classical guitar; I'm more into the rock guitar thing. But since studying Tango in D by Albeniz, although I play it poorly,I saw another aspect of the guitar, which is emotion, that I haven't experienced before.

Anyway, I found your article about Barrios and religion interesting, do you have any religious piece by him that you can share with me. (By the way I am using a Finale software in my study of classical guitar, so a midi or PDF file will do.)

Thanks :-)

Pedro Abreu said...

Hi George!

All I can do is to write about Barrios and his work, and to provide information on Barrios' work.

His compostions are still protected by copyright law, therefore I suggest you to purchase his music.

In my post " La Catedral - A guitar monument" you can find some links to Barrios' sheet music and recordings. Take a look at it.

Good luck with your playing!

:)

George C. dela Paz said...

Hi Pedro,
Thanks for the info. keep on writing about the guitar :-)

Pedro Abreu said...

You're welcome George!

I'll be out of town for 2 weeks or so. That means you will not see me much here during that time.

I'm playing at the Donat Festival in Zadar (Croatia). For that reason I'm spending more time with music than with blogging.

Stay good!

:)

 

© 2007 Pedro Abreu