Evocación

Description

Already from an early childhood, everything for Abel Carlevaro pointed in the direction of the guitar. The fact that his father (physician), his uncle (economist) and his eldest brother played the instrument, may have played an important role, but more so, it seems to have been his natural sense of curiosity coupled with a logical spirit that ultimately made him dedicate his entire life to the guitar. He was still young when, almost stubbornly and with great determination, he began looking for solutions to specific questions, to which the masters did not provide sufficient answers — not even Andrés Segovia whose class he attended during his long stay in Montevideo (“it took me three years to find out how to sit properly and play the guitar without having back pain”). For almost twenty years, Abel Carlevaro wrote down the results of his meticulous search for an ultimate technique, that would enable the expression of musical thought : “technique is the minimum effort for a maximum result”. At the same time that he conducted his extensive research, Carlevaro also composed music, benefitting from his rich learning experiences with Heitor Villa Lobos, who followed him enthusiastically and kept him company, whenever he was touring Brazil. He lead seminars and struck up an important friendship with Alberto Ginastera, whose encouragements were the decisive factor for Carlevaro to publish his method. With his method appearing in eight different languages, Abel Carlevaro then turned to the conception of a new kind of guitar: an instrument that would not have a soundhole anymore and would lose its traditional 8-shape. Manuel Contreras, guitarmaker from Madrid, was chosen to build the instrument, that was to be Abel Carlevaro’s only guitar from 1984 until his death in July 2001.

Excerpts from an interview with Abel Carlevaro in Montevideo on 7 September 1998 :

(…) I had problems with certain aspects of the traditional school, where, for example, the arm used to be stuck to the body, masters would even go as far as advising their pupils to cultivate a position that requires stiffening under the arm, as to prevent it from moving ! (…) that may have been possible when the guitar used to be smaller in size, but not nowadays (…) even moving one finger of the left hand means an entire arm that partakes in the movement (…)

I was not at all aware of the fact that I was creating a whole new school. In 1971, I began presenting my ideas at international seminars, attended by hundreds of trainees (…) It was not long after, that Barry Editions of Buenos Aires, who were already putting out the Preludios americanos, first published Exposición de la teoría instrumental (…) Initially there was large opposition to my views. Many professors believed that I would judge them if they would not follow my school. Therefore, in defense, they were against it (…) I am very happy to say that all this animosity belongs to the past; now there even is a Carlevaro Foundation in Germany!