Music Culture Ethnography: Dallas Classical Guitar Scene

Introduction

I will be reporting on the classical guitar scene in the Dallas area. I recently attended the UTD Guitar Festival in which I received a taste of the rich historical, cultural, and social aspects of this culture. The guitar scene in Dallas is thriving at the university level and its members are truly devoted to its preservation and performance. The Dallas guitar scene offers rich ideas on the value of music in life, the style in which it’s played appreciation and use of all types of musical genres, and its promotion of public interest in this sophisticated music-culture.

Methodology

I had the privilege to conduct my research from an insider’s point of view, although I am no expert on the classical guitar scene in Dallas, I do have good knowledge of the guitar and I am currently enrolled in a classical guitar class on campus, so I had a plethora of resources at my disposal. I was able to gain many aspects into the culture and especially a primer for the concert I was going to attend from my guitar professor Randall Nye. He set the scene for the musicians that were going to perform and what some of their repertoire consisted of. I conducted my interview with now the chair professor of guitar at UTD, Enric Madriguera, where I asked him on some information on the classical guitar scene in Dallas in which he stated that: “At UTD we are celebrating our 9th season and next year makes a decade! stay tuned for a major celebration as we have a high level of programming at UT Dallas.”(Interview)
I also asked him what got him into the classical guitar scene, as well as guitar in general and he responded that he has been playing guitar from his youth. For my fieldwork I attended The UT Dallas 9th annual Texas Guitar Competition and Festival. The concert was held March 5-6, 2010 on the campus’ conference center and feature guest performances by Michael Craddock and William Kanengiser. I gained some knowledge about the history of guitar online from website.

Aspects of this music culture

Some ideas about this music culture would include that music is a way of life for people of this culture. Music is a very high form and expression of the arts and humanities in general. Aesthetic qualities are generally formal, although the concert in which I attended on campus wasn’t necessarily formal, generally speaking the dress is formal similar if one were to go see an orchestra perform. The technique of the instruments is in the classical guitar tradition. The guitar is a modern classical guitar though not limited to that. The classical guitar differs in comparison to the typical steel string acoustic in that the classical style guitar has nylon strings to where the steel string has invariably steel strings. The neck of the classical guitar is also much wider than that of a steel string acoustic, it has wider frets, and the strings are at a further distance from each other. In classical style guitar, generally no pick is used, everything is picked with the fingers, that is why you see the right hand of the classical guitarists with long fingernails on their right hands(If they play right handed!) because they use their fingernails as picks. Classical guitar is also generally performed sitting down with a foot stool to prop ones leg up for the guitar to rest in a position for proper classical technique and posture. One astonishing trick I learned during the Michael Craddock concert was that in between pieces he actually rubbed his picking figures in baby powder, I am not sure if that was to soothe them from being sore or to dry them off, but it was interesting to note. Many of the pieces that are played on a classical guitar are based more on finger picking arpeggios and alternating thumb bass notes played by the thumb. The reason for this is that much of the music in the repertoire is piano music arranged for guitar, so in order to get the left hand bass clef notes the guitarist must play the underlying bass melody or accompaniment with his thumb generally speaking. Music is a way of life for this culture and the music inspires creativity. The artists feed off of each other’s work and draw the inspiration from the great composers before them. The music is performed wherever there is a scheduled concert at any music hall or performance center.







this guy is playing a steel string guitar






this guy is playing a classical acoustic guitar notice the way he holds the guitar differently



A brief history of the classical guitar starts with the unknown time when the guitar really emerged within history. In the 15th century the Spanish vihuela was the closest instrument to the modern guitar. The advantage that guitars had over lutes was that they were easier to play. Around 1800 five courses were replaced with six single strings (Michael Craddock played a renaissance guitar with four courses). In 1840 Spanish carpenter Antonio de Torres began making guitars and few makers have been able to equal the tone of his instruments, Torres is considered by many to be the undisputed master of guitar craftsmanship.(taken from guitar-maker website)


Activities involving the music include the music being found all over the world, it is published; it can be bought on the internet and played for leisure and pleasure. Performers range all the way from professionally trained who make a living from it down to the layman who plays at the leisurely level. This type of music culture also transcends cultural barriers, at the competition there were many people from other parts of the world including South America, Japan, and Europe. For the music sometimes the performer will compose or arrange his own music, or will play other composers published works. The audience in this music culture remains silent during the performance, but gets interactive feedback from the performer between pieces that give the piece in its historical context, or what the piece is about, or why the composer wrote the piece. The classical guitar music culture welcomes all people; anyone can come who appreciates the music.

The classical guitar scene in Dallas repertoires of music would fit into the western classical genre, but it is certainly not limited to such, the concert I attended included pieces from traditional African sketches, Cuban folksongs, Jazz/Be-Bop/Boogie, and tributes. The music in this culture almost never has lyrics, the performer or professional composer usually composes the music and that music is generally transmitted through published works.

The material culture of music within the classical guitar scene is that they sell shirts, CD’s, of the concerts performer, classical guitars, also instructional DVD’s and published music.

Conclusion

The classical guitar scene in Dallas is culturally rich gathering that engages one not only musically, but emotionally, and intellectually. The technique of the playing is forthright and precise, the performers are masters of their instrument, and the music ranges from African sketches to Morlaye and Le Roy. Not only does this culture contain some very prominent musicians in our society, but people of this culture are able to engage with very personal one on one time with these world renowned artists. The classical guitar scene in Dallas is unique and offers a wide variety of music with many techniques that the audience can awe over.

Here is a link to the Allegro Guitar Society of Dallas for more information on the Classical Guitar scene in Dallas
www.dallas.guitarsociety.org

Works Cited

Email Interview with Professor Enric Madriguera

Information gained from my Guitar I class on campus

UTD Guitar Festival 2010 attended concert, information gathered from concert program and notes

A brief History of classical guitar obtained at Guitar-maker.com