Manuel Ramírez (1912)
It was 1913
when the young Andrés Segovia went to Manuel Ramírez’s workshop in Arlabán
Street; his intention was to get a high quality guitar for a concert he had
agreed to give in the Ateneo of Madrid. His entrance in the guitar shop should
have been impressive due to his clothing – a black velvet waistcoat crossed to
the neck with silver buttons, striped trousers, black patent leather shoes with
big buckles, he covered himself with a scarf with generous flounces and he was
also wearing round glasses, a wide-brimmed black hat and a walking stick – as
well as for his unusual request to rent a guitar, since he could not afford to
buy one. Segovia tells the story of his visit with the following words:
“I went into Ramirez’s shop and when he glanced up at me, he was unable
to hold back a mocking giggle about to burst into laughter. Nevertheless, his
surprise did not come to that explosive end; he searched for the funniest and
most ingenious digressions of a ‘subtle joke’. “What would you like, Mister?”
he asked me with an excessively pronounced courtesy. “How can I help you? You
will be treated with the diligence and care you deserve”. I was on tenterhooks.
Staring at him I answered: “My name is Andrés Segovia, I am a guitarist and
some mutual friends from Cordoba recommended me to you, Sir”. He did not take
his smile off me but he moderated his mocking countenance and he said reaching
out his hand: “The echoes of your name have reached this house. It seems that
the whole Seville took to the streets the last year to listen to you”. These
words brought back memories of the scarce audience my last concert in Seville
had had, in contrast to the crowded concerts I’d had the previous season and I
blushed. Besides, I begun to be suspicious that Ramírez was excessively
flattering me, so I continued as if I was not listening: “I have arrived to
Madrid a few days ago and I intend to give an audition in the Ateneo soon. Mr.
Ramírez, the guitar I have does not satisfy my requirements. I would like that
you allowed me to use the best guitar you have at the moment. It goes without
saying that I believe reasonable that you shall stipulate a reasonable
allowance for this kind of lease; the way it is done in music shops when they
cede concert pianos; I am willing, if you want to pay in advance. Furthermore,
if the guitar successfully tried is completely to my liking I will ask you to
sell it to me. I will soon be able to purchase it, if the illusions I bring to
Madrid do not turn into disenchantment when I touch the crude reality”. Ramírez
appeared to be hearing my speech with pleasure. I would even swear that he forgot
my appearance. He gave me a friendly look and he beat his powerful lower jaw
and guffawing with foam at the corner of the mouth he exclaimed: “Good heavens!
The proposal is pretty good. So far nobody has asked me such a thing. If Erard,
Pleyel pianos and so on are rented to celebrate concerts, why not rent Ramírez
guitars?” And opening the little door of the counter, he invited me into the
workshop. His best officials worked there, headed by the most worthy Santos
Hernández. Ramírez asked him to bring me down one of his best guitars and he
handed it to me. (1)
It was a
guitar originally built with seven strings at the request of a great guitarist
of the time, Manjón. The luthier decided not to sell it to him due to
some disagreements between him and the artist, so he carried out the necessary
changes to turn it into a six-string guitar.
Segovia
continues narrating the progress of his visit. José Hierro, professor of violin
in the Real Conservatorio Superior, was in the shop; he was a witness of the
instant crush of Segovia for that guitar, for the beauty of its curves, its
color, the harmony of its shapes. He was playing it for a long time, and he
understood that this was the guitar that would help him to fulfill his artistic
destiny. When he finished his recital, José del Hierro as well as Manuel
Ramírez were impressed with the music they had heard. So much so, that del
Hierro wanted to convince him to stop playing the guitar and switched to the
violin; he said the following words: “Bravo
young man! I like your temperament, your technical ease. It’s a pity that these
qualities are fruitless in such a small island as the guitar. Beautiful, if you
want, but it is lonely and uncultured, where no talent seeks for home and where
you are going to banish the one with which God has gifted you. Do you want to
switch instrument? You are still young… The violin will make you famous”.
But Segovia was clear that his passion was the guitar and with respect and
great emotion, he said: “Thank you
maestro. I fear it may be too late to switch to another instrument. Besides, I
assure you that I could not betray my guitar. She needs me, the violin doesn’t.
Compare for yourself the lineage of both instruments and you will guess what I
want to say. If moderately talented musicians such as Merula or Fontana hadn’t
devoted their love and work to the violin centuries ago, nowadays it wouldn’t
be the prince of bowed string instruments”. (2)
It was at
that moment when Manuel anticipated Segovia’s petition, which could be already
read in his eyes and said him: “The
guitar is yours, young man! Take it with you around the world and may your work
make it fertile… On the other hand don’t worry; pay it to me with no money”.
The 6th
May 1913 Segovia gave his concert in the Ateneo of Madrid with Manuel Ramírez’s
guitar, who, of course attended the event to enjoy the beauty of his work in
the hands of a great talented artist. After some days, seeing that Segovia
didn’t come to visit him, he sent him a message inviting him to come back to his
workshop. Segovia tells that this caused him great fear as he thought the
guitar maker hadn’t like the concert and he would want to recover his guitar;
but he was pleasantly surprised to listen to the following words from the
luthier: “What a power! How passionate! I
was profoundly moved to feel how the four woods I had put together were
transformed into beautiful music, and I had never been so proud of the
miraculous result of my work. When I saw the enthusiasm of the audience I was
about to shout: Address some of your applause to this side, I also have the
right to participate a little in this success; if it were not for me, I’m sure
it would be harder for you to listen to this young artist and his music would
not seem to be so clear and sung in such a nice way. The next morning I
congratulated my officials, especially the most taciturn one – he said pointing
to Santos Hernández – who collaborates assiduously with me”(3).
I wanted to
start this paper with Andrés Segovia’s words, narrating his encounter with my
uncle great-grandfather Manuel, because I want to go into a ground sowed with
confusion. (4)
Some people
claim that the legendary guitar I’m talking about was created by Santos
Hernández. There has been even people that has drawn Manuel Ramírez out of the
game and say that the aforementioned guitar was Santos Hernández’s, without
reference to his master, which was, moreover, his employer at the historical
moment in which all these events took place. This is very short-sighted about
the way artisan workshops work, and results in misinterpretations that it is
right that we should clarify and correct.
After the
death of Manuel Ramírez, Santos Hernández continued working in his workshop for
the widow of his master, until 1920, the year when he set up on his own. Some
time later, in 1922, Segovia took him his guitar for him to repair it. And
Santos, assuring that he had constructed this guitar, tried to replace Manuel’s
label with his own; Segovia refused to do this and at the most he allowed him
to put his label next to Manuel’s; doing this he held the responsibility of the
repair. J. A. Pérez-Bustamante de Monasterio tells this anecdote with the
following words: “Several years had
passed since Ramírez had given away the aforementioned guitar to Andrés Segovia,
the instrument needed some minor repair, and the master sought the services of
the great constructor Santos Hernández to carry out the adequate reparation.
When he saw the guitar, Santos Hernández explained Andrés Segovia that although
that guitar had Manuel Ramírez’s label, the true constructor had been him, that
at the time worked as guitar maker official in Ramírez’s firm. That was the
reason why Santos begged Segovia to authorize him to remove the original label
and place his own one as Santos Hernández; he said that some years before he
had established on his own account in the Aduana Street in Madrid. Segovia was
shocked by such a curious explanation and such a controversial vindication, and
he refused Santos’ pretention to change the label, but he authorized him to
write in the original label: “Repaired by Santos Hernández”, suggestion that
the guitar maker finally accepted reluctantly” (5). But I am not going to
discuss who made the guitar at issue, because it is completely out of place,
the facts we are going to see bellow will show why. The truth is that Segovia
did not allow the original label to be removed, not only because of his loyalty
and gratitude to Manuel, but also because he knew the way guitar maker workshops
worked at the time, their structure required a master, but also officials and
apprentices; he states this in a letter addressed to my father that appear in
his book Things About the Guitar p.
221 of its new edition “Ramírez has given
rest to his constructor hands and, surrounded by excellent workers, he has
devoted himself to manage, supervise, modify and correct the work, increasingly
efficient of his workshop” (7).
We have also
read what Segovia tells us about Manuel himself, that the day after the pieces
of wood he had put together were transformed into beautiful music; this is an
open declaration of his authorship of the aforementioned guitar. But even in
the event he hadn’t put together these ‘four pieces of wood’ with his own
hands, there is not the least doubt that the work had been done in his
workshop, with his stencils, his designs, his materials, his directions, his
supervision, and was the result of his knowledge… and the responsibility of the
final result of the work was his, the master, the patron, the owner of the
workshop, whose experience and investigations were the foundations of
everything his helpers learned from him. That happens in every workshop where
there are apprentices and officials whose function is to help the master to
carry out his work. This is what having apprentices and officials means. And
this is the way we still work nowadays.
Traditional
guitar workshops have always been governed by these rules. They are quite
logical if we stop and think for just one moment. And this is not only true in
guitar workshops but also in architecture studies, and in the studies of some
of the greatest artists, for example in the Renaissance. So that attributing
the authorship of one guitar to one of the employees in a workshop would be
equivalent to say that the Pórtico de la Gloria was not the work of the master
Mateo, but of one of the collaborators that worked with him; or that the
Sagrada Familia was not really created by Gaudi, but by one of his employees.
The master does the project, directs its development, supervises the process
and in the end he signs it, if something goes wrong in the construction the
responsibility rests with him, the same happens with the glory if the work
deserves it.
Maybe the
example of the Renaissance artists I am referring to is largely parallel to the
way artisan guitar workshops work. Because in the master’s studio his
assistants worked, they had learned in his school and they helped him to carry
out his work, which was always supervised by him, always projected by him, with
his techniques, his sense of color, of light, using his materials, his
pigments, his formulae… No one doubts the validity, the legitimacy of the
master’s signature on his work, as it was the case with El Greco; due to the
high volume of orders he received, an important number of his works was made in
his workshop by helpers that, under his management, would follow his drafts.
Manuel
Ramírez also had a high number of orders, so in his workshop he also worked
with helpers. He was also the luthier of the Real Conservatorio of Madrid and
that probably implied a large quantity of extra work. Whatever the case, he
followed the same school as his brother and master José, he had several
officials and apprentices, his descendants also follow this tradition, my
father, José Ramírez lll was the one who had the higher number of assistants to
respond to the high demands for his guitars.
I often
receive mails asking for information about the officials of my father, José
Ramírez lll. Their initials – later replaced by numbers – are stamped inside
his guitars. I recognize that there is a touch of romanticism in the pride of
possessing a guitar with the exact initials that connect it with instruments
that were played by Andrés Segovia, maybe thinking that being the same official
the guitar has to sound the same way too, but this is a mistake.
According to
our tradition, we build our guitars in turns of four. Because in many of our
operations, when the fourth guitar is done with the glue, the first is already
dry, although there are gluing operations, such as the ones for the borders,
which need to rest for one day. But this is the way we work. The truth is that
even being the four guitars built by the same official, using the same
materials (even the wood from the same tree), each guitar is different. All of
them have our same characteristic ring, but all of them have different nuances
whether in the power or the color. And sometimes it happens that one of them
stands out among its sisters. Nobody knows why. But it is so.
It is
important to take into account that we admit employees to work in our workshop
because of their skills and manual dexterity, the same as it was done in the
workshop of my ancestors. They start as apprentices, and they reach the second
official category and after that first official, after going through some exams
that demonstrate that they are at the level required to reach this grade. They
are proud to pass these tests, as a result of their interest and effort
learning the job in our workshop, and this is the way they enter our particular
history. And this is part of the way traditional artisan workshops work. So I
am not trying to detract their work in any way, I want to make it clear that
they are carrying out the work of their master, not their own. In fact, in the
same way that Manuel Ramírez congratulated his helpers after Segovia’s concert
in the Ateneo, every time one of our guitars is praised I communicate it to my
collaborators so that they can fell proud of their job.
Indeed, when
any of these officials leaves our workshop to establish by himself, then, he is
the one to develop his own stencils, his designs and he is responsible for his
work, and if he is ever responsible of apprentices and officials, they will
help him to carry out his job the same as he did with his master and patron.
There are
also situations where some guitar makers meet in the same venue, but in a way
that each of them is independent, with their own work, stencils, designs, etc.
so it is entirely legitimate for each of them to sign their own guitars since
there is not one patron, but a kind of association to share the same place and
without interferences among them.
Not long ago
I lent a guitar made by me in the year 1997 to a friend guitarist, we were repairing
his guitar and he had committed to give some concerts and he had to take a
recording and he did not want to use any other instrument different from a
Ramírez. At the same time we did not have any other guitar to provide him as a
temporary replacement; I lent him mine, the one I usually kept in our
collection. It is a classic guitar made with Indian rosewood at the sides and
back and with a spruce top. The truth is that the concert guitarist was really
excited with the sound of my guitar, its gentleness, its warmth, its balance,
and he said that it was the best guitar he had ever played and that it reminded
him the ones Andrés Segovia played. Of course I feel flattered that a guitar
made with my own hands is so much praised; but I also know that I only should
be given credit for constructing it right, because the quality of its sound is
only due to the knowledge transmitted by my masters: my father and my brother
(this year my brother was the master, the patron as my father had died); and
also to the fate of musicality, its woods, and I always owe it to the
mysterious part that comes from some place we don’t know to make the guitar
acquire an special magic. One of the sisters of this guitar, that had also a
beautiful sound, had a wolf note and its owner was patiently working until he
could make it disappear. The truth is that it was born with it. I don’t know
the way that guitar continued to develop, but certainly it was really different
from its sister. It is also true that having been constructed by Ramírez hands
adds significant value, I don’t deny it, and that is supported by the
recognition of the work accomplished by the person that someday will manage the
workshop. When I constructed my first guitars, all of them flamenco guitars, my
father, the master at that moment, kept two of them, one for my mother and the
other for the collection; he sold the rest, and told me that a guitar maker
could not be considered as such until he didn’t sell his first guitar. And if
it was sold, it was because someone had liked it enough to buy it. And all of
them, except the ones he kept, were signed by him, my father, my master and my
patron.
Nowadays, my
officials and apprentices carry out their work in the light of an experience
transmitted over the years since the times of my great-grandfather; with all
the innovations and changes that have been carried out over time. And they also
apply my investigations, modifications and designs, following my instructions.
This is my contribution to this living institution that our firm is. I
supervise the work and sign the labels thus assuming all the responsibility on
the perfection of the construction of my guitars. It has always been done this
way.
Manuel
Ramírez was a great guitar maker, recognized internationally as such, and no
doubt he was a demanding master that made his disciples learn the excellence of
well done things bringing out their best. That is how his workshop produced
great guitar makers with a well-deserved reputation when they established
themselves on their own account. But while they were working in Manuel’s
workshop the product of their job was the work of their master and patron. In
fact only one of them wanted to attribute authorship of one of the guitars
coming from Manuel’s workshop, and probably because this guitar belonged
nothing less than to Andres Segovia. I wonder how Manuel would feel if he knew
that the one he referred to in such a significant way as his most regular
collaborator, wanted to erase his merit replacing the label that endorsed his
work. Probably, because of the powerful and explosive personality that I know
Manuel had, nobody would even dare to suggest such a thing when he was alive.
And I also wonder how he would feel if he knew that his guitar is nowadays in
the Metropolitan Museum of New York; with specific instructions that it must
not be played at all. Andrés Segovia corresponded by far the generous gesture
Manuel Ramírez had, taking it around the world, as the luthier said and making
it fertile, and following his words, he paid it with no money and he paid it
quite well.
Manuel would
also be delighted to know that his guitar served as a model for Hermann Hauser
to construct the guitar that later substituted his in the hands of Segovia. My
father, Ramírez lll, refers to this instrument in his book, nowadays it is also
in the Metropolitan Museum of New York with Manuel’s guitar and with exactly
the same instructions that nobody can play it. And he tells it this way: “Via Dr. Rubio I managed to get an interview
with Segovia, and there I went, with my last guitar which I was not very
confident about, my intention was to know Hauser’s guitar, my father had told
me about it because he had heard it some years before and in his opinion, its
sound was good but it had ‘German accent’. I know the history of this
instrument and I know that Hauser, a prestigious German luthier, had showed him
the guitar in the late 20’s or the beginning of the 30’s and the master did not
like the sound aspect, but he did like how well it was done and for that reason
he encouraged him to continue working to refine the sound. It was then when
Hauser asked Segovia to let him study Manuel Ramírez’s guitar, and he gladly
accepted. For hours Hauser took all kind of measures and notes about this instrument,
and the following years, every time Segovia would go to Germany, which I
believe it was every year, he showed him a new guitar that was becoming closer
to the excel the one my uncle Manuel did, until finally, around 1930 and 1937,
he provided the master with the instrument he used for more than 25 years of
his artistic life. Segovia himself told me that when he tried this guitar he
was shocked by its sound. Then he made use of the help of his second wife, she
was travelling with him and being an excellent piano player, possessed and
extraordinary ear, so with the maximum distance that the hotel room allowed
them, she gave him her opinion, that was completely favorable, and that made
him give the concert he had the following day with the new instrument and he
continued using it for many years”(8).
We are indeed
deeply honored that Segovia has begun and ended his career playing Ramírez
guitars. According to his words “I’ve
only had three guitars, equivalent to the number of my marriages, which have remained
longer active during my life. Old Ramírez’s one in 1913, Herman Hauser’s in
1937 and now the one by Ignacio Fleta. I’ve flirted with several different
guitars constructed by Ramírez, and as an ironic English writer said, the
difference between a whim and an eternal passion is that the whim usually lasts
longer… that means that in the guitars of the present Ramírez I have pleasantly
found permanent qualities”. And López Poveda concludes by saying that “Andrés Segovia considered that Herman
Hauser, Ignacio Fleta and José Ramírez were the best luthiers in the world”
(6).
NOTES:
Notes 1, 2,
3, 4 and 6 belong to the book Andrés
Segovia: Vida y Obra, written by Alberto López Poveda, the maximum
authority about Segovia, he created the Andrés Segovia Foundation in Linares,
and he was his loyal friend, disinterested guardian of the artist’s memory.
Note
5 belongs to the book Tras la Huella de
Segovia by J. A. Pérez Bustamante de Monasterio.
Notes 7 and 9
belong to the book Things About the
Guitar by José Ramírez lll.
We thank the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York for sending us the photos of the instrument of Manuel Ramírez.
We thank the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York for sending us the photos of the instrument of Manuel Ramírez.
Images from the MET
Photo of Santos Hernandez´s label on the repair of his master
Manuel Ramírez´s guitar", in which he wrote that it was repaired by him.
Segovia´s audios speaking about the Manuel Ramírez Guitar
1 comentario:
Tha hand of God works wonders, indeed. I wonder what the history of the guitar would have been if Manuel Ramirez had not been so kind to Segovia. I pray Amalia and her nephew and niece will continue the glorious tradition of the house of Ramirez. (Horacio Borromeo)
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