What do you think?
Rate this book
Six Silver Moonbeams: The Life and Times of Agustin Barrios Mangore
Book by Stover, Richard D.
271 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1992
2 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 4, 2022
Barrios studied all guitar methods and pieces by Aguado, Sor, Julian Arcas, and Carlos Garcia Tolsa. He first made his living playing music for silent films in movie theatres. Segovia was floored by Barrios and his music when they met. Barrios gave him sheet music, but Segovia never played it publicly because Segovia was an attention whore and didn’t want to share the limelight with Barrios because B’s music was simply too good. Has anyone ever chosen Segovia in a blindfold test, over Bream or Williams? No. Later Barrios said of Segovia, that he was “deaf in the heart”. Segovia “obviously did not welcome any formal competition.” Segovia recanted his amazement later and called Barrios “not a good composer for the guitar.” Decades later Segovia recants his recant and calls Barrios a “genius.” When I think Segovia, I picture him, Shostakovich, and Sartre with their famed Milhouse coke bottle glasses (google – Hans Moleman). I’ll bet Segovia’s last words were: can I recant my recant of my recant?
Barrios was the first Paraguayan to become famous outside his country. He never got a higher degree but taught himself composing through will. Agustin Barrios becomes a prototype for David Bowie; he routinely appeared in costume and adopts persona and stage names. In the 1920’s, he had surgery done on his lips to change his appearance. This was decades before Meg Ryan thought to do that. Nitsuga is Agustin spelled backwards. Mangore was a chief of one of the tribes of the Guarani. He was known for dying in the pursuit of love, and so Barrios adopted his name. You could watch Agustin Barrios play guitar, or watch an exotic Indian chief Nitsuga play guitar (which he did for four years). “By 1936, he had reconciled the two personalities, using from that point simply ‘Barrios Mangore’.” Ziggy Bowie. In Guatemala, the press said he came out dressed in a feather outfit like a children’s costume and the audience thought he was high on marijuana.
Barrios performs in Europe and makes friends with Stravinsky. When performing there, the critics were bored by Barrios playing their European classical music, but when he played his own stuff, they went wild. Proto-Hendrix: “Sometimes to entertain us, he would take out his guitar and put it behind his head and play it that way.” Barrios “did not permit any interruptions during practicing, which could last ten to twelve hours with him shut up in his room, refusing food, until his practicing was finished.” Barrios also enjoyed working out his ideas on organ. Barrios sometimes had patrons who gave him cash. Barrios is forced to leave Spain at the beginning of its nasty Civil War and return home. By 1936, Barrios was in his Thin White Duke period, very dapper and Cary Grant elegant in simple white shirts. “Once he played one of the quick Chopin waltzes, and it was fantastic. He told me it had taken him ten years to learn.” “He had no complaints about not being recognized. I didn’t detect that sort of attitude.” “I have about a hundred works that I have composed, and every day I devote several hours to composition. I admire Beethoven and Chopin, and consider them true musical geniuses.” Barrios toured in nineteen “Ibero-American” nations.
If you were his student you had to play impeccably, “with enthusiasm, with sweetness and with the necessary clarity.” In his last years, he practiced guitar daily from 8 am to 12 noon. The Barrios technique for playing on stage without mistakes: Fill a small sack with 100 pebbles. Every time you play a piece without mistake, take out one pebble. One problem: every time you make a mistake you have to put EVERY damn pebble back in the sack and start again. Safe to say, you’ve got the piece down cold when your sack is finally empty. “Just as Bach continued to write superb baroque music up to the year of his death (1750) well after the high baroque had come to an end, Barrios was writing exquisite romantic music long after its passing in Europe.”
Barrios and Segovia were like the battle between Betamax versus VHS. Those with functioning retina saw Betamax tapes were more compact, clearly less weight while what they heard sounded better to their ears. And yet against the facts both less sharp VHS tape (240 lines vs 250 lines image) and less sharp Segovia won the battle. John Williams wrote of Barrios “his music is very guitaristic, rather like Chopin is for the piano.” Barrios only publishes ten of his pieces in his lifetime.
On page 208, Richard starts on with his fingering of Charo, oops …meant the Choro da Saudade needing to use a cross-barre on bar 28. The author is dead, so I’ll mention that the infamous stretch of bar 28 is successfully done by many players in many different ways. There’s a woman effortlessly playing it on YouTube the way Richard says is impossible. I play it (as do some others on YouTube) by fretting the sixth string with the side of the left thumb. The cross-barre fretting Richard recommends is very uncomfortable; too much like the non-joys of thumb position on cello. If you are playing Barrios on guitar today, you are probably playing from a published version edited by the author Richard. A good book, I was really glad to read more about one of my all-time favorite composers for classical guitar. For recorded Barrios, I recommend (in addition to the amazing obvious John Williams recordings) those by the Cecil Refik Kaya, Jesus Castro-Baldi, and David Russell.
Barrios was the first Paraguayan to become famous outside his country. He never got a higher degree but taught himself composing through will. Agustin Barrios becomes a prototype for David Bowie; he routinely appeared in costume and adopts persona and stage names. In the 1920’s, he had surgery done on his lips to change his appearance. This was decades before Meg Ryan thought to do that. Nitsuga is Agustin spelled backwards. Mangore was a chief of one of the tribes of the Guarani. He was known for dying in the pursuit of love, and so Barrios adopted his name. You could watch Agustin Barrios play guitar, or watch an exotic Indian chief Nitsuga play guitar (which he did for four years). “By 1936, he had reconciled the two personalities, using from that point simply ‘Barrios Mangore’.” Ziggy Bowie. In Guatemala, the press said he came out dressed in a feather outfit like a children’s costume and the audience thought he was high on marijuana.
Barrios performs in Europe and makes friends with Stravinsky. When performing there, the critics were bored by Barrios playing their European classical music, but when he played his own stuff, they went wild. Proto-Hendrix: “Sometimes to entertain us, he would take out his guitar and put it behind his head and play it that way.” Barrios “did not permit any interruptions during practicing, which could last ten to twelve hours with him shut up in his room, refusing food, until his practicing was finished.” Barrios also enjoyed working out his ideas on organ. Barrios sometimes had patrons who gave him cash. Barrios is forced to leave Spain at the beginning of its nasty Civil War and return home. By 1936, Barrios was in his Thin White Duke period, very dapper and Cary Grant elegant in simple white shirts. “Once he played one of the quick Chopin waltzes, and it was fantastic. He told me it had taken him ten years to learn.” “He had no complaints about not being recognized. I didn’t detect that sort of attitude.” “I have about a hundred works that I have composed, and every day I devote several hours to composition. I admire Beethoven and Chopin, and consider them true musical geniuses.” Barrios toured in nineteen “Ibero-American” nations.
If you were his student you had to play impeccably, “with enthusiasm, with sweetness and with the necessary clarity.” In his last years, he practiced guitar daily from 8 am to 12 noon. The Barrios technique for playing on stage without mistakes: Fill a small sack with 100 pebbles. Every time you play a piece without mistake, take out one pebble. One problem: every time you make a mistake you have to put EVERY damn pebble back in the sack and start again. Safe to say, you’ve got the piece down cold when your sack is finally empty. “Just as Bach continued to write superb baroque music up to the year of his death (1750) well after the high baroque had come to an end, Barrios was writing exquisite romantic music long after its passing in Europe.”
Barrios and Segovia were like the battle between Betamax versus VHS. Those with functioning retina saw Betamax tapes were more compact, clearly less weight while what they heard sounded better to their ears. And yet against the facts both less sharp VHS tape (240 lines vs 250 lines image) and less sharp Segovia won the battle. John Williams wrote of Barrios “his music is very guitaristic, rather like Chopin is for the piano.” Barrios only publishes ten of his pieces in his lifetime.
On page 208, Richard starts on with his fingering of Charo, oops …meant the Choro da Saudade needing to use a cross-barre on bar 28. The author is dead, so I’ll mention that the infamous stretch of bar 28 is successfully done by many players in many different ways. There’s a woman effortlessly playing it on YouTube the way Richard says is impossible. I play it (as do some others on YouTube) by fretting the sixth string with the side of the left thumb. The cross-barre fretting Richard recommends is very uncomfortable; too much like the non-joys of thumb position on cello. If you are playing Barrios on guitar today, you are probably playing from a published version edited by the author Richard. A good book, I was really glad to read more about one of my all-time favorite composers for classical guitar. For recorded Barrios, I recommend (in addition to the amazing obvious John Williams recordings) those by the Cecil Refik Kaya, Jesus Castro-Baldi, and David Russell.
December 5, 2017
"Cuán raudo es mi gritar, yo soy veleta
que moviéndose a impulsos del destino
va danzando su loco torbellino
hacia los cuatro vientos del planeta"
Poeta en sus escritos, poeta en la guitarra.
Un orgullo conocer un poco más de vos, Mangoré.
que moviéndose a impulsos del destino
va danzando su loco torbellino
hacia los cuatro vientos del planeta"
Poeta en sus escritos, poeta en la guitarra.
Un orgullo conocer un poco más de vos, Mangoré.
Read
May 17, 2024This book is fine, the author is not much of a story teller, so please dont expect good story telling. But you could find so much information here if youre, like, doing a research on Mr. Barrios, his concerts, reviews of his concerts, his full discography, the guitars he used... It reminds me of reading the journey of Bill with the same linear path of the artist from beginning to end though I must say this time it feels quite bored to read. I dont know Spanish so I cant tell if Ive looked up thoroughly enough but the book mentioned a poem of Lorca (El Polifemo de Oro) which I cant find anywhere that says Lorca did write a poem with that name. I do appreciate the commentary part of John Williams and Leo Brouwer, and some short analytics of Mr. Barrios' compositions.
March 17, 2019
Barrios was a genius. Thanks to Rico Stover for preserving and promulgating his brilliant legacy. "Six Silver Moonbeans" is a must read for Barrios' students, fans and enthusiasts. Painstaking research and interesting anecdotes about his kindness and struggle abound in this bio, unfortunately he stood in the shadows of Segovia during his life. Segovia could have helped promote his work, but it really took classical guitarist John Williams who renders the best performances and Rico Stover for transcribing, interpreting and preserving the great works and this book will remain the definitive bio on Barrios.
RIP Rico Stover!
RIP Rico Stover!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews