His Concert Autograph Book 1932 – 1939 , the Diplomatic Edition
Asociacion Camino Artes : 440 pages
This stunningly beautiful hard back book is, first of all, quite something to behold. The two writers are well – known in the guitar world, Richard Pinnell studied guitar in Argentina and Uruguay, published many works including many articles on South America that appeared in Guitar Review, Il Fronimo, The New Grove, GFA Soundboard and many more.He also wrote books on various previously unexplored areas of music including Francesco Corbetta, and the Baroque Guitar, with a transcription of his works, and The Rioplatense Guitar, The Early Guitar in Argentina and Uruguay, whilst his compatriot Frederick Sheppard, born in Mexico City, came upon Barrios in 1992, and from there he visited and studied the key places where Barrios lived and performed. He subsequently met up with Rico Stover in 2005, travelling to El Salvador and Paraguay with him, and collected , edited and published the teaching materials of Barrios , once thought lost, and his original manuscripts including his arrangements of the works of other composers in El Libro de Oro Vols 1-6 , with Les Productions D’Oz.
Firstly, the book has a huge amount of wonderful pictures and coloured plates, that really do need to be seen to be believed, but the main area of interest is without doubt the actual diary of which you get firstly a page by page facsimile of it followed by a translation into English, along with the original language version. Just to see the actual scripts used in the original pages of the diary it itself fascinating but what transpires in the actual diary is for every lover of Barrios to read and get to know. Apart from that huge amount of pages there is an 80 pages Introduction which itself is a considerable read and one that will have many areas completely unknown to most interested readers.
Finally there are the 65 pages of Appendices and Bibliography that follow on in the book from the diary and its contents, which again have many areas of interest for the Barrios – lover.
This is a one – off book, unmatched in its detail, content, and interest which will keep the reader very busy for weeks, and finally is a book that will grace any bookshelf it stands on. What a volume!
Chris Dumigan
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