"Boring, Boring Ponce.." (or How Teenage Rebellion Led Me to Manuel Maria)

"Oh god...boring, boring Ponce!!"
No, this is not something I have ever said.  Neither is it something said to me by a wife, girlfriend, colleague or audience member.  No...it was my mom, and it was the launching point for my teenage rebellion which has turned into my lifetime of affection for this great contributor to our repertoire.

This post will serve as a prelude to my thoughts about preparing Ponce's Sonata Romantica.  I'm a manuscript geek, and for several years I've had a copy of the manuscript to this piece, and have even trotted out the Second Movement as an encore on a few occasions (can't remember if I proudly exclaimed "The manuscript version.." to audience members that probably wouldn't care, but my apologies if I did).  I've been experiencing a fascinating debate in my head over such issues as which version to use, Segovia or manuscript, does the published edition represent the composer's final thoughts, or is the musical core in the original.  I will hash through these unanswerable questions over the next few posts, but first, I wanted to share my personal struggles and triumphs with Ponce over the years, and perhaps maybe we can all understand why I care so much that in the 2nd movement, Ponce clearly marks "forte" in measure 43, while the Segovia edition states "piano".

The indomitable Mrs. T was a strong influence on my musical development.  She proudly proclaims she played me Sibelius symphonies while I was in utero, and, I in fact, love this composer above most.  She also was, self-admittedly, the "worst guitar student ever", but she encouraged my brother and I that perhaps this was not genetic, and encouraged us to study.  I have many stories about my awesome parents and how they helped, but the first time I ever felt my Mom was wrong was when she passed by my room and I was practicing one of Ponce's 12 Preludes.  Can't remember which one. She poked her head in, looked at the music stand and said "Oh god...boring, boring ponce".  I then remember she used to have the same expression when we would go to a concert, and Ponce was on the program.  By all rights, I should have hated Ponce because of the influence, but I became very aware of her dislike in my mid-teens, and aversion turned to fascination.  This was my teenage rebellion.  No drugs or piercings...just Theme, Varie & Finale. My brother and I would always put Ponce on our programs, perhaps to declare our individuality, but I suspect more-so that my Mother made us wear snow-pants to school in the winter till we were 10.  (To a 10 year old Canadian boy, snow-pants may just have well been a skirt).  My first recital at university featured Sonatina Meridional, my senior recital contained the Variations and Fugue on Folia d'Espagna, my first solo concerts after the Meyer-Thachuk Duo split up had the Four Pieces..and so on.  I've been through 3 copies of the Segovia-Ponce letters...you get the idea.  Ponce is usually on my mind.  For all the things my mother has given me, I've yet to thank her for backing me into a corner with Ponce.

Sept. 1990: Maestro Eli Kassner is talking to his long-haired student (me) who came to lessons with spandex under his ripped jeans. I explain that I wanted to do Ponce for my recital.  He pulls out an old copy of the Sonatina Meridional.  As we work through the piece together, the knowledge of a master teacher shines through: "Measure 29..no..that's a C natural" "Take this note out", "These are meant to be rasgueado"...I was stunned at the things that he knew that weren't written, and then, the great reveal...
Maestro Kassner pulls out manuscript paper and writes out several bars to insert at m. 135 and several more at m. 147.  I felt like now I had secret information that only a select few would know (I later learned that these were on the Segovia recording) and I was now part of the great oral tradition of Ponce.  I practiced these new measures harder than any other, and played them with anticipation and confidence every time they came around.  Eli Kassner had helped me make the next step as a musician, where music comes off from the page.  Music became a living entity that existed through time and was about shared experience.  I will never forget this lesson and how this small event changed me.
After many years of being a nomad, I lost that treasured piece of paper that Eli gave me, but was reminded of it when I flipped to the back of Tilman Hoppstock's Urtext version of Ponce works and there were the corrections and additions.

Finally, March 2005, Culiacan, Mexico.  On break from teaching a masterclass, I wander over  to the vendor's table.  I'm in Mexico, I know what I'm looking for.  I had once seen a book in Germany published by Schott and edited by Alcazar.  It was thick, and had all the major works of Ponce for the guitar, but there were manuscript sources and documentation on the pieces.  I thought that this book would be around for a while, so I didn't buy it.  Over the following 2 years, I couldn't find it.  I searched the internet, no one was selling it.  It was at the point that I figured I had imagined it.  But in Culiacan...there it was!! I asked the vendor to set it aside while I went to get money.  I returned 5 minutes later..only to find Marcin Dylla walking away from the table, thumbing through it.  Because he's a friend, I didn't  launch into a tirade, but I did approach him with purpose.  He looked up at me with a grin and said "Great book!!" and seemed to be very happy in the "original source geek bliss" that I can appreciate.  How I could I deny someone the thrill?  And after seeing him perform Sonata Romantica, I'm only too glad that he did walk away with my holy grail.

Fortunately for me, the excellent and thorough Tilman Hoopstock Urtext version is now available, so I have enough Ponce-geek material for a little while.  My next post will be about how I approach the first movement as a practicing guitarist with a wealth of information and rich musical material at my fingertips.

If you take anything from this post, I want to encourage people to have a relationship with the pieces they play.  The stories you have about your interactions with a piece or composer will help the music exist in the present.  Stories (and myths) are the soul of society and they put us in touch with each other and our shared histories. If you are playing a composer or work for the first time, always think about your story with the music that you are beginning, and one day that you can tell a student, an audience, a colleague, or..a blog...about your history with music.

Keep practicing!

S

Having never written a blog before...

I guess the first blog post is never easy!! By way of introduction, I'm Steve Thachuk (Dr. Thachuk, Prof. Thachuk or Dr. Steve to my students) I've been teaching classical guitar in universities, conservatories and masterclasses since the mid-90's.  In addition to this I've also had a wide-ranging performance career that has taken me all over the world, sometimes involved in projects I would never have envisaged when I was a student. All this has brought me to Los Angeles, where I have been Chair of the Guitar Department at Cal State Northridge since 2002.

So...briefly...why am I starting this blog? The truth is never easy to admit, but here goes.  Anyone who teaches full-time guitar will tell you that its a two-edged sword.  You learn an enormous amount through the process of teaching, and you tend to constantly question and challenge the premises upon which you have been instructing.  Its a constant re-evaluation of processes that you have learned and acquired over the years, and its ultimately a fascinating and rewarding endeavour.  On the flip-side...those 5 to 8 hour practice days you enjoyed as a student and under-employed professional go away.  When I first started the full-time teaching, I managed to maintain a strict practice regimen, but as the years went on, the various projects I was involved started to pile up.  My realization was...I had stopped practicing and was simply playing.  I started to find at the beginning of 2010 that there were detriments to my playing as a result of this.  Things that were easy when I was fanatically practicing and preparing concerts in an orderly manner, now were awkward to manage, and I often had to resort to "work-arounds" that went against my ideas of technique. As an example, in a six week period, I was preparing the Malcom Arnold Concerto, the Villa-Lobos Concerto, a solo program, two flute and guitar programs (while doing the music arranging for the program) and doing an acoustic "world-music" tour with Jeff Young (ex-Megadeth guitarist...fantastic player!!) where I was arranging, composing and playing steel string and classical.  All this was done through a lot of playing but not much  practicing. Things became so bad a few months ago, that I  considered focal dystonia was the problem.

To my relief, I eventually found out that when I returned to properly practicing again, things got better.  I was actually amazed that with all my teaching experience, I never considered taking my own advice!! Playing classical guitar requires incredibly complex and accurate movements, and the re-discovery of my own practice habits (which are exactly the ones I tell my students) has returned me to that excitement I had as a student.

I want to write this blog as another form of teaching.  As I prepare a new solo program (note to students...when breaking bad habits..NEVER return to old pieces immediately), I want to share my thoughts on the guitar's repertoire and technique.  I also want to impart advice on things I show my students to aid them in their studies.  Also look for transcriptions, exercises, advice, and sometimes just my thoughts about music.  I'm new to this, so advice and questions are certainly welcome...oh...and I'll work on how the blog looks as well.

Thanks..and I hope to see you out there soon.  Back to the footstool...

S