The Ponce-Segovia Collaboration: Creating the Modern Guitar Repertory

<p>Manuel Maria Ponce (hereafter referred to as Manuel M. Ponce, 1882-1948) was one of the</p><p>most prolific and significant composers for the guitar. His output extends from 1923 to 1948</p><p>and includes thirty-three separately published works, comprising thirty original works and</p><p>three published arrangements, including a collection of three previously published songs, the</p><p><i>Tres canciones populares mexicanas</i> (1924), the <i>Canción popular gallega</i> (<i>EI Noi de la mare</i>, c.1927) and the <i>Prelude</i>(1936) for guitar and harpsichord, based on the earlier <i>Prelude in </i><i>E Major</i> (1931) for</p><p>guitar. His original compositions encompass solo, chamber and orchestral media and a</p><p>diverse range of compositional forms, including a concerto, five sonatas, a sonatina, two</p><p>theme and variations, two suites, numerous preludes and dance forms, and the monumental</p><p><i>Variations sur “Folia de Espa</i><i>ñ</i><i>a” et fugue</i><i> </i>(1929). These works reflect an eclectic range of</p><p>compositional styles that embraced the folk and popular music traditions of Mexico, Cuba</p><p>and Spain, the Mexican salon genres, baroque, classical and romantic characteristics, as well as</p><p>the harmonic language, and melodic and rhythmic techniques of impressionism and</p><p>neoclassicism.</p><p> </p><p>From the second decade of the twentieth century, Ponce was a leading musical and cultural</p><p>voice within Mexico. Beginning around 1912, critics in the popular press defined him as a</p><p>modernist. His efforts at this time were concentrated on performance and teaching and the</p><p>presentation of an all-Debussy recital by his students in 1912 in the salon of the Casa Wagner</p><p>was received as being of character" and "introducing the new and exquisite music of Claude Debussy".7 The description of Ponce as a "modernist" at this time is a reflection</p><p>of the dominance of imported European and North American popular music, and also salon</p><p>music in middle and upper class Mexican musical life. His compositions up to this point</p><p>reveal an eclectic but conservative style encompassing popular salon forms, historical and, from 1909, overtly nationalist works based on the canción tradition. Though</p><p>his compositional output reveals multiple influences, Ponce's music is aesthetically linked to</p><p>the romantic period, as is illustrated in his harmonic language and vocabulary.</p><p> </p>