Posted on June 6, 2024January 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Facts Regarding Juan Serrano Letter: Facts Regarding Juan Serrano by David Macias Originally published in American Lutherie #86, 2006 Hi Tim, I enjoyed the R.E. Bruné piece on Manuel Reyes, and Cordoba in general in American Luthierie #84. My reason for writing is that there is a bit of misinformation on Juan Serrano. Maestro Juan Serrano’s father, Antonio Serrano, was known as Antonio Del Lunar. El Habichuela was and is someone else. Also the falseta recording played on the town clock is a Solea, and not a Siguiriyas, as stated. I asked Juan a few days ago, just to have my facts straight. He assured me that I was right. Maestro Serrano and I have been close friends for some twenty-six years. He has told me many stories about his life, his family, and his career. I am also very proud to say that Maestro Serrano was my flamenco guitar teacher for many years, and prouder yet that he has been playing his concerts on guitars that I constructed for him. R.E. Bruné responds: I appreciate David Macias’ additional corrections and information in response to my article. The quote about El Habichuela being Juan Serrano’s father and the teacher of Manuel Reyes came directly from the interview of Manuel Reyes in Flamenco International Magazine (July–September 1998, p. 19), and at the time I read it, it didn’t ring true to me either, as I know the large Habichuela Gypsy clan to be from the Sacromonte of Granada, not Cordoba. However, as there have been several unrelated artists over the centuries using the “Habichuela” name, I figured the anonymous interviewer’s direct quote would trump my own vague memory. Wrong! Mr. Macias is quite correct. I remember first meeting Juan Serrano around 1966, and he did mention his father was known as Antonio del Lunar (Antonio, he of the mole). I should have remembered this, as he is not to be confused with Perico el del Lunar who played for many years at La Zambra in Madrid and was the accompanist on the first anthology of Cante Flamenco issued by Westminster records in 1955. Likewise, my memory of the Cordoba clock tower music dates to my first visit to Spain in 1967, nearly forty years ago, and obviously is not as precise as I would prefer. This is the reason why for many decades now I have been photographing and making notes of all the great instruments that pass through my hands, as I knew it was only a matter of time when my sharp memory and dull tools would begin to change place. Thanks also and best wishes to Maestro Serrano, who is without doubt one of the great flamenco figuras of the 20th century. ◆
Posted on August 1, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Lutherie Binge? Lutherie Binge? by Dake Traphagen Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly, 5, #4, 1977 Well somehow I’ve survived my first but not last, European experience, which Tim Olsen dubbed a “Lutherie Binge” in Vol. 5, No. 2. From my perspective, I think the phraseology could be better put as a Life Experience Binge. After all, let’s not limit ourselves to being only luthiers; or at least if we want to view ourselves as being luthiers, let’s expand the term to encompass all other experiences which connect ourselves to our Luthiership. So what about my European Experience? Ten hour jet flight, what a slow method of transportation; Galliards of royalty traversing the English countryside. While resting in the dark forest; was that a Hobbit or maybe an elf? The Mediterranean’s salty, yet beautiful swimming; but where were the troubadour guitarists of Spain: only me expectations? A lot of flamboyant people and machine guns however... Majestic, cultured, the arts of Arts of western conception, if only one wouldn’t be so coined American; such is the way Paris... Oh yes! The ferry’s cooling rushing air and rolling boat with rain, sun, spray, and lovely people enjoying; except for a few green faces, but who knows, maybe they enjoyed being green. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 1, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Guitar; An American Life by Tim Brookes Review: Guitar; An American Life by Tim Brookes Reviewed by Ervin Somogyi Originally published in American Lutherie #87, 2006 Guitar: An American Life Tim Brookes ISBN: 0-8021-1796-1 Grove Press, 352 pp., 2005 I found Tim Brookes’ Guitar: An American Life while browsing in a bookstore in Manhattan. I’d never heard of this book, but it’s one of the most enjoyable and informative reads I’ve ever had about the instrument I’ve built my professional life around. It’s written much in the spirit of Richard Halliburton’s marvelous and magical travel books that I read many years ago and that opened up my young mind’s vistas. It was a pleasant surprise to find that this book is, on the initial level, about a guitar building collaboration between the author and Rick Davis, a fellow luthier with whom I have a friendship. A book about a guitar making project written from the client’s point of view: Wow, what a great idea! Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on April 7, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Visits to Guitarrerias Visits to Guitarrerias by David Macias Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly Volume 7 #4, 1979 As a young boy, I used to think that for me to one day be able to play authentic Flamenco guitar would be the greatest thing in my life. Now, many years later, I do play authentic Flamenco, and I have discovered another wonderful way to express myself through the guitar... the Art of Lutherie. How I came to this discovery, is the story t hat follows. To set the scene, imagine yourself in Madrid, Spain, in the fall of 1966. After several years of Flamenco guitar study in San Francisco, California, here I was in Madrid. My guitar teacher, Adonis Puertas, a well-known concert guitarist, was leaving San Francisco. He suggested that I go to Spain for advanced study if at all possible. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on December 28, 2020March 6, 2024 by Dale Phillips A Review of Three Old Lutherie Books A Review of Three Old Lutherie Books with an Emphasis on Their Guitar Sections by Jan Tulacek, Alain Bieber, and James Buckland Originally published in American Lutherie #104, 2010 As we undertake this overview of three 19th-century lutherie texts, we recognize that much older documents were circulating from late medieval times. Some, such as the manuscript of Henri Arnault de Zwolle written in Dijon in 1440, already contained good descriptions of instruments, but to our knowledge, none had the goal to become a comprehensive “how to” lutherie handbook. From the Baroque era there are the important musical treatises of Michael Praetorius (1620) in Germany and Marin Mersenne (1635/36) in France, with good descriptions of our Western European string instruments. We also have a few fascinating descriptions of particular aspects of lutherie such as the Antonio Bagatella violin booklet of 1782, or the lesser-known Pierre Trichet viol making manuscript of 1640. And while the encyclopedia format of the Enlightenment Period of the middle 18th century never allowed extensive coverage of the topic, the French Diderot and D’Alembert books had wonderful drawings and interesting lutherie information. But in the late 1820s and early 1830s, still considered by many as the apex of the classical guitar in written music, we see two real lutherie “how-to” books appear, describing all the steps in the fabrication of the guitar. The first writer was Wettengel in Germany, followed a few years later by Maugin in France. In spite of many imperfections, they give a good understanding of the methods used in the two main centers of lutherie at that time, i.e., Neukirchen (now Markneukirchen) in Saxony and Mirecourt in Lorraine. A third important how-to book, by Hasluck, was published in the United States in 1907, but was likely written in the last decade of the 19th century. It is a very important work since it represents the first attempt to write a “how-to” lutherie book in English. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
