Richibi’s Weblog

   “Dario de Regoyos Playing the Guitar“ (1882) 

          Theo van Rysselberghe

                 ______________

                                                          for Donna

struck by the intimacy, the emotional 
resonance of the guitar, more outward,
more confessional, than introspective, 
like the cello, I wondered at the reasons,
speculated merely, but with, to my mind, 
unobjectionable conclusions finally, just 
this side of actual proof of my, however 
provisional nevertheless, conclusions

the guitar, I thought, when a friend 
wrote about her especial appreciation 
of it, is to both North and South 
Americans a much more integral part
of our history, cowboys carried them 
out on the range, be it American or 
Argentinian

why, I wondered

well, I figured, it doesn’t have, first 
of all, a bow, and it’s easy to carry,
a piano would, of course, be right 
out of the question

and later in the evening, around a 
fire, a cowboy can wrap his very
soul around this metaphor he’s 
holding, and speak of his love and 
his loneliness

you could try the same thing with a
mandolin, maybe, but it has, I think, 
too playful a string to be ever so
meaningful and intimate

it seems, as well, that you can play 
more than one note at a time on the
guitar, the thumb and at least one 
other finger, to achieve harmonies 
other instruments, including the 
cello, can’t – I could never play two 
notes at a time, for instance, on my 
flute when I was flaying it 

though I recently found out you can 
play two notes together, at a time,
though with great difficulty, on the 
violin, which could shoot all of my 
theories into the water

stay tuned

listen to Pepe Romero, meanwhile,
astound you with first of all Rodrigo’s
“Concierto de Aranjuez” – you’ll melt 
at the adagio – then with Francisco
Tárrega’s “Memories of the Alhambra”, 
a piece that’s already written deep in 
your bones, I promise you’ll
quiver

enjoy

R ! chard