Abel Carlevaro (16 December 1916 – 17 July 2001) was a
classical guitar
The classical guitar, also known as Spanish guitar, is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string (music), string instrument with strings made of catgut, gut or nylon, it is a precursor of the ...
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and def ...
and
teacher
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...
born in
Montevideo
Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
,
Uruguay
Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...
. He established a new school of instrumental technique, incorporating a fresh approach to seating and playing the guitar, based on
anatomical
Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...
principles.
He had a successful career as a concert artist and gained the admiration of musicians such as
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has globally bec ...
and
Andrés Segovia
Andrés Segovia Torres, 1st Marquis of Salobreña (21 February 1893 – 2 June 1987), was a Spanish virtuoso classical guitarist. Many professional classical guitarists were either students of Segovia or students of Segovia's students.
Segovia ...
. His performances in the important music centres of
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
,
Latin America
Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...
and the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
were met with high acclaim by the public and critics alike.
Career
Carlevaro was a devoted composer. His musical production ranges from his ''Preludios Americanos'', now established as part of the standard concert repertoire, to his ''Concierto No. 3 para Guitarra y Orquesta'', composed by request of and played for the first time by
The Chamber Symphony of San Francisco.
Other contemporary ensembles of renown such as The San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and The Kronos Quartet have also performed some of Carlevaro's works for the first time. His "Concierto del Plata" for guitar and orchestra has been interpreted by important European and American symphony orchestras.
The Carlevaro Technique & Carlevaro Guitar
A profound and dedicated teacher, Carlevaro was the creator of a new school of instrumental technique which was revolutionary in its understanding of posture, sound development, and general philosophy of music. This important contribution to the evolution of the guitar is expounded in his didactic series (the "Cuadernos"), "Escuela de la Guitarra Exposición de la Teoría Instrumental" (School of Guitar Exposition of Instrumental Theory) as well as in the "Carlevaro Masterclass" series. These pedagogical works, his
composition
Composition or Compositions may refer to:
Arts and literature
*Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography
* Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...
s and his
transcriptions are edited by Boosey and Hawkes of
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
, Chanterelle Verlag of Heidelberg, Barry Editorial of
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
and
Henry Lemoine of
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
.
An indefatigable
researcher
Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...
, Carlevaro has also invented a new
guitar
The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...
Concert-Guitar Model "Carlevaro", the conception and design of which break away from traditional guitar making. This special model of guitar was first built in 1983 by the Spanish luthier Manuel Contreras (father) in Madrid. The upper part of the sound box (on which the guitarists arm rests) was straight, while the bottom (that rests on the guitarist's leg) is curved as usual. The resulting soundboard resembled the shape of a grand piano. Carlevaro said that this shape improved the vibration of the lower notes.
This new guitar also had the normal round sound hole closed, having instead a thin "slot" (a sound-slot instead of a sound-hole) all around the curvature of top: The top is actually separated from the sides - the top is quasi-floating, and is held in place only by wooden pins from the sides. Thus the guitar consists of 2 quasi-disjoint parts (held together only by the wooden pins): a) the back and sides b) the top. Today the Model "Carlevaro Guitar" is made by Eberhard Kreul (from Erlbach, Germany; where there are many great luthiers).
When traveling abroad, Carlevaro was often invited to teach ''Master Classes'', where in the course of a few consecutive days, students of all levels brought him their inquiries about technique, fingering, expression, or the like. Carlevaro invited participants to play the piece or section in question, and listened attentively. After the student's performance was over, he gave his opinion (most of the times an encouraging one) and his advice. On most occasions he also asked to try the guitar, examined it, tuned it, and then played the same piece or
passage again to the appreciation of participants and audience.
Some of Carlevaro's "star pupils", winners of several important international contests are Eduardo Fernández, Álvaro Pierri, Baltazar Benítez, Miguel Ángel Girollet, José Fernández Bardesio as well as his teaching assistants Patrick Zeoli, Alfredo Escande (the author of his biography in Spanish: "Abel Carlevaro - Un nuevo mundo en la guitarra" ), Bartolomé Díaz and
Jad Azkoul, who also translated several of his works. In 1997, Carlevaro declared that Azkoul was his "genuine representative", as well as being a "great master teaching alongside" him.
Eduardo Castañera, María Isabel Siewers, Néstor Ausqui, José Luis Merlin from Argentina, Daniel Wolff from Brazil, Berta Rojas from Paraguay, Janez Gregoric from Austria, Gentaro Takada, from Japan, Ricardo Barceló, from Uruguay, have also been Carlevaro students, as well as many others from South America and many other parts of the world. From Spain we can name Juan Luis Torres Román, Manuel Gómez Ortigosa and Pompeyo Pérez Díaz, performer and musicologist author of the main academic book about Dionisio Aguado and the 19th century guitar.
Carlevaro continued teaching and performing until his last days.
Legacy
On 6 May 1997, Abel Carlevaro certified fellow classical guitarist
Jad Azkoul as his "genuine representative", stating that Azkoul had been a "great master teaching alongside" him.
In 2014, the Uruguayan government inaugurated a statue in his honor on the Montevideo coastline.
Publications
*Serie didáctica
Barry Editorial)
**Cuaderno N°1 - Escalas Diatónicas
**Cuaderno N°2 - Técnica de la mano derecha
**Cuaderno N°3 - Técnica de la mano izquierda
**Cuaderno N°4 - Técnica de la mano Izq. Conclusión
*Numerous other publications are published/distributed by Chanterelle Verlag
12
References
External links
International Abel Carlevaro Festival "Guitar and Nature" Erlbach Germany
Concert-Guitar Model "Carlevaro"fro
KREUL-Gitarren Erlbach Germany
Youtube videos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carlevaro, Abel
1916 births
2001 deaths
Composers for the classical guitar
Musicians from Montevideo
Uruguayan guitarists
Uruguayan male guitarists
Uruguayan classical guitarists
Uruguayan people of Italian descent
20th-century classical musicians
20th-century guitarists
20th-century male musicians