Segovía – an autobiography of the years 1893-1920 –

“Beginning with his birth in 1893, Andres Segovia relates his memories from his earliest years in Jaen, where ’the wind blows with such fury that it wrests harmonic sounds from the cathedral bells’, up to his triumphant concert in Madrid’s Teatro de la Comedia and his departure from Spain at the age of 27.

The master of the classical guitar recounts with warmth, energy and affection how the first musical seed was cast in his soul with his uncle’s singing, was nurtured by his meeting with a strolling flamenco guitar player, and finally how his passion for music caught fire when he heard for the first time the sounds of what the flamenco players call a ‘fine guitar’.

Segovia brings the Spain of his first years to life as he moves through Seville, Valencia, Granada, Madrid, Cordoba, from the salons and artists’ cafes to the royal palace, and from the arms of his uncle and aunt into those of his many mistresses.
But first and foremost, it is his tremendous passion for the guitar which infects the pages of this warm and lively book. ‘I was not concerned with fame nor with what I might earn in the future from what is, today, my work. It was pure love.'”