Manuel Granados, guitarist and instructor. Interview

“I feel the need to dignify flamenco”

Silvia Calado. Barcelona, January 2005

Manuel Granados has been intensely devoted to flamenco guitar teaching for the past two decades now. Educated in the Borrull house, he decided to devote himself to didactics “due to a desire to get across the knowledge bequeathed to me”. Convinced that “a good professional isn't necessarily a good instructor”, the director of the Superior School of Flamenco Guitar of the Superior Music Conservatory of the Liceo (Opera Theater) of Barcelona has undertaken designing a methodology faithful to the musical essence of the genre, original and adapted to the pupil's level. And it is thus captured in his didactic books, which are now a guide for thousands of students all over the world.

How did you get into flamenco music?

My liking of the guitar, in general, and the fact of sharing part of my childhood in Barcelona with people who are the history of guitar and flamenco dancing such as Miguel Borrull Jr. and Concha Borrull, made me lean towards the study of flamenco guitar in all its aspects. First, in accompanying cante and baile, and later, concert guitar.

Manuel Granados

How did your contact with the Borrull family influence you?

The Borrulls weren't too representative a family of the flamenco stereotype, since they were people devoted to studying. Not in vain, the patriarch, Miguel Borrull, was a pupil of Francisco Tárrega and the maestro of his son Miguel and Ramón Montoya, devoting his life to the improvement of flamenco guitar at the concert level. In his business facet he was also unsurpassable in managing a singing café, Barcelona's Villarrosa, which gave prestige and world renown to flamenco in the twenties.

Do you have any other references?

My maestro, Antonio Francisco Serra, with whom I studied flamenco and classical guitar. He'd been the pupil of great guitarists and classical teachers such as Miguel Llobet, Emilio Pujol and Nicolás Alfonso, plus Joaquín Zamacois in harmony and composing; he therefore realized a particular pedagogical focus on flamenco. An entire legacy of knowledge that he was able to pass on to me.

As a concert guitarist and composer, how would you define your style and your contribution?

It's hard to talk about something like that, and more so when I've generated a peculiar form and one different to the way of feeling under the stereotypical viewpoint of flamenco. I compose what I feel, that's true, with the idea of making the genre's essence and its traditional aspects last.

Why did you move towards teaching?

Due to a desire to get across the knowledge bequeathed to me and which I collected. In time I perceived the positive aspect of carrying out teaching work. On the other hand, I felt the need to dignify flamenco and the intention to normalize all the aspects defining it as a musical genre.

What is your methodology, along the general lines?

I consider personality and originality. And I've based my pedagogical work on that. I think those two concepts have to be inherent in a creator.

	"You have to uphold a vision from the flamenco genre itself"

Are the teaching and learning of flamenco music different to those of other genres in any way?

Not along the general lines, but it's very important to respect and include its singularity in them. You have to uphold a vision from the flamenco genre itself, and not begin with other visions or education and their possible applications to flamenco.

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