Andrés Segovia and Federico Moreno Torroba’s \u3ci\u3eDanza castellana\u3c/i\u3e

Abstract

The guitar’s early twentieth-century repertoire is of unique importance, containing as it does the first guitar pieces by non-guitarist composers known for their symphonic, operatic and chamber music. Many of these composers wrote for the pioneering Andalusian guitarist Andrés Segovia, and among the most prolific of them was Federico Moreno Torroba. In various memoirs and interviews, Segovia identified Torroba’s miniature Danza castellana as not only the first piece written for him by a non-guitarist composer but even the first such piece by anyone, predating, in Segovia’s telling, Falla’s 1920 Homenaje. This article challenges Segovia’s claim by recounting the details and circumstances of Torroba’s composition. The discussion includes an examination of Segovia’s various autobiographical works, his first South American tour, and his project to elevate the guitar’s repertoire by collaborating with non-guitarist composers