Her imaginative work has earned numerous awards and she currently holds the position of the Philadelphia Orchestra composer-in-residence. What makes Paracho unique is that it not only has a tradition of guitar making–the entire town is involved in the business. Ironically, most of the locals haven’t seen the movie (there’s no theatre in Paracho), and few of the residents play the instrument. Andrew Sullivan is a contributor to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, and serves as a Contributing Photographer for Craftsmanship Quarterly. “For most Mexicans, a cheap guitar is the only one they can buy. “The problem is the bending heat is close to the burning point,” Guillermo says. Shellac allows the wood to breathe more than commercial varnish, but to be used properly the finish must be carefully applied, in a series of thin layers, each coat laboriously rubbed in by hand. Alberto Ginastera [Argentina] Born in 1916 in Buenos Aires, died in 1983, Alberto Evaristo Ginastera … Because the area’s humidity is so high, when Paracho guitars were transported to drier locales the necks would warp, and the frets would crack. This major award-winning composer, however, also writes beloved works for children. As a result, Indian or Mexican rosewood (“palo escrito”) are often used as substitutes, but they don’t offer quite the same quality. He gazes at all the first- and second-place ribbons with their accompanying certificates. It inspired many guitar players worldwide. Many guitarists, particularly middle-aged ones, develop, along with callouses on their fingers, something called “GAS”–Guitar Acquisition Syndrome–and Peter is no exception. John Williams) at Barack Obama’s first inauguration. Finally, in 1939, when he traveled to Mexico City to visit his grandfather, his father-in-law taught him how to make a guitar–a business that Don Manuel thought could better support his family. People huddle on the sidewalks under the arched porticos. “You have to learn to listen to the wood,” he says. Ginastera studied under Aaron Copland at Tanglewood Music Center in Boston and later went on to teach Astor Piazzolla and Jacqueline Nova (Columbian electro-acoustic composer), among others. While Peter already has several guitars with different functions (the jazz guitar, the electric, the travel version), he doesn’t have one to play bossa nova; and for that, apparently, you need a classical, nylon-stringed guitar–preferably one made by hand. This braced the guitar and created still more reverberation. Torres’ innovations revolutionized the guitar, making it capable of producing a much louder, more resonant sound. We shake hands, then hug, all around. Find out more about the greatest Mexican Musicians, including Dulce María, Luis Miguel, Gloria Trevi, Maite Perroni and Paulina Rubio. These are the shops of the master luthiers, or guitarreros. So he relied on the tools of his indigenous ancestors—primarily a simple, curved knife. Plus, check out Indie 102.3's feature on Latinx artists from Colorado! These early influences shaped his understanding of music. Sunday mornings, The Music Room weekdays at 10:30 a.m., and more. If we used a machine, we would eventually get a flaw that would affect the sound.” Don Manuel is such a perfectionist in measuring, cutting, sanding, and shaping his guitars that he named one of his sons “Perfecto.”. Most of the instruments are made in factories, but a small portion is entirely crafted by hand, by people many consider the finest luthiers in the New World (most connoisseurs say the best in the entire world reside in Spain). Paquito D’Rivera (1948-): A performer whose website declares that he “defies categorization.” D’Rivera is best known as a 14-time Grammy award winning jazz saxophonist and composer, but his broad range of styles incorporates classical and chamber music. He could have purchased a Paracho guitar through one of the luthier’s websites or Facebook pages (see the Resources sidebar at the end of this story), but the only way to know how the guitar would sound–and each one’s sound is as unique as a snowflake–is to play it in person. Born in 1882 in Fresnillo, died in 1948, Manuel María Ponce Cuéllar was a composer, teacher, and scholar of Mexican folk music. Thalía. They travelled to “tierra caliente”—the warm coastal region to the west—to trade wood for goods. It isn’t ornamented, and it doesn’t look much different than his cheapest guitar, except that the wood has a deep, reddish color and uncommonly tight grain. Like so many guitarists before him who have made the trek to Paracho, my husband Peter has come to find the one instrument that speaks to him. Inside the soundboard lies the secret to each guitar’s distinctive sound: its particular arrangement of struts and fan braces. Struggling to make his choice, he asks Guillermo nit-picky questions about the spacing of the frets and how well each guitar will hold a tune. According to family legend, Paracho townspeople began making guitars not long before that, perhaps around 1880, though everyone in the shop argues about the exact dates. After Gustavo Dudamel’s Simon Bolívar Youth Orchestra took Márquez’s “Danzon No. Sierra’s works, which range from orchestral and chamber to a bongo concerto, have been performed worldwide. But aside from these few modern crutches, Don Manuel says, “Everything is made by hand. The fronts and backs—which are made of pine here—go into a thickness sander, and the sides are steamed over a metal form. The workers make about 900 pesos a week, or about $45. Before leaving, we stop at Guillermo’s workshop to pick up Peter’s new guitar. Along the way, we pass some wood cabins that were the town’s original houses. The guitar’s body and neck were made with palo escrito (Mexican rosewood), and Canadian Englemann spruce on its top. The typical Flamenco guitar sound has its origins in Andalucia, tending to be brighter, drier and more austere than a classical guitar… Today, locals estimate that 90% of the people who work in Paracho make guitars or guitar parts (the population is about 35,000), producing some one million instruments per year. The instrument itself is light, but it creates a much more complex sound than the other. Eventually, he drops the technical questions when he realizes that, in the end, it all comes down to the sound you can hear, and the instrument’s playability. Fernando Sor (1778-1839) – Spanish classical guitarist and composer. Guillermo disappears into a room in the back that is filled with finished guitars, as well as stuffed birds of prey and small mammals he has hunted in the nearby woods. And the Paracho guitar makers were happy to comply. Mexican Female Musicians Lyricists & Songwriters Record Producers. San Francisco, CA 94118. Proceeds from every purchase go to support the news and music you love. He was also the director of the Mexico National Symphony Orchestra, the second oldest orchestra on the North American continent. But, Guillermo says, they are still important, not only for the economy of the town, but for the country’s musicians. These guitars may not last forever, and their sound has none of the resonance of Guillermo’s guitars. Ernesto Lecuona (1896-1963): A Cuban concert pianist and composer for both stage and screen. As Peter strums the guitar, Guillermo gets back to his work. This workshop, the foreman tells me, makes 120 guitars a day; most will wholesale for about $20. The first bishop of Michoacán, Vasco de Quiroga, famously assigned crafts to different pueblos surrounding the central town of Patzcuaro, which continue to be known for their fine copper, ceramic, weaving, and other arts.