Author: Unknown Critic

Cited by

• Nicola Barker (1)
  • IN: Happy (2017) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: In front, a corral of bamboo an two house palms. Mangoré presents himself with feathers. An anachronism. Something for children. His costume goes with the bamboo, but not with the guitar. The reception by the public is cold and silent, with ironic comments: 'horrendous', 'shocking', 'he's on marijuana' etc. The Indian sits, strokes his instrument in a strangely smooth manner and begins. The program does not seem to be in agreement with the situation -- it indicates the Indian feels he is a musician, and that he wants to give the best he can, but my God! That savage wants to play Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin on the guitar! It seems a sacrilege. We expect a disaster, a fatal musical calamity. He plays a Serenata Morisca of his own composition. On the mark. Another of his compositions, andante and allegretto. Notable. A Chilean dance... The guitar becomes a piano, violin, flute, mandolin, drum. There is nothing that this man can't do on the guitar. At times it seems the guitar plays itself... The applause grows, and increases with each piece until at the end of the performance the public is shouting 'encore' to which he replies 'thank you', simply 'thank you'.
    FROM: writing about the guitarist and composer Agustin Barrios, aka Chief Nitsuga Mangore, in the Nuestro Diario, (1933), NULL, Guatemala