The Flamenco Guitar

From the 1969 liner notes: »The Flamenco Guitar is the only book in any language to deal with the flamenco guitar in all its aspects, and the first book to focus on the gypsies in relation to the guitar. Here is the flamenco guitar in the context of the dead past and living present, from its birth in the hands of the guitarrero to its ultimate celebration in the hands of the flamenco guitarist. In the Córdoba workshop of the outstanding guitarrero, Manuel Reyes, we learn how the guitar is made—step by step—«from the tree to the finished guitar». In the natural setting of gypsy flamenco we meet gypsy guitarists who tell us, in their own words, the role and function of the flamenco guitar. Leading flamencologists and flamenco artists have praised this book not only for its «knowledge and scope», but also for its «rare honesty and depth of understanding». As D. E. Pohren (author of The Art of Flamenco, etc.) has said: «David George well realizes that the making of great flamenco guitars is not achieved by technique alone, nor is great flamenco guitar playing. Technique is essential, as are environment, attitude, and afición, but the heart in flamenco separates the great from the good. This, I think, is basically the lesson that David George, both in his writing and in his meaningful photographs, illustrates in The Flamenco Guitar. Since 1962, David George has devoted himself to Andalucia—«The cradle of flamenco» and «the paradise of the Moors»—documenting facets of the culture in text and photograph. There, in the land of bull ranches, plazas de toros, Roman arenas, Phoenician dolmens, Arabian horses, sunlight ‘and sherry, he has plenty of opportunity to combine work and pleasure. His headquarters in the barrio of gypsy caves under the castle of Alcala overlooks the River Guadaira, where he is reconstructing a Moorish mill for use as a painting studio. Born and raised in Wisconsin, the author’s interest in ethnology and foreign cultures began at the university where he studied cultural anthropology under Dr. Hugo Engelmann. After serving with the US CounterIntelligence Corps in Germany, he resumed postgraduate studies in Wisconsin and California, continuing at the Universities of London, Frankfurt, and Seville where he is currently completing an ethnographic study for the Department of Anthropology. A free-lance photo-journalist and some-time university lecturer, he is an active member of the Society of Authors, London; The Gypsy Lore Society ; Instituto de Cultura Hispánica, etc. Although a thorough researcher and poet in his own right, David George prefers the role of «mouthpiece» for the gypsy flamencos —«student, observer, and recorder» of their life and art. He is currently completing two more books: The Flamenco Dancer and The Flamenco Singer, which will complete the trilogy of song, dance, and guitar.«