Hermann Hauser 1926 Classical Concert Guitar - link and discussion - created 02-28-2009
magennis, simon - 02/28/2009.06:50:20
not sure if this is the right place for this. I was searching for parlor guitars on ebay and found two different Hermann Hauser guitars for sale. One more small and one a regular classical. The latter has some very nice pictures. It's maple with an adjustable neck - the tuners look beautiful to my eyes. http://www.thefellowshipofacoustics.com/inventory_content_detail.asp?ID=1574
The link is to a dealer in Holland who is selling it. They have it on German ebay as well. Needless to say it is outside my price range.
Was it positive or negative the encounter between Segovia and HH I ?? Room for debate. A very nice example of the Vienna (then Central Europe) school.
It certainly looks nice. It makes me want to try a "vienna school" guitar sometime.
I encourage everyone to check out that link and it's guitar. What a history lesson. May this thread live long.
Alain, please say your side of the debate.
The finish on that guitar is amazing. Hard to believe it is original, and "untouched" though it is not said that way.
Do Vienna School Hausers have ladder or fan braces?
There are two other HH1 for sale at the moment that are easy to find. The second one I found is also on German ebay and is more in the style of a "wandergitarre" (like a parlor). Not as fancy as this one. There is also a shop in Claifornia (trilogy guitars) which have what is apparently a 1931 Segovia owned Spanish style HH1. Nice pikkies too.
The Zaveletas website has an article about a 1924 HH1 restoration with internal pictures - I don't know what the right term for the bracing would be but the photos are clear. http://www.zavaletas-guitarras.com/files/hauser.htm
I will be considered as largely heretic but.. It is rather unfortunate (my viewpoint) that the pre-Torres styles of guitars disappeared totally from the scenes during more than fifty years..And the perfume of adoration that Segovia had with him is certainly responsible for that fall of "bio-diversity" among such gentle animals called parlour guitars in the U.S.
The Torres/Madrid school was superb of course and Manuel Ramirez as many followers (Santos Hernandez in the backroom, etc, etc..) were immense luthiers. But I will always tend to think that the little world of classical guitars would even be better if Hauser I would have built, instead of his 250 "just" Manuel-Santos replicas, 250 "real" Hauser (German) guitars. Just a matter of taste. And I dislike Segovia as a man of little political flair.. in love with Franco until the end, disgusting...
This being said the guitar shown is truly a "syncretic" one. The general style is Viennese, but the size a little post-Torres and some details totally French such as the bridge and (to a large extent) the head, very Lacote.
A nice instrument. That kind of maple is beautiful.
I suppose it stays ladder braced in spite of its large width (for a sort of pre-Torres) but this is an hypothesis.
Thank you, Alain, and Simon. This will be our little party maybe?
Alain, history yes, and let history judge him. Segovia was huge in his own estimation, I think, he must have believed his fan club. We in America, though, have much to thank him for: the popularizing of the guitar at a time when most of us didn't even know the instrument.
Segovia must have made many enemies in the guitar-making shops, for he could make or break a builder with his opinion. Read Manuel Velasquez's interview, he seems to think he closely dodged the bullet.
Alain, the time is coming, and is even now here, when men will reach to the past for the smaller guitar, when it is time for something other than the big voice. We say in the United States "if you build it, they will come".
But doesn't that have to be done in a corn field?
Trying to keep it high-minded here, Steve.
What a lovely instrument. Thanks for the links.
This style is really intriguing to us steel-string builders (well, me at least). I could see diving into making something like this long before trying a Spanish style guitar.
Segovia really did have quite the reputation, but he accomplished a lot- sorta like Bill Monroe (!
Steve: You're right about the attitude the old man had. I saw him in 76 in Boston, and he would finish a piece, and then stare at the audience until there wasn't a peep coming from anyone. Then he would start the next piece. He would also demand excellence from himslef. It took him three tries to get the Bouree going. Other players would have flubbed a few notes and kept on going, but he started over until he got it right.
Whether you like his approach to the instrument or not, you have to admit that the guitar world owes him a lot. He was the guy who took it out of the parlors and bars and put it into the concert halls.
He was a closed minded man, though. I have a Chet Atkins record from decades ago and he has pic on the back of it of him with Segovia "Until he found out I played electric guitar". But I guess if you are truly a giant that you can be arrogant.
I do consider myself fortunate to have seen him.
Steve Parks:
I think you hit on it! While I doubt I'll build a classical guitar, a Hauser-style nylon-string guitar is a very inviting idea. Change a few construction details, bracing etc, and my grand concert shape would be great with nylons.
For many observers, the appeal of many pre-Torres guitars (except the Spanish ones) is that they are not decorated with the typical (wood mosaïc) rosette that became so largely associated afterwards with the classical guitar esthetics. The choice of a clear wood is also, I believe, a plus when you like the non Spanish models.
Nothing more handsome than an absolutely non decorated guitar.. when it is handsome by itself
Some very recent ways to treat the rosette are interestingly different from the traditional mosaïc (spalted woods, etc..).
The next question- who plays Viennese-style guitars these days? Seems the "classical" guitar world is dominated by Spanish-style instruments- in part for some of the reasons mentioned above. Is there a different music usually played on them, or the same stuff played by someone with a different approach? I'd think there are more differences than just the degree of decoration, though that's relevant.
I can't help but picture it in a pre-Segovia parlor or an alehouse in Bavaria or somewhere if you'll pardon my stereotyping....
Steve,
There is also some folklore played on them, but I am a total Beotian in such domains (check Schrammel music).Recall Steve, I have a German name but I am French.
The nice point is that bio-diversity is a new value, even for music.
Any HH Viennese guitar plans available?
I've played the 1931 Segovia Hauser several times at John Silva's shop in Playa del Rey aka Trilogy Guitars. It is what I would call a transitional guitar. Next time I see John I'll have to take some interior photos.
I was one of several people who helped recover the instrument. Andrew York has recorded with it. It is one of several pre-1937 Hausers that Segovia owned. I believe it was around 1928 that Segovia started to mention in his programs that the guitar was by Hauser. I have a copy of the program somewhere in my shop.
Hello Mike,
To my knowledge, there is no easy way, today, to get a plan for a HH1 Viennese guitar. The general idea is: the "archetype" of the Viennese school is much older and, in a way, more important. It is the Stauffer-Legnani model.
The best study of this important model is in a booklet by Ian Watchorn. You have, if my memory still works here, a plan for sale at the Berlin Museum , but you should check with them if it is a "real" Stauffer-Legnani (after 1815/20). Google CIMCIM.
The CRANE (a Japanese source) plan is available (free, nice) on the net but unfortunately is not the archetypal model with its adjustable neck. You can have a look for some starting ideas.
The first Martin guitars (often called Martin and Coupa NY models) are close replicas of this Stauffer model. I ignore if a plan is available in the US. A nice doc. on a Martin guitar of that time is also James Westbrook's book "the century that shaped the guitar".
Addition to above. If you want to see some nice examples of Viennese guitars, you can have a look at the nice sample collected by Brigitte Zaczeck. A very respected concertist in Mittel Europa. Just google on her name. On YouTube, some short pieces by Pavel Steidl show a Stauffer "in action".. but the sound is not good alas. Better than nothing.
Jim Forderer has a nice collection, I remember one Stauffer at least, and other early romantic guitars. He will know about Hauser also, he may have a reproduction. He is very open with his guitars for study. Maybe a contact with him to find where he will be showing them next.
-" The first Martin guitars (often called Martin and Coupa NY models) are close replicas of this Stauffer model."
These are not exactly replicas. C. F. Martin learned lutherie from Johann Stauffer in Vienna. He worked there for many years, passed the Meister tests and become the Stauffer's workshop manager. He even got married with a Stauffer daughter. When he left Vienna and went back to Markneukirchen (Germany) he had a lot of trouble with the luthiers guild because he was the son of a cabinet maker and not a true descendant of a luthiers dynasty. He wasn't allowed to build any musical instruments, so he soon left his hometown and travelled to the States. You know the rest of the history.
Martin started making what he was used to do in Vienna, just Stauffer-Legnani guitars. Later he developed his own designs in a different direction. But those very early Martins were made the same as if they were built at the Stauffer workshop. It was the same guy making and supervising all these guitars.
David Schramm:I've played the 1931 Segovia Hauser several times at John Silva's shop in Playa del Rey aka Trilogy Guitars. It is what I would call a transitional guitar.
How did it compare to the current (Spanish) guitar? Substantially louder? more responsive? etc...
The only real stauffer I have seen was in the Nuremberg museum. They have about 4 viennese style instruments beside each other in one cabinet. (Pianos, harpsichord and other keyboards are their strong point.)
--> David Schramm The HH recovery story would be interesting to hear.
If you are interested by Mittel Europa romantic guitar's sounds you find on the B. Zaczek site recorded pieces played with several historical instruments. You have an idea of what can be done with a romantic guitar.. with some expertise. The historical essay by her friend Komarek is also worth reading (English translation available).
Is the Hauser guitar as small as a Stauffer romantic guitar?
Clay,
For Stauffer you have (very clearcut thing) two different periods. Period one, Stauffer copied very closely the Fabricatore's models. Period two, apparently under Legnani influence, he adopted "his own" way, the one with the adjustable neck. Period 2 guitars are usually slightly bigger than period 1.
By the way, the idea that the Spanish luthiers "invented" the large guitar is not really a fact. Some Guadagninis were almost as big as Torres or F. Gonzalez.. more than thirty years before. But, true, Guadas. were flatter and had less internal volume.. hence less basses. Difficult to discuss the sizes questions as the one you ask about romantics because there was much more diversity.. and "shape" invention, than in the 20 th. century classicals (which never changed in a noticeable way).
As an aside from this very interesting discussion, but still somewhat relevant, the guitar used in the "Sound of Music" by Maria is a Spanish guitar. Would it not have been more correct for her to be playing something more Viennese, given the time and geographical context of the movie?
I estimate the Hauser in the OP is about 15 1/2" (398mm) wide at the lower bout.
It's a big guitar.
Doug, that was "product placement". The Swedish company Levin made the Goya model (G-10 i think) for that movie, and sold them using the tie to the movie.
David,
A really transitional box between old German and new Spanish formats. Not far from a M. Ramirez of the first years of the 20 th. cent. as the one Segovia owned. I never saw a classical as big as you say.
Let someone check for us.
--> Alain
The music on B.Zacek guitar and music are georgeous. I will buy some of the CDs. Thanks. Can you recommend any reading on mitteleurope guitars and/or romantic guitars?
Google on Ian Watchorn. A superb connoisseur of the Mittel Europa lutherie. All is first class, all his writings as well as all his lutherie.. and the writings are in English. As classy as Brigitte Zaczek.
You also have a very good US guy at "earlyromanticguitar.com" or something close to that. If you read German (or Tchequian?) you have (I am sure) much more.
In addition to the previous message. A lot of interesting info on the evolution of Mittel Europa lutherie is on the University of Leipzig site (studia instrumentorum musicae). In German but many drawings and picts. You could search for Richard Jacob "Weissgerber" instruments. At first glance, a 1923 Weissgerber guitar looks almost like the HH I guitar at start of this thread. Inventory N°4761.