s a r n d y e r
The legacy of Ida Presti (1923–1967) presents a strange dichotomy. On the one hand, Presti is regarded by many as the greatest guitarist of the twentieth century; on the other, her approach to the guitar is often regarded by teachers as sui generis, a model difficult and even dangerous to follow. But Presti’s example continues to hold up a mirror to the limitations of our present pedagogy and the limitations of some pres- ent expectations of the guitar. In this imaginary and largely speculative encounter, Ida Presti explains the development of her unique approach to the guitar.
i da p re s t i Ah, Monsieur le Méthodologiste, I believe. Alexandre tells me
that you have a special interest in understanding the playing of other guitarists and that when you were studying with him, you often questioned him about my playing.
s a r n dye r That’s true. In the relatively short history of the modern guitar,
our great players have collectively revealed its character to us and I believe that we should try to benefit as much as possible from their examples. As to whether I can call myself a methodologist, well – your playing has undermined many of my preconceptions.
i p Surely not! Does my playing appear so strange?
s d It certainly doesn’t seem so when you are playing – in fact, it is almost
impossible to imagine anything appearing more natural.
i p How mysterious! But you know, I am not the right person to ask about
matters of technique: I have never really thought about it. Whatever abilities I have, these have developed from playing music, not from theorising. The chal- lenge to me has always been to play music on the guitar as I hear it in my head and technique has developed naturally from this. As you know, my father was my first teacher. Although he was a pianist, he made a study of the guitar to be able to help me. When he listened to me, he had certain musical expectations and, in trying to fulfil these, I was obliged to find my own way from the start. So, from the very beginning, there was no separation between musical expression and technique. I do not mean to say that the study of technique is not valuable: musicality does not develop in the same way and at the same speed in everyone.
When Ida Presti met Alexandre Lagoya (1929–1999) in 1950 – he had already corresponded with her from Egypt – she declared him to be the best guitarist she had ever heard. Two years later they married and founded their illustrious duo, achieving a success universally compared to Andrés Segovia’s popularisation of the solo medium.
Presti also had lessons with Emilio Pujol (1886–1980), a student of Francisco Tárrega (1854–1909), and with Mario Maccaferri (1900–1993), a student of Luigi Mozzani (1869–1943). Later, she was to use Pujol’s Escuela razonada de la guitarra (Buenos Aires: Ricordi Americana, 1971) in her teaching. The similarity between these teachers’ right-hand positions and Presti’s is superficial, but certain of the
Escuela’s precepts – the involvement of
the entire arm ‘from the shoulder to the fingertips’, for example – may have been significant in Presti’s formation if they were not merely fortuitous.
Alexandre, on the other hand, is very interested in this subject and is always look- ing for new ideas, so really it would be much better if you were to ask him…
s d …Lagoya certainly understands the technical aspect very well, but, in
spite of the balance you achieve in performance, aren’t your techniques rather different in certain important aspects?
i p Yes, they are not quite the same, but the differences are not so great. As
you know, we both play on the right side of the nail.
s d But do you both do so in the same way and for the same reasons? In both
your cases, the nail does not grip the string at the point of contact and is always mobile, but your nail crosses the string from right to left, releasing at the centre. Lagoya also releases the string at the centre, but because he uses his nails with a longer right-hand side, there is less movement along the length of the string, al- though the nail travels approximately the same distance. What do you think?
i p I don’t know. Let me see…
[Presti picks up her guitar and begins to warm up by playing arpeggios over the
entire span of the fingerboard, often using remarkably fluent left-hand extensions. Her right hand is very mobile, free and expressive, and her sound strong and im- mediate, with an extraordinary vibrancy: a very physical way of playing, and yet seemingly relaxed. Owing to the flexibility of her left hand, before changing posi- tion on the fourth finger, Presti is able partially to cover the distance by separating it from the third finger by almost a right angle. In vibrato, the finger is held almost upright on the fingerboard, displacing the string equally in both directions. Her right-hand thumb begins its action slightly extended and does not span the strings from one position; instead, the arm makes subtle adjustments to place it on the re- quired string]
…well, perhaps you are right.
s d The positioning and ‘set’ of the fingers also seems to play a part. For ex-
ample, it appears that, in free stroke, you move the string primarily with the middle joint of the finger, whereas Lagoya uses both the knuckle and the mid- dle joint. His fingers are also a little straighter than yours. In playing position, your middle finger is at an approximate right angle to the strings, the index leans leftwards and the ring finger leans rightwards. In Lagoya’s case, it is the index that is approximately at a right angle, while the middle and ring finger both lean towards the right. Did you begin playing on the right side of the nail to improve tone?
Presti
(rh: index) release point path of string greater angleirection of free stroke path of string direction of free stroke
Lagoya
(rh: index)
path of string
release point
path of string direction of free stroke In teaching, Presti tended to leave all
matters of technique to Lagoya, concen- trating her own attention entirely on expression. For her, there was no poor music, only poor players.
These comments on the position of Lagoya’s hand refer principally to the period of his duo with Presti.
i p Not exactly – probably the position came first and then I tried many dif-
ferent ways to make a strong sonority.
s d How did your position come about? Was it as a result of playing a full-
size guitar from a very early age?
i p Yes, that is almost certainly the reason. Because of this, it was necessary
to place my arm halfway between the bridge and the waist of the guitar, and therefore my fingers attacked the strings parallel to the bridge. I used mostly the middle joint in pincé (free stroke) because otherwise, in this position, my child’s hand would not have been able to span the strings…
s d …so, by not flexing the fingers at the knuckle joints, in fact slightly ex-
tending them, you were able to increase the span between the thumb and fin- gers. How is the guitar positioned to use the right hand in your way?
i p I try to position the guitar well to my right, separating the right leg by
turning my right foot a little to the right. I like to feel that I am in the centre of the activity of my arms and hands...
s d …and that position also allows you to place the right arm as you did as
a child. This also causes the right hand to be presented perpendicular to the strings without any rightwards (ulnar) deviation of the wrist, but you also some- times slightly deviate the hand in two different ways: first, by a small articula- tion of the wrist as you play the string, and second, by actually maintaining the hand in a more ulnar-deviated position. Why is this necessary?
i p There is more than one reason, but mainly it is to reduce the resistance
of the nails and to allow the arm and wrist to respond to the movements of the fingers. I began to do this as a child, before I used my nails, to reduce the resist- ance of the fingertip and to add strength. My nails were never strong and their exposed parts begin quite low on the finger. If they broke, they took a long time to grow back. Consequently I had to find a way of using them when they were short. I would use the wrist with the action of the finger to turn the finger on the string in a little clockwise movement. Later, I found that some of this deliberate movement could also happen by itself, in sympathy with the movements of the fingers and thumb. But in buté (rest stroke) I maintain the hand in a more turned position. This happens naturally when I use my fingers vigorously, and also reduces the resistance of the nail, adding to the sonority. I like to feel that I am using the nail like a violinist’s bow.
s d It appears fundamental to your technique that the side of the nail
doesn’t grip the string but is always in movement. Any gripping by the side of the nail would be likely to damage it. Could you be more specific about these sympathetic movements? The freedom of your right hand is a striking aspect of your technique.
i p Well, for example, particularly when the thumb plays, the forearm makes
a small anti-clockwise rotation. Sometimes I add strength to this rotation to play louder. If the movements of the fingers are small, this rotation is also small and sometimes quite difficult to see. If I play an arpeggio in this direction [Presti
plays some very fast p a m i arpeggios], there is also a slight sideways movement
in the hand at the wrist. In this direction [now p i m a], the rotation of the fore- arm is more marked. Every sequence of fingers has a different result in the arm and wrist.
Lagoya, by comparison, always associated the use of the right side of the nail with an improved and more powerful tone.
Both Marie Lévesque and Alice Artzt observed that Presti was sometimes obliged to give concerts with broken nails or almost no available nail at all. The clockwise movement is an arc result- ing from the ordinary flexion of the finger in combination with a slight movement of the wrist towards the bridge; the finger may well join in with a small movement towards the bridge as well as the ordinary flexion. But these movements are all inte- grated. This use of the wrist can be seen in Presti’s playing in La petite chose (1938), a film based on Robert Destez’s novel, directed by Maurice Cloche, with original music by Germaine Tailleferre. Presti, aged fifteen and already a fully formed artist, plays Las dos hermanitas by Tárrega. In private correspondence with the author, Alice Artzt noted that Presti was well aware of the need to find means to com- pensate for any extra strength available to male players.
The mobility of Presti’s hand presupposes that she always used her nails rather short. Yves Chatelaine, who, as a child, studied with Presti, confirmed that the nails should be filed as if they were to be used with the fingertip; but in practice only the nails were used.
s d What is the secret of playing on very short nails?
i p Well, I eventually solved the problem with false nails, but when I had
very little nail to play on, my method was to use the wrist as I described and to play in such a way that the string stayed in contact with the flesh as it rolled first over the fingertip and then down onto whatever nail was available. Whatever the state of my nails, the movement of my finger is directly downwards onto the string, towards the soundboard, as if I am playing a piano key.
s d Do you play using only the nail or with flesh and nail together?
i p The fingertip touches the string but only incidentally: the work of mov-
ing the string is done with the nail. As a child, my fingers used to perspire so much that playing with the fingertips was difficult. Later, I used a little fine grease on my fingertips. Also, I found that if the fingertip is used with the nail, there are two resistances to be overcome, making it more difficult to control the loudness and softness. I often had problems with my nails and had to adapt my playing accordingly.
s d So your technique changed when you began using artificial nails? i p I was able to be consistent in the length and use of my nails so that they
could find the strings more easily. In general, artificial nails simply made life simpler. I bless the man who invented this product!
s d With your primary use of the middle joints in free stroke, you are able to
play at astonishing speed. Your cross-string trills, played, I believe, i a i m, are sometimes ten to a metronome beat of eighty!
i p I’m thankful that I never counted!
s d How crucial is the positioning of the hand to achieve such rapidity? For
example, if I adjust your hand by rotating your forearm a little one way or the other, are you still able to achieve this speed?
i p [trying] Well, that surprises me – it is much more difficult, in fact impos-
sible for me. My fingers seem blocked and I am unable to use the same energy.
s d Perhaps we should look at your position more carefully. If you extend
your fingers in playing position and lower your hand directly down onto the strings without turning your forearm, does the whole palm make contact with the strings?
i p [pressing her palm to the strings and then looking at the marks on her
palm] No, I think the strings only touch the palm below the index and almost to
the palm below the middle finger. The right side of the palm is raised a little above the strings.
s d So it would appear that the exact amount of rotation of the forearm is
significant: it is neither pronated nor supinated but as it would be if the arm hung loosely to the side.
i p I think this position and use of my forearm and hand is quite similar to
that of a pianist. As you know, the piano was the instrument I played first.
s d Do you use any ballistic – or throwing – force in the action of your fin-
gers? That is to say, do you fully expend the energy of a stroke before making an- other stroke?
In his book, Guitar Travels (1977, published privately), John Roberts quotes Emilio Pujol as saying that when Presti played for him at a young age, she gave this as her reason for not being able to fol- low his example in playing without nails. According to Alice Artzt, Presti began’
using gel-type artificial nails almost as’
soon as these became available (Ongles’
Villard, Taylor, etc) c. 1965. Ms. Artzt’
provided the quoted remark: ‘I bless’
the man…’ Examples are to be found in the duo’s playing of the Prelude from J.S. Bach’s English Suite nº 3.
In masterclass, Lagoya, by comparison, said that he did not consider a slight supination or pronation to be significant.
i p I’m not aware of this at all. My fingers return as soon as possible to play
again. [playing with great rapidity] At speed, there would be no time to expend all the energy.
s d So the follow-through of the finger after playing the string is quite min-
imal. Is there any exercise that can help in establishing your position?
i p Practising buté (rest stroke) a m i in groups of four, six, eight and so on,
can be very useful for this and difficult to do if the hand is not more or less per- pendicular to the strings.
[demonstrates, her wrist now losing much of its arch or flexion. The fingertips
are firm and have a curling action towards the adjacent string]
s d I have heard that you recommend to your students that they hold match-
sticks between their fingers to achieve the right action, but surely if the fingers are held together in this way, it will create tension in the hand?
i p No, no, the fingers must never be held together! This purpose of this lit-
tle exercise is to remind the student not to separate the fingers.
s d Lagoya allows the fingertip to relax before flexing it to play the string. Do
you do the same?
i p I’m not aware of doing this at all.
s d There are many aspects to your use of the right hand that might not find
favour with the teachers of today: the rightwards deviation of the wrist in rest stroke, for example, and the degree of its arch or flexion. Surely this would tend to restrict the movement of the fingers in any hand less flexible than yours?
i p [laughing] You make me sound so naughty! A pianist could not play
without turning or, as you say, deviating the hand – sometimes, as in the case of large intervals, to an extreme degree. As you will have noticed, my right hand is quite mobile and it doesn’t stay in any position for very long. The wrist is always relaxed unless I am using it with the action of the fingers as I have described. As for restriction of movement, I find none.
[Presti flexes, extends and deviates her wrist while moving her fingers & thumb]
s d [imitating her movements] I see. Because the action of the fingers is pri-
marily from the middle joint and there is so little flexing at the knuckle or proxi- mal joint, there is no restriction. But surely the movement from the middle joints is harder to control than a movement from the knuckle joints? [I demonstrate]
i p [now imitating my movements] Well of course, but only if you make such
big movements! Try again with small movements of the middle joints and then try to make the same small movements moving mostly from the knuckle joints.
s d I see what you mean: small movements are very difficult when the finger
moves primarily from the knuckle joint. Lagoya changes the fingernail’s angle of attack to make a clearer sound on the wound strings. Do you achieve your re- markable clarity and sonority on those strings in the same way?
i p No, I don’t find this necessary; my way of sounding the string is usually
the same for both bass and treble strings. I also try to give as much character or resonance to the bass strings as possible to compensate for the closeness of the bass and upper parts – when Alexandre is playing an accompaniment to my
(a m i a|m i a m|i a m i|a m i a, etc.
melody on the bass strings, I might play, for example, with a very deep rest stroke, or just with the flesh, and so on.
s d How is such a perfect staccato achieved even at tempos as high as four