Beyond Virtuosity: Reconsidering the Compositional Autonomy of Agustín Barrios Mangoré and the Performer-Composer Binary in Classical Guitar Scholarship - A Case Study of La Catedral
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24114/grenek.v15i1.74079Keywords:
Agustín Barrios Mangoré, La Catedral, Performer-Composer Binary, Work-Concept, Classical Guitar Analysis, Compositional Autonomy, Postcolonial MusicologyAbstract
Agustín Barrios Mangoré (1885–1944) is frequently described in classical guitar scholarship as a “performer-composer,” yet this category often remains undertheorized. This article argues that the label carries assumptions shaped by the Romantic work-concept, which privileges composition as authoritative and treats performance as secondary. Such a framework risks reducing Barrios’s compositional thought to virtuoso technique and judging his music through European canonical standards. Drawing on Lydia Goehr’s theory of the historically constructed work-concept and Nicholas Cook’s idea of performance-as-analysis, this study examines La Catedral (1921/1938). The analysis identifies structural decisions that exceed idiomatic guitar writing: the harmonic voice-leading of Preludio Saudade, the three-voice Baroque counterpoint of Andante Religioso, and the chromatically intensified formal design of Allegro Solemne. The article concludes that Barrios’s music demonstrates compositional intelligence grounded in performance but not subordinated to it, offering a broader model for evaluating non-European classical guitar repertories.
References
Abbate, C. (2004). Music—Drastic or Gnostic? Critical Inquiry, 30(3), 505–536. https://doi.org/10.1086/421160
Aldwell, E., & Schachter, C. (2003). Harmony and Voice Leading, 3rd edn. Belmont, CA: Thomson-Schirmer.
Born, G., & Hesmondhalgh, D. (2000). Western music and its others: Difference, representation, and appropriation in music. California: Univ of California Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1993). The field of cultural production: Essays on art and literature. Polity. https://archive.org/details/fieldofculturalp00bour
Bridge, S. K. (2022). Music and Identity in Paraguay: Expressing National, Racial and Class Identity in Guitar Music Culture. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 147(1), 1–49. https://doi.org/10.1017/rma.2022.11
Caplin, W. E. (1998). Classical form: A theory of formal functions for the instrumental music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. UK: Oxford University Press.
Citron, M. J. (2000). Gender and the musical canon. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.
Clarke, E. (2005). Ways of listening: An ecological approach to the perception of musical meaning. UK: Oxford University Press.
Cook, N. (2013). Beyond the score: Music as performance. US: Academic.
Dahlhaus, C. (1991). The idea of absolute music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Davidson, J. W. (2017). The music practitioner: Research for the music performer, teacher and listener. London: Routledge.
Davies, S. (2001). Musical works and performances: A philosophical exploration. UK: Clarendon Press.
Flyvbjerg, B. (2004). Five misunderstandings about case-study research. Sosiologisk Tidsskrift, 12(2), 117–142. https://doi.org/10.18261/ISSN1504-2928-2004-02-02
Goehr, L. (1992). The imaginary museum of musical works: An essay in the philosophy of music: An essay in the philosophy of music. UK: Clarendon Press.
Kerman, J. (2009). Contemplating music: Challenges to musicology. US: Harvard University Press.
Kramer, L. (1993). Music as cultural practice, 1800-1900 (Vol. 8). California: Univ of California Press.
Leech-Wilkinson, D. (2009). Recordings and histories of performance style. In The Cambridge companion to recorded music (pp. 246–262). England: Cambridge University Press.
Lehmann, A. C., Sloboda, J. A., & Woody, R. H. (2007). Psychology for musicians: Understanding and acquiring the skills. UK: Oxford University Press.
Marrington, M. (2021). Recording the Classical Guitar. London: Routledge.
McClary, S. (2016). Doing the Time Warp in seventeenth-century music. Music in Time: Phenomenology, Perception, Performance, 237–256. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780197779798.003.0012
Radano, R. M., & Bohlman, P. V. (2000). Music and the racial imagination. US: University of Chicago Press.
Stover, R. D. (1992). Six Silver Moonbeams: The Life and Times of Agustín Barrios Mangoré. US: Querico Publications.
Summerfield, M. J. (2003). The classical guitar: its evolution, players and personalities since 1800. US: Hal Leonard Corporation.
Taruskin, R. (1995). Text and Act: Essays on Music and Performance. UK: Oxford University Press.
Wade, G. (2010). A concise history of the classic guitar. US: Mel Bay Publications.
Wade, G. (2018). Traditions of the classical guitar. US: Alma Books.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Lim Chien Hu, Herry Rizal Djahwasi, Zaharul Lailiddin bin Saidon
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors published with the Grenek: Jurnal Seni Musik agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-SA 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. (See The Effect of Open Access)
