Agustín Barrios-Mangoré

Agustín Barrios (1885 - 1944), who later added the name Mangoré, was a Paraguayan guitarist and composer.

Barrios was famed for his phenomenal performances, both live and on his gramophone-recordings, the first classical-guitar music ever committed to disk. For a period of some years, it was his habit to perform in concert in traditional 'native' Paraguayan dress (he was partly of Guarani origin).

His works are championed by Australian guitarist John Williams, among others, as the greatest in the classical-guitar repertoire. His works are largely late Romantic in character, despite his having lived well into the twentieth century. Many of them are also adaptations of or are influenced by South American and Central American folk music. Very many of them are of a virtuosic nature.

The Bach-inspired La Catedral (1921) is often considered to be his most impressive work, even winning the approval of Segovia, who otherwise had little regard for his compositions. The posthumous rise in Barrios' critical stock, both as composer and player, is seen by some to have come at the expense of Segovia, formerly an untouchable icon of the instrument.

External links

• Agustín Barrios Mangoré: The Folkloric, Imitative, and the Religious Influence Behind His Compositions