International Guitar Research Archives

Platero y Yo
(An Andalucian Elegy)
by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco

The book, originally in Spanish and first published in 1917, is a series of lyrical impressions about a donkey named Platero, to whom the poet, "I" (one can imagine a wise and gentle old man) confides his innermost thoughts and feelings. Subtitled "an Andalucian Elegy," it is a reflection of the life experiences of the writer, his friend and companion Platero, and the men, women, and children of the village of Moguer in Spain.

Castelnuovo-Tedesco set twenty-eight of the verses to music in 1960. Soon afterwards, Andres Segovia recorded ten of them without narration, since much of the musical score sounds complete by itself. The music and the text independent of one another are highly expressive and moving; when put together, they become a little-known masterpiece.

Don Doyle (on the right) is a nationally recognized storyteller, a professional actor, a director of theater and opera, and the professor Emeritus of theater and storyteller at Arizona State University. He is a recipient of The Campton Bell Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Alliance for Theater and Education (Artists and Educators Serving Young People), and has also been presented with the Medallion of Merit Award from the National Society of Arts and Letters for his contribution to the state of Arizona State University, and a doctoral degree in theater from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Doyle is on the Artists Roster of the Arizona Commission on the Arts.

Frank Koonce (on the left) has the directed the guitar program at Arizona State University since 1978. He holds degrees from the North Carolina School of the Arts and from Southern Methodist University, Summa cum Laude. A Fulbright Scholar, he studied and performed in Italy under the auspices of the American Embassy, and he continues to be an active performer and clinician, both nationally and internationally. Mr. Koonce served as Director of the immensely successful Guitar Festival 1987 which combined the resources of the Guitar Foundation of America and the American String Teachers Association. He now serves as Chairman of the GFA Advisory Board and is the "Pedagogy Forum" editor of the Soundboard. The author of a highly acclaimed guitar edition of J.S. Bach's complete solo lute works and of numerous articles in professional journals, Mr. Koonce is now co-authoring a series of books on the history and literature of the guitar.