A Lost Culture of Touch and Sound

I decided to create a blog to explore the various dimensions of the article A Lost Culture of Touch and Sound: The Contribution of Visually Impaired Musicians to the Evolution of the Spanish Guitar, published by Soundboard Scholar. These dimensions range from guitar history and social history to disability studies, music cognition, and organology.

The article does not merely address the history of blind musicians; rather, it investigates the deep roots of music-making on plucked instruments. It offers a new way not only to narrate the history of the guitar, but also to understand the musical practices of figures such as Segovia, Barrios, Tárrega, and Llobet. Most importantly, it can help us develop new perspectives on how we approach music-making today.

Response to the Article:

Every so often a historical essay revises an entire field because it identifies lost voices in its subject and restores them to their proper place. Into this rare but vitally important category falls Marco Ramelli’s tremendous study of the contribution of ‘blind’ guitarists to the evolution of the Spanish guitar tradition. No future scholar of the subject will fail to take into account just how essential the practice of visually impaired guitar players was (and is) to this tradition. Marco Ramelli’s detailed historical research is entirely persuasive of his central point: that we have until now overlooked the centuries-long association in Spain between blind guitarists and innovation in the art of playing the instrument.

Dr Conor Kostick, Department of History, Trinity College Dublin

Reading Marco Ramelli’s article “A lost culture of touch and sound” was a revelation. It combines several different research directions and sociological phenomena in an inspiring and novel way. It is beautifully written and a truly valuable contribution to the entire guitar community, as it presents a broader and more comprehensive view of the development of the guitar, its structure, repertoire, performance practices, and its entire journey from the streets of Spain to concert halls around the world.

Petri Kumela, Sibelius Academy in Helsinki