tributary

Agustín Barrios

Agustín Pío Barrios, later performing as Barrios Mangoré, was a Paraguayan classical guitarist and composer who toured Latin America and Europe from the 1910s through the early 1940s, writing a large body of original solo guitar works rather than relying on transcriptions of European repertoire, at a time when that was unusual for a touring virtuoso. His three-movement suite 'La Catedral' (1921), inspired by the Cathedral of Montevideo and by Bach, is considered his masterwork and won the admiration of Andrés Segovia; a rare set of his own 1928–29 recordings for the Odeón label survive as some of the only direct documentation of his playing.

the sound in question
1921
La CatedralAgustín Barrios

we haven’t charted Agustín Barrios yet

this stretch of the river isn’t mapped. we trace the watershed one artist at a time — and we’re always heading further upstream.

downstream