Mangado – Fernando Sor volume 1

Josep Maria Mangado has now in December 2020 completed this new Volume 1 of his trilogy on Fernando Sor and it is now exclusively available here on Tecla. He had already put volumes 2 and 3 for sale on Tecla, and now he has added volume 1. It has 552 pages and is written in Spanish. It contains much of the same material that he had already published in Il Fronimo and elsewhere but adds a great deal of new material.

This new volume 1 has some splendid things. On page 69 is a map of Barcelona on which are marked places connected with Sor, which would be an excellent companion if you were in Barcelona and wanted to do a “Sor-tour” with a printout of the map or having it in your mobile.

Then, on page 80 it has a picture of the façade of Barcelona cathedral in Sor’s time, before the huge changes of the restoration of 1887. If you know Barcelona, it may be a surprise to you to find out that that façade of today is only late 19th century. If you look at the difference between the ancient façade of Barcelona cathedral in the picture and the façade today, some of you may be reminded of John Betjeman’s poem:

The church’s restoration
In eighteen-eighty-three
Has left for contemplation
Not what there used to be.

Sor was baptised in Barcelona cathedral (with that older façade) and Mangado gives a photograph on page 81 of the very font in which he was baptised. And the full libretto of Sor’s Telemaco. And countless other things.

On page 506 of this new volume Mangado gives the death certificate of Carlos Sor, Fernando Sor’s brother, from which it appears that Carlos died poor because his residence is given as the Asilo de San Bernardino of Madrid, which was an asylum for the poor (Aguado left money to it in his will). But Carlos Sor had been a commissioner of police in Barcelona. Did the government of Fernando VII find out about his past in the armies of Joseph Bonaparte, and for that reason take away his job so that he died in poverty? It is perfectly possible.

Also from Josep Maria Mangado in Tecla:

Fernando Sor volumen 2, documentos inéditos, reflexiones e hipótesis, a new online publication now distributed by Tecla Editions on this website. It covers much of the same ground as the author’s previous articles in the journal Il Fronimo, but with much new material, for example about Sor’s family in Barcelona, about the Hullin family in London, and about the dancers who performed in Sor’s ballets especially Cendrillon, with splendid illustrations. It has 338 pages and is written in Spanish.

Fernando Sor volumen 3, la actividad guitarrística en París (1825-1839) is again a new online publication now distributed by Tecla Editions on this website. It covers new ground, namely the Paris years of Fernando Sor from 1825 to 1839, with much detail about the concerts in which Sor played. It has 826 pages and is written in Spanish.

Los conciertos de guitarra en el Palau, about guitar concerts in the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, 1908 to 1940. It has 143 pages and is written in Spanish.

La guitarra en Cataluña, a new online edition of the book which was first issued in printed form by Tecla Editions in 1998. It provides detailed information about Catalan guitarists, especially José Ferrer. It has 535 pages and is written in Spanish.

Recuerdos de mi familia, This is Josep María Mangado’s previously unpublished personal account of his family’s part in rescuing the diary of Baron Maldá called Calaix de sastre from destruction during the terrible times of the 1930s in Barcelona. His grandfather was instrumental in that rescue. It is free to read on this site and is in Spanish.