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A record review could not have accounted for the sparkling, sincere and warm personality of guitarist Gaëlle Solal, who is currently releasing her new record. Tuhu (“Little flame” in the Tupi language), built around Heitor Villa-Lobos. A record that brings together various influences, inspirations, dedications and crossed tributes in an original and creative program. The tracks follow one another in such a continuous and logical flow that we are surprised to discover the mix of works by no less than eight different composers.
With Gaëlle Solal, we discussed the cry wheels and his trip to Brazil, his search for the “true” with Tuhu, of her commitment in favor of women guitarists and, finally, of her career which breaks the codes.
On the trip to Brazil that changed everything
I landed in Brazil in 2009 with a crush after attending the Villa-Lobos Festival organized on Radio France. At first, I didn’t know I was going to have an affinity with this music. But once there, I was shocked to discover that Brazilian musicians do not make such a strong distinction as in Europe between classical music and popular music. In fact, in Brazil everything is considered music. I especially realized this in the crying wheel. In these groups, a sort of Brazilian jam session, the musicians played Bach pieces, pieces by Villa-Lobos and pieces typical of the popular repertoire “to the mill”. This idea that we can appropriate all the music particularly marked me during this trip.
I found myself immersed in these musicians’ gatherings when I wasn’t playing Brazilian music at all. I took this experience head-on but without any preconceptions. During these evenings, I would listen to the musicians and from time to time I would join them. I was the jukebox classical music. My calling card was my guitar and the music I love. That was all that really mattered, not all the biographies or the awards they won.
On the relationship between popular and classical music: “Villa-Lobos is unclassifiable and that’s why I chose him as the central figure of my record”
All the pieces on the record have a relationship with Villa-Lobos. It is like the family tree, the central piece. Thus, the composer Ernesto Nazareth rubbed shoulders with Villa-Lobos and even served as his inspiration. What interested me in this disc was to try to restore the imagination and the sound environment of a composer when he sits at his work table. I wanted to show how we go from one imagination to another, from one continent to another. For example, after traveling in Europe, Villa-Lobos mixed European dances like the mazurka with the cries Brazilian.
The difficulty was not to fall into the caricature or pastiche of Brazilian music, especially since we all have a certain preconceived idea of bossa nova. The sound of the Brazilian guitar is different from the classical guitar, it is a much more rhythmic and sometimes slammed sound. I also wanted to import this particular sound into my playing to show that there is no limit neither in the dynamics, nor in the colors.
On the new disc Tuhu : “Try to be as fair as possible with what I feel about this music”
After the trip to Brazil, gestation was long. During these ten years, I matured the idea that one can appropriate the pieces and interpret them in the true sense of the word. So the last piece of the disc Lament of the Hill Anibal A. Sardinha-Garoto (arr. Gaëlle Solal) is part of the popular repertoire but there is a score that served as a skeleton. I added an introduction, a central part, improvisations and a coda. I also put my foot in it as an arranger, taking on what Brazil taught me.
Arrangement rather than transcription: “take your ego, put it on the side and say to yourself: here I am a beginner.”
In this record, there are interpretive biases that can be criticized. There were a lot of decisions to be made but I never stayed halfway. for example, Brejeiro by Ernesto Nazareth is a piece originally written for the piano. There are recordings of pianists playing it as it is written. But when I heard her in the crying wheels, it became extraordinary: there was an introduction, a major part, the introduction of another theme in minor, and finally a coda and an improvised part. This version spoke to me a lot more because it told a story. That’s what I also like in literature, this little one twist in a news that makes us move on to something else. Inside the minor part of Brejeiro, I added a whole passage in pinched : jI wanted to recreate an atmosphere as if someone were taking a solo in a wheels and had fun. The piece means “mischievous”, and so I added these different elements that evoked this atmosphere to me.
I really went through the jazz technique: take a very small passage to make it turn and understand it from the inside, that is to say beyond digital and beyond harmony. Improvisation is getting ready, and that’s how I managed to desacralize this learning. It requires taking your ego, putting it next to it and saying to yourself: here, I’m a beginner. You have to break away from the score and put yourself in a danger zone. After recording, I had other ideas. The score becomes a canvas and it is even more pleasant as well, because the creation never ends. The music is created almost in real time, even if there was all this preparation upstream.
On the commitment to the representativeness of women guitarists in the professional world
A few years ago I was invited to a panel discussion at a Guitar Festival in the United States and was struck by someone in the audience who said there wasn’t a lot of female guitarists. In reality, there are many of us, but we are invisible because we are not scheduled at festivals. AT the origin of this situation, there are several causes. First of all, the lack of awareness by the programmers, and then the lack of vocabulary of women to defend their own cause. We are a lot, but we are less. Inspired by this congress, I told myself that we could do something and I started to build a website (https://womenoftheclassicalguitar.weebly.com) where I identified a list of women guitarists. It was from there that I created the Guitar’Elles association.
All this often arouses criticism and anger, but with representativeness it goes much better. And to the question “Where are they?”, The answer is obvious: “Go see the site with the list of all contacts!”
There is also something else: women are very numerous in the conservatories but it is the men who make a career even if, often, the girls are more brilliant. I would like to investigate to find out when women decide not to professionalize, why they do not apply for international competitions, scholarships, positions. The situation is known, but I would like to go and see what is happening in the field in terms of studies.
The second part of Guitar’Elles would be mentoring (advice, boost trust and follow-up). And the third part would be the granting of scholarships to produce videos and websites to ensure more visibility. I would also like to offer workshops on self-confidence and preparation for competitions. Ultimately, I would like to create legitimacy so that each woman can call a festival and propose a discussion around the representativeness of women.
On the importance of role models
I’m a guitarist because my parents had the vinyl of Ida Presti (that great guitarist who died too early) with her husband Alexandre Lagoya. Since I was little, I have known by heart this clutch where Ida Presti wears a dress with colorful flowers. I always told myself that I wanted to be that. I got this model because I got this vinyl, so I never wondered if a woman could be a guitarist. But I’ve never seen her in concert and all of mehe teachers were men. I was still lucky to have seen this cover!
In conclusion: the music of Villa-Lobos in a few words
The music of Villa-Lobos is fundamentally warm, unfussy, turned towards the imagination, very tender but sometimes wild and raw. Either way, his music is very outgoing. It is the music of sharing and simplicity.
We live in a world where everything is very sophisticated and full of ego. Simplicity becomes an art. Simplicity is a central value in my life and in my personality. Heitor Villa-Lobos embodies the synthesis of all this. He knew how to keep this freshness and this simplicity while being very cultivated and very curious. He doesn’t have arrogance.
Gaëlle Solal’s website: www.gaelle-solal.com
Gaëlle Solal, Tuhu. Eudora Records. EUD-SACD-2003.
Photo credits : Romain Chambodut, dir. artistic John Dauvin / One step of driving
Interview by Gabriele Slizyte
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