Vicente González-Rubiera Cortina

Guitarist and pedagogue. He was a thinker; and his thought and extensive erudition made possible his notable contributions to harmony and the manner of playing the instrument, which earned him, by right, a place in the Cuban school of guitar. He integrated the trova, classical guitar and popular music in a multivalent process, of which he was an important factor in the emergence of that school.

A native of Santiago de Cuba, he was an important guitarist and harmonist, and the teacher who took advantage of classical guitar techniques to revive the accompaniment of the trova. He achieved the best transcriptions for guitar.

He studied with Isolina Carrillo, solfège; Emilio Grenet, harmony; Fela González-Rubiera, José Bandera (Pepe Bandera), Sindo Garay and Severino López (student of Miguel Llobet), guitar.

In 1928 he moved to Havana. Originally, Guyún came to Havana to study Medicine, but the university was closed due to Gerardo Machado, so he began to play guitar to make a living and in 1929 he was already well-known in artistic circles for his programs on the radio stations CMK, of Juan Brouwer, and CMBZ Radio Salas, with María Cervantes, and the orchestra of Antonio María Romeu with his singer Barbarito Diez.

Already at that time he used richer harmonies in his accompaniments and the arpeggiated rhythm (traditional trova guitarists used it strummed or rasguado).

In 1935, Guyún traveled to New York and there he recorded, as a singer and guitarist, with the orchestra of composer and pianist Nilo Menéndez, Mueve tu cintura, guaracha, by Eliseo Grenet, and Después de un beso, bolero, by Jorge Anckermann.

Upon his return to Cuba, he continued his life as a trovador, until in 1938 he retired from artistic life to devote himself to the study and teaching of harmony applied to guitar. He appeared in the films "El romance del palmar", in which Rita Montaner performed "El manisero", by Moisés Simons, and Sucedió en La Habana, with María de los Ángeles Santana, Rita Montaner and Gonzalo Roig as musical director, in 1938, both directed by Ramón Peón.

In 1943 he met Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia, with whom he maintained a friendship. His insatiable curiosity and tireless studies provided him with vast knowledge of science and art. In this sense, his patient work as a researcher of the laws of harmony and guitar technique is undeniable.

He was a man dissatisfied with half-truths, with dogmas. A demanding man with himself and with others, which allowed him to discover not a few errors in more than one treatise on harmony, as well as incorrect or incomplete definitions, especially in music theory, even though these had been repeated for life until they became axioms.

He was not a repeater. He frequently cited this thought from José Ingenieros: the teacher "will not be a repeater of programs that others make and he does not understand [...]. He will awaken capacities through example; he will teach how to do, by doing".

On the other hand, he believed that truth only has validity until the contrary is demonstrated. Therefore he created his own method, he did not stop at criticism without providing solutions.

In love with his instrument, he professed an unbreakable loyalty to it. That vocation and dedication to music—all his being, all his acts led to it—, for human knowledge was such that everything that had to do with culture interested him. This provided him with a vast theoretical and conceptual apparatus, which allowed him to venture with the same vehemence into the field of psychology, physiology, philosophy, aesthetics and electronics, for he was not only a humanist.

He integrated, with Jorge Mauri and Manuel Fontanal, the trio Lírico Cubano, with which he performed at the Cuban Telephone Company; later he formed a trio with Isolina Carrillo, piano, and Marcelino Guerra (Rapindey), second voice, with which he worked at CMQ.

He began to study guitar with Sindo Garay, and later studied with Severino López, who had an excellent classical education in the Tárrega-Pujol tradition in Spain.

Guyún developed a modern concept of harmony and the way to apply classical technique to Cuban popular music. It became more adventurous, and still in the vein of Cuba, and in 1938 he stopped performing to devote himself to the teaching of guitar. This bore fruit, and two generations of Cuban guitarists testify to his influence.

He wrote a valuable book, La guitarra: su Técnica y Armonía, and two unpublished works: Diccionario de Acordes and Un nuevo panorama de la modulación y Su Técnica.

He was highly praised by Andrés Segovia, during a visit to Cuba, and held various teaching positions. One of his students was the great tres player Niño Rivera.