Dr. Walter Aaron Clark Interview
Dr. Walter Aaron Clark is Distinguished Professor of Musicology and director of the Center for Iberian and Latin American Music at University of California, Riverside. He also holds performance degrees in classical guitar.
How did you get to where you are today, professionally?
I was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In the 1950s and 60s, when I was growing up there, the population was made up mostly of people like me, with English, German, and Scandinavian ancestry. My parents listened to classical music, so they were a bit disappointed when, in 1964 and at age 12, I fell in love with the Beatles. I wanted to play the guitar like George Harrison, as well as Chuck Berry. So, I took lessons in rock guitar. One day in 1966, however, I showed up early for my weekly lesson, and I heard my teacher playing what I later learned was a malagueña, though a rather free interpretation of it by Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona, from his Suite Andalucía for piano. But I didn’t know that at the time, and this was my first exposure to anything like traditional Spanish music. It was a revelation. I felt like Paul on the road to Damascus. I had a vision of musical truth, and from that moment on I wanted to learn to play like that. I lost all interest in rock.
Unfortunately, that was the only Spanish-style piece that my teacher knew. But he informed me that someone named Michael Hauser had just returned from studying flamenco guitar in Spain with the great master Luis Maravilla. I contacted Michael right away and attended a concert he said he would be giving. He played a wide assortment of palos (types of song and dance), including bulerías, alegrías, and sevillanas. The concert took place in an outdoor pavilion on a summer evening, and it began to rain during his rendition of the danza mora. Everyone in the audience of hundreds of people retreated to their cars. Everyone but me. I determined that I would not leave until Michael did. Finally, only he and I were left, and when the rain compelled him to stop playing, I followed him backstage and asked him to accept me as a student. He agreed, and I soon began private lessons. I was enchanted by and wanted to learn the danza mora, but that was a very difficult solo and would take me another three years to acquire. The first palo I learned was sevillanas.