PASQUALE TARAFFO | Sonatina in A Major | Italy • 1929
When the Italian guitarist Pasquale Taraffo made his American debut at the Gallo Theatre in New York City, reviewers marveled at his “extraordinary” instrument: a six-stringed guitar, with an elaborately carved, arched hollow arm that extended above and held eight additional floating strings. For many in the audience, it may have been their first contact with the art-deco vision of the harp-guitar.

Taraffo, entirely self-taught, was already quite well-known in Europe. Born to an ironworker’s family in Genoa in 1887, by the age of nine Taraffo was not only playing guitar publicly, but was sponsored by two wealthy Genoan ship owners. It’s not known when he began playing the harp-guitar, but
by 1910 he was playing his first: a 14-string model apparently designed by Taraffo himself, and crafted by a local luthier named Settimio Gazzo.

Those who have studied Gazzo’s existing harp-guitars have noticed that he was an amateur luthier when compared his contemporaries. He used lesser quality wood, and the instrument projected weakly. Taraffo could have cho- sen more refined models, but stuck with Gazzo’s throughout his career. It was clear that the two were friends, and it’s been said that Gazzo in fact gave his models to Taraffo as gestures of good will. Harp-guitars were both bulky and heavy, so players such as Taraffo usually rested the instrument on a large floor pedestal, instead of holding it continuously. The pedestal, which also acted as a resonator, would be made of carved wood with an organic looking form, making the entire contraption seem like something out of a European folktale.

A brilliant player, Taraffo was nicknamed “U Roa” (The Wheel) because of the prodigious speed of his right index, middle, and ring fingers. He was touring successfully throughout Europe by 1911, and by the early 1920s, Taraffo began a series of extended tours of South America, where he was especially popular, returning multiple times. He recorded a modest selec- tion of acoustic performances for the German Homocord, Parlophon, and Polydor labels, including two originals, “Prospero” and “Stefania,” named after his Genoan patrons.

When Taraffo first landed in the United States in December of 1928, he did not perform any of his originals at his debut. His program mainly consist- ed of arrangements of classics by Schubert, Boccherini, Delibes, Rossini, Alberniz, and even “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” However, he stayed in the U.S. long enough to make a superb recording—perhaps his best—of his own “Sonatina in A Major,” cut in March of 1929. It was his only stateside disc. This performance is a showpiece of the often spectacular quality of sound hidden in 78 grooves: Taraffo’s deep bass notes can still shake a room, even on shellac.
Taraffo died in 1937 at the age of 50, during one of his South American tours.

“The modest player bowed behind a giant instrument of his invention, half guitar and half harp. Poised on its pedestal high in air, it sounded like a mandolin orchestra in response to the single compelling force of a genuine musicianship.”
— New York Times, December 24, 1928.