Bach in the Bedroom

At 6 o'clock every morning, in the bungalow at No. 5152 Maplewood Ave. in Los Angeles, a man reaches beneath his bed and pulls out a $ 1,000 guitar. While still stretched out on his back, he plays Johann Sebastian Bach. He seldom stops before 8, and when he does, it is the signal for his three sons, who sleep just down the hall, to reach under their beds and grab their own guitars. The family plays together until 10. Then the father laces on some sneakers, and leads his sons in a run five times around the block.

Just how the road work helps Celedonio Romero and his sons to play the guitar, no one in the family can explain. But it is all part of a pattern of dedicated practice that very clearly pays off. In Manhattan's Town Hall last week, upright, tuxedoed and wide awake, the Romeros demonstrated that they are indisputably one of the best guitar ensembles around. Celedonio, 45, opened with a generous sampling of the literature for the classical guitar--Galilei, Sanz, Bach, Sor, Albeniz. His sound was lushly colored, his touch always impeccable, his readings alive with an extraordinary range of nuance not often found in the guitar. Celin, 24, followed his father--again with classical selections, but in a mistier, more rhapsodic vein. Angel, 14. offered a limber, clean-lined performance of the Bach Chaconne from Partita Number Two. Pepe, 18, whipped through a selection of flamenco songs with remarkable fire and dexterity, thrumming out the music's traditional chords with steel-sure fingers. Later the four came out together to play the adagio and allegro from Telemann's Concerto for Four Violins.

The Romero sons sound much like Romero senior. "His hand and our hands are just the same," explains Celin. "If it's good for him, it's good for us." More important, Celedonio got his sons their first guitars when they were three, had them in the concert hall by the time they were eleven. Four years ago, an American studying with Celedonio in Spain persuaded the family to move to California, where they soon set up a guitar school. As for the profits, Romero senior has a patriarchal concept of money: he takes all of it, doles it out to his sons in small allowances.

After a morning of playing the guitar and a day of teaching it, the Romeros get together in the evening to play a little more. And to fight. Says Celin, the most voluble: "We fight with our father more than we fight with each other because he has a strong temperament and likes to command. In the end we do it his way. Then we get happy." So do the audiences.

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