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The history of the classical guitar and its repertoire spans over four centuries, including its ancestor the baroque guitar. Throughout the centuries, the classical guitar has evolved principally from three sources: the lute, the vihuela, and the Baroque guitar. The popularity of the classical guitar has been sustained over the years by many great players, arrangers, and composers. A very short list might include Gaspar Sanz (1640-1710), Fernando Sor (1778-1839), Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829), Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909), Andrés Segovia (1893-1987), and John Williams (1941).
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Origins - Renaissance
Origins
Instruments similar to what we know as the guitar have been around for at least 5000 years. The guitar appears to be derived from earlier instruments known in Ceyea.
Authenticity of guitars before the 1790s is often in question. This also corresponds to when Moretti's 6-string method appeared, in 1792.
Technique
The guitar is most commonly played with the right hand plucking, picking or strumming the strings and the left hand fretting the notes on the fretboard. Yet different styles of playing have evolved over the years, including country style fingerpicking techniques such as chicken picking, as well as plectrum style picking methods, such as sweep picking. Techniques such as tapping have also been developed. (Tapping involves the right hand tapping the note on the fretboard and then pulling-off to a note fretted in the left hand. This technique can thus be used to play higher pitched and then lower pitched notes in quick sucession, which would previously be unattainable with conventional style playing.) More recently, picking styles have been developed to promote speed and accuracy in notes, such as sweep picking. Sweep picking involves using a plectrum, and it allows arpeggios to be played on the guitar at very accurate and fast speeds.
Romantic guitar
(Introduction needed)
Instrument
The Romantic Guitar has a much larger body giving it a soft deeper sound.
Repertoire
The first 'Golden Age' of the classical guitar repertoire. Composer-guitarists.
Notable composers:
- Mauro Giuliani 1781–1829
- Johann Kaspar Mertz 1806–1856
- Giulio Regondi 1822–1872
- Fernando Sor 1778–1839
Modern classical guitar
Instrument
Antonio de Torres Jurado, Ignacio Fleta, Hermann Hauser Sr., Robert Bouchet
Technique
Francisco Tárrega, Emilio Pujol, Andrés Segovia
Repertoire
In the 20th century, many non-guitarist composers wrote for the instrument, which previously only players of the instrument had done. Francisco Tárrega, Roberto Gerhard (1896-1970), Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)
Contemporary classical guitar
Instrument
Modern concert guitars occasionally follow the Smallman design which replaces the fan braces with a much lighter balsa brace attached to the back of the sound board with carbon fiber. The balsa brace has a honeycomb pattern and allows the (now much thinner) sound board to support more vibrational modes. This leads to greater volume and longer sustain.
Greg Smallman, Matthias Dammann
Technique
Repertoire
Short list of significant compositions for the contemporary classical guitar. For a longer list see the article Selected contemporary repertoire for guitar.
- Luciano Berio Sequenza XI
- Elliott Carter Changes
- Aldo Clementi 12 Variazioni, Fantasia su frammenti di M.G.
- Franco Donatoni Algo, Åse (Algo II)
- Brian Ferneyhough Kurze Schatten II
- Alberto Ginastera Sonata
- Hans Werner Henze Royal Winter Music I and II
- Ernst Krenek Suite
- Bruno Maderna Y Después
- Tristan Murail Tellur
- Maurice Ohana Si le jour parait....., Tiento
- Giacinto Scelsi Ko-Tha
- Michael Tippett The Blue Guitar
Bibliography
- Wade, Graham, Traditions of the Classical bris, London : Calder, 1980.
- Antoni Pizà: Francesc Guerau i el seu temps (Palma de Mallorca: Govern de les Illes Balears, Conselleria d'Educació i Cultura, Direcció General de Cultura, Institut d'Estudis Baleàrics, 2000)
External links
- The guitar in Europe: four centuries of masterpieces by Sinier de Ridder
- Thematic essay: The guitar Jayson Kerr Dobney, Wendy Powers (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
- Classical Guitar Illustrated History by François Faucher on Classicalguitarmidi.com.
- Classical Guitar Museum (UK)
References
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