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A source for Guitar History and Guitar Lessons.
Essays and transcriptions provide a dynamic and contextual perspective into the historical forces that have developed and continue to develop the guitar. Here you can trace the history and evolution of the guitar from Pythagoras to Jimi Hendrix and learn the philosophy and context that surrounded ancestors of modern guitar culture. You will see the lineage of guitar construction and how it affected compositions that are still played today. For quick reference use the dictionary to find brief definitions of words and links to related articles.
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| | Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:24 pm |
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The early guitar made significant contributions to the development of the baroque period. "The guitar is host for New World styles like the sarabanda that were carried back to Europe [from the new world in the 16th century] and were cultivated by European guitarists long before they were standardized as courtly baroque ballet…" (Coelho, p. 7, 2003). Guitars, and guitar predecessors like the Vihuela held the attention of folk culture and the middle class during the baroque and classical periods as well. Most history classes and texts place emphasis on the middle class at the end of the 18th century, considering the French Revolution, Industrial revolution, and the impending Manifesto by Marx during the middle of the 19th century. This is not to suggest that the guitar had any role in the political environment, but it does imply where the emerging middle class was choosing to spend its new found wealth.
The lute and its descendants are constructed with a vaulted back. Guitar and Vihuela lineage is directly related to the Roman lyre because it uses a flat back. Spaniards used this logic to distinguish between their culture and the Moorish culture that occupied them from 711 to 1492. Two distinct early guitars were well represented in Spain as a result. The guitarra morisca has a pear shaped soundboard and a vaulted back and the guitarra latina has waisted sides and a flat back (Johanson, 2001, p. 21).
It is from distinctions of Moorish cultivated Spain that put the guitar on track to earn it's popular classical construction. From the Vihuela came the guitar, but by the end of the Renaissance the sun set on the four-course guitar, or "guitarra latina." In 1652 a French publication of music for the four-course guitar was the last for this Renaissance instrument. (Johanson, 2001, p. 24)
The lineage of the guitar is vast and difficult to trace and especially so if you are partial to the misconception that the guitar is a direct descendant of the lute. A lute is less related to the guitar than the Viola or violin, which also sprung from the Italian Vihuela. In Portuguese "Violao" means Spanish Guitar (Grunfeld, 1969, p. 72). Spaniards of the Renaissance made an acute distinction between the Lute and Vihuela by establishing the two types of guitar, and wrote distinctly different music for both instruments (Grunfeld, 1969, p. 72). Julian Bream, a living master of the classical guitar and Lute, believes the technique and musical conceptions that relate Classical guitar and lute are minimal.
The lack of prominence for the guitar in history is likely due to the fact that it attracted little attention from good composers until the 20th century, and then under the steam of Andres Segovia -Paganini is an exception. Domenico Scarlatti had a fascination with the guitar but never wrote anything for the instrument. (Grunfeld, 1969, p. 133)
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| | Wed Feb 28, 2007 3:11 pm |
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Exactly when the six-string guitar came about is ambiguous. Its initial popularity started in either France or Italy (Johanson, 2001, p. 37), and part of that fashion may have included cutting part of the headstock off 10 course baroque guitars in order to more resemble a six-string guitar. This indicates that the Baroque Guitar, Six course guitar, and six string guitar all existed in popularity simultaneously but that the music increasingly required instruments with greater range and contrapuntal capacity, which is congruent with the blooming Classical Style in music composition.
The construction of the six-course guitar, which increased the size of the soundboard from the five-course guitar, became popular towards the end of the 18th century. Guitarists started using standard notation more often, which allowed the guitar to exist closer to higher and more popular tastes. A more effective fan bracing system for the soundboard was developed during this time, which improved the guitar's tone, volume and strength. In 1780 Antonio Ballestero published Obra para guitarra de seis odrenes, which was the first piece of music published for the six-course guitar. In 1799 the six-course guitar is established by four publications from Spain. (Johanson, 2001, p.36-37).
Guitarists began stringing their guitars without courses at the very end of the 18th century. In 1790 Antoine Marcel Lemoine published Nuvelle method courte et facile pour la guitarra a l'usage de commencans. This composition contains music for the five and six single string guitar. Courses often had trouble playing in tune because the gut strings could not be gauged consistently. By removing the doubled tones the guitar could play more in tune and reduce the amount of time it took to tune, though, this detracted from the tone and volume of the instrument.
Equal temperament and advances in metal tooling allowed guitars to use permanent metal frets, and guitars also started using tuning machines instead of the less accurate tuning pegs. It didn't take long for metal frets to completely replace tied gut frets on guitars. The guitar also elevated the neck and extended the fretboard onto the body of the guitar using wooden frets that extended to the soundhole giving the guitar as many as 17 frets. These modifications to the fretboard required that the bridge be raised and a saddle be built to support the height of the bridge (Johanson, 2001, p. 38-39).
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| | Wed Dec 31, 1969 5:00 pm |
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An instrument is an abstract idea, a way of thinking about sound and a way of identifying culture. The guitar is a centrally important icon in American culture as well as cultures across the world. The Greek God Hermes used the horns of a bull and the shell of a tortoise to create the first lyre (Johanson, 2001, p.11). That Apollonian idea spread like the sun at dawn over the earth. Versions of stringed instruments were constructed as far away as Japan, developed into the orchestra, and formed into unique variations like the Sitar of India.
After two thousand years of natural selection the chordophone's competition for popular dominance is immense, yet the most popular instrument on the planet is currently the guitar. The guitar went through most of its final mutations and began to establish a well-recognized classical construction during the Baroque and Classical periods. This essay researches early evolution of construction and popularity of the guitar through publications for the guitar from Baroque until just before the commonly recognized 19th century guitar is built during the classical period.
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| | Wed Dec 31, 1969 5:00 pm |
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Guitarra Espanola de cinco ordenes by Juan Carlos Amat was published in Barcelona, 1596. This book outlined how to tune the guitar with five courses, adding a lower string onto the four-course guitar of Spain (tuned aa, dd, gg, dd, and e). From this alteration the Baroque guitar was born and the top 5 strings of the modern guitar (e, a, d, g, b, e) were established. (Johanson, 2001, p. 24-26)
The five-course Baroque Guitar looked similar to the Vihuela but was much larger and the placement of the right hand was les rigid. Players often changed their tambour by moving their hand from the bridge area to the front of the sound hole. The waist, or curvature, on the instrument is minimal and the ornamental carving of the headstock minimal. At this point in history the Guitar is still using tuning pegs as opposed to using tuning gears that were developed much later. Luthiers decorated the guitar with wooden rosettes on the soundboard around the sound hole and paper rosettes were often placed in the sound hole in the style of its second cousin the lute.
There were two common styles for playing the Baroque guitar between 1650 and 1750. Rasgueado Style is exclusively strumming the guitar and was the dominant style through 1700. Mixed Style incorporated both strumming and the Moorish style of plucking individual strings and took prominence in the 18th century. These styles were learned from tablature in published texts that varied in layout based on culture
Bailleux's method uses French tablature and standard notation to explain the tuning of the guitar. Previously this would not have been done. Music for the Baroque Guitar was only written in tablature of which there was Italian, French and Spanish. Ignoring standard notation may have contributed to the lack of notable composers writing for Baroque Guitar.
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| | Wed Dec 31, 1969 5:00 pm |
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After the beginning of the 19th century the guitar makes very few changes until De Torres builds the modern classical guitar for Francisco Terrega at the end of the 19th century. It gets larger, louder, and increases it's range, but during the boom of Classical period is when the guitar made it's greatest alterations, which were probably largely inspired by the advancements of other instruments like the piano, and the increase in the size of the orchestra. Throughout the Classical period the guitar had to struggle to keep up with all the changes that were going on in the music of the time, but because of that it represents this period of change and mechanical improvements very well.
Luthiers and players were forced to make the modifications necessary to match the instrument to the new ideas of the time. Consider the late and timely inclusion of standard notation into the pedagogy of the guitar. The lack of universal musical notation was not a problem when the guitar only needed to fit the hands of the middle class to survive but as the middle class lost prominence and note worthy virtuosos developed the guitar needed to fit into larger musical contexts. The guitar also needed volume so it could compete with the growing expectations of musical audiences that had been exposed to the Piano, and large symphony orchestras. Even though the guitar never fully entered this class of instrumentation it was the surrounding environment and push of the classical period that prepared the guitar for its golden age during the 19th century.
Bibliography
Coelho, Victor and Anand. (2003). The Cambridge companion to the guitar. Cambridge University Press New York, NY.
Boye, Dr. Gary. (2004, March).. The Baroque Guitar: Printed Music from 1606-1737. Retrieved May 25, 2004 from Baroque Guitar Homepage. http://www.library.appstate.edu/music/guitar/home.html.
Grunfeld, Fredric. (1969) The Art and Times of the Guitar: An illustrated History. De Capo Press, Inc. New York, NY.
Heck, Thomas. (2001) More About the Transition from Double-Strings (Courses) to Single Strings. Retrieved May 25, 2004 from Guitar Magazine Online. http://www.guitarramagazine.com/issue41/P16.asp.
Johanson, Bryan. (2001). The Guitar: its history and Music. Unpublished Book. Portland State University.
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