| | Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:24 pm | | | | Comments: 0 Views: 405 |
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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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