The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
family used in
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" al ...
and other styles. An acoustic wooden
string instrument with strings made of
gut or
nylon
Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic.
Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from pet ...
, it is a precursor of the modern
acoustic and
electric guitars, both of which use metal
strings. Classical guitars derive from the Spanish
vihuela and
gittern of the fifteenth and sixteenth century. Those instruments evolved into the seventeenth and eighteenth-century
baroque guitar—and by the mid-nineteenth century, early forms of the modern classical guitar.
For a right-handed player, the traditional classical guitar has twelve frets clear of the body and is properly held up by the left leg, so that the hand that plucks or strums the strings does so near the back of the sound hole (this is called the classical position). However, the right-hand may move closer to the
fretboard
The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments) is an important component of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument. The str ...
to achieve different tonal qualities. The player typically holds the left leg higher by the use of a
foot rest. The modern steel string guitar, on the other hand, usually has fourteen frets clear of the body (see
Dreadnought) and is commonly held with a strap around the neck and shoulder.
The phrase "classical guitar" may refer to either of two concepts other than the instrument itself:
* The instrumental finger technique common to classical guitar—individual strings plucked with the fingernails or, less frequently, fingertips
* The instrument's classical music repertoire
The term ''modern classical guitar'' sometimes distinguishes the classical guitar from older forms of guitar, which are in their broadest sense also called ''classical'', or more specifically, ''early guitars''. Examples of early guitars include the six-string early romantic guitar (c. 1790–1880), and the earlier baroque guitars with five
courses
Course may refer to:
Directions or navigation
* Course (navigation), the path of travel
* Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...
.
The materials and the methods of classical guitar construction may vary, but the typical shape is either ''modern classical guitar'' or that ''historic classical guitar'' similar to the early romantic guitars of France and Italy.
Classical guitar strings once made of
gut are now made of materials such as
nylon
Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic.
Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from pet ...
or
fluoropolymer
A fluoropolymer is a fluorocarbon-based polymer with multiple carbon–fluorine bonds. It is characterized by a high resistance to solvents, acids, and bases. The best known fluoropolymer is polytetrafluoroethylene under the brand name "Tefl ...
s, typically with silver-plated copper fine wire wound about the acoustically lower (d-A-E in standard tuning) strings.
A guitar family tree may be identified. The
flamenco guitar derives from the modern classical, but has differences in material, construction and sound.
Today's ''modern classical guitar'' was established by the late designs of the 19th-century Spanish
luthier
A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers of ...
,
Antonio Torres Jurado.
Contexts
The classical guitar has a long history and one is able to distinguish various:
*
instruments
*
repertoire
A repertoire () is a list or set of dramas, operas, musical compositions or roles which a company or person is prepared to perform.
Musicians often have a musical repertoire. The first known use of the word ''repertoire'' was in 1847. It is a ...
(composers and their compositions,
arrangement
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orche ...
s, improvisations)
Both instrument and repertoire can be viewed from a combination of various perspectives:
Historical (chronological period of time)
*
Baroque guitar – 1600 to 1750
*
Early romantic guitars – 1750 to 1850 (for music from the
Classical and
Romantic periods)
*Modern classical guitars
Geographical
*Spanish guitars (
Torres) and French guitars (
René Lacôte, ...), etc.
Cultural
*Baroque court music, nineteenth-century opera and its influences, nineteenth-century folk songs, Latin American music
Historical perspective
Early guitars
While "classical guitar" is today mainly associated with the modern classical guitar design, there is an increasing interest in early guitars; and understanding the link between historical repertoire and the particular period guitar that was originally used to perform this repertoire. The musicologist and author Graham Wade writes:
Nowadays it is customary to play this repertoire on reproductions of instruments authentically modelled on concepts of musicological research with appropriate adjustments to techniques and overall interpretation. Thus over recent decades we have become accustomed to specialist artists with expertise in the art of vihuela (a 16th-century type of guitar popular in Spain), lute, Baroque guitar, 19th-century guitar, etc.
Different types of guitars have different sound aesthetics, e.g. different colour-spectrum characteristics (the way the sound energy is spread in the fundamental frequency and the
overtones), different response, etc. These differences are due to differences in construction; for example, modern classical guitars usually use a different bracing (fan-bracing) from that used in earlier guitars (they had ladder-bracing); and a different voicing was used by the luthier.
There is a historical parallel between musical styles (baroque, classical, romantic, flamenco, jazz) and the style of "sound aesthetic" of the musical instruments used, for example:
Robert de Visée played a baroque guitar with a very different sound aesthetic from the guitars used by
Mauro Giuliani
Mauro Giuseppe Sergio Pantaleo Giuliani (27 July 1781 – 8 May 1829) was an Italian guitarist, cellist, singer, and composer. He was a leading guitar virtuoso of the early 19th century.
Biography
Although born in Bisceglie, Giuliani's cen ...
and
Luigi Legnani – they used 19th-century guitars. These guitars in turn sound different from the Torres models used by Segovia that are suited for interpretations of romantic-modern works such as
Moreno Torroba.
When considering the guitar from a historical perspective, the musical instrument used is as important as the musical language and style of the particular period. As an example: It is impossible to play a historically informed de Visee or Corbetta (baroque guitarist-composers) on a modern classical guitar. The reason is that the baroque guitar used courses, which are two strings close together (in unison), that are plucked together. This gives baroque guitars an unmistakable sound characteristic and tonal texture that is an integral part of an interpretation. Additionally, the sound aesthetic of the baroque guitar (with its strong overtone presence) is very different from modern classical type guitars, as is shown below.
Today's use of Torres and post-Torres type guitars for repertoire of all periods is sometimes critically viewed: Torres and post-Torres style modern guitars (with their fan-bracing and design) have a thick and strong tone, very suitable for modern-era repertoire. However, they are considered to emphasize the fundamental too heavily (at the expense of overtone partials) for earlier repertoire (Classical/Romantic: Carulli, Sor, Giuliani, Mertz, ...; Baroque: de Visee, ...; etc.). "Andrés Segovia presented the Spanish guitar as a versatile model for all playing styles"
to the extent, that still today, "many guitarists have tunnel-vision of the world of the guitar, coming from the modern Segovia tradition".
While fan-braced modern classical Torres and post-Torres style instruments coexisted with traditional ladder-braced guitars at the beginning of the 20th century, the older forms eventually fell away. Some attribute this to the popularity of
Segovia, considering him "the catalyst for change toward the Spanish design and the so-called 'modern' school in the 1920s and beyond."
[Early Classical Guitar and Early Romantic Guitar Time Period](_blank)
by earlyromanticguitar.com The styles of music performed on ladder-braced guitars were becoming unfashionable—and, e.g., in Germany, more musicians were turning towards folk music (Schrammel-music and the
Contraguitar). This was localized in Germany and Austria and became unfashionable again. On the other hand, Segovia was playing concerts around the world, popularizing modern classical guitar—and, in the 1920s, Spanish romantic-modern style with guitar works by Moreno Torroba, de Falla, etc.
The 19th-century classical guitarist
Francisco Tárrega
Francisco de Asís Tárrega Eixea (21 November 185215 December 1909) was a Spanish composer and classical guitarist of the late Romantic period. He is known for such pieces as Capricho Árabe and ''Recuerdos de la Alhambra''. He is often called ...
first popularized the Torres design as a classical solo instrument. However, some maintain that Segovia's influence led to its domination over other designs. Factories around the world began producing them in large numbers.
Characteristics
*Vihuela, renaissance guitars and baroque guitars have a bright sound, rich in overtones, and their courses (double strings) give the sound a very particular texture.
*Early guitars of the classical and romantic period (early romantic guitars) have single strings, but their design and voicing are still such that they have their tonal energy more in the overtones (but without starved fundamental), giving a bright intimate tone.
*Later in Spain a style of music emerged that favoured a stronger fundamental:
"With the change of music a stronger fundamental was demanded and the fan bracing system was approached. ... the guitar tone has been changed from a transparent tone, rich in higher partials to a more 'broad' tone with a strong fundamental."
*Thus modern guitars with fan bracing (fan strutting) have a design and voicing that gives them a thick, heavy sound, with far more tonal energy found in the fundamental.
Style periods
Renaissance
Composers of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...
period who wrote for four-course guitar include
Alonso Mudarra,
Miguel de Fuenllana,
Adrian Le Roy, ,
Guillaume de Morlaye Guillaume de Morlaye (c.1510–c.1558) was a French Renaissance era lutenist, composer and music publisher. He was a pupil of Albert de Rippe and lived and worked in Paris. In 1552 he received a ten-year license to publish music from Henry II, and ...
, and .
;Instrument
Four-course guitar
Baroque
Some well known composers of the
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...
guitar were
Gaspar Sanz,
Robert de Visée,
Francesco Corbetta
Francesco Corbetta (ca. 1615 – 1681, in French also Francisque Corbette) was an Italian guitar virtuoso, teacher and composer. Along with his compatriots Giovanni Paolo Foscarini and Angelo Michele Bartolotti, he was a pioneer and exponent of ...
and
Santiago de Murcia.
;Examples of instruments
*Baroque guitar by
Nicolas Alexandre Voboam II: This French instrument has the typical design of the period with five courses of double-strings and a flat back.
*Baroque guitar attributed to Matteo Sellas : This Italian instrument has five courses and a rounded back.
Classical and romantic
From approximately 1780 to 1850, the guitar had numerous composers and performers including:
*
Filippo Gragnani (1767–1820)
*
Antoine de Lhoyer
Antoine de Lhoyer 'Hoyer(6 September 1768 – 15 March 1852) was a French virtuoso classical guitarist and an eminent early romantic composer of mainly chamber music featuring the classical guitar. Lhoyer also had a notable military career; he wa ...
(1768–1852)
*
Ferdinando Carulli
Ferdinando Maria Meinrado Francesco Pascale Rosario Carulli (9 February 1770 – 17 February 1841) was an Italian composer for classical guitar and the author of the influential ''Méthode complète pour guitare ou lyre'', op. 27 (1810), which ...
(1770–1841)
*
Wenzel Thomas Matiegka (1773–1830)
*
Francesco Molino (1774–1847)
*
Fernando Sor
Fernando Sor (bapt. 14 Feb. 1778, died 10 July 1839) was a Spanish classical guitarist and composer of the Early Romantic era. Best known for writing solo classical guitar music, he also composed an opera (at the age of 19), three symphonies ...
(1778–1839)
c. 1780–1850)
*
Mauro Giuliani
Mauro Giuseppe Sergio Pantaleo Giuliani (27 July 1781 – 8 May 1829) was an Italian guitarist, cellist, singer, and composer. He was a leading guitar virtuoso of the early 19th century.
Biography
Although born in Bisceglie, Giuliani's cen ...
(1781–1829)
*
Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840)
*
Dionisio Aguado (1784–1849)
*
Luigi Legnani (1790–1877)
*
Matteo Carcassi (1792–1853)
*
Napoléon Coste (1805–1883)
*
Johann Kaspar Mertz
Joseph Kaspar Mertz (in hu, Mertz János Gáspár) (17 August 1806 – 14 October 1856) was an Austro-Hungarian guitarist and composer.
Biography
Caspar Joseph Mertz (baptised Casparus Josephus Mertz) was born in Pressburg, now Bratislava (S ...
(1806–1856)
*
Giulio Regondi
Giulio Regondi (1822 – 6 May 1872) was a Swiss-born classical guitarist, concertinist and composer active in France and (mainly) the United Kingdom.
Regondi was born of a German mother and an Italian father in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1831 ...
(1822–1872)
Hector Berlioz studied the guitar as a teenager;
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wo ...
owned at least two and wrote for the instrument; and
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
, after hearing Giuliani play, commented the instrument was "a miniature orchestra in itself".
Niccolò Paganini was also a guitar virtuoso and composer. He once wrote: "I love the guitar for its harmony; it is my constant companion in all my travels". He also said, on another occasion: "I do not like this instrument, but regard it simply as a way of helping me to think."
Francisco Tárrega
The guitarist and composer
Francisco Tárrega
Francisco de Asís Tárrega Eixea (21 November 185215 December 1909) was a Spanish composer and classical guitarist of the late Romantic period. He is known for such pieces as Capricho Árabe and ''Recuerdos de la Alhambra''. He is often called ...
(November 21, 1852 – December 15, 1909) was one of the great guitar virtuosos and teachers and is considered the father of modern classical guitar playing. As a professor of guitar at the conservatories of Madrid and Barcelona, he defined many elements of the modern classical technique and elevated the importance of the guitar in the classical music tradition.
Modern period
At the beginning of the 1920s,
Andrés Segovia popularized the guitar with tours and early phonograph recordings. Segovia collaborated with the composers
Federico Moreno Torroba and
Joaquín Turina with the aim of extending the guitar repertoire with new music. Segovia's tour of South America revitalized public interest in the guitar and helped the guitar music of
Manuel Ponce
Manuel María Ponce Cuéllar (8 December 1882 – 24 April 1948) was a Mexican composer active in the 20th century. His work as a composer, music educator and scholar of Mexican music connected the concert scene with a mostly forgotten traditio ...
and
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the ...
reach a wider audience. The composers
Alexandre Tansman
Alexander Tansman ( pl, Aleksander Tansman, link=no, French: Alexandre Tansman; 12 June 1897 – 15 November 1986) was a Polish composer, pianist and conductor who became a naturalized French citizen in 1938. One of the earliest representatives of ...
and
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco were commissioned by Segovia to write new pieces for the guitar.
Luiz Bonfá
Luiz Floriano Bonfá (17 October 1922 – 12 January 2001) was a Brazilian guitarist and composer. He was best known for the music he composed for the film ''Black Orpheus''.
Biography
Luiz Floriano Bonfá was born on October 17, 1922, in ...
popularized Brazilian musical styles such as the newly created Bossa Nova, which was well-received by audiences in the USA.
"New music" – avant-garde
The classical guitar repertoire also includes modern contemporary works – sometimes termed "New Music" – such as
Elliott Carter's ''Changes'',
Cristóbal Halffter
Cristóbal Halffter Jiménez-Encina (24 March 1930 – 23 May 2021) was a Spanish classical composer. He was the nephew of two other composers, Rodolfo and Ernesto Halffter and is regarded as the most important Spanish composer of the gene ...
's ''Codex I'',
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Sequenza''), and for his pioneering work ...
's ''
Sequenza XI
''Sequenza XI'' for solo guitar (1987–1988) is one of a series of Sequenzas by Luciano Berio. Written for the American guitarist Eliot Fisk, it is an innovative investigation into the dramatic and virtuosic possibilities of musical performance.
...
'',
Maurizio Pisati
Maurizio Pisati (born in Milan in 1959) is an Italian musician and composer.
He composes and performs his works with his group ZONE. He founded the LArecords label in 1997, he is artistic director of pactaSOUNDzone festival in Milan, and leads ...
's ''Sette Studi'',
Maurice Ohana's ''Si Le Jour Paraît'',
Sylvano Bussotti's ''Rara (eco sierologico)'',
Ernst Krenek's ''Suite für Guitarre allein, Op. 164'',
Franco Donatoni's ''Algo: Due pezzi per chitarra'', Paolo Coggiola's ''Variazioni Notturne'', etc.
Performers who are known for including modern repertoire include Jürgen Ruck, Elena Càsoli,
Leo Brouwer (when he was still performing),
John Schneider,
Reinbert Evers,
Maria Kämmerling,
Siegfried Behrend,
David Starobin
David Starobin (born September 27, 1951) is a highly honored figure in the world of classical guitar. Called "arguably the most influential American classical guitarist of the 20th century" ('' Soundboard''),
Starobin was born in New York City. ...
,
Mats Scheidegger Mats Scheidegger (born 1963 in Baden, Switzerland) is a classical guitar
The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden s ...
,
Magnus Andersson, etc.
This type of repertoire is usually performed by guitarists who have particularly chosen to focus on the avant-garde in their performances.
Within the contemporary music scene itself, there are also works which are generally regarded as extreme. These include works such as
Brian Ferneyhough
Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer. Ferneyhough is typically considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and t ...
's ''Kurze Schatten II'',
Sven-David Sandström
Sven-David Sandström (30 October 1942, in Motala – 10 June 2019) was a Swedish classical composer of operas, oratorios, ballets, and choral works, as well as orchestral works.
Life and career
Sandström studied art history and musicology at ...
's ''away from'' and
Rolf Riehm
Rolf Riehm (born 15 June 1937) is a German composer who wrote stage and orchestral works as well as music for ensembles and solo instruments. He began as an oboist and music teacher and was later a professor of music theory at the Hochschule fü ...
's ''Toccata Orpheus'' etc. which are notorious for their extreme difficulty.
There are also a variety of databases documenting modern guitar works such a
Sheer Pluckand others.
Background
The evolution of the classical guitar and its repertoire spans more than four centuries. It has a history that was shaped by contributions from earlier instruments, such as the lute, the vihuela, and the baroque guitar.
History
Overview of the classical guitar's history
The origins of the modern guitar are not known with certainty. Some believe it is indigenous to Europe, while others think it is an imported instrument. Guitar-like instruments appear in ancient carvings and statues recovered from Egyptian, Sumerian, and Babylonian civilizations. This means that the contemporary Iranian instruments such as the
tanbur and
setar are distantly related to the European guitar, as they all derive ultimately from the same ancient origins, but by very different historical routes and influences.
During the late
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
,
gitterns called "guitars" were in use, but their construction and tuning was different from modern guitars. The ''
guitarra latina'' in Spain had curved sides and a single hole. The ''
guitarra morisca
The Guitarra morisca or Mandora medieval is a plucked string instrument. It is a lute that has a bulging belly and a headstock as sickle. Part of that characterization came from a c. 1330 poem, ''Libro de buen amor'' by Juan Ruiz, arcipestre de H ...
'', which appears to have had
Moorish
The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages.
Moors are not a distinct or s ...
influences, had an oval soundbox and many sound holes on its soundboard. By the 15th century, a four-course double-string instrument called the ''
vihuela de mano
The vihuela () is a 15th-century fretted plucked Spanish string instrument, shaped like a guitar (figure-of-eight form offering strength and portability) but tuned like a lute. It was used in 15th- and 16th-century Spain as the equivalent of t ...
'', that had tuning like the later modern guitar except on one string and similar construction, first appeared in Spain and spread to France and Italy. In the 16th century, a fifth double-string was added. During this time, composers wrote mostly in tablature notation. In the middle of the 16th century, influences from the vihuela and the Renaissance guitar were combined and the baroque five-string guitar appeared in Spain. The baroque guitar quickly superseded the vihuela in popularity in Spain, France and Italy and Italian players and composers became prominent. In the late 18th century the six-string guitar quickly became popular at the expense of the five-string guitars. During the 19th century the Spanish luthier and player
Antonio de Torres
Antonio de Torres Jurado (13 June 1817 – 19 November 1892) was a Spanish guitarist and luthier, and "the most important Spanish guitar maker of the 19th century."
It is with his designs that the first recognisably modern classical guitars ar ...
gave the modern classical guitar its definitive form, with a broadened body, increased waist curve, thinned belly, improved internal bracing. The modern classical guitar replaced an older form for the accompaniment of song and dance called
flamenco
Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura a ...
, and a modified version, known as the
flamenco guitar, was created.
Renaissance guitar
Alonso de Mudarra's book ''Tres Libros de Música'', published in Spain in 1546, contains the earliest known written pieces for a four-course guitarra. This four-course "guitar" was popular in France, Spain, and Italy. In France this instrument gained popularity among aristocrats. A considerable volume of music was published in Paris from the 1550s to the 1570s:
Simon Gorlier's Le Troysième Livre... mis en tablature de Guiterne was published in 1551. In 1551
Adrian Le Roy also published his Premier Livre de Tablature de Guiterne, and in the same year he also published Briefve et facile instruction pour apprendre la tablature a bien accorder, conduire, et disposer la main sur la Guiterne. Robert Ballard, Grégoire Brayssing from Augsburg, and Guillaume Morlaye (c. 1510 – c. 1558) significantly contributed to its repertoire. Morlaye's Le Premier Livre de Chansons, Gaillardes, Pavannes, Bransles, Almandes, Fantasies – which has a four-course instrument illustrated on its title page – was published in partnership with Michel Fedenzat, and among other music, they published six books of tablature by lutenist Albert de Rippe (who was very likely Guillaume's teacher).
Vihuela
The written history of the classical guitar can be traced back to the early 16th century with the development of the ''
vihuela'' in Spain. While the lute was then becoming popular in other parts of Europe, the Spaniards did not take to it well because of its association with the Moors. Instead, the lute-like vihuela appeared with two more strings that gave it more range and complexity. In its most developed form, the vihuela was a guitar-like instrument with six double strings made of gut, tuned like a modern classical guitar with the exception of the third string, which was tuned half a step lower. It has a high sound and is rather large to hold. Few have survived and most of what is known today come from diagrams and paintings.
Baroque guitar
"Early romantic guitar" or "Guitar during the Classical music era"
The earliest extant six-string guitar is believed to have been built in 1779 by
Gaetano Vinaccia (1759 – after 1831) in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
; however, the date on the label is a little ambiguous. The Vinaccia family of luthiers is known for developing the
mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of ...
. This guitar has been examined and does not show tell-tale signs of modifications from a double-course guitar.
The authenticity of guitars allegedly produced before the 1790s is often in question. This also corresponds to when Moretti's 6-string method appeared, in 1792.
Modern classical guitar
The modern classical guitar (also known as the "Spanish guitar"), the immediate forerunner of today's guitars, was developed in the 19th century by
Antonio de Torres Jurado
Antonio de Torres Jurado (13 June 1817 – 19 November 1892) was a Spanish guitarist and luthier, and "the most important Spanish guitar maker of the 19th century."
It is with his designs that the first recognisably modern classical guitars ar ...
,
Ignacio Fleta,
Hermann Hauser Sr.
Hermann Hauser Sr. (born in Erding, 28 December 1882–died Reisbach, 28 October 1952) was a German luthier. He worked in Munich and later in the Bavarian Reisbach. Guitar models by Hermann Hauser Sr. included the Vienna Model and the Munich M ...
, and Robert Bouchet.
Technique
The fingerstyle is used fervently on the modern classical guitar. The thumb traditionally plucks the bass – or
root note
In music theory, the concept of root is the idea that a chord can be represented and named by one of its notes. It is linked to harmonic thinking—the idea that vertical aggregates of notes can form a single unit, a chord. It is in this sens ...
– whereas the fingers ring the melody and its accompanying parts. Often classical guitar technique involves the use of the nails of the right hand to pluck the notes. Noted players were:
Francisco Tárrega
Francisco de Asís Tárrega Eixea (21 November 185215 December 1909) was a Spanish composer and classical guitarist of the late Romantic period. He is known for such pieces as Capricho Árabe and ''Recuerdos de la Alhambra''. He is often called ...
,
Emilio Pujol,
Andrés Segovia,
Julian Bream
Julian Alexander Bream (15 July 193314 August 2020) was an English classical guitarist and lutenist. Regarded as one of the most distinguished classical guitarists of the 20th century, he played a significant role in improving the public perce ...
,
Agustín Barrios, and
John Williams (guitarist).
Performance
The modern classical guitar is usually played in a seated position, with the instrument resting on the left lap – and the left foot placed on a footstool. Alternatively – if a footstool is not used – a ''guitar support'' can be placed between the guitar and the left lap (the support usually attaches to the instrument's side with
suction cups). (There are of course exceptions, with some performers choosing to hold the instrument another way.)
Right-handed players use the fingers of the right hand to pluck the strings, with the thumb plucking from the top of a string downwards (downstroke) and the other fingers plucking from the bottom of the string upwards (upstroke). The little finger in classical technique as it evolved in the 20th century is used only to ride along with the ring finger without striking the strings and to thus physiologically facilitate the ring finger's motion.
In contrast,
Flamenco
Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura a ...
technique, and classical compositions evoking Flamenco, employ the little finger semi-independently in the Flamenco four-finger
rasgueado, that rapid strumming of the string by the fingers in reverse order employing the back of the fingernail—a familiar characteristic of Flamenco.
Flamenco
Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura a ...
technique, in the performance of the rasgueado also uses the upstroke of the four fingers and the downstroke of the thumb: the string is hit not only with the inner, fleshy side of the fingertip but also with the outer, fingernail side. This was also used in a technique of the
vihuela called
dedillo which has recently begun to be introduced on the classical guitar.
Some modern guitarists, such as
Štěpán Rak and
Kazuhito Yamashita is a Japanese classical guitarist and husband of the composer Keiko Fujiie. His technique and expression are highly acclaimed. By the age of 32, Yamashita had already released 52 albums, including repertoires for solo guitar, guitar concertos, ch ...
, use the little finger independently, compensating for the little finger's shortness by maintaining an extremely long fingernail. Rak and Yamashita have also generalized the use of the upstroke of the four fingers and the downstroke of the thumb (the same technique as in the rasgueado of the
Flamenco
Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura a ...
: as explained above the string is hit not only with the inner, fleshy side of the fingertip but also with the outer, fingernail side) both as a free stroke and as a rest stroke.
Direct contact with strings
As with other plucked instruments (such as the lute), the musician directly touches the strings (usually plucking) to produce the sound. This has important consequences: Different tone/
timbre (of a single note) can be produced by plucking the string in different manners (
apoyando or
tirando) and in different positions (such as closer and further away from the guitar bridge). For example, plucking an open string will sound brighter than playing the same note(s) on a fretted position (which would have a warmer tone).
The instrument's versatility means it can create a variety of tones, but this finger-picking style also makes the instrument harder to learn than a standard acoustic guitar's strumming technique.
Fingering notation
In guitar ''scores'' the five fingers of the right-hand (which pluck the strings) are designated by the first letter of their Spanish names namely p = thumb (''pulgar''), i = index finger (''índice''), m = middle finger (''mayor''), a = ring finger (''anular''), c = little finger or pinky (''meñique/chiquito'')
The four fingers of the left hand (which fret the strings) are designated 1 = index, 2 = major, 3 = ring finger, 4 = little finger. 0 designates an open string—a string not stopped by a finger and whose full length thus vibrates when plucked. It is rare to use the left hand thumb in performance, the neck of a classical guitar being too wide for comfort, and normal technique keeps the thumb behind the neck. However Johann Kaspar Mertz, for example, is notable for specifying the thumb to fret bass notes on the sixth string, notated with an up arrowhead (⌃).
Scores (contrary to ''tablatures'') do not systematically indicate the string to pluck (though the choice is usually obvious). When indicating the string is useful, the score uses the numbers 1 to 6 inside circles (highest-pitch sting to lowest).
Scores don't systematically indicate fretboard positions (where to put the first finger of the fretting hand), but when helpful (mostly with barrés chords) the score indicates positions with Roman numerals from the first position I (index finger on the 1st fret: F-B flat-E flat-A flat-C-F) to the twelfth position XII (index finger on the 12th fret: E-A-D-G-B-E. The 12th fret is where the body begins) or even higher up to position XIX (the classical guitar most often having 19 frets, with the 19th fret being most often split and not being usable to fret the 3rd and 4th strings).
Alternation
To achieve tremolo effects and rapid, fluent scale passages, the player must practice alternation, that is, never plucking a string with the same finger twice in a row.
Using p to indicate the thumb, i the index finger, m the middle finger and a the ring finger, common alternation patterns include:
* ''i-m-i-m'' : Basic melody line on the treble strings. Has the appearance of "walking along the strings". This is often used for playing
Scale (music) passages.
* ''p-i-m-a-i-m-a'' : Arpeggio pattern example. However, there are many arpeggio patterns incorporated into the classical guitar repertoire.
* ''p-a-m-i-p-a-m-i'' : Classical guitar tremolo pattern.
* ''p-m-p-m'' : A way of playing a melody line on the lower strings.
Repertoire
Music written specifically for the classical guitar dates from the addition of the sixth string (the baroque guitar normally had five pairs of strings) in the late 18th century.
A guitar recital may include a variety of works, e.g., works written originally for the lute or vihuela by composers such as
John Dowland (b. England 1563) and
Luis de Narváez
Luis de Narváez (fl. 1526–1549) was a Spanish composer and vihuelist. Highly regarded during his lifetime, Narváez is known today for '' Los seys libros del Delphín'', a collection of polyphonic music for the vihuela which includes the earl ...
(b. Spain c. 1500), and also music written for the harpsichord by
Domenico Scarlatti
Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, also known as Domingo or Doménico Scarlatti (26 October 1685-23 July 1757), was an Italian composer. He is classified primarily as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the devel ...
(b. Italy 1685), for the baroque lute by
Sylvius Leopold Weiss
Sylvius Leopold Weiss (12 October 168716 October 1750) was a German composer and lutenist.
Born in Grottkau near Breslau, the son of Johann Jacob Weiss, also a lutenist, he served at courts in Breslau, Rome, and Dresden, where he died. Until ...
(b. Germany 1687), for the baroque guitar by
Robert de Visée (b. France c. 1650) or even Spanish-flavored music written for the piano by
Isaac Albéniz (b. Spain 1860) and
Enrique Granados (b. Spain 1867). The most important composer who did not write for the guitar but whose music is often played on it is
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...
(b. Germany 1685), whose baroque lute works have proved highly adaptable to the instrument.
Of music written originally for guitar, the earliest important composers are from the classical period and include
Fernando Sor
Fernando Sor (bapt. 14 Feb. 1778, died 10 July 1839) was a Spanish classical guitarist and composer of the Early Romantic era. Best known for writing solo classical guitar music, he also composed an opera (at the age of 19), three symphonies ...
(b. Spain 1778) and
Mauro Giuliani
Mauro Giuseppe Sergio Pantaleo Giuliani (27 July 1781 – 8 May 1829) was an Italian guitarist, cellist, singer, and composer. He was a leading guitar virtuoso of the early 19th century.
Biography
Although born in Bisceglie, Giuliani's cen ...
(b. Italy 1781), both of whom wrote in a style strongly influenced by Viennese classicism. In the 19th-century guitar composers such as
Johann Kaspar Mertz
Joseph Kaspar Mertz (in hu, Mertz János Gáspár) (17 August 1806 – 14 October 1856) was an Austro-Hungarian guitarist and composer.
Biography
Caspar Joseph Mertz (baptised Casparus Josephus Mertz) was born in Pressburg, now Bratislava (S ...
(b. Slovakia, Austria 1806) were strongly influenced by the dominance of the piano. Not until the end of the nineteenth century did the guitar begin to establish its own unique identity.
Francisco Tárrega
Francisco de Asís Tárrega Eixea (21 November 185215 December 1909) was a Spanish composer and classical guitarist of the late Romantic period. He is known for such pieces as Capricho Árabe and ''Recuerdos de la Alhambra''. He is often called ...
(b. Spain 1852) was central to this, sometimes incorporating stylized aspects of flamenco's Moorish influences into his romantic miniatures. This was part of late 19th century mainstream European musical nationalism. Albéniz and Granados were central to this movement; their evocation of the guitar was so successful that their compositions have been absorbed into the standard guitar repertoire.
The steel-string and electric guitars characteristic to the rise of rock and roll in the post-WWII era became more widely played in North America and the English-speaking world.
Agustín Barrios Mangoré
Agustín is a Spanish given name and sometimes a surname. It is related to Augustín. People with the name include:
Given name
* Agustín (footballer), Spanish footballer
* Agustín Calleri (born 1976), Argentine tennis player
* Agustín C� ...
of
Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to t ...
composed many works and brought into the mainstream the characteristics of Latin American music, as did the Brazilian composer
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the ...
. Andrés Segovia commissioned works from Spanish composers such as
Federico Moreno Torroba and
Joaquín Rodrigo, Italians such as
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Latin American composers such as
Manuel Ponce
Manuel María Ponce Cuéllar (8 December 1882 – 24 April 1948) was a Mexican composer active in the 20th century. His work as a composer, music educator and scholar of Mexican music connected the concert scene with a mostly forgotten traditio ...
of Mexico. Other prominent Latin American composers are
Leo Brouwer of Cuba,
Antonio Lauro
Antonio Lauro (August 3, 1917 – April 18, 1986) was a Venezuelan musician, considered to be one of the foremost South American composers for the guitar in the 20th century.
Biography
Antonio Lauro was born in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela. Hi ...
of Venezuela and
Enrique Solares of Guatemala.
Julian Bream
Julian Alexander Bream (15 July 193314 August 2020) was an English classical guitarist and lutenist. Regarded as one of the most distinguished classical guitarists of the 20th century, he played a significant role in improving the public perce ...
of Britain managed to get nearly every British composer from
William Walton and
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...
to
Peter Maxwell Davies to write significant works for guitar. Bream's collaborations with tenor
Peter Pears also resulted in
song cycles by Britten,
Lennox Berkeley
Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley (12 May 190326 December 1989) was an English composer.
Biography
Berkeley was born on 12 May 1903 in Oxford, England, the younger child and only son of Aline Carla (1863–1935), daughter of Sir James Cha ...
and others. There are significant works by composers such as
Hans Werner Henze of Germany,
Gilbert Biberian of England and
Roland Chadwick of Australia.
The classical guitar also became widely used in popular music and rock & roll in the 1960s after guitarist
Mason Williams popularized the instrument in his instrumental hit
Classical Gas. Guitarist
Christopher Parkening
Christopher William Parkening (born December 14, 1947) is an American classical guitarist. He holds the Chair of Classical Guitar at Pepperdine University under the title Distinguished Professor of Music.
Biography
Parkening was born in Los Angel ...
is quoted in the book ''Classical Gas: The Music of Mason Williams'' as saying that it is the most requested guitar piece besides Malagueña and perhaps the best-known instrumental guitar piece today.
In the field of
New Flamenco, the works and performances of Spanish composer and player
Paco de Lucía are known worldwide.
Not many classical guitar concertos were written through history. Nevertheless, some guitar concertos are nowadays widely known and popular, especially
Joaquín Rodrigo's ''
Concierto de Aranjuez'' (with the famous theme from 2nd movement) and ''
Fantasía para un gentilhombre
''Fantasía para un gentilhombre'' (''Fantasia for a Gentleman'') is a concerto for guitar and orchestra by the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo. The concerto is Rodrigo's most popular work after the famous ''Concierto de Aranjuez''.
The four m ...
''. Composers, who also wrote famous guitar concertos are:
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widespread ...
(originally for mandolin or lute),
Mauro Giuliani
Mauro Giuseppe Sergio Pantaleo Giuliani (27 July 1781 – 8 May 1829) was an Italian guitarist, cellist, singer, and composer. He was a leading guitar virtuoso of the early 19th century.
Biography
Although born in Bisceglie, Giuliani's cen ...
,
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the ...
,
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco,
Manuel Ponce
Manuel María Ponce Cuéllar (8 December 1882 – 24 April 1948) was a Mexican composer active in the 20th century. His work as a composer, music educator and scholar of Mexican music connected the concert scene with a mostly forgotten traditio ...
,
Leo Brouwer,
Lennox Berkeley
Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley (12 May 190326 December 1989) was an English composer.
Biography
Berkeley was born on 12 May 1903 in Oxford, England, the younger child and only son of Aline Carla (1863–1935), daughter of Sir James Cha ...
and
Malcolm Arnold.
Nowadays, more and more contemporary composers decide to write a guitar concerto, among them ''Bosco Sacro'' by Federico Biscione, for guitar and string orchestra, is one of the most inspired.
Physical characteristics
The classical guitar is distinguished by a number of characteristics:
*It is an
acoustic instrument. The sound of the plucked string is amplified by the
soundboard and resonant cavity of the guitar.
*It has six
strings, though some classical guitars have seven or more strings.
*All six strings are made from
nylon
Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic.
Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from pet ...
, or nylon wrapped with metal, as opposed to the metal strings found on other acoustic guitars. Nylon strings also have a much lower
tension than steel strings, as do the predecessors to nylon strings, gut strings (made from ox or sheep gut). The lower three strings ('bass strings') are wound with metal, commonly silver-plated copper.
*Because of the low string tension
** The neck can be made entirely of wood without a steel truss rod
** The interior bracing can be lighter
*Typical modern six-string classical guitars are 48–54 mm wide at the nut, compared to around 42 mm for electric guitars.
* Classical fingerboards are normally flat and without inlaid fret markers, or just have dot inlays on the side of the neck—steel string fingerboards usually have a slight radius and inlays.
*Classical guitarists use their right hand to pluck the strings. Players shape their fingernails for ideal tone and feel against the strings.
*Strumming is a less common technique in classical guitar, and is often referred to by the Spanish term "rasgueo", or for strumming patterns "rasgueado", and uses the backs of the fingernails. Rasgueado is integral to
Flamenco
Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura a ...
guitar.
*
Machine head
A machine head (also referred to as a tuning machine, tuner, or gear head) is a geared apparatus for tuning stringed musical instruments by adjusting string tension. Machine heads are used on mandolins, guitars, double basses and others, and ar ...
s at the
headstock
A headstock or peghead is part of a guitar or similar stringed instruments such as a lute, mandolin, banjo, ukulele and others of the lute lineage. The main function of a headstock is to house the pegs or mechanism that holds the strings at th ...
of a classical guitar point backwards—in contrast to most steel-string guitars, which have machine heads that point outward.
*The overall design of a Classical Guitar is very similar to the slightly lighter and smaller
Flamenco guitar.
Parts
Parts of typical classical guitars include:
*
Headstock
A headstock or peghead is part of a guitar or similar stringed instruments such as a lute, mandolin, banjo, ukulele and others of the lute lineage. The main function of a headstock is to house the pegs or mechanism that holds the strings at th ...
* Nut
*
Machine head
A machine head (also referred to as a tuning machine, tuner, or gear head) is a geared apparatus for tuning stringed musical instruments by adjusting string tension. Machine heads are used on mandolins, guitars, double basses and others, and ar ...
s (or pegheads, tuning keys, tuning machines, tuners)
*
Fret
A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the neck or fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck. On some historical instru ...
s
* Neck
* Heel
* Body
* Bridge
* Bottom deck
* Soundboard
* Body sides
*
Sound hole, with
rosette inlay
*
Strings
* Saddle (Bridge nut)
*
Fretboard
The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments) is an important component of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument. The str ...
Fretboard
The fretboard (also called the fingerboard) is a piece of wood embedded with metal frets that constitutes the top of the neck. It is flat or slightly curved. The curvature of the fretboard is measured by the fretboard radius, which is the radius of a hypothetical circle of which the fretboard's surface constitutes a segment. The smaller the fretboard radius, the more noticeably curved the fretboard is. Fretboards are most commonly made of
ebony, but may also be made of
rosewood, some other hardwood, or of phenolic composite ("micarta").
Frets
Frets are the metal strips (usually nickel alloy or stainless steel) embedded along the
fingerboard
The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments) is an important component of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument. The s ...
and placed at points that divide the length of string mathematically. The strings' vibrating length is determined when the strings are pressed down behind the frets. Each fret produces a different pitch and each pitch spaced a half-step apart on the 12 tone scale. The
ratio
In mathematics, a ratio shows how many times one number contains another. For example, if there are eight oranges and six lemons in a bowl of fruit, then the ratio of oranges to lemons is eight to six (that is, 8:6, which is equivalent to the ...
of the widths of two consecutive frets is the
twelfth root of two
The twelfth root of two or \sqrt 2/math> (or equivalently 2^) is an algebraic irrational number, approximately equal to 1.0594631. It is most important in Western music theory, where it represents the frequency ratio ( musical interval) of a se ...
(