Guitar aficionados are generally aware that our beloved instrument traveled a very long and somewhat uncertain path to Spain. Many significant developments in classical guitar design and technique, and many important performers and composers, flourished in Spain during the past few centuries, but the story indeed began many years—perhaps millennia—earlier. Scholars, however, are not in agreement on where the instrument that ultimately became the modern classical guitar originated before arriving in Europe.
Among several scholarly speculations, The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians includes one theory that the guitar descended anciently from the Greek kithara. Alexander Bellow’s Illustrated History of the Guitar includes numerous photos of artifacts tying the guitar to various ancient cultures. One photo of a stone relief from the Hittite Empire (modern-day Turkey) dating from 1300 BCE depicts a musician playing a stringed instrument with a long neck and a body with curved sides that vaguely resembles a guitar. Another theory is that the guitar is a distant cousin to the long-necked lutes of early Mesopotamia. Coptic lutes discovered in Egypt dating from 300–700 AD had flat backs and sides and superficially resemble the shape of a modern guitar body. Other historians posit theories that the pear-shaped oud found in pre-Islamic Arabian lands influenced the development of the lute, which appeared in Europe in the 15th century and is part of the guitar’s lineage. Many parties throughout the centuries in several Western Europe countries contributed to the evolution of the modern guitar before Spain became a dominant force from the late 18th century forward in producing many groundbreaking, composers, performers, and luthiers.
The five-course Baroque guitar originated in Spain and gradually overtook the four-course instrument there in the 17th century. (“The Guitar Player” by Johannes Vermeer, 1672)
The Spanish Guitar
Beyond the guitar’s morphology, tunings and playing techniques must also be considered when tracing its genealogy. The vihuela, popular during the 15th and 16th centuries in Italy and Spain, fits directly into the evolutionary line and came in three varieties. The vihuela de penola was played with a pick, while the vihuela de arco was played with a bow. The vihuela de mano, however, had five or six double courses of strings and was plucked with the fingers. One of the latter’s tunings was G C F A D G (low strings to high). With the exception that the major third occurs between the fourth and third strings, its tuning relates to the interval pattern of a modern guitar and was pitched like a modern guitar with a capo placed on the third fret. (Of course on the modern guitar the major third occurs between the third and second strings and the whole is pitched a minor third lower than the vihuela.)
In the 16th century, small-bodied, four-course guitars made in France and Spain were used to play polyphonic music in a variety of tunings. Composers used different systems of tablature in France, Italy, and Spain to notate their music. Among the significant early composers were Alonso Mudarra (c. 1510–1580) from Spain, and Guillaume de Morlaye (c. 1510–1558) of France. Manuscript collections that include works by unnamed composers from England and Italy survive in European libraries. Even though the evolution of the guitar moved forward, these relatively diminutive instruments continued to be played into the 19th century.
In The Guitar from the Renaissance to the Present Day, Harvey Turnbull writes that the five-course Baroque guitar originated in Spain and gradually overtook the four-course there in the 17th century. Its tuning is like that used today, with strings tuned (from lowest to highest) A D G B E. Composers of Baroque guitar music used at least four different arrangements of the octaves among the double strings. These included re-entrant tunings in which the strings were not pitched strictly from low to high. One or more of the doubled strings in the middle courses were pitched an octave higher. (Vestiges of re-entrant tuning are found in modern ukulele, five-string banjo, and 12-string guitar tunings.) In his collection of pieces titled Poema Harmónio, Francisco Guerau of Spain (1649–ca. 1722) utilized a tuning of the top three strings in unison and the bottom two strings in octaves.
Women In Classical Guitar History
Baroque guitars were often used for song accompaniment, and the playing technique mixed strumming and notes plucked by the thumb and first two fingers. Many great instrumental solo works were created in this period. The music of Italian composer Francesco Corbetta (1615–1681) is less popular today than the works by his Spanish contemporaries Gaspar Sanz (1640–1710) or Santiago de Murcia (1673–1739), but Sanz hailed Corbetta in the day as “el mejor de todo” (the best of all).
Among the surviving instruments from this era, many are very elaborately inlayed with delicate, multilayered roses in the soundhole (made of parchment and other materials) and upward curving “mustache” figurations carved on either end of the bridge. Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari is famous for his extraordinary violins, violas, and cellos, but he also made some mandolins, harps, and an unknown number of Baroque guitars. Interestingly, his guitars have a plain look, exhibiting few of the flamboyant decorative features seen in Baroque guitars by other Italian makers. Among the five surviving Stradivari guitars, only one—the 1679 Sabionari—is still playable.
Baroque to Romantic era guitars (left to right): ca. 1830 Lacôte , ca. 1830 Panormo, 1813 Pagés , 1882 Fabricatore, Staufer (date unknown) — St. Cecilia’s Hall Collection, University of Edinburgh
The History Of The Modern Classical Guitar And Its Deep Iberian Roots
The transition from the five courses of the Baroque guitar to six single strings of the small-bodied Romantic guitar occurred toward the end of the 18th century in either France or Italy. At this point, the guitar begins to have less in common with the lute and its other predecessors and significant features of the modern guitar begin to emerge. A guitar with six single strings, a small body, and narrow waist became the standard in Spain in the early 19th century. The musical ramifications of the addition of the low E string included the possibility for part-writing on guitar. The extended range with the low E string allowed for playing the roots of I, IV, V chords on the lower strings with chord tones on the middle strings and melodic passages above.
Structural advances included machine heads replacing wooden tuning pegs, and fixed frets of ivory, ebony, and eventually metal, replacing tied gut frets. A flat back and a neck with the 12th fret located where the neck meets the body became standard. As well, fingerboards went from being flush with the guitar top to being raised about 2mm.
Another structural feature was fan strutting, reputedly first used by luthier Joséf Pagés (1740–1822), a leading member of the famed Cádiz school of guitar makers in Spain. Pagés began using three fan struts below the soundhole and later five. He is also credited with adding a slight dome to the guitar top. Celebrated Spanish composer/performers Fernando Sor (1778–1839) and Dionisio Aguado (1784–1849) both praised the quality of Pagés’ instruments. His innovations were influential on other Romantic guitar makers such as Louis Panormo of London. Labels in Panormo’s guitars state that he made guitars “in the Spanish style.” French maker René François Lacôte was another noted builder of Romantic-era guitars.
A Love Letter To The Spanish Guitar: A Bold And Beautiful Book Traces The Evolution Of The Instrument
Around the middle of the 18th century, tablature gave way to the adaptation of conventions of violin notation. Guitar scholar Thomas Heck writes that the movement away from tablature to standard notation began in Italy. From that point onward, music for the guitar has been notated on a single staff in the G (treble) clef with pitches sounding an octave lower than written. (Some 20th and 21st century composers, however, occasionally use two staves with G clefs to more clearly notate music with complex textures and rhythms.)
The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century brought rail transportation to Europe, increasing the opportunities for virtuoso performers to reach audiences across the continent. This reversed a declining interest in the guitar seen in the late 18th century. German virtuosi Simon Molitor (1766–1848) and Leonhard von Call (1767–1815) and Italian-born Mauro Giuliani (1781–1829) made Vienna a musical hub for the guitar. The wave washed across Europe to Paris and London, as well as Russia, in the early and middle decades with the renown of Spanish-born Sor and Aguado; Italians Niccolo Paganini, Ferdinando Carulli, Matteo Carcassi, and Luigi Rinaldo Legnani; and Austro-Hungarian Johann Kaspar Mertz and Swiss-born Giulio Regondi. Each contributed a variety of works to the repertoire, and Sor, Aguado, Carulli, and Carcassi wrote notable guitar methods.
Also swept up in the new instrument’s popularity were 19th century master composers Franz Schubert, Hector Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saëns, Charles Gounod, and Niels Gade, who played the guitar and wrote minor pieces for it. Opera composers Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner wrote guitar parts into their works Il Trovatore and Enzio respectively. Standing apart from their composer-performer peers, Sor and Giuliani are notable for their large-scale and technically dazzling solo guitar works—some in sonata form—as themes and variations, and for their prodigious catalogs. Sor also wrote in other genres including orchestral music, opera, ballet, string quartet, and more. Giuliani wrote three
The Ramirez Collection
The transition from the five courses of the Baroque guitar to six single strings of the small-bodied Romantic guitar occurred toward the end of the 18th century in either France or Italy. At this point, the guitar begins to have less in common with the lute and its other predecessors and significant features of the modern guitar begin to emerge. A guitar with six single strings, a small body, and narrow waist became the standard in Spain in the early 19th century. The musical ramifications of the addition of the low E string included the possibility for part-writing on guitar. The extended range with the low E string allowed for playing the roots of I, IV, V chords on the lower strings with chord tones on the middle strings and melodic passages above.
Structural advances included machine heads replacing wooden tuning pegs, and fixed frets of ivory, ebony, and eventually metal, replacing tied gut frets. A flat back and a neck with the 12th fret located where the neck meets the body became standard. As well, fingerboards went from being flush with the guitar top to being raised about 2mm.
Another structural feature was fan strutting, reputedly first used by luthier Joséf Pagés (1740–1822), a leading member of the famed Cádiz school of guitar makers in Spain. Pagés began using three fan struts below the soundhole and later five. He is also credited with adding a slight dome to the guitar top. Celebrated Spanish composer/performers Fernando Sor (1778–1839) and Dionisio Aguado (1784–1849) both praised the quality of Pagés’ instruments. His innovations were influential on other Romantic guitar makers such as Louis Panormo of London. Labels in Panormo’s guitars state that he made guitars “in the Spanish style.” French maker René François Lacôte was another noted builder of Romantic-era guitars.
A Love Letter To The Spanish Guitar: A Bold And Beautiful Book Traces The Evolution Of The Instrument
Around the middle of the 18th century, tablature gave way to the adaptation of conventions of violin notation. Guitar scholar Thomas Heck writes that the movement away from tablature to standard notation began in Italy. From that point onward, music for the guitar has been notated on a single staff in the G (treble) clef with pitches sounding an octave lower than written. (Some 20th and 21st century composers, however, occasionally use two staves with G clefs to more clearly notate music with complex textures and rhythms.)
The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century brought rail transportation to Europe, increasing the opportunities for virtuoso performers to reach audiences across the continent. This reversed a declining interest in the guitar seen in the late 18th century. German virtuosi Simon Molitor (1766–1848) and Leonhard von Call (1767–1815) and Italian-born Mauro Giuliani (1781–1829) made Vienna a musical hub for the guitar. The wave washed across Europe to Paris and London, as well as Russia, in the early and middle decades with the renown of Spanish-born Sor and Aguado; Italians Niccolo Paganini, Ferdinando Carulli, Matteo Carcassi, and Luigi Rinaldo Legnani; and Austro-Hungarian Johann Kaspar Mertz and Swiss-born Giulio Regondi. Each contributed a variety of works to the repertoire, and Sor, Aguado, Carulli, and Carcassi wrote notable guitar methods.
Also swept up in the new instrument’s popularity were 19th century master composers Franz Schubert, Hector Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saëns, Charles Gounod, and Niels Gade, who played the guitar and wrote minor pieces for it. Opera composers Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner wrote guitar parts into their works Il Trovatore and Enzio respectively. Standing apart from their composer-performer peers, Sor and Giuliani are notable for their large-scale and technically dazzling solo guitar works—some in sonata form—as themes and variations, and for their prodigious catalogs. Sor also wrote in other genres including orchestral music, opera, ballet, string quartet, and more. Giuliani wrote three
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