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
Guitarra Latina (left) and
Guitarra Morisca (right)
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History of guitars
(exhibited at Deutsches Museum)
(exhibited at Deutsches Museum)
Main article: History of the classical guitar
Overview of the classical guitar's history
The ancestries of the modern guitar, like numerous other chordophones, track back through many instruments and thousands of years to ancient central Asia. Guitar like instruments appear in ancient carvings and statues recovered from the old Persian capital of Susa. 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, gitternscalled "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, which appears to have had Moorish influences, had an oval soundbox and many sound holes on its soundboard. By the 15th century, a four course double-string instrument called thevihuela de mano, 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renaissance guitar were combined and the baroque five string guitar appeared in Spain.[32] The baroque guitar quickly superseded the vihuela in popularity in Spain, France and Italy and Italian players and composers became prominent.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 gave the modern classical guitar its definitive form, with a broadened body, increased waist curve, thinned belly, improved internal bracing.[33] The modern classical guitar replaced older form for the accompaniment of song and dance called flamenco, and a modified version, known as the flamenco guitar, was created.
Gittern (1450)
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Renaissance guitar
See also: Renaissance music
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 and 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 amongst other music, they published six books of tablature by the lutenist Albert de Rippe (who was very likely Guillaume's teacher).
Vihuela
Main article: 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.[citation needed] 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 comes from diagrams and paintings.
Baroque guitar on The Guitar Player (c. 1672), by Johannes Vermeer
Early romantic guitar by Jean-Nicolas Grobert (1830)
Baroque guitar
Main article: Baroque guitar
See also: Baroque music
"Early romantic guitar" or "Guitar during the Classical music era"
Main article: Early romantic guitar
See also: Classical music era
The earliest extant six-string guitar is believed to have seen built in 1779 byGaetano Vinaccia (1759 - after 1831) inNaples, Italy; however, the date on the label is a little ambiguous.[36][37] The Vinaccia family of luthiers is known for developing the mandolin. This guitar has been examined and does not show tell-tale signs of modifications from a double-course guitar.[38] 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
Main article: Modern classical guitar
See also: Antonio de Torres Jurado and Hermann Hauser, Sr.
Contemporary classical guitar
Main article: Classical guitar making
Contemporary concert guitars occasionally follow the Smallmandesign, which replaces fan braces with a much lighter balsa brace attached to the back of the sound board with carbon fiber. The balsa brace has a lattice pattern and allows the (now much thinner) sound board to support more vibrational modes. This leads to greater volume and longer sustain but compromises the subtle tonalities of the Spanish sound.
