Classical Guitar Information and History
The classical guitar is a six-stringed instrument in the same family of instruments as the acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and bass guitar. It is distinguished from these other types of guitars by being an acoustic instrument and by being played with a finger-plucking technique rather than a guitar pick. The music played on a classical guitar may include classical pieces, but the instrument is not limited to any single genre and is versatile in its repertoire.
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History
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Guitar-like instruments have been around for more than 5,000 years, and the modern instrument evolved from three guitar-like precursors--lutes, Renaissance guitars, and the vihuela. The Renaissance guitar was made in the mid-fifteenth century; the vihuela is a Spanish six-stringed instrument of the early sixteenth century; a lute is a term for any string instrument with a rounded, deep back that is played by plucking. From these three European influences, the guitar developed, with the earliest known six-string guitar being built in 1779 by the Italian luthier Gaetano Vinaccia. By the time that Spanish luthier Antonio Torres Jurado was making guitars in the nineteenth century, the design of the guitar was very similar to the contemporary classical guitar.
Construction
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The classical guitar is an acoustic instrument, typically with six nylon strings. Some guitars have more than six strings, however. The sound of the strings is amplifed by the soundboard of the guitar. The three lower strings have metal wound around them--this is typically copper with a silver plating. The overall design of a classical guitar is very similar to that of a flamenco guitar, which is constructed along the same principles but on a slightly smaller scale. Different tuning schemes can be used for the guitar's six strings, but the most common or "standard" tuning is E-A-D-G-B-E, going from the lowest-pitched string to the highest.
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Repertoire
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Like many other instruments originating in a folk tradition and subsequently striving to gain legitimacy, the classical guitar repertoire contains a lot of music originally written for other instruments, including keyboard, violin, cello, and lute pieces by Bach and other composers. The late eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century saw many classical guitarists composing music to perform on their guitars. Examples of popular composer-performers of this era include Ferdinando Carulli, Fernando Sor, and Luigi Moretti. Important twentieth-century guitar composers include Francisco Tarrega, Manuel Ponce, Augustin Barrios, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Moreno Torroba, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and Antonio Lauro.
Famous Classical Guitarists
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Throughout the centuries, classical guitarists have risen to fame through playing the instrument. Mauro Giuliani was a court musician in Austria in the early nineteenth century who wrote and performed classical guitar music in an early romantic style. Sergei Orekhov wrote music for the seven-string Russian classical guitar, drawing inpiration from Russian folk music in synthesis with a classical style. Probably the most famous twentieth-century classical guitarists was Andrés Segovia (1893-1987) of Spain. Scholars consider Segovia to be the father of the modern classical guitar style. He is credited with elevating the guitar from an instrument associated with lowly folk music to a respected instrument in the world of classical music. Some celebrated classical guitarists who have followed Segovia include Narciso Yepes (Spain), Julian Bream (England), and John Williams (Australia).
Playing Technique
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Classical guitar players use the fingers of their dominant hand to pluck the guitar strings. For a right-handed player, this would mean that the right hand plucks the strings while the left hand frets the notes on the fingerboard. Classical guitarists grow and shape their fingernails to produce the desired tone on the guitar. Strumming and chord patterns are not typicaly used in classical guitar playing, which differentiates the instrument and its repertoire from other acoustic guitar styles such as folk and pop.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit guitar image by cherie from Fotolia.com
