Happy 420 everyone and welcome to our continuing celebration of International Guitar Month with our exploration of the Giants of the Guitar. Last week we took a look at The Performers, well this week we explore the Music of The Composers. The Guitar as an instrument dates back almost 400 years with the earliest Renassance & Baroque Guitars having been strung with four courses. Courses are double strings set closely and plucked together to produce the sound. During the Baroque period a fifth course was added, the Nicolas Alexandre Voboam II style having a flat back and the Matteo Sellas style a round back. 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. The Modern Six String Classical Guitar came into being around 1790.
Of music written originally for guitar, the earliest important composers are from the classical period and include Fernando Sor (b. Spain 1778) and Mauro Giuliani (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 (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 (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 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. Barrios composed many works and brought into the mainstream the characteristics of Latin American music, as did the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. 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 of Mexico. Other prominent Latin American composers are Leo Brouwer of Cuba, Antonio Lauro of Venezuela and Enrique Solares of Guatemala. Julian Bream of Britain managed to get nearly every British composer from William Walton to Benjamin Britten 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 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 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 concerti were written through the guitar history. Nevertheless, some guitar concerti 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. There are more and more Concerti being written for the Guitar as the repertoire expansion that began with Segovia's inspiration continues. I will try to feature as many works by as many composers as possible this week, however I will not be able to cover the expanse of the repertoire that exits today.
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. Barrios composed many works and brought into the mainstream the characteristics of Latin American music, as did the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. 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 of Mexico. Other prominent Latin American composers are Leo Brouwer of Cuba, Antonio Lauro of Venezuela and Enrique Solares of Guatemala. Julian Bream of Britain managed to get nearly every British composer from William Walton to Benjamin Britten 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 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 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 concerti were written through the guitar history. Nevertheless, some guitar concerti 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. There are more and more Concerti being written for the Guitar as the repertoire expansion that began with Segovia's inspiration continues. I will try to feature as many works by as many composers as possible this week, however I will not be able to cover the expanse of the repertoire that exits today.
I will start with one of the earliest Guitar Virtuosi who was also a Cellist, Singer and of course, a Composer. Italian Composer Mauro Guiliani wrote more than 150 different works for Guitar including Solo, Duo, Ensemble and Orchestral Scores. As a Cellist he played in the orchestra at the debut of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. As a Guitar Composer, he was very fond of the theme and variations—
an extremely popular form in Vienna. He had a remarkable ability to
weave a melody into a passage with musical effect while remaining true
to the idiom of the instrument. Today's video presentation features the two CD set: Guiliani Complete Guitar Concertos, Gran Sonata eroica and other solo works. Disc One is posted down below and Disc Two is over on my tumblr. Today's performance is by The Academy of St Martin in the Fields under the baton of Sir Neville Marriner featuring Pepe Romero as the Soloist. The Disc one play list includes:
1. Concerto No.1 in A, Op.30 0:00
2. Concerto No.2 in A, Op.36 22:36
3. Variations on - "I bin a Kohlbauern Bub," Op.49 54:49
4. Gran Sonata Eroica in A 1:04:23
2. Concerto No.2 in A, Op.36 22:36
3. Variations on - "I bin a Kohlbauern Bub," Op.49 54:49
4. Gran Sonata Eroica in A 1:04:23
I would like to once again thank Wikipedia for their invaluable contributions to this post. But before I sign off, there is still the matter of a little visual stimulation for a Monday. In honor of the 420 celebration, I tried to choose guys that were smoking hot or whose 'blunt' I would definitely 'smoke'. You will find my results in this week's edition of Monday's Undies posted down below and in the Hottie of the Day! over on my tumblr. Tune in tomorrow as we explore more Music of The Composers. Until next time as always, Enjoy!
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