Classical guitar
The classical guitar, also known as a Spanish guitar, is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. As an acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor of the modern steel-string acoustic and electric guitars, both of which use metal strings. Classical guitars derive from instruments such as the lute, the vihuela, the gittern, which evolved into the Renaissance guitar and into the 17th and 18th-century baroque guitar. Today's modern classical guitar was established by the late designs of a 19th-century Spanish luthier, Antonio Torres Jurado.
For a right-handed player, the traditional classical guitar has 12 frets that are 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, or sul ponticello, position. However, the right hand may move to the sul tasto position, closer to the fretboard, to achieve a different tonal quality. To position the classical guitar correctly, the player's left leg is typically raised on a foot rest. The modern steel string guitar, on the other hand, usually has at least 14 frets clear of the body 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 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 Spain, France and Italy. Classical guitar strings once made of gut are now made of materials such as nylon or fluoropolymers, typically with silver-plated copper fine wire wound about the 3 lower-pitched strings, which are D, A and low E in standard tuning.
A guitar family tree may be identified. The flamenco guitar derives from the modern classical, but has differences in material, construction and sound.
Contexts
The classical guitar has a long history and one is able to distinguish various:- instruments
- repertoire
Historical
- Baroque guitar – 1600 to 1750
- Early romantic guitars – 1750 to 1850
- Modern classical guitars
- Spanish guitars, French guitars, German guitars, etc.
- 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, lute, Baroque guitar, 19th-century guitar, etc.
Different types of guitars have different sound aesthetics, e.g. different colour-spectrum characteristics, different response, etc. These differences are due to differences in construction; for example, modern classical guitars usually use a different bracing from that used in earlier guitars ; and a different voicing was used by the luthier.
There is a historical parallel between musical styles 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 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 on a modern classical guitar. The reason is that the baroque guitar used courses, which are two strings close together, 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 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 have a thick and strong tone, very suitable for modern-era repertoire. However, they are considered to emphasize the fundamental too heavily for earlier repertoire. "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." The styles of music performed on ladder-braced guitars were becoming unfashionable—and, e.g., in Germany, more musicians were turning towards folk music. 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 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 give the sound a very particular texture.
- Early guitars of the classical and romantic period have single strings, but their design and voicing are still such that they have their tonal energy more in the overtones, giving a bright intimate tone.
- Later in Spain a style of music emerged that favoured a stronger fundamental:
- Thus modern guitars with fan bracing 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 period who wrote for four-course guitar include Alonso Mudarra, Miguel de Fuenllana, Adrian Le Roy,, Guillaume de Morlaye, and.;Instrument
Four-course guitar
Baroque
Some well known composers of the Baroque guitar were Gaspar Sanz, Robert de Visée, Francesco Corbetta 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
- Filippo Gragnani
- Antoine de Lhoyer
- Ferdinando Carulli
- Wenzel Thomas Matiegka
- Francesco Molino
- Fernando Sor
- Mauro Giuliani
- Niccolò Paganini
- Dionisio Aguado
- Luigi Legnani
- Matteo Carcassi
- Napoléon Coste
- Johann Kaspar Mertz
- Giulio Regondi