Classical Guitar Music

The classical guitar is a plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones. It traditionally has 3 plain gut bass strings and 3 gut wound silk core treble strings and the modern adaption typically has 6 nylon strings (the 3 bass-strings additionally being wound with a thin metal thread).

Today's classical guitar is regarded as having been established with the designs of the nineteenth century Spanish luthier Antonio Torres Jurado, although modifications continued to be made. Hence the modern classical guitar is sometimes called the "Spanish guitar".

The classical guitar has a long history and one is able to distinguish various:

*instruments

*repertoire (composers and their compositions, arrangements, improvisations)

Both instrument and repertoire can be viewed from a combination of various contexts:

*historical (chronological period of time)

**baroque guitar ? 17th to mid 18th century

**early romantic guitars ? 19th century (for music from the Classical and Romantic periods)

**modern classical guitars

*geographical

**e.g. in the 19th century: Spanish guitars (Torres), and French guitars (René Lacôte, ...), etc.

*cultural/stylistic and social aspects

**e.g. baroque court music, 19th century opera and its influences, 19th century folk songs, Latin American music, etc.

Brief examples using the above classifications (historical, cultural/stylistic, social etc.), to show the colourful diversity of the classical guitar:

*Robert de Visée (ca. 1650 ? 1725) with French Court music for baroque guitar and lute. He was the guitar player (maître de guitare du Roy) of Louis XIV of France at the court of Versailles. His works are influenced by hearing Jean-Baptiste de Lully (1632 ? 1687) who was also engaged at the court of Louis XIV.

*Mauro Giuliani (1781 ? 1829) with Italian/Viennese classical music for the 19th century so-called early romantic guitar. He was chamber-virtuoso of Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria . Some of his works include strong influences from his visits to 19th century opera performances.

*Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909) of Spain. His intimate salon-style music, is both romantic in character and includes charming character-pieces such as polkas and walzes. He even played for the Queen of Spain, Isabel II. From 1869, Tárrega used a guitar by Antonio de Torres (1817-1892); an instrument whose design is somewhat similar to today's modern classical guitar.

*Agustín Barrios (1885 ? 1944) from Paraguay, towards the end of his life using a modern classical guitar (his last instrument was a gift from Queen Eugenia of Spain in 1935). His music is romantic in style, with some works showing strong folkloric Paraguayan influences, shaped from his cultural background.

*Sergei Orekhov (?????? ??????) (1935 ? 1998) with music for Russian 7-string guitar. In his compositions and arrangements he pulls inspiration from his intimate knowledge of traditional Russian folk music and folk songs.

Interpretation of works of a specific composer in a specific style, requires an understanding of the historical cultural/stylistic and social aspects/influences, considering music an expressive art. This is often called the study of performance practice, with attempts at historically informed performance (sometimes abbreviated HIP).

The classical guitar as instrument is characterized by:

*its shape, construction and material ? modern classical guitar shape, or historic classical guitar shapes (e.g. early romantic guitars from France/Italy). A guitar family tree can be identified.. The flamenco guitar is derived from the modern classical, but has differences in material, construction and sound..

*its strings ? today primarily nylon; the bass-strings additionally being wound with a thin metal thread (traditionally they were made of gut - gut strings are still available today)

*the instrumental technique ? the individual strings are usually plucked with the fingers or the fingernails ? plectra are rarely used

*its historic repertoire, though this is of lesser importance, since guitarists are known to borrow from the repertoires of a wide variety of instruments.

The name classical guitar does not mean that only classical repertoire is performed on it, although classical music is a part of the instrument's core repertoire (due to the guitar's long history); instead all kinds of music (folk, alternative, jazz, flamenco, etc.) can be and are performed on it.

The term modern classical guitar is sometimes used to distinguish the classical guitar from older forms of guitar that are also sometimes called classical. Many luthiers today also build these older forms of "classical" guitars (e.g. replicas of romantic guitars, etc).