![\"Painting,](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/AG309_spain_guitar_2.jpg?resize=750%2C500&ssl=1\")
Gaining and Losing Strings<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nBeyond the guitar\u2019s morphology, tunings and playing techniques must also be considered when tracing its genealogy. The vihuela,<\/i> popular during the 15th and 16th centuries in Italy and Spain, fits directly into the evolutionary line and came in three varieties. The vihuela de penola<\/i> was played with a pick, while the vihuela de arco<\/i> was played with a bow. The vihuela de mano, <\/i>however, had five or six double courses of strings and was plucked with the fingers. One of the latter\u2019s tunings was G C F A D G (low strings to high). With the exception that the major third occurs between the fourth and third strings, its tuning relates to the interval pattern of a modern guitar and was pitched like a modern guitar with a capo placed on the third fret. (Of course on the modern guitar the major third occurs between the third and second strings and the whole is pitched a minor third lower than the vihuela.)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the 16th century, small-bodied, four-course guitars made in France and Spain were used to play polyphonic music in a variety of tunings. Composers used different systems of tablature in France, Italy, and Spain to notate their music. Among the significant early composers were Alonso Mudarra (c. 1510\u20131580) from Spain, and Guillaume de Morlaye (c. 1510\u20131558) of France. Manuscript collections that include works by unnamed composers from England and Italy survive in European libraries. Even though the evolution of the guitar moved forward, these relatively diminutive instruments continued to be played into the 19th century.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nBaroque Guitar<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn The Guitar from the Renaissance to the Present Day<\/i><\/a>, Harvey Turnbull writes that the five-course Baroque guitar originated in Spain and gradually overtook the four-course there in the 17th century. Its tuning is like that used today, with strings tuned (from lowest to highest) A D G B E. Composers of Baroque guitar music used at least four different arrangements of the octaves among the double strings. These included re-entrant tunings in which the strings were not pitched strictly from low to high. One or more of the doubled strings in the middle courses were pitched an octave higher. (Vestiges of re-entrant tuning are found in modern ukulele, five-string banjo, and 12-string guitar tunings.) In his collection of pieces titled Poema Harm\u00f3nio<\/i>, Francisco Guerau of Spain (1649\u2013ca. 1722) utilized a tuning of the top three strings in unison and the bottom two strings in octaves. Baroque guitars were often used for song accompaniment, and the playing technique mixed strumming and notes plucked by the thumb and first two fingers. Many great instrumental solo works were created in this period. The music of Italian composer Francesco Corbetta (1615\u20131681) is less popular today than the works by his Spanish contemporaries Gaspar Sanz (1640\u20131710) or Santiago de Murcia (1673\u20131739), but Sanz hailed Corbetta in the day as \u201cel mejor de todo\u201d (the best of all).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nAmong the surviving instruments from this era, many are very elaborately inlayed with delicate, multilayered roses in the soundhole (made of parchment and other materials) and upward curving \u201cmustache\u201d figurations carved on either end of the bridge. Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari is famous for his extraordinary violins, violas, and cellos, but he also made some mandolins, harps, and an unknown number of Baroque guitars. Interestingly, his guitars have a plain look, exhibiting few of the flamboyant decorative features seen in Baroque guitars by other Italian makers. Among the five surviving Stradivari guitars, only one\u2014the 1679 Sabionari\u2014is still playable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Baroque](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/AG309_spain_guitars.jpg?w=1290&ssl=1\")
Baroque to Romantic era guitars (left to right): ca. 1830 Lac\u00f4te , ca. 1830 Panormo, 1813 Pag\u00e9s , 1882 Fabricatore, Staufer (date unknown) — St. Cecilia’s Hall Collection, University of Edinburgh<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAdopting Lasting Standards<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nThe transition from the five courses of the Baroque guitar to six single strings of the small-bodied Romantic guitar occurred toward the end of the 18th century in either France or Italy. At this point, the guitar begins to have less in common with the lute and its other predecessors and significant features of the modern guitar begin to emerge. A guitar with six single strings, a small body, and narrow waist became the standard in Spain in the early 19th century. The musical ramifications of the addition of the low E string included the possibility for part-writing on guitar. The extended range with the low E string allowed for playing the roots of I, IV, V chords on the lower strings with chord tones on the middle strings and melodic passages above.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nStructural advances included machine heads replacing wooden tuning pegs, and fixed frets of ivory, ebony, and eventually metal, replacing tied gut frets. A flat back and a neck with the 12th fret located where the neck meets the body became standard. As well, fingerboards went from being flush with the guitar top to being raised about 2mm. Another structural feature was fan strutting, reputedly first used by luthier Jos\u00e9f Pag\u00e9s (1740\u20131822), a leading member of the famed C\u00e1diz school of guitar makers in Spain. Pag\u00e9s began using three fan struts below the soundhole and later five. He is also credited with adding a slight dome to the guitar top. Celebrated Spanish composer\/performers Fernando Sor (1778\u20131839) and Dionisio Aguado (1784\u20131849) both praised the quality of Pag\u00e9s\u2019 instruments. His innovations were influential on other Romantic guitar makers such as Louis Panormo of London. Labels in Panormo\u2019s guitars state that he made guitars \u201cin the Spanish style.\u201d French maker Ren\u00e9 Fran\u00e7ois Lac\u00f4te was another noted builder of Romantic-era guitars.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nAround the middle of the 18th century, tablature gave way to the adaptation of conventions of violin notation. Guitar scholar Thomas Heck writes that the movement away from tablature to standard notation began in Italy. From that point onward, music for the guitar has been notated on a single staff in the G (treble) clef with pitches sounding an octave lower than written. (Some 20th and 21st century composers, however, occasionally use two staves with G clefs to more clearly notate music with complex textures and rhythms.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
19th Century Virtuosi<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nThe Industrial Revolution of the 19th century brought rail transportation to Europe, increasing the opportunities for virtuoso performers to reach audiences across the continent. This reversed a declining interest in the guitar seen in the late 18th century. German virtuosi Simon Molitor (1766\u20131848) and Leonhard von Call (1767\u20131815) and Italian-born Mauro Giuliani (1781\u20131829) made Vienna a musical hub for the guitar. The wave washed across Europe to Paris and London, as well as Russia, in the early and middle decades with the renown of Spanish-born Sor and Aguado; Italians Niccolo Paganini, Ferdinando Carulli, Matteo Carcassi, and Luigi Rinaldo Legnani; and Austro-Hungarian Johann Kaspar Mertz and Swiss-born Giulio Regondi. Each contributed a variety of works to the repertoire, and Sor, Aguado, Carulli, and Carcassi wrote notable guitar methods. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nAlso swept up in the new instrument\u2019s popularity were 19th century master composers Franz Schubert, Hector Berlioz, Camille Saint-Sa\u00ebns, Charles Gounod, and Niels Gade, who played the guitar and wrote minor pieces for it. Opera composers Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner wrote guitar parts into their works Il Trovatore<\/i> and Enzio<\/i> respectively. Standing apart from their composer-performer peers, Sor and Giuliani are notable for their large-scale and technically dazzling solo guitar works\u2014some in sonata form\u2014as themes and variations, and for their prodigious catalogs. Sor also wrote in other genres including orchestral music, opera, ballet, string quartet, and more. Giuliani wrote three concertos for guitar and orchestra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"guitarist](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/AG309_tarrega.jpg?resize=750%2C500&ssl=1\")
Francisco T\u00e1rrega<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nToward Modern Guitar Design<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nFrom the late 19th century and continuing into the 20th century, Spain increasingly became a very fertile ground for guitar activity, producing monumental performers, guitar builders, and composers. The innovations of luthier Antonio de Torres Jurado (1817\u20131892) added momentum. Even his name, Torres, testifies to his being a towering figure in Spanish guitar construction who set standards still in use today. Torres\u2019s guitar making falls into two epochs in his life. The first, spanning the years 1852\u20131869, began at the urging of noted guitarist Julian Arcas (1832\u20131882). Sadly, Torres struggled to earn a consistent income from guitar making throughout his life, and left building guitars in Seville in 1870 to open a china and crystal shop in Almer\u00eda. Fortunately, he returned to guitar building in his second epoch from 1875 until his death in 1892.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Torres adopted the best practices of luthiers who preceded him and added his own ideas to lay the foundation for a much-revered modern school of Spanish guitar making. He increased the size of the guitar body to about 20 percent larger than guitars made by Pag\u00e9s, Panormo, and Lac\u00f4te. His figure-eight-shaped guitar body design added more area to both the upper and lower bouts and was reputed to have been inspired by a young woman he saw in Seville. Torres considered the soundboard the most important part of the instrument and made his tops thinner for increased resonance. He also used a bracing system that generally featured seven struts fanning out from below the soundhole supporting the top. Torres also settled on a 650 mm scale length for concert guitars, a dimension widely adopted by other luthiers and still a standard today. Additionally, Torres added a saddle to the bridge to facilitate string height adjustment.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nSince 1600, Madrid has been a significant site for Spanish guitar making. The Ramirez guitar dynasty, the most famous throughout the 20th century, began in Madrid, where Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez I (1858\u20131923) set up his shop in 1890 and where the company continues today. He largely adopted the methods of Torres, but developed the popular tablao<\/i> guitar, a flamenco instrument with a larger body and narrower sides than Torres\u2019 guitars. Among many builders trained by Jos\u00e9 I was his brother Manuel Ram\u00edrez (1864\u20131916), best remembered for his 1912 encounter with the then-unknown Andr\u00e9s Segovia, who came to his shop seeking to rent a concert guitar. Impressed after hearing him play, Manuel generously gave Segovia a concert guitar telling him, \u201cTake it with you through the world and may your work make it fertile . . . . <\/span>Pay me for it without money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAmong Manuel\u2019s most famous apprentices were Santos Hernandez, Domingo Esteso, Enrique Garcia, and Modesto Borreguero. The Ram\u00edrez family business passed in a direct line from Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez I to Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez II (1885\u20131957), Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez III (1922\u20131995), and Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez IV (1953\u20132000). Amalia Ram\u00edrez, also a highly skilled luthier and the sister of Jos\u00e9 IV, currently manages the Ram\u00edrez shop. Each member of the family has contributed to making their brand distinctive. Jos\u00e9 III increased the size of the sound box, introduced new varnishes, and was the first maker to use red cedar for a guitar soundboard. Beginning in 1937, Segovia played guitars made by German luthier Hermann Hauser, but in 1963 he began playing guitars by Jos\u00e9 III, alternating with an instrument built by Ignacio Fleta of Barcelona. In 1979, the Maestro began playing a model by Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez IV. Among the many celebrated guitarists who embraced Ram\u00edrez guitars are Christopher Parkening, Kazuhito Yamashita, and Narciso Yepes. (As well, George Harrison played a Ram\u00edrez on the Beatles song \u201cAnd I Love Her.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nNotable 20th century luthiers working in Madrid tied to the Ram\u00edrez legacy are Marcelo Barbero, Manuel Contreras, Paulino Bernab\u00e9, and the Rodr\u00edguez family (Manuel Rodr\u00edguez P\u00e9rez Sr., Manuel Rodr\u00edguez II, and Norman Rodr\u00edguez).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"guitar](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/AG309_torres.jpg?resize=750%2C500&ssl=1\")
Antonio de Torres Jurado<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nInto the Modern Era<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nGuitarist and composer Francisco T\u00e1rrega (1852\u20131909), armed with the structurally and sonically improved instruments of Torres, ushered in the modern era of guitar. Though partially blind since childhood, T\u00e1rrega grew the guitar\u2019s repertoire through his transcriptions of music by Beethoven, Bach, Chopin, Schumann, Haydn, his Spanish contemporary Isaac Alb\u00e9niz, and others. His own compositions number around 80 and include such enduring classics as \u201cRecuerdos de la Alhambra\u201d and \u201cCapricho Arab\u00e9,\u201d in addition to etudes, preludes, and many short pieces in dance rhythms. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nT\u00e1rrega contributed to the development of modern technique by endorsing the placement of the guitar on the left leg raised on a footstool and discontinuing the practice of resting the right-hand pinky finger on the soundboard. He also advocated the use of both free stroke and rest stroke for the right hand. Throughout the 19th century, there was debate over whether the guitar should be played with or without fingernails. Sor played with the flesh only and Aguado advocated for nails. In 1904, T\u00e1rrega cut his nails and promoted playing without them. Two of his famous students, Emilio Pujol (1886\u20131980) and Miguel Llobet (1878\u20131938), took different sides, with Pujol agreeing with T\u00e1rrega\u2019s use of flesh and Llobet opting to use nails. The debate was effectively settled with the appearance of Segovia on the world stage, playing with nails and becoming renowned for his remarkable use of tone color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Known as a T\u00e1rrega disciple, Llobet traveled as a concert artist throughout Europe and North and South America. His top students included Cuban virtuoso Rey de la Torre (1917\u20131994) and Argentine-born Maria Luisa Anido (1907\u20131996). While Segovia (1893\u20131987) always declared himself to be self-taught, in his early years, he studied with Llobet, seeking to get closer to the pedagogical legacy of T\u00e1rrega. Llobet\u2019s most famous contribution to the repertoire is Canciones Populares Catalanes<\/i>, a collection Catalan folksong settings, which includes \u201cEl Noi de la Mare,\u201d a piece widely popularized by Segovia. In the early decades of the 20th century, some concert promoters billed Llobet as \u201cthe world\u2019s greatest guitarist.\u201d Similar accolades would be subsequently bestowed upon Segovia.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"AG309_segovia\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/AG309_segovia.jpg?resize=750%2C500&ssl=1\")
Andr\u00e9s Segovia with his 1912 Ramirez<\/em> guitar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Daddy of Us All<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nGeorge Harrison is often quoted saying: \u201cSegovia is the daddy of us all.\u201d Indeed, the growth in the worldwide popularity of the Spanish guitar and guitar in general since the early decades of 20th century owes much to the life and work of Segovia. Harrison\u2019s quote is interesting in that <\/span>during the 1960s the Beatles spurred a huge surge in acoustic and electric guitar sales and inspired millions to play the instrument. Many baby boomers introduced to the guitar by the Beatles and other pop artists later pursued classical guitar studies. They ultimately discovered Segovia, sometimes through those who followed in his footsteps: Julian Bream and the Romeros, as well as Segovia students John Williams, Christopher Parkening, Oscar Ghiglia, Alirio D\u00edaz, and later, Eliot Fisk, Sharon Isbin, and Virginia Luque. Segovia kicked off a movement that motivated four generations of classical guitarists. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nTo list Segovia\u2019s numerous accomplishments is beyond the scope of this article. His New York Times<\/i> obituary states that he set out to \u201credeem my guitar from the flamenco\u201d and establish it as a respected instrument suitable for the classical concert stage, draw the public to the guitar, build the repertoire, and see the guitar placed alongside the violin and piano in conservatory and college and university music departments worldwide. Put a check mark next to all items. During Segovia\u2019s long career, he sold hundreds of thousands of concert tickets and millions of albums. At the time of his passing, in 1987, future concert bookings were on his calendar. As well, a look at music departments of the world\u2019s most prestigious conservatories and universities indicates the embrace of the guitar in higher education.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nBut perhaps it was the expansion of the guitar\u2019s repertoire backwards and forwards\u2014through transcribing tremendously appealing works from the past and inspiring composers to write new ones\u2014that enabled him to reach his other goals. Upon hearing Segovia\u2019s arrangements of \u201cSpanish Dance No. 5\u201d by Granados, \u201cSevilla\u201d or \u201cAsturias\u201d by Alb\u00e9niz, J.S. Bach\u2019s \u201cChaconne\u201d or \u201cFugue in A Minor,\u201d Domenico Scarlatti\u2019s \u201cSonata in E Minor K. 11,\u201d countless guitarists just had<\/i> to learn them. His renditions of Sor\u2019s op. 9 \u201cVariations on a Theme by Mozart,\u201d T\u00e1rrega\u2019s \u201cRecuerdos de la Alhambra\u201d and \u201cCapricho Arab\u00e9,\u201d and many others elicited the same response. This dynamic expansion of the repertoire has been taken up by others and continues with vigor to this day.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nComposers such as Mexico\u2019s Manuel Ponce (1882\u20131948) enjoyed a long friendship and collaboration with Segovia that yielded five multi-movement sonatas, several themes and variations (including the epic Variations
and Fugue on \u2018La Folia\u2019<\/i>), and Concierto del sur<\/i> for guitar and orchestra, among many other titles. Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887\u20131959) dedicated his masterful Douze Etudes<\/i> and Guitar Concerto<\/i> to Segovia. While Segovia never had any connection to Joaqu\u00edn Rodrigo\u2019s famous Concierto de Aranjuez<\/i> (the most popular concerto of the 20th century was premiered by Regino Sainz de la Maza), the revered Spanish composer dedicated his concerto Fantas\u00eda para un Gentilhombre <\/i>and the solo work Tres Piezas Espa\u00f1olas<\/i> to Segovia. Additional works dedicated to Segovia flowed from the pens of Federico Moreno Torroba, Alexandre Tansman, Joaqu\u00edn Turina, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Francis Poulenc, and many others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Spain\u2019s foremost classical guitarist, Segovia carried the Spanish guitar through seven decades of the 20th century and delivered it to the waiting hands of new generations. New champions now hold the torch and are preserving and expanding legacy of the Spanish guitar.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the 16th century, small-bodied, four-course guitars made in France and Spain were used to play polyphonic music in a variety of tunings. Composers used different systems of tablature in France, Italy, and Spain to notate their music. Among the significant early composers were Alonso Mudarra (c. 1510\u20131580) from Spain, and Guillaume de Morlaye (c. 1510\u20131558) of France. Manuscript collections that include works by unnamed composers from England and Italy survive in European libraries. Even though the evolution of the guitar moved forward, these relatively diminutive instruments continued to be played into the 19th century.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n In The Guitar from the Renaissance to the Present Day<\/i><\/a>, Harvey Turnbull writes that the five-course Baroque guitar originated in Spain and gradually overtook the four-course there in the 17th century. Its tuning is like that used today, with strings tuned (from lowest to highest) A D G B E. Composers of Baroque guitar music used at least four different arrangements of the octaves among the double strings. These included re-entrant tunings in which the strings were not pitched strictly from low to high. One or more of the doubled strings in the middle courses were pitched an octave higher. (Vestiges of re-entrant tuning are found in modern ukulele, five-string banjo, and 12-string guitar tunings.) In his collection of pieces titled Poema Harm\u00f3nio<\/i>, Francisco Guerau of Spain (1649\u2013ca. 1722) utilized a tuning of the top three strings in unison and the bottom two strings in octaves. Baroque guitars were often used for song accompaniment, and the playing technique mixed strumming and notes plucked by the thumb and first two fingers. Many great instrumental solo works were created in this period. The music of Italian composer Francesco Corbetta (1615\u20131681) is less popular today than the works by his Spanish contemporaries Gaspar Sanz (1640\u20131710) or Santiago de Murcia (1673\u20131739), but Sanz hailed Corbetta in the day as \u201cel mejor de todo\u201d (the best of all).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the surviving instruments from this era, many are very elaborately inlayed with delicate, multilayered roses in the soundhole (made of parchment and other materials) and upward curving \u201cmustache\u201d figurations carved on either end of the bridge. Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari is famous for his extraordinary violins, violas, and cellos, but he also made some mandolins, harps, and an unknown number of Baroque guitars. Interestingly, his guitars have a plain look, exhibiting few of the flamboyant decorative features seen in Baroque guitars by other Italian makers. Among the five surviving Stradivari guitars, only one\u2014the 1679 Sabionari\u2014is still playable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The transition from the five courses of the Baroque guitar to six single strings of the small-bodied Romantic guitar occurred toward the end of the 18th century in either France or Italy. At this point, the guitar begins to have less in common with the lute and its other predecessors and significant features of the modern guitar begin to emerge. A guitar with six single strings, a small body, and narrow waist became the standard in Spain in the early 19th century. The musical ramifications of the addition of the low E string included the possibility for part-writing on guitar. The extended range with the low E string allowed for playing the roots of I, IV, V chords on the lower strings with chord tones on the middle strings and melodic passages above.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Structural advances included machine heads replacing wooden tuning pegs, and fixed frets of ivory, ebony, and eventually metal, replacing tied gut frets. A flat back and a neck with the 12th fret located where the neck meets the body became standard. As well, fingerboards went from being flush with the guitar top to being raised about 2mm. Another structural feature was fan strutting, reputedly first used by luthier Jos\u00e9f Pag\u00e9s (1740\u20131822), a leading member of the famed C\u00e1diz school of guitar makers in Spain. Pag\u00e9s began using three fan struts below the soundhole and later five. He is also credited with adding a slight dome to the guitar top. Celebrated Spanish composer\/performers Fernando Sor (1778\u20131839) and Dionisio Aguado (1784\u20131849) both praised the quality of Pag\u00e9s\u2019 instruments. His innovations were influential on other Romantic guitar makers such as Louis Panormo of London. Labels in Panormo\u2019s guitars state that he made guitars \u201cin the Spanish style.\u201d French maker Ren\u00e9 Fran\u00e7ois Lac\u00f4te was another noted builder of Romantic-era guitars.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Around the middle of the 18th century, tablature gave way to the adaptation of conventions of violin notation. Guitar scholar Thomas Heck writes that the movement away from tablature to standard notation began in Italy. From that point onward, music for the guitar has been notated on a single staff in the G (treble) clef with pitches sounding an octave lower than written. (Some 20th and 21st century composers, however, occasionally use two staves with G clefs to more clearly notate music with complex textures and rhythms.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century brought rail transportation to Europe, increasing the opportunities for virtuoso performers to reach audiences across the continent. This reversed a declining interest in the guitar seen in the late 18th century. German virtuosi Simon Molitor (1766\u20131848) and Leonhard von Call (1767\u20131815) and Italian-born Mauro Giuliani (1781\u20131829) made Vienna a musical hub for the guitar. The wave washed across Europe to Paris and London, as well as Russia, in the early and middle decades with the renown of Spanish-born Sor and Aguado; Italians Niccolo Paganini, Ferdinando Carulli, Matteo Carcassi, and Luigi Rinaldo Legnani; and Austro-Hungarian Johann Kaspar Mertz and Swiss-born Giulio Regondi. Each contributed a variety of works to the repertoire, and Sor, Aguado, Carulli, and Carcassi wrote notable guitar methods. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Also swept up in the new instrument\u2019s popularity were 19th century master composers Franz Schubert, Hector Berlioz, Camille Saint-Sa\u00ebns, Charles Gounod, and Niels Gade, who played the guitar and wrote minor pieces for it. Opera composers Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner wrote guitar parts into their works Il Trovatore<\/i> and Enzio<\/i> respectively. Standing apart from their composer-performer peers, Sor and Giuliani are notable for their large-scale and technically dazzling solo guitar works\u2014some in sonata form\u2014as themes and variations, and for their prodigious catalogs. Sor also wrote in other genres including orchestral music, opera, ballet, string quartet, and more. Giuliani wrote three concertos for guitar and orchestra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the late 19th century and continuing into the 20th century, Spain increasingly became a very fertile ground for guitar activity, producing monumental performers, guitar builders, and composers. The innovations of luthier Antonio de Torres Jurado (1817\u20131892) added momentum. Even his name, Torres, testifies to his being a towering figure in Spanish guitar construction who set standards still in use today. Torres\u2019s guitar making falls into two epochs in his life. The first, spanning the years 1852\u20131869, began at the urging of noted guitarist Julian Arcas (1832\u20131882). Sadly, Torres struggled to earn a consistent income from guitar making throughout his life, and left building guitars in Seville in 1870 to open a china and crystal shop in Almer\u00eda. Fortunately, he returned to guitar building in his second epoch from 1875 until his death in 1892.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Torres adopted the best practices of luthiers who preceded him and added his own ideas to lay the foundation for a much-revered modern school of Spanish guitar making. He increased the size of the guitar body to about 20 percent larger than guitars made by Pag\u00e9s, Panormo, and Lac\u00f4te. His figure-eight-shaped guitar body design added more area to both the upper and lower bouts and was reputed to have been inspired by a young woman he saw in Seville. Torres considered the soundboard the most important part of the instrument and made his tops thinner for increased resonance. He also used a bracing system that generally featured seven struts fanning out from below the soundhole supporting the top. Torres also settled on a 650 mm scale length for concert guitars, a dimension widely adopted by other luthiers and still a standard today. Additionally, Torres added a saddle to the bridge to facilitate string height adjustment.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Since 1600, Madrid has been a significant site for Spanish guitar making. The Ramirez guitar dynasty, the most famous throughout the 20th century, began in Madrid, where Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez I (1858\u20131923) set up his shop in 1890 and where the company continues today. He largely adopted the methods of Torres, but developed the popular tablao<\/i> guitar, a flamenco instrument with a larger body and narrower sides than Torres\u2019 guitars. Among many builders trained by Jos\u00e9 I was his brother Manuel Ram\u00edrez (1864\u20131916), best remembered for his 1912 encounter with the then-unknown Andr\u00e9s Segovia, who came to his shop seeking to rent a concert guitar. Impressed after hearing him play, Manuel generously gave Segovia a concert guitar telling him, \u201cTake it with you through the world and may your work make it fertile . . . . <\/span>Pay me for it without money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among Manuel\u2019s most famous apprentices were Santos Hernandez, Domingo Esteso, Enrique Garcia, and Modesto Borreguero. The Ram\u00edrez family business passed in a direct line from Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez I to Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez II (1885\u20131957), Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez III (1922\u20131995), and Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez IV (1953\u20132000). Amalia Ram\u00edrez, also a highly skilled luthier and the sister of Jos\u00e9 IV, currently manages the Ram\u00edrez shop. Each member of the family has contributed to making their brand distinctive. Jos\u00e9 III increased the size of the sound box, introduced new varnishes, and was the first maker to use red cedar for a guitar soundboard. Beginning in 1937, Segovia played guitars made by German luthier Hermann Hauser, but in 1963 he began playing guitars by Jos\u00e9 III, alternating with an instrument built by Ignacio Fleta of Barcelona. In 1979, the Maestro began playing a model by Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez IV. Among the many celebrated guitarists who embraced Ram\u00edrez guitars are Christopher Parkening, Kazuhito Yamashita, and Narciso Yepes. (As well, George Harrison played a Ram\u00edrez on the Beatles song \u201cAnd I Love Her.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Notable 20th century luthiers working in Madrid tied to the Ram\u00edrez legacy are Marcelo Barbero, Manuel Contreras, Paulino Bernab\u00e9, and the Rodr\u00edguez family (Manuel Rodr\u00edguez P\u00e9rez Sr., Manuel Rodr\u00edguez II, and Norman Rodr\u00edguez).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Guitarist and composer Francisco T\u00e1rrega (1852\u20131909), armed with the structurally and sonically improved instruments of Torres, ushered in the modern era of guitar. Though partially blind since childhood, T\u00e1rrega grew the guitar\u2019s repertoire through his transcriptions of music by Beethoven, Bach, Chopin, Schumann, Haydn, his Spanish contemporary Isaac Alb\u00e9niz, and others. His own compositions number around 80 and include such enduring classics as \u201cRecuerdos de la Alhambra\u201d and \u201cCapricho Arab\u00e9,\u201d in addition to etudes, preludes, and many short pieces in dance rhythms. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n T\u00e1rrega contributed to the development of modern technique by endorsing the placement of the guitar on the left leg raised on a footstool and discontinuing the practice of resting the right-hand pinky finger on the soundboard. He also advocated the use of both free stroke and rest stroke for the right hand. Throughout the 19th century, there was debate over whether the guitar should be played with or without fingernails. Sor played with the flesh only and Aguado advocated for nails. In 1904, T\u00e1rrega cut his nails and promoted playing without them. Two of his famous students, Emilio Pujol (1886\u20131980) and Miguel Llobet (1878\u20131938), took different sides, with Pujol agreeing with T\u00e1rrega\u2019s use of flesh and Llobet opting to use nails. The debate was effectively settled with the appearance of Segovia on the world stage, playing with nails and becoming renowned for his remarkable use of tone color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Known as a T\u00e1rrega disciple, Llobet traveled as a concert artist throughout Europe and North and South America. His top students included Cuban virtuoso Rey de la Torre (1917\u20131994) and Argentine-born Maria Luisa Anido (1907\u20131996). While Segovia (1893\u20131987) always declared himself to be self-taught, in his early years, he studied with Llobet, seeking to get closer to the pedagogical legacy of T\u00e1rrega. Llobet\u2019s most famous contribution to the repertoire is Canciones Populares Catalanes<\/i>, a collection Catalan folksong settings, which includes \u201cEl Noi de la Mare,\u201d a piece widely popularized by Segovia. In the early decades of the 20th century, some concert promoters billed Llobet as \u201cthe world\u2019s greatest guitarist.\u201d Similar accolades would be subsequently bestowed upon Segovia.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n George Harrison is often quoted saying: \u201cSegovia is the daddy of us all.\u201d Indeed, the growth in the worldwide popularity of the Spanish guitar and guitar in general since the early decades of 20th century owes much to the life and work of Segovia. Harrison\u2019s quote is interesting in that <\/span>during the 1960s the Beatles spurred a huge surge in acoustic and electric guitar sales and inspired millions to play the instrument. Many baby boomers introduced to the guitar by the Beatles and other pop artists later pursued classical guitar studies. They ultimately discovered Segovia, sometimes through those who followed in his footsteps: Julian Bream and the Romeros, as well as Segovia students John Williams, Christopher Parkening, Oscar Ghiglia, Alirio D\u00edaz, and later, Eliot Fisk, Sharon Isbin, and Virginia Luque. Segovia kicked off a movement that motivated four generations of classical guitarists. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n To list Segovia\u2019s numerous accomplishments is beyond the scope of this article. His New York Times<\/i> obituary states that he set out to \u201credeem my guitar from the flamenco\u201d and establish it as a respected instrument suitable for the classical concert stage, draw the public to the guitar, build the repertoire, and see the guitar placed alongside the violin and piano in conservatory and college and university music departments worldwide. Put a check mark next to all items. During Segovia\u2019s long career, he sold hundreds of thousands of concert tickets and millions of albums. At the time of his passing, in 1987, future concert bookings were on his calendar. As well, a look at music departments of the world\u2019s most prestigious conservatories and universities indicates the embrace of the guitar in higher education.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n But perhaps it was the expansion of the guitar\u2019s repertoire backwards and forwards\u2014through transcribing tremendously appealing works from the past and inspiring composers to write new ones\u2014that enabled him to reach his other goals. Upon hearing Segovia\u2019s arrangements of \u201cSpanish Dance No. 5\u201d by Granados, \u201cSevilla\u201d or \u201cAsturias\u201d by Alb\u00e9niz, J.S. Bach\u2019s \u201cChaconne\u201d or \u201cFugue in A Minor,\u201d Domenico Scarlatti\u2019s \u201cSonata in E Minor K. 11,\u201d countless guitarists just had<\/i> to learn them. His renditions of Sor\u2019s op. 9 \u201cVariations on a Theme by Mozart,\u201d T\u00e1rrega\u2019s \u201cRecuerdos de la Alhambra\u201d and \u201cCapricho Arab\u00e9,\u201d and many others elicited the same response. This dynamic expansion of the repertoire has been taken up by others and continues with vigor to this day.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Composers such as Mexico\u2019s Manuel Ponce (1882\u20131948) enjoyed a long friendship and collaboration with Segovia that yielded five multi-movement sonatas, several themes and variations (including the epic Variations As Spain\u2019s foremost classical guitarist, Segovia carried the Spanish guitar through seven decades of the 20th century and delivered it to the waiting hands of new generations. New champions now hold the torch and are preserving and expanding legacy of the Spanish guitar.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nBaroque Guitar<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Adopting Lasting Standards<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
19th Century Virtuosi<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Toward Modern Guitar Design<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Into the Modern Era<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Daddy of Us All<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
and Fugue on \u2018La Folia\u2019<\/i>), and Concierto del sur<\/i> for guitar and orchestra, among many other titles. Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887\u20131959) dedicated his masterful Douze Etudes<\/i> and Guitar Concerto<\/i> to Segovia. While Segovia never had any connection to Joaqu\u00edn Rodrigo\u2019s famous Concierto de Aranjuez<\/i> (the most popular concerto of the 20th century was premiered by Regino Sainz de la Maza), the revered Spanish composer dedicated his concerto Fantas\u00eda para un Gentilhombre <\/i>and the solo work Tres Piezas Espa\u00f1olas<\/i> to Segovia. Additional works dedicated to Segovia flowed from the pens of Federico Moreno Torroba, Alexandre Tansman, Joaqu\u00edn Turina, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Francis Poulenc, and many others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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