Speaker A
When you think of the guitar, you might think of this.
Explore the history, evolution, and current status of the classical guitar, from ancient origins to modern concert halls.
Key Takeaways
- The classical guitar has a rich history spanning over five millennia and multiple cultures.
- Antonio de Torres' design is foundational to the modern classical guitar's sound and structure.
- Andrés Segovia played a crucial role in elevating the guitar to concert hall status and expanding its repertoire.
- The classical guitar remains evolving with ongoing contributions from composers, performers, and luthiers worldwide.
- Despite progress, the classical guitar is still establishing its place within the broader classical music scene.
Summary
- The guitar family originated from plucked string instruments dating back to 3000 BCE in regions like Greece, China, India, Iraq, and Egypt.
- The first guitar appeared in 1400s Spain with four double gut strings and was popular for accompaniment in songs and dances.
- The Baroque guitar emerged in the late 1500s with five doubled strings and ornate decorations, gaining popularity in royal courts.
- The Romantic guitar appeared in the late 18th century with six single strings and metallic frets, becoming prominent in the 19th century.
- Antonio de Torres designed the modern classical guitar in the late 1800s, creating a fuller, more expressive sound.
- Flamenco music dominated Southern Spain in the early 20th century, while classical guitar remained relatively secluded.
- Andrés Segovia revived classical guitar in the mid-20th century, introducing nylon strings and expanding the repertoire.
- Julian Bream further expanded the guitar repertoire with modern works from prominent composers worldwide.
- Latin American composers fused their cultural heritage with classical training to enrich guitar music.
- Today, the classical guitar is gaining recognition with new festivals, composers, and innovations, though it remains a newcomer in concert halls.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Or this...
Speaker A
Or even this.
Speaker A
These guitars all have steel strings, and you've probably heard them in rock, jazz, or pop music.
Speaker A
But, what about in classical music?
Speaker A
In classical music, we actually play the Spanish nylon string guitar, better known as the classical guitar. Let's take a look at its history.
Speaker A
Archeologists have discovered plucked string instruments that date all the way back to 3000 BCE.
Speaker A
Around the regions of present-day Greece, China, India, Iraq, and Egypt.
Speaker A
The plucked strings arrived in Europe through Spain, the cultural bridge between European and Middle-Eastern communities.
Speaker A
The plucked string family includes instruments like the lyre, kithara, lute, theorbo, and the guitar.
Speaker A
In the 1400s, we meet the first ever guitar in Spain.
Speaker A
It had a long and narrow neck, gut frets and four double gut strings that were tied on friction pegs.
Speaker A
It had a soft and mellow sound, but its doubled strings made sure that soft sound was still strong.
Speaker A
Easy to play and cheap, it became popular as an accompaniment tool to a song or a dance.
Speaker A
And thanks to its size, it spread rapidly to the Americas, where it also took hold.
Speaker A
Composers like Alonso Mudarra and Adrian Le Roy were some of the first to publish music for the guitar.
Speaker A
In the late 1500s, guitar-makers experimented with the guitar, adding a fifth doubled string.
Speaker A
Making the instrument bigger and decorating it with ornaments made of ivory, gold, or even tortoise shells.
Speaker A
Today, we know it as the Baroque guitar, which sounded like this.
Speaker A
The Baroque guitar was a hit, and, soon, it found itself in the royal courts.
Speaker A
Guitarists like the Frenchman Robert de Visée were given the title "Maître de Guitare du Roi", Guitar Master of the King, which was extremely uncommon.
Speaker A
Other important guitar composers at the time were Gaspar Sanz and Santiago de Murcia.
Speaker A
At the end of the 18th century, a new guitar turned up, which, curiously, we call today the "Romantic Guitar", despite its emergence during the classical era.
Speaker A
A sixth string was added to the guitar, though all of the strings were now single.
Speaker A
And the bass strings were now made out of silk threads overwound with silver.
Speaker A
The Romantic guitar also adopted metallic frets and removed the lavish decorations of its Baroque counterpart.
Speaker A
During the 19th century, the guitar grew increasingly popular, thanks to the music of composers like Fernando Sor and Mauro Giuliani.
Speaker A
Who wrote music that treated the guitar like a small orchestra.
Speaker A
They exploited the various sound timbers of the guitar to imitate all kinds of different instruments.
Speaker A
Like in Sor's "Variations on a Theme by Mozart".
Speaker A
In the late 1800s, the leading figure for the guitar was the Spanish virtuoso and composer Francisco Tárrega.
Speaker A
Tárrega was no longer using a Romantic guitar, but a new and more powerful instrument.
Speaker A
Antonio de Torres built what is today called the classical guitar.
Speaker A
About the size we know today, using mechanical tuners and a perfected symmetrical design with Torres' signature soundboard.
Speaker A
The new design created a fuller sound and a larger range of tones.
Speaker A
Making the guitar not only more powerful, but very expressive as well, which is what we today know as the Spanish guitar sound.
Speaker A
From the end of the 19th century onwards, the guitar itself wasn't receiving much attention from the classical music world.
Speaker A
Most of its attention came from flamenco enthusiasts in Spain.
Speaker A
As a result, much of the guitar's music from this period was flamenco music, which was heavily influenced by Romani culture.
Speaker A
While flamenco music and dance dominated Southern Spain, the Spanish classical guitar movement remained relatively small and secluded.
Speaker A
However, in the mid 20th-century, its classical side of the guitar gradually began to re-emerge.
Speaker A
Thanks to the influence of the Spanish virtuoso Andres Segovia.
Speaker A
Segovia worked all his life to bring the guitar into the major concert halls.
Speaker A
He introduced the more reliable nylon treble strings and worked on building a new repertoire for the classical guitar, with arrangements of music that suited the guitar.
Speaker A
While stubbornly soliciting composers who were not guitarists to write music for the guitar.
Speaker A
The Spanish composer Federico Moreno Torroba was the first to answer his call, soon followed by composers from all over the world.
Speaker A
Like Manuel Maria Ponce, Alexandre Tansman, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and many others.
Speaker A
This music became known as the Segovia repertoire, and it was specifically representative of the Spanish heritage of the guitar.
Speaker A
A few years later, the Englishman Julian Bream went one step further.
Speaker A
He expanded on Segovia's repertoire with modern music for the guitar, working intensely with composers like Benjamin Britten, Sir William Walton, and Toru Takemitsu to write new eclectic and more modern works for the guitar.
Speaker A
In the meantime, across the Atlantic and back in South America, almost every household had a guitar lying around.
Speaker A
The Latin American composers fused their culture with their classical training to write music for the guitar.
Speaker A
Like Heitor Villa-Lobos, Agustín Barrios, or Astor Piazzolla.
Speaker A
But where is the classical guitar today? It's still not quite established in the classical music scene.
Speaker A
But it is far from the overlooked instrument it was some decades ago.
Speaker A
Every year new festivals all over the world are being created to raise the profile of the classical guitar.
Speaker A
New composers are expanding the repertoire, and guitar makers are still experimenting to see if they can improve the guitar, all the while embracing the guitar's history, which has evolved over five centuries and traveled across the globe.
Speaker A
A beloved instrument and still a newcomer in concert halls, this is the classical guitar today.
Speaker A
What do you think is coming next?
Speaker A
Are there other instruments you'd like to see us make a classical bean episode about? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.
Speaker A
Thanks so much for watching, don't forget to like and subscribe, and we'll see you in the next one.
Topics:classical guitarguitar historyAntonio de TorresAndrés SegoviaBaroque guitarRomantic guitarclassical musicflamencoJulian Breamguitar repertoire
