Music Commons^™

Editor's Letter, Thomas Heck

Soundboard Scholar

An introduction to the contents of this issue.

The Early Guitar In The New World: Its Route From Seville To Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, And Cubagua (1497–1550), Richard T. Pinnell

Soundboard Scholar

Pinnell discusses the history of guitar in the New World. The third voyage of Christopher Columbus was not only the first of the Columbian voyages to reach South America along the Venezuelan coastline; it was also the first that explicitly included musical instruments and trained musicians. "Their Catholic Majesties" (Los Reyes Católicos), so designated by Pope Alexander VI upon their defeat of the Moors, had already been quite disappointed with the lack of stability and growth in the grim encampments established by Columbus, so this time they proposed a unique list of professions and skills among the passengers to ensure …

Los Romeros: Royal Family Of The Spanish Guitar By Walter Aaron Clark, Richard Long

Soundboard Scholar

A review of Los Romeros: Royal Family of the Spanish Guitar by Walter Aaron Clark.

Corbetta: La Guitarre Royalle (Elias), Ellwood Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

A review of Corbetta: La Guitarre Royalle, album by Elias, Izhar.

Works From La Guitarre Royalle (1671) And Italian Guitar Music Of The Seventeenth Century, Battuto And Pizzicato (Eisenhardt), Ellwood Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

A review of Works from La guitarre royalle (1671) and Italian Guitar Music of the Seventeenth Century, Battuto and Pizzicato.

Francesco Corbetta: La Guitarre Royalle (Carter), Ellwood Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

A review of Francesco Corbetta: La Guitarre Royalle, album by Carter, William.

Mauro Giuliani And Austrian Folk Music, Stefan Hackl

Soundboard Scholar

Mauro Giuliani, one of the most important figures in the growth and development of the guitar in the earlier nineteenth century, spent his most productive years in Vienna from 1806 to 1819. He was well connected with the cultural and social life of the imperial city, at the time a melting pot which welcomed talented artists with diverse backgrounds from throughout the provinces and neighboring states. Here, Hackl discusses Giuliani's folk songs.

Soundboard Scholar No. 5 (Complete)

Soundboard Scholar

No abstract provided.

21st-Century Spanish Guitar (Levin), Nathan Cornelius

Soundboard Scholar

A review of 21st-Century Spanish Guitar, album by Levin, Adam.

Nineteenth-Century Guitar Songs: An Idiosyncratic Survey, By Ian Gammie, Richard Long

Soundboard Scholar

A review of Nineteenth-Century Guitar Songs: An Idiosyncratic Survey, by Ian Gammie.

Featured Facsimile: Mauro Giuliani’S ZwöLf Neue Wald-LäNdler (Twelve New Forest-LäNdler), Op. 23, Mauro Giuliani

Soundboard Scholar

Giuliani's Zwölf neue Wald-Ländler (Twelve New Forest-Ländler), Op. 23, in score. It was first published by the prestigious firm of Artaria & Co., with plate no. 2710, advertised for sale on 27 January 1810. Characteristic of these waltzes were the chordal (triadic) melodies, inspired stylistically by yodelers and yodeling. The intervallic tuning of the guitar favors the performance of such melodies as these, which evoke a style of folk music that runs deep in Austrian musical consciousness. Usually performed in sets of twelve, all in the same key, a Ländler-reihe (set, or row) usually began slowly, accelerated gradually toward the …

Featured Facsimile: Two Arrangements For Five-Course Guitar From La Muse Lyrique (1787), The First By Trille Labarre, Barthélemy Trille Labarre

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No abstract provided.

Dating Trille Labarre’S Nouvelle Méthode: Caught Between Printing And Publishing?, Kenneth Sparr

Soundboard Scholar

When was Trille Labarre’s noteworthy five-course guitar method engraved and printed? And when was it actually published—sold to the public? Could years have elapsed between the two activities? This essay reviews the various methods used to date undated printed music of that era in the hopes of achieving some clarity. The first technique involves looking for personal names, like dedicatees, engravers, and publishers. The latter approaches are more analytical.

Soundboard Scholar No. 4: Editor's Letter, Thomas Heck

Soundboard Scholar

An introduction to the contents of this issue.

Ma Guiterre Je Te Chante: 16th Century Guitar Solos And Chansons (Nelson, Bartram), Ellwood Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

A review of Jocelyn Nelson (guitar) and Amy Bartram (soprano), Ma Guiterre je te chante: 16th Century Guitar Solos and Chansons (Nelson 5637610050, 2010), compact disc.

Barthélemy Trille Labarre: Professeur De Guitare Et Compositeur, Élève D’Haydn, Kenneth Sparr

Soundboard Scholar

Barthélemy Trille Labarre (1758–1797) was a French guitarist and composer active at the end of the eighteenth century, when the five-course guitar was still the instrument of choice for many French guitarists. Trille Labarre's Nouvelle méthode pour la guitare, Op. 7, is impressive in its scope and its attention to detail, in comparison to other methods of the eighteenth century, but copies of it are extremely rare. Many of Trille Labarre’s other works also have survived in few or unique copies.

While Trille Labarre may be mentioned briefly in later biographical dictionaries, he is totally absent from most of …

España De La Guerra, By Brian Jeffery, Richard M. Long

Soundboard Scholar

A review of Brian Jeffery, España de la Guerra: The Spanish Political and Military Songs of the War in Spain, 1808 to 1814 (London: Tecla, 2017).

New Chamber Music With Guitar: The Aleph Gitarrenquartett, Gubaidulina, And Plucking, Nathan Cornelius

Soundboard Scholar

Reviews of the following recordings:

• Aleph Guitar Quartet, Aleph Gitarrenquartett, vol. 2 (NEOS 11710, 2017)
• Bernard Lang, The Cold Trip, with Sarah Maria Sun, Juliet Fraser, Mark Knoop, and the Aleph Guitar Quartet (Kairos 0015018, 2017)
• Sofia Gubaidulina, Complete Guitar Works, with David Tanenbaum et al. (Naxos 8.573379, 2015)
• Tom Johnson, Plucking, with Just Strings (MicroFest Records MF9, 2017)

Alfabeto Falso (Vallerotondo, I Bassifondi), Ellwood Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

A review of Alfabeto falso, with Simone Vallerotondo (Baroque guitar) and I Bassifondi (Arcana A435, 2017), compact disc.

Men, Women And Guitars In Romantic England (Page), Ellwood Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

A review of Christopher Page, Men, Women and Guitars in Romantic England (Gresham College), six videos, https://www.gresham.ac.uk/series/men-women-and-guitars-in-romantic-england/.

Un Angelo Senza Paradiso, By Nicoletta Confalone, Richard M. Long

Soundboard Scholar

A review of Nicoletta Confalone, Un angelo senza paradiso: La chitarra alla ricerca di Schubert (Bologna: Ut Orpheus, 2017).

François Campion: Music For Baroque Guitar (Hofstötte), Ellwood Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

A review of François Campion: Music for Baroque Guitar, with Bernhard Hofstötter (Brilliant Classics 95275, 2017), compact disc.

Soundboard Scholar No. 4: Cover

Soundboard Scholar

It was in about 1828–29 that Parisian guitarist and publisher Charles de Marescot brought before the public a short collection of his easier solo guitar pieces entitled La Guitaromanie. It was enhanced with six unpaginated satirical lithographs, of which the most memorable one (“Discussion entre les Carulistes et les Molinistes”) appears on this issue’s cover. Readers are welcome to review the publication details, found in the accompanying article by Damián Martín. See his text between footnotes 16 and 17. A complete digital copy of the Guitaromanie collection, represented as being in the public domain, was posted during the preparation …

Soundboard Scholar No. 4 (Complete)

Soundboard Scholar

No abstract provided.

Cycle Of 6ths Progression: Annotated Bibliography, Dave Majerus

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

The Cycle of 6ths is a chord progression that I first heard about from the Jazz guitarist Ted Greene, who was a skilled music theorist and had two books published on guitar harmony and chord progressions. Ted stated that he first learned of the cycle of 6ths from studying J.S. Bach. You may be wondering what a chord cycle of ____ is? A chord cycle is when you move chords in a certain intervallic pattern, eventually the cycle comes back around to the starting chord. For instance, if you move chords in 4ths starting on C you would have the …

On Music Conducting: Expressivity Vs. Technicality: Annotated Bibliography, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Baroque Influence On The Organ Works Of Johannes Brahms: Annotated Bibliography, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

How American Protest Music Has Changed: A Study On The Lives And Music Of Billie Holiday, Nina Simone And Janelle Monae: An Annotated Bibliography, Amy Feeney

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

American protest music has been a prominent and acknowledged art form since the 1930’s and has affected many artists both positively and negatively. I aim to examine what about protest music and society’s consumption of it has changed, for better or worse, over the course of its existence. To do so, I will be looking at the lives and works of 3 women who were actively involved in music of protest spanning the existence of the genre, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Janelle Monae.

The Effects Of Incorporating Music Into Daily Life On Cognitive Decline, Devlin Deveney

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

Dementia currently affects over 35 million people worldwide – a number that is expected to triple by the year 2050 according to the report, “Dementia: a public health priority” by World Health Organization and Alzheimer’s Disease International. Despite the high population of people with dementia, there are currently no cures for the diseases within this category. The aim of this article is to explore the cognitive effects of incorporating music into daily life prior to the onset of dementia and determining whether or not these effects have an impact on age-related cognitive decline. It is hoped that this paper will …

A Comparison Study On Effective Piano Practice, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.