Music Performance Commons^™

So Much For Musicology: William Carter Plays Santiago De Murcia, Ellwood P. Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

Review of La Guitarra Española: Santiago de Murcia (1682–1732), by William Carter (Baroque guitar).

Creolized Baroque: Early Music In A Brazilian Key, Ellwood P. Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

Review of Iberian and Afro-Brazilian Music of the 17th Century, by Ensemble Banza, Rogério Budasz, (Baroque guitar).

A Two-Winged Murcia: Spanish Dance, Italian Corelli, One Guitar, Ellwood P. Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

Review of Santiago de Murcia (1673–1739): Entre dos almas, by Stefano Maiorana (Baroque guitar).

A Living Source Report: Cristian Gutiérrez Plays Cifras Selectas, Ellwood P. Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

Review of Cifras selectas de guitarra, by Cristiano Gutiérrez (Baroque guitar).

Pedro Ximénez Abrill Y Tirado: Another And Deeper Look, Richard Savino

Soundboard Scholar

Born in Arequipa, Peru, Pedro Ximénez Abrill y Tirado was a virtuoso cellist and guitarist who composed over forty symphonies, forty masses, dozens of chamber pieces with interesting instrumentations, and over three hundred solo pieces for the guitar. He moved to Lima for a period and later became Maestro di Capilla at the Sucre Cathedral in Bolivia. At the time Sucre was one of the wealthiest cities in South America, if not the wealthiest.

Abrill's renown was such that he was published in Paris by Richault and was written about in Hugh Bonelli's published travel diary (London, 1854). His music …

Mignone, Fernandez, Guarnieri: Brazilian Guitar Music After Villa-Lobos, Fabio Zanon

Soundboard Scholar

This article challenges the widespread perception of Heitor Villa-Lobos as an isolated peak in Brazilian musical culture with no natural successors. The author focuses on the composers who followed Villa-Lobos—Francisco Mignone, Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez, and Camargo Guarnieri—arguing that their works deserve far more attention in international concert life, not least their contributions to the guitar repertoire.

These twentieth-century Brazilian composers are situated within a broader historical narrative that traces the impact of European colonial models, the delayed and contested formation of musical nationalism in Brazil, and the shifting aesthetic and political conditions of the twentieth century. Analytical discussions of representative …

Toward A British Guitar Canon: Ernest Shand’S Collected Works, Declan Hickey

Soundboard Scholar

A review of Guitar Music from Late Victorian England: Collected Works, by Ernest Shand, edited by Stanley Yates (Classical Guitar Study Editions, 2022), publisher's website.

Left-Hand Technique And The Limits Of The Possible, Ricardo Iznaola

Soundboard Scholar

This article conceptualizes classical guitar left-hand technique through a physiomechanical framework that places coordinated movement—particularly shifting—at the center of technical practice. Challenging traditional positional doctrines that privilege static hand forms and digital independence, the author argues that such approaches often disregard the functional anatomy of the limb, resulting in inefficiency, unnecessary tension, and potential injury.   Advancing the principle that form must follow function, the study proposes shifting as the fundamental technical category governing all left-hand procedures. A systematic typology—interpositional, intrapositional, and compound shifting—serves as the basis for analyzing arm-wrist-hand coordination across diverse technical contexts, including extensions and contractions, barrés, slurs, …

Come, Heavy Sleep: Motive And Metaphor In Britten’S Nocturnal, Opus 70, Stephen Goss

Soundboard Scholar

"The prevailing melancholy [of Britten’s Nocturnal] is as natural to the guitar’s sonorities as it is appropriate in a tribute to John Dowland."

—Peter Evans, The Music of Benjamin Britten.

Such summary remarks characterise what little has been written about Britten’s Nocturnal outside the guitar world. The reader’s reaction might be one of passive agreement or mild irritation, but there is rarely dialogue because discourse is limited: Nocturnal after John Dowland is often passed over by Britten scholars with scant discussion or no mention at all. In fact, little has been added to Evans’ reliable commentary, written only three …

Rules And Rhetoric: Historically Informed Guitar Performance Of Baroque Music, Arash Ahmadzadeh

Soundboard Scholar

Reviews of Interpreting Baroque Music: A Guide for the Modern Classical Guitarist, by Afshin Torabi Ardekani (Bergmann, second corrected edition, 2025) and Performing Baroque Music on the Classical Guitar: A Practical Handbook Based on Historical Sources, by Peter Croton (2015)

Round The Tárrega Bend, Julian Bream

Soundboard Scholar

In this previously unpublished talk from 2004, delivered two years after his retirement from public performance, Julian Bream traces his own career in relation to the evolution of the modern guitar, recounting his early encounters with nineteenth-century guitars, the introduction of nylon strings to replace gut, innovations in guitar construction, and a transformative meeting with Andrés Segovia. But at the heart of the talk is his approach to sound. Bream discusses the essential elements of his tone production, including his right-hand position with its characteristic “three-quarter Tárrega bend” of the wrist, and his strong preference for the rest stroke. He …

Soundscapes, Pioneers, And Practices: Laying The Foundations Of The Russian Guitar, Wojciech Gurgul

Soundboard Scholar

A review of The Seven-String Guitar in Russia: Its Origins, Repertoire, and Performance Practice, 1800–50, by Oleg Timofeyev (Cambridge Scholars, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2023), Worldcat, publisher's website

8th Lake Constance Guitar Research Conference, Soundboard Scholar, Daniel Marx

Soundboard Scholar

A brief report on this year's Lake Constance Conference series for researchers specializing in guitar, which took place on May 1–4, 2025.

Exploring The Meaning Of Moshing: An Ethnographic Study Of The Relationship Between Hardcore/Punk Culture And Catharsis, Clayton Kempf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research looks at “moshing,” an aggressive style of dancing that occurs primarily at hardcore/punk concerts. Moshing involves people at a concert throwing their bodies, swinging their limbs, running into people, and hitting one another. I aim to explore how mosh pits and hardcore/punk culture provide participants with an emotional release through catharsis. Catharsis looks at releasing emotion to help alleviate pent-up stress physically and emotionally. A cathartic release can temporarily offer peace of mind, clarity, and joy that overrides the feelings of negative emotions and stress. I will examine the process people go through to reach this cathartic release …

Putting It Together, Bit By Bit: Partimenti For Guitarists, James Renwick

Soundboard Scholar

A review of Fenaroli's Musicali per i principianti di cembalo [Naples, 1775], edited for guitarists by Nicola Pignatiello, with translations of Fenaroli’s text by Robert Gjerdingen (Independently published, 2023), PDF available online.

Ferdinand Rebay And The Sonata Paradigm, Luiz Mantovani

Soundboard Scholar

With an output of over thirty sonatas or sonata-structured works, Viennese composer Ferdinand Rebay (1880–1953) may be considered among the most significant composers of guitar sonatas; as yet, however, little has been written to place Rebay’s sonatas in historical context. Departing from a review of a guitar concert held in Vienna in 1925, which clearly indicates a shift in the perception of the instrument’s role and capabilities among mainstream audiences, I begin this investigation exploring the guitar club environment in German-speaking territories around the turn of the century, with a focus on the activities of the IGV (Internationale Gitarristenverband; International …

Vincenzo Pocci: Cataloguer, Editor, Digital Pioneer, Marco Vinicio Bazzotti, Adriano Sebastiani

Soundboard Scholar

An obituary of Dr. Vincenzo Pocci, author of the Guide to the Guitarist’s Modern and Contemporary Repertoire and an internationally recognized scholar of twentieth-century guitar music.

The Tradition Of Illusion: Guitar Arrangement As A Post-Canonical Patchwork, Katalin Koltai

Soundboard Scholar

This paper proposes an underpinning terminology for scholarly discussions of contemporary arrangement practices in the field of classical guitar performance. The introduction provides some historical foundations for the topic, aiming to present the roots of different approaches and methods in the work of important guitar arrangers. The paper continues by contextualizing arrangement processes within linguistics and language philosophy, discussing the topic of translation, and giving an overview of relevant terminologies. The centre of the paper is the theoretical investigation of arrangement and the identification of translating acts related to musical space, instrumental choreography, texture, timbre, or a combination of those, …

Justin Holland's Guitar Music Collection, Robert Coldwell

Soundboard Scholar

Although much information is available about Holland's biography and compositions, little research has been done on how he acquired his deep knowledge of the guitar and how he may have interacted with other guitarists of his day.

Some years after Justin Holland's death in 1887, his son, Justin Minor Holland, claimed to have "one of the most elaborate libraries of guitar music, mostly of old masters." This collection could give more insight into the activities of guitar music collectors and guitarists in the United States of the 19th century. After much research, seven bound volumes of guitar music have been …

French Music By An Italian Count: A Survey Of Selected Recordings Of Ludovico Roncalli, Ellwood Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

The following recordings of Roncalli are reviewed:

Roncalli: Complete Guitar Music, Bernhard Hofstötter, baroque guitar, Brilliant Classics, 2021, 2 CDs

Ludovico Roncalli: Works for Guitar, Hideki Yamaya, baroque guitar, Mediolanum, 2011, 1 CD

Sonatas for Baroque Guitar, Richard Savino, baroque guitar, Dorian, 2008, 1 CD

Ludovico Roncalli: Capricci armonici sopra la chitarra spagnola, Sandro Volta, baroque guitar, Arion, 1994, 1 CD

Guitar Etudes In The Lisztian Vein: Zanon Plays Mignone’S Twelve Etudes, Diogo Alvarez

Soundboard Scholar

Diogo Alvarez reviews Fabio Zanon's recording of Mignone's 12 Etudes and other works, with commentary on the music and the composer.

Narciso Yepes And The Composers Of His Time, Belén Pérez Castillo

Soundboard Scholar

At his peak, Narciso Yepes was one of the most celebrated figures in the guitar world, as evidenced by the quantity and reach of his recordings. While he is well known as a proponent of the ten-string guitar with an innovative chromatic tuning, less attention has been focused on his activity as a commissioner of new works (many of them for the six-string guitar). Yet in this domain, Yepes was extremely productive, premiering works by such composers as Ascencio, Bacarisse, Balada, Maderna, Marco, Montsalvatge, Ohana, Palau, and Ruiz-Pipò, to name a few. Yepes's role as a collaborator varied from one …

Rodrigo’S Concierto De Aranjuez Through The Writings Of Regino Sainz De La Maza, Leopoldo Neri

Soundboard Scholar

Regino Sainz de la Maza was the guitarist who premiered Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona in 1940. Although musicologists have studied this musical phenomenon from different approaches, this study approaches the subject from the perspective of the performer and his musical writings, affording us new historical, aesthetic and technical data on Rodrigo's work.

Rudolph Süss’S Lyrische Suite No. 1, Op. 23, Matanya Ophee

Soundboard Scholar

This article reproduces the Lyrische Suite [no. 1], op. 23, by the Austrian composer Rudolph Süss, with a short introductory commentary. First published in Vienna around 1921, this suite is a fine example of the enthusiasm for the guitar in early twentieth-century Austria and Germany, which resulted in much music that has been overlooked, overshadowed as it was by the emerging Spanish repertoire.

Note

This article is one of a series of seven celebrating the work of Matanya Ophee (1932–2017) on the ninetieth anniversary of his birth. Written between 1982 and 1991, these articles first appeared in early issues of …

Joaquín Rodrigo And Julian Bream: Aspects Of A Relationship, Javier Suárez-Pajares

Soundboard Scholar

In light of the complex diplomatic relations between Spain and the United Kingdom in the 1950s, the deteriorating relationship between the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo and the English guitarist Julian Bream describes a telling arc—from 1951, when Bream gave the British premiere of the Concierto de Aranjuez, to 1959, when he emphatically rejected the Sonata giocosa that Rodrigo had written for him. To explore Bream's negative reaction, this study considers both Rodrigo’s relation to England and Bream’s ambivalent attitude toward the Spanish guitar tradition. An epilogue examines the recordings that the guitarist subsequently made of the Concierto de Aranjuez …

Andrés Segovia And Federico Moreno Torroba’S Danza Castellana, Julio Gimeno

Soundboard Scholar

The guitar’s early twentieth-century repertoire is of unique importance, containing as it does the first guitar pieces by non-guitarist composers known for their symphonic, operatic and chamber music. Many of these composers wrote for the pioneering Andalusian guitarist Andrés Segovia, and among the most prolific of them was Federico Moreno Torroba. In various memoirs and interviews, Segovia identified Torroba’s miniature Danza castellana as not only the first piece written for him by a non-guitarist composer but even the first such piece by anyone, predating, in Segovia’s telling, Falla’s 1920 Homenaje. This article challenges Segovia’s claim by recounting the details …

English Folk Song Performance On Tuba: An Annotated Bibliography, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

English folk song and tuba performance are mostly unrelated topics, the closest they come to intertwining is in the compositions of English folk influenced composers like Ralph Vaughan Williams or Percy Grainger. However, this combination is limited to Western Art Music performance, not the traditional performance of English Folk Song. This paper aims to describe how a tubist may perform English folk song in a more traditional setting not disturbed by the iterations created by composers rooted in Western Art Music.

How Did Ray Brown’S Playing Evolve During His Tenure From 1951 To 1965 In The Oscar Peterson Trio?, Jason Crowe

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

How Ray Brown’s bass playing evolved during his tenure from 1951 to 1965 in the Oscar Peterson Trio. Compare and contrast Ray Brown’s work during the 14 years he performed with the trio.

Music Performance Anxiety: A Comparative Analysis Of Treatment Options For The Vocalist, Brooklyn Becker

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) is a multifaceted social anxiety disorder that affects a significantly large population of practicing and professional musicians. If untreated, it can have detrimental effects on the performer and their career. MPA is multifaceted in that it encompasses cognitive, physiological, and behavioral symptoms. Because of its multifaceted nature, there is not one specific intervention or treatment option for MPA, but multiple interventions that have been studied and tested as potential treatment options. While the body of research on MPA has expanded since the 1970s, there is a disparity of research in the literature that focuses solely on …

The Pros And Cons Of Beta Blockers: Doping In Music Performance, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

When performing in front of an intimidating panel of judges, an audience, or peers, many musicians faces a common problem that’s not talked about often: music performance anxiety. In this current time, every musician at least knows someone that takes a type of drug that enhances their music performance and gets rid of their anxiety. However, there’s been some controversies in using drugs in music competitions and auditions, leading in the continuous practice of drug abuse, questioning ethically what’s right and what’s wrong, and the suspicion in cheating. In this paper will examine the pros and cons of beta blockers, …