Music Performance Commons^™

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

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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

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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 …

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

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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

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An introduction to the contents of this issue.

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

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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.

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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

Soundboard Scholar No. 4: Cover

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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)

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No abstract provided.

The Guitarist Behind La Guitaromanie : Charles De Marescot, Damián Martín-Gil

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The guitarist Charles de Marescot is a figure often cited when referring to the guitar mania that arose in France during the first decades of the nineteenth century. Yet very little is known about his life and musical production, which was dedicated almost entirely to the guitar. Drawing on several newly discovered documents, this article aims to understand the role of this polemical figure in the vogue for the guitar by reconstructing his whereabouts. Particular attention is given to his relationship with Hector Berlioz, with whom he conducted some minor business.

A Checklist Of Works Attributed To Charles De Marescot, Damián Martín-Gil

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The musical output of Charles de Marescot (1790–1842) has never been subjected to close examination. Only a few of his compositions are featured in guitar scholarship, notably his Méthode de guitare, op. 15, and the collection of pieces entitled La Guitaromanie, op. 46. And yet Marescot was rather prolific in his time. This checklist offers, for the first time, a catalogue—albeit incomplete—of all his guitar music published in France and England, offering, if possible, locations and dates for each work.

Soundboard Scholar No. 3: Editor's Letter, Thomas Heck

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An introduction to the contents of this issue.

The Way We Were: A Review Of Early Efforts To Find Classical Guitar Music In Collections, Ellwood Colahan

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This article was originally copublished online with the author's article, "Guitar Music in Collections: A New Web-Based Index Is Launched," Soundboard Scholar, no. 3 (2017), https://digitalcommons.du.edu/sbs/vol3/iss1/6.

Soundboard Scholar No. 3: Cover

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The color portrait of Fernando Sor which appears on the cover of this issue, not previously published as far as we know, is a hand-colored version of a printed (b&w) copy of a painting—an original portrait (now lost) of Sor—by one Innocent Louis Goubeau. Before it disappeared it was copied, in the mid-1820s, by both a lithographer and an engraver, probably in response to public demand. The lithograph, according to the British Museum exemplar now online and well documented (No. 1893,0123.45), bears the attribution “Goubeau pinxit / Lith de Engelmann / Lithod par Bordes,” which means that the original painter …

Soundboard Scholar No. 3 (Complete)

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No abstract provided.

At The Center Of Things: How An Academic Library Built A Bridge Between Art And Science On Campus, Michelle Catalano, Catherine Essinger, Suzanne Ferimer, Stephanie Lewin-Lane, Porcia Vaughn

Collaborative Librarianship

The University of Houston Libraries sponsored an interdisciplinary event for students, faculty, and the public, titled the Artists’ Health and Wellness Colloquium and Resource Fair. Aspiring and working artists were instructed in how to maintain good health and to avoid overstressing their bodies as they practice their art. Scholars presented both historical and trending perspectives on the intersection of art and health science. The event was held in order to facilitate learning in two key research areas and to demonstrate the library's ability to bridge disparate disciplines and forge new partnerships with multiple academic units simultaneously. This article presents planning …

NapoléOn Coste: Composer And Guitarist In The Musical Life Of 19th-Century Paris By Ari Van Vliet, Richard Long

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Napoleon Coste: Composer and Guitarist in the Musical Life of 19th-Century Paris, by Van Vliet, Ari is reviewed.

La Guitare = The Guitar = La Chitarra, Paris, 1650-1950, Addendum, By Daniel Sinier And FrançOise De Ridder, Richard Long

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La Guitare = The Guitar = La Chitarra, Paris, 1650-1950, Addendum, by Sinier, Daniel and Francoise de Ridder is reviewed.

New Voices In Old Bodies: A Study Of “Recycled” Musical Instruments With A Focus On The Hahn Collection In The Deutsches Museum, By Panagiotis Poulopoulos, Richard Long

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New Voices in Old Bodies: A Study of "Recycled" Musical Instruments with a Focus on the Hahn Collection in the Deutsches Museum, album by Poulopoulos, Panagiotis is reviewed.

The Russian Guitar 1800-1850 (Timofeyev And Schneiderman), Stanley Yates

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The Russian Guitar 1800-1850, album by Oleg Timofeyev and John Schneiderman is reviewed.

A Newly Discovered Letter Of 1827 By Fernando Sor, Erik Stenstadvold

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This article discusses a hitherto unknown letter, written by Sor in Saint Petersburg in April 1827. It provides new insight into the publishing and personal relationship between Sor and his Paris publisher, Antoine Meissonnier, to whom the letter was addressed. We learn about three airs with variations Sor was busy composing at the time; he was particularly pleased with the variations Meissonnier later published as op. 30. The letter also mentions some unknown Sor works, including a book of drafts at Málaga, and it reveals that Meissonnier had published, without Sor’s knowledge, music that he had received from sources other …

Guitar Music In Collections: A New Web-Based Index Is Launched, Ellwood Colahan

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Is there any really good way to locate specific pieces of guitar music within published collections and anthologies? Might there be already a best way? Anyone who has taught or studied classical guitar is familiar with collections like Das Gitarrespiel or the Noad anthologies. But it is hard to remember with accuracy which pieces are in which of these editions or in dozens of others like them. Library and trade catalogs are not of much help. What is needed for this problem is in-depth indexing rather than traditional cataloging. These print indexes of song anthologies and collections have more recently …

AndréS Segovia’S Unfinished Guitar Method: Placing His “Scales” In Historical Context, Andreas Stevens

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For over sixty years, guitarists of my generation have been familiar with the so-called Segovia Scales—the systematic scale fingerings advocated by the Andalusian maestro. They have been an influential—some might say a definitive—bestseller since their first USA publication in 1953. Countless guitar students have incorporated them into their daily practice routines. For the publisher, Columbia Music, they seem to be the goose that laid the golden egg. Are they everything that Segovia wanted them to be? Two books of recent date on guitar technique attest to their enduring value and relevance. Thomas Offermann wrote in 2015: “The fingerings of the …

Sinfonia Concertante By Luigi Boccherini, Edited By Matanya Ophee, Richard Long

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Sinfonia concertante (G. 523), by Boccherini, Luigi is reviewed.

Soundboard Scholar No. 2: Editor's Letter, Thomas Heck

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An introduction to the contents of this issue.

Soundboard Scholar No. 2: Cover

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The painting Home Ranch, by Thomas Eakins (1844–1916), executed in 1892, visually captures some of the atmosphere that must have prevailed in Henry Worrall’s frontier world. The singing guitarist has been identified as Franklin Schenck. Might he have been singing Home on the Range, first published in Kansas in 1873? His friend Samuel Murray sits on the right. Now part of the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Home Ranch was donated by the artist’s widow and by Miss Mary Adeline Williams in 1929. This reproduction is in the public domain, according to the Wikimedia Foundation. …

Soundboard Scholar No. 2 (Complete)

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No abstract provided.