Musicology Commons^™

Carlo Barone (1955–2022), Adrian Walter

Soundboard Scholar

Carlo Barone (1955–2022) was a pioneering performer, researcher, and educator in the nineteenth-century performing practice of the guitar. In this tribute, his friend and collaborator Adrian Walter describes Barone's career.

Issues In Transcribing German Lute Tablature, Kurt Dorfmüller

Soundboard Scholar

Kurt Dorfmüller's essay is from Le luth et sa musique, a volume of proceedings from the 1957 research symposium of the same name that gathered a number of eminent scholars at the beginning of the modern era of lute scholarship and performance revival. In it, he inquires into the unique nature of German lute tablature, its mostly latent capacity for expressing polyphony, and the types of music for which it is more or less suited. He ends by proposing a set of guidelines for establishing a "mainstream practice" for transcription not only from German tablature but also from tablature …

Le Donne E La Chitarra, James Akers, Romantic Guitar, Ellwood Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

No abstract provided.

Athénaïs Paulian’S Airs And Variations, Op. 1, Matanya Ophee

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This article reproduces Airs et Variations, op. 1, by Athénaïs Paulian (Bonn: Simrock, c. 1829), with a brief historical commentary and notes on performance. The commentary includes notes on Paulian's role in the Parisian guitar scene of Sor, Aguado, de Fossa, and others; the Italian soprano Angelia Catalani; and the popularity of the aria "Das klinget so herrlich," from Mozart's Singspiel Die Zauberflöte.

Elsa Just’S Ständchen For Guitar Trio, Matanya Ophee

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This article reproduces a serenade from an early twentieth-century German guitar magazine. It is for guitar trio and of moderate difficulty. The introductory commentary attributes the piece to Elsa Just (1894–1919) and includes a translation of the entry on Just from Zuth's 1926 Handbuch der Laute und Gitarre.

Rudolph Süss’S Lyrische Suite No. 2, Op. 24, Matanya Ophee

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This article reproduces the Lyrische Suite no. 2, op. 24, 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.

J.N. Bobrowicz’S Grand Polonaise, Op. 24, Matanya Ophee

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This article presents an edited version of a Grand Polonaise by the Polish guitarist-composer Jan Nepomucen Bobrowicz (1805–81), preceded by a short commentary and notes for performance. The commentary includes a translation of the biographical entry for Bobrowicz in Sowiński’s Les musiciens polonais et slaves (Paris, 1857).

Carlos Pedrell’S Al Atardecer En Los Jardines De Arlaja, Matanya Ophee

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This article reproduces Al atardecer en los jardines de Arlaja by the Uruguayan composer Carlos Pedrell, preceded by a commentary. Together with Pedrell's other guitar works, this piece enriches our picture of Latin American guitar repertoire in the early twentieth century. In the case of Pedrell, we have a work written by a composer who studied in Paris and who wrote for three of the major guitarists of his time—Segovia, Pujol, and Llobet.

New Information On Sor And Gil Blas, Erik Stenstadvold

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A contemporary London newspaper report clarifies the extent of Fernando Sor's contribution to the operatic drama Gil Blas.

This letter is an addendum to Erik Stenstadvold, "Fernando Sor on the Move in the Early 1820s" Soundboard Scholar, no. 1 (2015), https://doi.org/10.56902/SBS.2015.1.7.

A Rondo Allegro By François Molino, Matanya Ophee

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This article presents an edited version of a Rondo-Allegro from Molino's Grande méthode complette (Paris, c. 1833). The rondo theme bears some resemblance to the famous melody "Das klinget so herrlich" from Mozart's Singspiel Die Zauberflöte. Ophee discusses the many versions of this theme to be found in the guitar's nineteenth-century repertoire, by composers such as Sor, Giuliani, and Paulian, drawing attention to composers' use of both the sung melody and the instrumental introduction.

Luigi Legnani's Missing Opus 9, Robert Coldwell

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The guitar composer Luigi Legnani (1790–1877) published some 250 works with opus number, most of them for solo guitar. His catalog, however, contains many gaps. This article explores the particular circumstances of the discovery of Legnani's opus 9, focusing on Legnani’s possible contact with the French guitarist Luigi [Louis] Sagrini (1809–74).

Matanya Ophee’S Contributions To Soundboard Magazine: A Retrospective, Stanley Yates

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The guitar historian Matanya Ophee's writings in Soundboard span almost his entire career as a researcher. In this restrospective, Stanley Yates surveys Ophee's work in general before offering a bibliography and commentary on his contributions to Soundboard: articles, reviews, and columns.

English And Russian Guitars In Poland: A Summary Of Sources Using Open-G Tuning, From The Nineteenth Century To The Present Day, Wojciech Gurgul

Soundboard Scholar

Polish sources related to the guitar in open-G tuning are a little-explored area of guitar scholarship — one, however, well worthy of introduction. We can distinguish two groups of such sources, according to the period and the type of guitar intended: the first group consists of publications and manuscripts for the English guitar from the first two decades of the nineteenth century; the second consists of publications for the Russian seven-string guitar from the first four decades of the twentieth century. These two instruments were cultivated in Poland contemporaneously with the Spanish guitar. The Spanish guitar, however, garnered a significantly …

“An Attractive And Varied Repertoire”: Full-Data List, Christopher Page

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This document presents the complete set of data analyzed in Christopher Page, “‘An Attractive and Varied Repertoire’: The Guitar Revival of 1860–1900 and Victorian Song,” Soundboard Scholar, no. 8 (2022), https://digitalcommons.du.edu/sbs/vol8/iss1/3.

“An Attractive And Varied Repertoire”: The Guitar Revival Of 1860–1900 And Victorian Song, Christopher Page

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Most modern histories of the classical guitar are devoted to solo playing. They therefore forego a different kind of history based upon the guitar used as an accompaniment for a singer. This article explores how that alternative history might be framed with reference to England during the long reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). This is the ideal laboratory for such an experiment, not least because the compositions of Catharina Pratten (1824–1895), the most influential guitar player of the day, are often thought to reveal a late-Victorian public with little interest in the guitar as a solo resource. Yet the newspaper …

Thank You, Richard — And Yes, She Did!, Brian Jeffery

Soundboard Scholar

New documentary evidence shows that Sor's pupil Natalie Houzé performed with him in public on February 29, 1832.