Musicology Commons^™

Notes On Some Early-American Guitar Concerts, Peter Danner

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No abstract provided.

The Guitar In Nineteenth-Century America: A Lost Social Tradition, Peter Danner

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This article is one of a series of five by Peter Danner on the history of the guitar in the United States from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Written between 1977 and 1994, these articles first appeared in early issues of the GFA’s magazine Soundboard. They are reprinted here in tribute to Danner’s pioneering contribution to guitar research and to bring them to the attention of a new generation of scholars. The author has generously provided a newly written introduction to the series.

Archetypes (Sérgio Assad, Clarice Assad, Third Coast Percussion), Nathan Cornelius

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A review of  Archetypes, by Sérgio Assad, Clarice Assad, and Third Coast Percussion (Cedille 201, 2021, 1 compact disc).

"The Lutenist!": Anxieties, Ambiguities, And Deviations In Julian Bream’S Discography, Sidney Molina

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The recent passing of English guitarist Julian Bream (1933–2020) has prompted a reevaluation of his artistic legacy by critics around the world. In this article, I propose a way of reading Bream’s discography in relation to that of his predecessor, Andrés Segovia, utilizing Harold Bloom’s theory of influence, a methodology that I first proposed in application to music in 2006. After dividing Bream’s fifty albums into phases inspired by Bloomian categories, I examine the works that Bream chose to record more than once, with a focus on those to which he returned three or more times.

On The Need For A Scholarly Edition Of Tárrega’S Complete Works, David J. Buch

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In this guest editorial, the author provides evidence of the unreliable nature of the majority of Tárrega’s first editions, and the substandard quality of most modern editions. The author argues that in light of the recent availability of formerly inaccessible primary sources, the time is right for a scholarly edition of Tárrega’s complete works with state-of-art editorial methods.

How I Got Into This: Toward A Social History Of The Guitar In America, Peter Danner

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An introduction to a series of five articles by Peter Danner on the history of the guitar in the United States from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Written between 1977 and 1994, these articles first appeared in early issues of the GFA’s magazine Soundboard. They are reprinted here in tribute to Danner’s pioneering contribution to guitar research and to bring them to the attention of a new generation of scholars. The author has generously provided this newly written introduction to the series.

A Noteworthy Early-American Guitar Treatise: James Ballard’S Elements Of 1838, Peter Danner

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No abstract provided.

Return With Us Now: Featured Facsimiles, Peter Danner

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No abstract provided.

A Tribute To Vladimir Morkov (The Czar’S Guitars), Ellwood Colahan

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A review of A Tribute to Vladimir Morkov, by The Czar’s Guitars (John Schneiderman & Oleg Timofeyev) (Hänssler Classic HC20018, 2020, 2 compact discs).

The Catalan Guitar, Part 1: Four New E-Books By Brian Jeffery And Josep María Mangado, Richard M. Long

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A review of four new biographical studies of Fernando Sor:

• Brian Jeffery, Fernando Sor: Composer and Guitarist, 3rd edition (N.p.: Tecla, 2020), PDF or ePub
• Josep María Mangado Artigas, Fernando Sor (1778–1839), vol. 1, Aportaciones biográficas (Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona: Self-published, Tecla, 2020), PDF
• Josep María Mangado Artigas, Fernando Sor (1778–1839), vol. 2, Documentos inéditos: Reflexiones e hypótesis (Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona: Self-published, Tecla, 2018), PDF
• Josep María Mangado Artigas, Fernando Sor (1778–1839), vol. 3, La actividad guitarrística en París (1825–1839) (Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona: Self-published, Tecla, 2010), PDF

The Catalan Guitar, Part 2: Two New E-Books By Josep María Mangado, Richard M. Long

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A review of two studies by Josep María Mangado of the history of the guitar in Catalonia:

• Josep María Mangado Artigas, La guitarra en Cataluña, 1769–1939: Con especial referencia a los guitarristas José Ferrer (1835–1916), Sor, Brocá, Viñas, Bosch, Costa, Más, y otros, version 2.0 (Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona): Self-published, Tecla, 2010), PDF
• Josep María Mangado Artigas, Los conciertos de guitarra en el Palau de la Música Catalana (Barcelona): Desde sus inicios en 1908 hasta el estreno en 1940 del Concierto de Aranjuez (Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona: Self-published, Tecla, 2018 [2019?]), PDF

"For Andrés Segovia": Francisco De Lacerda’S Suite Goivos (1924), Pedro Rodrigues

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Suite goivos by Francisco Lacerda (1869–1934) stands out not only as one of the first examples of symbolist literature for guitar but also as the first work written for guitar by a Portuguese non-guitarist composer. So far, however, it has remained in relative obscurity. In this article, I first explore the suite’s context and history: its origin in meetings and correspondence between Lacerda and the work’s dedicatee, Andrés Segovia; its place among new works commissioned by Segovia from non-guitarist composers; and available manuscript sources for the work. I then argue for the work’s importance as music, highlighting its innovative features, …

Spanish Guitarists In Nineteenth-Century São Paulo, Flavia Prando

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This article explores the presence and activities of guitarists in nineteenth-century São Paulo. Drawing on reviews written by the pianist Alexandre Levy in 1890, I analyze concerts by Martínez Toboso and Gil-Orozco, two Spanish guitarists whose duo seems to have been the first to perform formal concerts in São Paulo. I also investigate Gil-Orozco’s subsequent work in São Paulo, where he lived for seventeen years (1890–1907), playing an essential role in the guitar’s development in the city.

The Flight Of The Maiden: Representations Of Women And The Guitar In Brazilian Culture, Cláudia Araújo Garcia

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This article examines the relationship between women and the guitar in the context of both Brazilian literary discourse and the instrument’s culture and history. To this end, I have sought out texts that illustrate intersections between women and the guitar from the perspective of both female and male authorship. We see that the guitar provides a vehicle for the woman’s voice in all its restlessness, violation, and libertarian desire; but equally, it enables the perpetuation of stereotypes linked to the mirroring of the guitar and the female body. In the absence of literary and historic records of the guitar in …

Soundboard Scholar No. 7: Cover

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Cover image: José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior (1850–1899), O violeiro (The Guitarist). Oil on canvas, 1899. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Cover design by Colleen Gates.

Monitored Freedom: Swing Rhythm In The Jazz Arrangements Of Roland Dyens, Milton Mermikides

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This paper provides an analysis of jazz swing in the work of classical guitarist and composer Roland Dyens. Drawing on Dyens’s published and recorded arrangements of jazz standards, I study both his notation and his performance of swing, starting with a preliminary study of his collection Night and Day and proceeding to a detailed analysis of Nuages—his notated arrangement and four recorded performances. To provide context for Dyens’s stylistic referents, I analyze Django Reinhardt’s 1940 ensemble performance of Nuages. Throughout the discussion, I utilize digital audio analysis and models of microtiming to reveal Dyens’s sophisticated understanding and execution …

Sor's Guitar Music—A Fresh Start, Erik Stenstadvold

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This article addresses the considerations and decisions that underlie a new critical edition of Sor’s guitar music that is being prepared by the author. Sor’s oeuvre for guitar survives almost exclusively in early printed editions, not autograph manuscripts, so such a task begins with a reassessment, based on historical and text-critical criteria, of which editions he was likely to have been involved in himself and which we can therefore trust the most. As a result, this new edition partly uses different original sources as models than other modern editions. Meissonnier’s later versions of opp. 1–23 from 1826, claimed to be …

Soundboard Scholar No. 6: Editor's Letter, Jonathan Leathwood

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An introduction to the contents of this issue.

Unraveling The Discussion Entre Les Carulistes Et Les Molinistes (Paris, 1828), Damián Martín-Gil

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In 1828, the French guitarist Charles de Marescot published a small booklet called La Guitaromanie, a collection of pieces for the guitar. It includes a caricature, entitled Discussion entre les Carulistes et les Molinistes, in which two opposing bands of guitarists are engaged in a fierce fight. Although, several scholars have proposed a variety of possible motives for such a shocking image, this issue has never been subjected to close examination. The article analyses the veracity of the known theories, making for the first time a comparative study between the method books of both Ferdinando Carulli and Francesco …

Timbre-Based Composition For The Guitar: A Non-Guitarist’S Approach To Mapping And Notation, Jason Noble, Steve Cowan

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Composing for the guitar can be intimidating for non-guitarists, but their fresh perspectives can uncover new ways of thinking about music for the instrument. This paper discusses timbre-based composition, an approach to writing for guitar that may be more intuitive for non-guitarist composers than traditional polyphonic composition. The rich palette of timbres available on the guitar, including pitched and nonpitched sounds, is conceived as primary compositional material. Issues of notation and mapping are addressed, focusing on three categories of mappings: (i) physical mapping from notational symbols onto physical objects, such as parts of the guitar; (ii) analogical mapping from …

“So That The Soul Would Dance In You,” By Jukka Savijoki, Kenneth Sparr

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No abstract provided.

Leo Brouwer: Guitar Sonatas, Ricardo Gallén, Nathan Cornelius

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No abstract provided.

Soundboard Scholar No. 6 (Complete)

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No abstract provided.

Soundboard Scholar No. 5 (Complete)

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No abstract provided.

Cover

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The scene of angel musicians on our cover is a detail shot of the topmost portion of the famous “Paradiso” fresco in the Cathedral of Orvieto, Italy. It was painted by Luca Signorelli in 1499, at the very time of Columbus’s third voyage, when (as Richard Pinnell explains in this issue) Spanish guitarras and vihuelas were first being introduced to the New World. The Signorelli fresco’s music-historical interest for us lies in the guitar-like instrument depicted in the hands of the highest angel in the heavenly ensemble—a position of no small honor for her or her instrument. It is approximately …

Editor's Letter, Thomas Heck

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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

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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 …

Mauro Giuliani And Austrian Folk Music, Stefan Hackl

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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.

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 …

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

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