Guitar And Its Music: From The Renaissance To The Classical

Description:
Following on from James Tyler's The Early Guitar: A History and Handbook(OUP 1980) tthis collaboration with Paul Sparks (their previous book for OUP, The Early Mandolin, appeared in 1989), presents new ideas and research on the history and development of the guitar and its music from the Renaissance to the dawn of the Classical era. Tyler's systematic study of the two main guitar types found between about 1550 and 1750 focuses principally on what the sources of the music (published and manuscript) and the writings of contemporary theorists reveal about the nature of the instruments and their roles in the music making of the period. The annotated lists of primary sources, previously published in The Early Guitar but now revised and expanded, constitute the most comprehensive bibliography of Baroque guitar music to date. His appendices of performance practice information should also prove indispensable to performers and scholars alike. Paul Sparks also breaks new ground, offering an extensive study of a period in the guitar's history--notably c.1759-c.1800--which the standard histories usually dismiss in a few short paragraphs. Far from being a dormant instrument at this time, the guitar is shown to have been central to music-making in France, Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, and South America. Sparks provides a wealth of information about players, composers, instruments, and surviving compositions from this neglected but important period, and he examines how the five-course guitar gradually gave way to the six-string instrument, a process that occurred in very different ways (and at different times) in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Britain.

Table of Contents:
DEDICATION; PREFACE; LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS; LIST OF TABLES; LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES; LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; PART I: THE GUITAR IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY; 1. Spain: La Guitarra de quatro ordenes; 2. France: The Creation of the Repertory; 3. England: '... yused of gentilmen, and of the best sort ...'; 4. Italy: La Chitarra da sette corde; 5. Italy: The Role of the Guitar in the Rise of Monody; PART II: THE SPANISH GUITAR (C.1600-C.1750); 6. Italy: The Creation of the Repertory; 7. France: Les Guitarristes Royals; 8. 1. England; 2. The Low Countries; 3. Scandinavia; 4. Germany and the Austrian Empire; 9. Spain, Portugal, and the New World; APPENDIX I. A BRIEF GUIDE TO READING AND INTERPRETING BAROQUE GUITAR TABLATURES; APPENDIX II. SOURCES OF SPECIFIC INFORMATION ON THE TUNING AND STRINGING OF THE FIVE-COURSE GUITAR; APPENDIX III. THE MANDORA; PART III: THE ORIGINS OF THE CLASSICAL GUITAR; 10. 1750-69: The Emergence of the Six-Course Guitar; 1. Spain, Portugal, and South America; 2. France; 3. Britain; 11. 1770-89: The First Six-String Guitars; 1. A Short History of String Making; 2. Spain, South America, and Portugal; 3. Italy; 4. France; 5. England. Germany, and Austria; 12. 1790 to the Early 1800s: The Triumph of the Six-String Guitar; 1. Spain and Portugal; 2. Britain; 3. Italy; 4. France; 5. Germany, Austria, and Elsewhere; 13. The Guitar 1750-c.1800: Practical Information; 1. The Instrument; 2. Strings; 3. Playing Positions; 4. Specialist Techniques and Ornamentation; APPENDIX IV: PRIMARY SOURCES (1750-C. 1800); 1. Paris - Instrumental Music (Published); 2. Paris - Songs with Guitar Accompaniment (Published); 3. Guitar Methods (Published and Manuscript); 4. Non-Parisian Guitar Music (Published and Manuscript); APPENDIX V: PIECES FOR GUITAR (C.1750-C.!800); BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SECONDARY SOURCES; INDEX