A
classical guitar, also called a
Spanish guitar, is a
musical instrument from the
guitar family.
The classical guitar is distinguished by a number of features:
- It is an acoustic instrument.
The sound is amplified by a sound box.
- It has six strings. A few classical guitars have eight or more strings to expand
the bass scale, allowing lute music written for lutes with more than six courses of strings
to be played.
- The strings are made from catgut (made from sheep intestine, despite the name), or much more commonly these days nylon,
as opposed to the metal strings found in some other forms of guitar. These strings have a much lower tension than steel strings.
The lower three strings ('bass strings') are wound with metal, commonly silver or nickel. Some less common stringings use a
fourth wound string.
- Because of the low tension of the strings the neck can be made entirely of wood, not requiring a steel truss rod.
- The neck tends to be broader than with steel string guitars, making more complex work easier, but requiring a left hand
position which ultimately makes the guitar less stable to hold.
- The strings are usually plucked with the fingers. Serious players shape their fingernails so that they contact the string in
a certain way to achieve the desired tone. A collection of fine classical and flamenco guitars can be seen at the Classical Guitar Museum (http://www.granary-guitars.com)
- Traditionally, the tuning pegs (or "keys") at the head the fingerboard of a classical guitar point backwards (towards the
player when the guitar is in playing position). This is in contrast to a traditional steel-string guitar design, in which the
tuning pegs point outward (up and down from playing position).
Classical guitars are normally played without amplification of any sort but they can be equipped with an electronic pickup,
which is sometimes used by performers in noisy environments. Either a piezoelectric pickup is placed under the bridge, or a
microphone is suspended within the body.
The first 'Golden Age' of the classical guitar repertoire was the 19th century. Some notable guitar composers from this period
are:
- Dionisio Aguado 1784-1849
- Matteo Carcassi 1792-1853
- Ferdinando Carulli 1770-1841
- Napoleon Coste 1806-1883
- Mauro Giuliani 1780-1840
- Luigi Legnani 1790-1877
- Miguel Llobet 1878-1937
- Fernando Sor 1778-1839
- Francisco Tarrega 1852-1909
Guitarist-composers of the 20th century include:
- Agustín Barrios-Mangore 1885-1944
- Gilbert Biberian 1944-
- Leo Brouwer 1939-
- John Duarte 1919-2004
- Roland Dyens 1955-
- Antonio Lauro 1917-1986
- Emilio Pujol 1886-1980
- Andres Segovia 1893-1987
- Heitor Villa-Lobos 1887-1959
- Andrew York 1958-
In the 20th century, many non-guitarist composers wrote for the instrument, which previously only players of the instrument
had done. These include:
- Malcolm Arnold 1921-
- Richard Rodney Bennett 1936-
- Lennox Berkeley 1903-1989
- Benjamin Britten 1913-1976
- Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco 1895-1968
- Peter Maxwell Davies 1934-
- Stephen Dodgson 1924-
- Manuel de Falla 1876-1946
- Alberto Ginastera 1916-1983
- Hans Werner Henze 1926-
- Andre Jolivet 1905-1974
- Ernst Krenek 1900-1991
- Frank Martin 1890-1974
- Darius Milhaud 1892-1974
- Frederic Mompou 1893-1987
- Federico
Moreno Torroba 1891-1982
- Manuel Ponce 1886-1948
- Francis Poulenc 1899-1963
- Andre Previn 1929-
- Alan Rawsthorne 1905-1971
- Joaquin Rodrigo 1901-1999
- Albert Roussel 1869-1937
- Alexandre Tansman 1897-1986
- Michael Tippett 1905-1998
- Joaquin Turina 1682-1949
- William Walton 1902-1983
Guitarists also often play transcriptions of music originally written for other instruments. Lute transcriptions from the Renaissance and Baroque eras are common.
Some players of the classical guitar:
- Manuel Barrueco
- Ben Bolt 1953-
- Julian Bream 1933-
- Sharon Isbin 1956-
- Andres Segovia 1893-1987
- Pepe Romero 1944-
- Angel Romero 1946-
- John Williams 1941-
- Narciso Yepes 1927-1997
- Yang Xue Fei 1977-
- Lily Afshar
Other great classical guitarists of this century such as Christopher Parkening have revised many of the latter century classical guitar method books and
published his own to accommodate those who wish to learn this method of guitar.
External links
