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Classical Guitar Guitar Timeline

 

1265 - First mentioned Guitar in historical records.

1546 - First music for the Guitar is published. ("Tres Libros de Musica en Cifras para Vihuela" by Alonso Mudarra is the first publication to include music for guitar. 1551-1555 Nine books of tablature were published by Adrian Le Roy. These include the first pieces for 5 course guitar. The addition of the fifth course was attributed to Vicente Espinel )

1600-1650 - The Guitar's popularity begins to rival the Lute's. (Many publications of tablature for the guitar. It's popularity begins to rival the lute. 1674 Publication of "Guitarre Royal" by F. Corbetta increased the guitar's popularity. It was dedicated to Louis XIV.)

1770-1800 - A sixth string is added to the guitar, and the courses replaced by single strings.

1800-1850 - The Guitar becomes popular throughout Europe. Fernando Sor and contemporaries begin teaching, performing and writing on the the Guitar.

1850-1892 - Manuel Torres begins making improvements on the Guitar's structure.

1916 - First Classical Guitar Performance in Concert Hall. (Andres Segovia performs at Ateneo, the most important concert hall in Madrid. Before this it was thought that the guitar did not have the volume for this type of venue.)

1946 - Nylon strings replace gut strings on most instruments.

The first guitars are thought to have originated during the 15th Century in Spain.
These had four 'courses' of strings or sets of two strings tuned to the same note
to give the guitar resonance. However the Lute was consistantly favoured by the
public over the Guitar until the end of the 15th Century. During the Baroque period,
a fifth set if two strings was added and several publications, especially for Guitarists were produced.

At the end of the Baroque period the courses were replaced by single
strings and
a final string was added to create the six-stringed Guitar of today.

During the Classical Period there were many publications, composers and performers
of the Classical Guitar. Fernando Sor, Mauro Guilliani, Mateo Carcassi, Fernando Carulli and others wrote music, published methods and performed concerts to great public interest.

At the end of the 19th Century the Guitar lost popularity but was re-introduced to the world by Francisco Tarrega, who began the tradition adopted by almost all Classical Guitarist of today by using the finger-nails to pick the strings.

Up until this point the Guitar itself was rather smaller and narrower than the modern
instrument. Manuel Torres changed the design of the guitar and construction through
experimentation. He once built a guitar with a wooden back and paper mache top and
sides to prove that most of the volume of the guitar comes from the top.
He is considered the 'father' of the modern guitar by many, and in 1946 the most
recent addition to the Classical Guitar was made, nylon strings were set insead of
gut strings on most instruments...

It is a generally accepted notion that Andres Segovia was the "father of modern day classical guitar." Indeed some say Andres Segovia is the most popular and important figure in the whole history of classical guitar.

 

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