Let's learn about the guitar, shall we?
Strummed or plucked, hammered or stroked, the guitar has entranced and enthralled the world for over 4,000 years. Long-necked, plucked instruments can be found in frescos from ancient Egypt, and were soon to be found making their way like a musical virus across the globe: to the Middle East with the oud, Asia with the barat, which led to the Chinese pipa, and its younger Japanese cousin the biwa. Other variations include the Turkic qomuz, Mongolian tovshur, and Yemeni qanbÅ«s. The Indian veena and sitar followed, while in Africa, the related kibangala emerged, along with the nyatiti, molo, kontigi, and the now worldwide popular harp-lute kora (heard in a subway station near you). In the West, the lute came to Spain via the Moors, and to Sicily via Byzantines and later Muslim musicians. European derivatives included the gitern, archlute, and theorbo. As these instruments travelled far and wide, they took on different shapes; some were hollow while others were solid. Some had frets, others not. Most were played with plectrums (much like the modern day guitar pick, but made out of materials like bone, bird feathers, ivory, and stone), though finger picking and strumming became more popular with time. String count varied from one to dozens, and tunings were unique to the musical histories of the populations themselves. By the 16th century, the renaissance guitar had settled, with 4 or 5 pairs (courses) of strings. It had tied on frets, and was much smaller than the modern guitar. They were often tuned like the modern day ukulele. The 17th century Baroque guitar typically had 4 pairs of strings plus a single top melody string, tuned like the modern guitar, minus the lowest string (E). That was added around the turn of the 19th century, though the proportions didn’t change much from the baroque guitars. Additional changes included metal frets embedded in the finger board, mechanical tuning pegs, and single strings across the instrument. These “Romantic Guitars” were invented in Italy, but became popular across Europe. By this time, the guitar’s general shape and function as a solo and accompanimental instrument to voice or other instruments was well established. From there, it grew in size, becoming more powerful still. The first patent for an electric guitar was filed in 1931, and Les Paul introduced a solid body prototype in 1941, ushering in a new style of playing that became fundamental to Rock & Roll and Heavy Metal, and is used heavily in modern Jazz and Country music. Today’s program features music of the Classical (Boccherini), Romantic (Tárrega), and 20th Century (Ravel and Piazzolla) periods, as well as two Spanish works for strings, one for two violins and another for solo cello. Did I happen to mention that the whole violin family is also an offshoot of the lute family?
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–ML