Ron: Exacvtly what IS Pedro Cabral's argument for the current Portuguese guittarra having eveolved from an older (Renaissance?) cittern? What is his evidence? Brad
ron fernandez <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: To this time I do not know of any Chinese made Portuguese guitarras. I have imported handmade and factory made Portuguese guitarras for over 20 years. I know of 2 current little factories and most of the hand builders in Portugal. I was in Portugal in March and I did not see any instruments which I could identify as made in China. On the other hand I did see Chinese made Spanish guitars in Spain. I have been involved with the Spanish guitar industry for decades and I am a large importer of mid to high end nylon string guitars from Spain. I hear that Chinese Spanish guitars are now being sold in the Mexican guitar making town of Paracho--I hope that the Chinese don't put more Spaniards and Mexicans out of work. I do not expect the Chinese to export Portuguese guitarras because the market is so small... but you never can tell. John Pearse's opinion that the Simpson guitarra is the grandfather of the present Portuguese guitarra has been the standard Grove Encyclopedia version of the history of the guitarra. I tend to believe that it was the granduncle. Pedro Caldeira Cabral has argued for years that the present day Portuguese guitarra evolved from an older Portuguese cittern which was heavily influence by the importation of the 18th century guitarra. In the new year I will post some more information on the history of the Portuguese guitarra according to the Portuguese perspective. For the moment I have to get back to finishing the extended DVD version of my Benito Huipe Guitarmaking video. Regards, Ron Fernández To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html --------------------------------- Get your email and more, right on the new Yahoo.com --
