> 2) The author you are looking for is probably Mário de Sampayo Ribeiro > for wrote in the 1930's and 1940's. > Yes, that was the author. > 3) I have read the Silva Leite method of which I have a facsimile. It is > often cited as the first Portuguese guitar method published in Portugal > and proof that the Portuguese guitar came from England. A reading will > show that it was not a method for the Portuguese guitarra but simply a > method for the English guittar written and published in Portugal; none > of the music is Portuguese style, the tuning is for the English guittar > and the the stringing is for a 10 string instrument not the 12 string > Portuguese guitarra. > Doesn't that beg the question of the origin of the Portuguese guitar? There simply couldn't have been a method for the Portuguese guitar in 1796 because it hadn't yet been invented/developed. To a non-Portuguese person it would seem simpler to say that the Silva Leite method is the start of the uniquely Portuguese development of the instrument (rather than take Cabrals' route of surmising a mysterious 'citola' and a prior but invisible tradition)?
From what you have said about Cabral's ideas it seems that he wants to locate not only the Portuguese provenance of the instrument but also the Portuguese music (which can only be national/folk music.) to be played on the instrument. This is very similar indeed to the situation of the Russian guitar which appeared at exactly the same time. Some Russians want to say that ithe seven-string Russian guitar is uniquely Russian, others that it is derived from chordally-strung citterns like the English guitar. The Russian guitar is indeed uniquely Russian (well, not if you're a Ukrainian, I think) and there are hundreds of settings of Russian folk songs. But - and maybe there is a big difference between the Portuguese guitar and the Russian guitar - the Russian guitar was very much a middle class or aristocratic instrument. > I think Cabral would argue that Silva Leite's observation are probably > correct--the problem is how others have misused what he said. Yes, the > English guittar was brought from England to Oporto but it was an > instrument for the immigrant British merchants and the Portuguese > bourgeois who played salon music on it. Further he would seem to argue > that the music of the English guittar did not influence the folk music > of the Portuguese peasantry and proletariats. It is true that the > English guittar did have an impact on the design of locally made > instrument--how much is still to be determined. > > Before I finish here I want to thrown another wrench into the works. > There is a 12-string Portuguese guitarra in the Lisbon city museum (I > have seen it) which is believed to be the guitarra of the fado singer > Maria Severa in the 1830's. It is dated as being made in 1764 by Joaquim > Pedro dois Reis. This instrument does not look like the most 19th > century guitarras. It looks like the instruments made in Portugal in the > 1920'.s. Apparently this instrument was found in the early 20th century > and became the model for instruments since that time. So, according to > this story the 20th century Portuguese guitarra is a modern > interpretation of an 18th century instrument. This instrument is > discussed in Instrumentos Musicais Populares Portugueses, by Ernesto > Veiga de Oliveira (2000) page 190. > Get this book and read about it for yourself. > It's going to sound very anglo-centric to say, but is it written in English? Ron, you know infinitely more about this than me. But I've just looked at my copy of Baines 'European and American Musical Instruments' (1966). There is a photo of a Portuguese guitar made by Rosa and Caldiera, Lisbon , mid 19th century. I also have a copy of Guitarra Magica - modern method for the instrument - (judging by the hair fashions it's from the 1970s) by Eurico A. Cebolo. The Portuguese guitar on the cover of the 1970s book looks very strikingly similar to the mid 19th century Portuguese guitar. (I can easily put some scans up if anyone is interested.) Worse still for the plausibility of the story is an illustration of another Portuguese guitar, dated tantalisingly as 17--. It's by Jaco Viera da Silva, Lisbon. So this would seem to be a genuine 18th century Portuguese guitar. It looks rather different from the Rosa and Caldiera, mid 19th century instrument. And it's much more ornamented than English guitars ever were. It's got little f-holes either side of a rather dazzling rose and a fancy design just above the nut, at the end of the fingerboard and behind the bridge at the tail of the instrument. Stuart To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
