There is an "English guitar" sitting on Thomas Jefferson's harpsichord at
Monticello.

Joseph Mayes


On 1/31/13 8:07 AM, "Gary R. Boye" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Dear Bill,
> 
> I think I can (briefly) answer your questions:
> 
> There is a HUGE amount of music that survives for this instrument. If
> you check my web page for the 18th century and do a CTRL-F for "english
> guitar" there are at least 274 publications:
> 
> http://applications.library.appstate.edu/music/lute/C18/1700.html
> 
> More of these sources now labeled "guitar" are probably for this
> instrument as well.
> 
> The quality? It varies . . . it is an amateur instrument and much of the
> music is just an arrangement of a melody--a single line at the end of a
> publication really for piano and voice. But I must admit that the piece
> Rob played and his playing was disarmingly effective; hearing one of
> these instruments always makes me want to play one . . .
> 
> There is a nice sonata by J.C. Bach:
> 
> J.C. Bach c1775
> Bach, Johann Christian. A sonata for the guitar with an accompaniment
> for a violin (London, [England]: Longman, Lukey, and Co.) [BUC]
> English guitar and violin in staff notation
> 
> The second question is easy: to my knowledge, this instrument was NEVER
> called the "English guitar" in the 18th century. Always "guittar" or
> even "guitar" with various other spellings/other names in German and
> French.
> 
> Gary
> 
> On 1/31/2013 5:00 AM, William Samson wrote:
>>     (Semi) serious question.  What music was composed for this instrument
>>     outside Scotland? - Is it any good? (- the music from outside Scotland,
>>     that is).
>> 
>>     Second question - What did they call this instrument back in the day?
>>     Specifically, was it ever called "The English Guitar"?
>> 
>>     Bill
>>     From: Rob MacKillop <[email protected]>
>>     To: Lute <[email protected]>
>>     Sent: Thursday, 31 January 2013, 8:50
>>     Subject: [LUTE] The English Guitar
>>       I'm no fascist, so if you want to discuss the so-called English
>>     Guitar,
>>       I suggest you do so here, not in the thread of my video performance
>>       (which everyone except Martyn seems to have seen). I only ever said
>>       don't use my video thread to discuss the wider issues of the guittar.
>>       My reason for creating a separate thread is that it makes it easier
>>     for
>>       me to avoid. The reason for avoiding the discussion is that there are
>>     a
>>       few regulars here who cannot discuss anything without killing the
>>       subject for anyone who has a love for it.
>>       So, what is an English Guitar?
>>       Rob (exits stage left...)
>>       --
>>     To get on or off this list see list information at
>>     [1]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
>> 
>>     --
>> 
>> References
>> 
>>     1. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
>> 



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