On 01/02/2013 05:40, Alain wrote:
I think the English guitar is the instrument that has survived in
Portugal as one of the fundamental ingredient of traditional fado...
Alain,
I'd recommend that don't you suggest that idea to Portuguese people -
they get very touchy about it! There were some very heated exchanges on
the old cittern list many years ago.
Portuguese people (obviously not all of them) see their 'guitarra'
(looks very like an English guitar but with fancier watch-key tuners)
as something completely independent of the English guitar.
Amongst all the other things that can come into play in discussing
instruments, nationalistic ones can come in too. Reluctantly I have to
say that the section in 'The Lute in Europe 2' is, for me anyway, far
too heavily nationalistic.
But I'm not Portuguese. But if I was, and if I thought that fado was
part of my identity and culture and that the guitarra is the essence of
fado, then I might not want the origins of the guitarra to be the
English guitar.
Stuart
Anyways, I really just want to congratulate Gary on his phenomenal work,
Alain
On 1/31/2013 5:07 AM, Gary R. Boye 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...)
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