Many great instrumental solo works were created in this period. Baroque guitars were often used for song accompaniment, and the playing technique mixed strumming and notes plucked by the thumb and first two fingers. 1722) utilized a tuning of the top three strings in unison and the bottom two strings in octaves. (Vestiges of re-entrant tuning are found in modern ukulele, five-string banjo, and 12-string guitar tunings.) In his collection of pieces titled Poema HarmГіnio, Francisco Guerau of Spain (1649вЂ“ca. One or more of the doubled strings in the middle courses were pitched an octave higher. These included re-entrant tunings in which the strings were not pitched strictly from low to high. Composers of Baroque guitar music used at least four different arrangements of the octaves among the double strings. Its tuning is like that used today, with strings tuned (from lowest to highest) A D G B E. In The Guitar from the Renaissance to the Present Day, Harvey Turnbull writes that the five-course Baroque guitar originated in Spain and gradually overtook the four-course there in the 17th century.

Even though the evolution of the guitar moved forward, these relatively diminutive instruments continued to be played into the 19th century. Manuscript collections that include works by unnamed composers from England and Italy survive in European libraries. 1510вЂ“1580) from Spain, and Guillaume de Morlaye (c. Among the significant early composers were Alonso Mudarra (c.

Composers used different systems of tablature in France, Italy, and Spain to notate their music. In the 16th century, small-bodied, four-course guitars made in France and Spain were used to play polyphonic music in a variety of tunings. (Of course on the modern guitar the major third occurs between the third and second strings and the whole is pitched a minor third lower than the vihuela.) With the exception that the major third occurs between the fourth and third strings, its tuning relates to the interval pattern of a modern guitar and was pitched like a modern guitar with a capo placed on the third fret. One of the latterвЂ™s tunings was G C F A D G (low strings to high). The vihuela de mano, however, had five or six double courses of strings and was plucked with the fingers. The vihuela de penola was played with a pick, while the vihuela de arco was played with a bow. The vihuela, popular during the 15th and 16th centuries in Italy and Spain, fits directly into the evolutionary line and came in three varieties. (вЂњThe Guitar PlayerвЂќ by Johannes Vermeer, 1672)Д«eyond the guitarвЂ™s morphology, tunings and playing techniques must also be considered when tracing its genealogy. The five-course Baroque guitar originated in Spain and gradually overtook the four-course instrument there in the 17th century. Many parties throughout the centuries in several Western Europe countries contributed to the evolution of the modern guitar before Spain became a dominant force from the late 18th century forward in producing many groundbreaking, composers, performers, and luthiers. Other historians posit theories that the pear-shaped oud found in pre-Islamic Arabian lands influenced the development of the lute, which appeared in Europe in the 15th century and is part of the guitarвЂ™s lineage. Coptic lutes discovered in Egypt dating from 300вЂ“700 AD had flat backs and sides and superficially resemble the shape of a modern guitar body. Another theory is that the guitar is a distant cousin to the long-necked lutes of early Mesopotamia. One photo of a stone relief from the Hittite Empire (modern-day Turkey) dating from 1300 BCE depicts a musician playing a stringed instrument with a long neck and a body with curved sides that vaguely resembles a guitar. Alexander BellowвЂ™s Illustrated History of the Guitar includes numerous photos of artifacts tying the guitar to various ancient cultures.

Scholars, however, are not in agreement on where the instrument that ultimately became the modern classical guitar originated before arriving in Europe.ДЄmong several scholarly speculations, The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians includes one theory that the guitar descended anciently from the Greek kithara. Many significant developments in classical guitar design and technique, and many important performers and composers, flourished in Spain during the past few centuries, but the story indeed began many years-perhaps millennia-earlier. Guitar aficionados are generally aware that our beloved instrument traveled a very long and somewhat uncertain path to Spain. From the September 2018В issueВ of Acoustic GuitarВ | BY MARK SMALL

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