Christopher Page & Paul Sparks 
The Great Vogue for the Guitar in Western Europe [PDF ebook] 
1800-1840

The first book devoted to the composers, instrument makers and amateur players who advanced the great guitar vogue throughout Western Europe during the early decades of the nineteenth century.


Contemporary critics viewed the fashion for the guitar with sheer hostility, seeing in it a rejection of true musical value. After all, such trends advanced against the grain of mainstream musical developments of ground-breaking (often Austro-German) repertoire for standard instruments. Yet amateur musicians throughout Europe persisted; many instruments were built to meet the demand, a substantial volume of music was published for amateurs to play, and soloist-composers moved freely between European cities. This book follows these lines of travel venturing as far as Moscow, and visiting all the great musical cities of the period, from London to Vienna, Madrid to Naples.


The first section of the book looks at eighteenth-century precedents, the instrument – its makers and owners, amateur and professional musicians, printing and publishing, pedagogy, as well as aspects of repertoire. The second section explores the extensive repertoire for accompanied song and chamber music. A final substantive section assembles chapters on a wide array of the most significant soloist-composers of the time. The chapters evoke the guitar milieu in the various cities where each composer-player worked and offer a discussion of some representative works. This book, bringing together an international tally of contributors and never before examined sources, will be of interest to devotees of the guitar, as well as music historians of the Romantic period.

Inhoudsopgave

Foreword – Richard Savino

Introduction – Christopher Page, Paul Sparks and James Westbrook

Eighteenth-century precedents: the role of Paris – Damián Martín Gil and Erik Stenstadvold

The Great Vogue for the guitar: an overview – Christopher Page

The instrument and its makers – James Westbrook

Printing and publishing music for the guitar
with Appendix: Matteo Carcassi – Erik Stenstadvold

Amateurs and professionals – Christopher Page

Teaching and learning the guitar – Erik Stenstadvold

Early-nineteenth-century guitars in the saleroom, private hands and public collections – James Westbrook

Music for early-nineteenth-century guitars in the saleroom, private hands and public collections – Kenneth Sparr

Accompanied song – Jelma van Amersfoort

Chamber music for the guitar – Jukka Savijoki

Ferdinando Carulli (1770-1841) – Mario Torta

Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829) – Gerhard Penn

Fernando Sor (1778-1839) – Erik Stenstadvold

Dionisio Aguado (1784-1849) – Luis Briso de Montiano

Emilia Giuliani (1813-1850) – Nicoletta Confalone

Giulio Regondi (1822/23-1872) and Catharina Pratten
née Pelzer (1824-1895) – Sarah Clarke

Appendix: A note on string-making – Jenny Nex

Bibliography

Over de auteur

SARAH CLARKE’s research interests centre on the guitar in nineteenth-century England. She has a Ph D in music from the Open University. In 2018 she was awarded the Andrew Britton Fellowship by the Cambridge Consortium for Guitar Research and has since been elected a member. She contributed a chapter to ‘The Great Vogue for the Guitar in Western Europe 1800-1840’ ed. by Christopher Page, Paul Sparks, and James Westbrook, 2023.