What happened to the Classical Guitar? | Classical Bean #4

[@bearcb]

The video failed to mention Joaquin Rodrigo, who composed the most famous guitar concert, the Concerto de Aranjuez. Played in the end, but not mentioned the piece or the composer! A selection of other important pieces would be nice also

[@sotirisguitar]

This is a video about the history and development of the classical guitar, not famous guitar pieces. Yes, the Concerto de Aranjuez (which is cited musically in the video) is the most iconic guitar concerto and an absolute masterpiece but it wasn't that instrumental for the comeback of the guitar in the 20th century. Let me explain: The Aranjuez was composed in 1939 and premiered the following year in Spain. It was a success and it would keep being performed in Spain throughout the 40s but it didn't spread much internationally. It was firstly recorded in 1947 by the dedicatee Regino Sainz de La Mazza and the Spanish National Orchestra, a recording that was well received but didn't reach that big of an audience (due to Segovia being already the "king" of the guitar and Spain's political turmoil). In fact one year before the recording, Segovia had already made his Carnegie Hall debut and was touring extensively for years all around the world. Segovia always refused to play the Aranjuez despite the numerous requests by Rodrigo. It was with Narciso Yepes and his two recordings of the Aranjuez in 1955 and 1959 that gave legendary status to the Concerto, but already by then we have 90% of the Segovia repertoire and the guitar was already presented once more to the music world. It feels like the Aranjuez was a Giant cherry on top in my opinion. What would happen if Segovia had played Aranjuez? We can only imagine... But I believe that ultimately it was a good thing: it paved way for other guitar concertos like Tedesco, Villa-Lobos, Ponce, Tansman etc But objectively we can assume that Segovia's impact during these crucial years of the early 20th century was by far bigger than of the Aranjuez. Fun fact: Rodrigo's 2nd guitar concerto "Fantasia para un Gentilhombre" (composed in 1955) was premiered in the US one year earlier than the Concerto de Aranjuez.

[@bearcb]

@@sotirisguitar no justification for Rodrigo and the concert being not at least mentioned.

[@chrisdei9121]

Oh please do a video on the fascinating Theremin! And thank you for these informative videos.

[@hongw2106]

Really glad to see a video about classical guitar !! Thank you for your work !

[@matthodek]

Fascinating to see how the guitar has developed. I'm glad it is enjoying a revival. Do many people talk about the role and development of percussion instruments in classical music? Are there pieces for a percussion soloist with an orchestra? While percussion might not always have the same ability to express emotion as a guitar or piano, I feel that it does play a role besides mimicking canons and such...

[@margaretmarymain3337]

Thank you for making this video. My son is a classical guitarist and composer. He has introduced me to the delightful repertoire that was somehow overlooked in my training. There are some beautiful pieces that can be performed on piano as well as guitar. One that comes to mind is the percussive piece “Asturias” that is often performed on both instruments.

[@C6H12B26]

Thank you. Well yes ... but in your very short video the vihuela da mano is not mentioned. Alonso Mudarra published mainly for the vihuela da mano. The guitar had first four courses, after six with the vihuela da mano. Only five with the Baroque guitar. And no more double strings and six strings with the classical guitar. Nowadays some classical guitars have more strings. All the best !

[@sotirisguitar]

Well the vihuela is not a guitar...

[@C6H12B26]

@@sotirisguitar Yes, but on the following book it is the direct ancestor of the guitar : Aux origines de la guitare : la vihuela da mano Les cahiers du musée de la musique 5 La vihuela da mano est considérée comme l'ancêtre directe de la guitare. Cité de la musique. Musée de la musique Paris

[@sotirisguitar]

@@C6H12B26bien sûr. Mais nous pouvons dire aussi la même chose pour le lute ou tout les instruments de cordes pincées. C'est la même famille d'instruments de toute façons... Par contre la première guitare qu'on appele "guitare" était celle avec 4 cordes (un peu plutôt il y avait une à 3 cordes qui a était vite remplacée).

[@joachimgeissler614]

Thanks for this nice video! It actually runs along the mainstream of how the history of the guitar is told. There are some (inevitable) lacks of precision, which are easy to be excused. An important point to think of is instead: is the classical guitar - here put as synonym of "spanish" guitar - a musical instrument with a certain organology or is it the classical music composed for the instrument? In the first case flamenco, for example, could be classical guitar music: I definitely wouldn't agree to that, as flamenco clearly is popular music, which developed to the highest artistic levels. It's much more similar to jazz than to classical music. Same for south-american styles, that actually fused european music, popular and classical alike, to all the other influences coming from the people of the most varied origin. Neither as it is a specific instrument, nor the classical guitar is a just "style": it's a form of musical art that is fused to the instrument and it' s playing; actually the music could could come to live to a certain point without the instrument (as happens when non-guitarists compose for guitar).

[@rikiro3956]

6:49 omg i was in the sarajevo international guitar festival performing(in juniors)

[@oxoelfoxo]

classical guitar needs more love. who's your favorite KZbin classical guitarist? i follow danbluedeer who also plays lutes, ukes and such

[@jonathanjesp]

Brandon Acker for sure!

[@pogorelski_guitarist]

This is great!

[@andresgunther]

I want to add Antonio Lauro (composer) and Alirio Diaz (virtuoso) from Venezuela to the roster of Latin American composers and guitarists mentioned here, Thank you.

[@TheAlfarasjohn]

There is connection between lute and guitar?

[@FrancoisM]

Thank you for this very interesting presentation of the history of the guitar. What's next now for our beloved instrument? I suggest a new revolutionary guitar, the Lenvers guitar, aimed to be much more ergonomic. And new compositions too... www.youtube.com/@FrancoisM/videos?view=0&sort=dd&shelf_id=0

[@eckligt]

But classical music is not limited to the classical guitar. There seems to be an increasing interest in playing classical music on electric guitars. This can take the shape of everything from hauntingly sparse interpretations, such as that of Bach's Chaconne in the first link below, to extremely hectic "metallized" versions of well-known pieces, such as that of the 3rd movement of the Moonlight Sonata in the second link below. There are also some really genre-defying artists out there who somehow bring the classical guitar into rock -- the third link below is an example from a prominent group called Polyphia. * kzbin.info/www/bejne/oYSogpafqbaBhZY * kzbin.info/www/bejne/pWfVc35md9Z_aNk * kzbin.info/www/bejne/kGaxoISdbbGXes0 Cross-genre musical curiosity can only be a good thing, germinating new forms of music as well as a wider apprecation of what has already been created. Maybe the guitar is exactly the kind of bridge that music as whole needs, spanning the gap between classical and "popular" music.

[@jetpackband3523]

It's disappointing to see that in the classical world the people commenting what you should have done differently with your video are as insufferable as are electric guitarists. How dare you not include everything in a seven and a half minute video. Anyway, well done.