History of the Guitar

History of the Guitar

The 16th Century

Until the Middle Ages significant information about the guitar and its lineage has had to be drawn from paintings, sculptures and bas-reliefs. Heavy reliance on indirect evidence is unavoidable. By the time of the sixteenth century, however, we find much more direct evidence in the form of instruments that exist to the present day. Sixteenth century guitars are described as vihuela in Spain from the time of Luis Milan, Rizzio guitar from France, and the Italian chitarra battente.

The Vihuela

The vihuela developed in Spain, and originally it was like a small four or five-string guitarra. At the same time, the sixteenth century saw the lute emerge as the favorite instrument of the aristocracy in nearly all of Europe. Spain was a notable exception. In this country, the lute had become associated with the Moors and their oppressive rule. The Spaniards did not readily take to the instrument. They did, however, appreciate the music that was written for it, hence the search for a means by which the music could be performed on an instrument other than the lute. The aristocrats turned to the popular guitarra with its four double strings. However, a guitar with only four strings did not have resources adequate to meet the requirements of complex, polyphonic music. In addition, the nobles of Spain were disdainful of the guitar as it was then an instrument of the common people. To solve these problems, the four-string guitar was enlarged and given six double strings, tuned the same as the contemporary six-string guitar except for the third string, which was tuned a half tone lower. This was the instrument that came to be known simply as the vihuela.

In its final form, the vihuela was a guitar with six double strings made of gut. The large type of vihuela was some four inches longer than the modern guitar. Like the modern guitar, the neck had twelve frets.

One of the first vihuela players was Luis Milan. He was born in 1500, and in 1535 published a book called Libro de Musica de Vihuela de Mano Intitulalo "El Maestro". This was probably Milan's most important work.

The last known vihuela is dated 1700 and represents the instrument's final stages of development. Its frets are metal, the curves along the sides have deepened and the sound hole is oval in shape.

The popularity of the instrument is evident from the large quantity of music still extant written for it. Music for the vihuela was written in tablature: in this system, each line of the staff represents a string of the instrument. In Spanish and Italian tablatures, the top string is represented by the bottom line, while in French and English tablatures, the reverse would be the case. The numbers on the lines indicate the fret to be stopped on that particular string. Note values are indicated by various notes types placed above the staff. These are similar to our present day notes.

The first composers to publich works of Spanish tablature for the vihuela were Luis de Milan in 1535, Luis de Narvaez in 1538, and Alonso de Mudarra in 1546. This collection of tablatures contains the finest instrumental compositions of the Renaissance. The sixteenth century was the golden age of Spanish vihuela music.

The Four-string guitar

In the 15th century, the terms chitarra and chitarino (Italy), guitarra (Spain), quitare, quinterne (France), and gyterne (England) referred to a round-backed instrument that later developed into the mandolin.

Only in the 16th century did several of these terms come to be used for members of the guitar family.

The first of the Spanish tablatures to include serious music for the four-string guitar were those of Alonso Mudarra. This included four fantasias, a pavana and the romanesca "Gárdame las Vacas".The second work to include the four-string guitar was Miguel de Fuenllana's Orphelina Lyra. The last work containing music for this instrument was Juan Carlos Arnat's Guitarra Española y Vandola de cinco Ordenes y de Quatro, in 1586.

In Italy, a collection of guitar music was published in Venice under the title Libro de tabolatura de chitarra, by Paolo Virchi. The growing number of publications was paralleled by the number of noted guitar players.In France, from 1551 to 1555, five books of guitar tablatures were issued in Paris by Adrian Le Roy and Robert Ballard. These books contain fantasias and pieces in dance such as branles, galliards; music for voice and guitar: psalms, chansons. These compositions came from many masters and show that a true school of guitar playing existed in France in the sixteenth century.

The Five-string guitar

In the Middle Ages, three, four and five string guitars coexisted. By the fifteenth century, the four-double stringed instrument excelled in popularity, but in the sixteenth century it was gradually replaced in popularity by the five double string guitar. The five-string guitar began in Italy and gained increasing popularity throughout sixteenth century Europe. The five-string guitar had a derivative in Italy known as the chitarra battente which was characterized by a soundbox the back of which curves gently outwards instead of being simply flat. At first, the chitarra battente was primarily a strummed instrument, but by the beginning of the sixteenth century it had become a plucked instrument.

In Spain, the most comprehensive work for the five-string guitar was published in 1586 in Barcelona. Written by Juan Carlos Amat, which has a section on the five-string guitar dealing with a new method of playing and contains several compositions for this instrument.The tuning of the five-string instrument was A-D-G-B-E as on the five first strings of the modern guitar. Since the tuning of the four-string guitar was the same as that used on the first four strings of the modern guitar, the low A string was the later addition.