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GUITAR (Fr. guitarre, Ger. Guitarre, ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 704 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GUITAR (Fr. guitarre, Ger. Guitarre, Ital. chitarra, Span. guitarra) , a musical See also:instrument strung with gut strings twanged by the fingers, having a See also:body with a See also:flat back and graceful incurvations in See also:complete contrast to the members of the See also:family of See also:lute (q.v.), whose back is vaulted. The construction of the instrument is of See also:paramount importance in assigning to the guitar its true position in the See also:history of musical See also:instruments, midway between the See also:cithara (q.v.) and the See also:violin. The See also:medieval stringed instruments with See also:neck fall into two classes, characterized mainly by the construction of the body: (I) Those which, like their archetype the cithara, had a body composed of a flat or delicately arched back and soundboard joined by ribs. (2) Those which, like the See also:lyre, had a body consisting of a vaulted back over which was glued a flat soundboard without the intermediary of ribs; this method of construction predominates among See also:Oriental Instruments and is greatly inferior to the first. A striking See also:proof of this inferiority is afforded by the fact that instruments with vaulted backs, such as the rehab or See also:rebec, although extensively represented during the See also:middle ages in all parts of See also:Europe by numerous types, have shown but little or no development during the course of some twelve centuries, and have dropped out one by one from the See also:realm of See also:practical See also:music without leaving a single survivor. The guitar must be referred to the first of these classes. The back and ribs of the guitar are of See also:maple, ash or See also:cherry-See also:wood, frequently inlaid with See also:rose-wood, See also:mother-of-See also:pearl, See also:tortoise-See also:shell, &c., while the soundboard is of See also:pine and has one large ornamental rose See also:sound hole. The See also:bridge, to which the strings are fastened, is of See also:ebony with an See also:ivory See also:nut which deter-mines the one end of the vibrating strings, while the nut at the end of the fingerboard determines the other. The neck and fingerboard are made of hard wood, such as ebony, See also:beech or See also:pear. The See also:head, See also:bent back from the neck at an obtuse See also:angle contains two parallel barrels or See also:long holes through Notation. _ which the pegs or See also:metal screws pass, three _1 ep ±.- on each See also:side of the head.

The correct _e positions for stopping the intervals are -et marked on the fingerboard by little metal Real Sounds. • it ridges called frets. The See also:

modern guitar has six strings, three of gut and three of -rsilk covered with See also:silver See also:wire, tuned as shown. To the thumb are assigned the three deepest strings, while the first, second and third fingers are used to twang the highest strings. It is generally stated that the See also:sixth or lowest See also:string was added in 1790 by See also:Jacob See also:August See also:Otto of See also:Jena, who was the first in See also:Germany to take up the construction of guitarstwanged by the fingers. The guitar is derived from the cithara' both structurally and etymologically. It is usually asserted that the guitar was introduced into See also:Spain by the See also:Arabs, but this statement is open to the gravest doubts. There is no trace among the instruments of the Arabs known to us of any similar to the guitar in construction or shape, although a guitar (fig. 2) with slight incurvations was known to the See also:ancient Egyptians.' There is also extant a See also:fine example of the guitar, with ribs and incurvations and a long neck provided with numerous frets, on a Hittite bas-See also:relief on the See also:dromos at See also:Euyuk (c. moo n.c.) in See also:Cappadocia.' Unless other monuments of much later date should come to See also:light showing guitars with ribs, we shall be justified in assuming that the instrument, which required skill in construction, died out in See also:Egypt and in See also:Asia before the days of classic See also:Greece, and had to be evolved anew from the cithara by the Greeks of Asia See also:Minor. That the See also:evolution should take See also:place within the See also:Byzantine See also:Empire From Juan Bermudo. or in See also:Syria would be quite consistent with the FIG. 1.—See also:Spanish traditions of the Greeks and their veneration Guitar with seven for the cithara, which would See also:lead them to adapt S t r i n g s .

555. the neck and other improvements to it, rather Vihuela da Mane. than adopt the See also:

rebab, the tanbur or the See also:barbiton from the Persians or Arabians. This is, in fact, what seems to have taken place. It is true that in the 14th See also:century in an enumeration of musical instruments by the Archipreste de See also:Hita, a guitarra morisca is mentioned and unfavourably compared with the guitarra See also:latina; moreover, the Arabs of the See also:present See also:day still use an instrument called kuitra (which in N.See also:Africa would be guithara), but it has a vaulted back, the body being like See also:half a pear with a long neck; the strings are twanged by means of a See also:quill. The Arab instrument therefore belongs to a different class, and to admit the instrument as the ancestor of the Spanish guitar would be tantamount to deriving the guitar from the lute.' By piecing together various indications given by Spanish writers, we obtain a See also:clue to the identity of the medieval instruments, which, in the See also:absence of See also:absolute proof, is entitled to serious See also:consideration. From Bermudo's See also:work, quoted above, we learn that the guitar and the vihuela da mano were practically identical, differing only in accordance and occasionally in the number of strings.' Three kinds of vihuelas were known in Spain during the middle ages, distinguished by the qualifying phrases da arco(with See also:bow), da mane (by See also:hand), da penola (with quill). Spanish scholars" who have inquired into this question of identity See also:state that the guitarra latina was after-wards known as the vihuela da mano, a statement fully supported by Uber den Bau der Bogeninstrumente (Jena, 1828), pp. 94 and 95. 2 See Pietro Millioni, Vero e facil mod() d' imparare a sonare et accordare da se medesimo la chitarra spagnola, with See also:illustration (See also:Rome, 1637). Declaracion de instrumentos musicales (Ossuna, 1555), fol. xciii. b and fol. xci. a. See also illustration of vihuela da mano. ' See also G.

G. Kapsperger, Libro See also:

prime di See also:Villanelle See also:con l' infavolutura del chitarone et alfabeto per la chitarra spagnola (three books, Rome, 1610-1623). See Kathleen Schlesinger, The Instruments of the See also:Orchestra, See also:part ii. " Precursors of the Violin Family," pp. 230-248. See See also:Denon's Voyage in Egypt (See also:London, 1807, pl. 55). "' Illustrated from a See also:drawing in See also:Perrot and Chipiez, Judee Sardaigne, Syrie, Cappadoce." Vol. iv. of Hist. de Part clans l'antiquiti, See also:Paris, 1887, p. 67o. Also see See also:plate from a photograph by Prof. See also:John Garstang, in Kathleen Schlesinger, op. cit. See Biernath, See also:Die Guitarre (1908).

See also Luys See also:

Milan, Libro de musica de vihuela da mano, Intitulado Il See also:Maestro, where the accordance is D, G, C, E, A, D from See also:bass to See also:treble. " Mariano Soriano, Fuertes Historic de la musica espaffola (See also:Madrid, 1855), i. 105, and iv. 208, &c. 704 other See also:evidence. As the Arab kuitra was known to be played by means of a quill, we shall not be far wrong in identifying it with the vihuela da penola. The word vihuela or vigola is connected with the Latin fidicula or fides, a stringed instrument mentioned by See also:Cicero ' as being made from the wood of the See also:plane-See also:tree and having many strings. The remaining See also:link in the See also:chain of See also:identification is afforded by St Isidore, See also:bishop of See also:Seville in the 7th century, who states that fidicula was another name for cithara, " Veteres See also:aut citharas fidicula vel fidice nominaverunt." 2 The fidicula there- fore was the cithara, either in its See also:original classical See also:form or in one of the transitions which transformed it into the guitar. The existence of a See also:superior guitarra latina side by side with the guitarra morisca is thus explained. It was derived directly from the classical cithara intro- duced by the See also:Romans into Spain, the archetype of the structural beauty which formed the basis of the perfect proportions and delicate structure. of the violin. In an See also:inventory 3 made by See also:Philip See also:van Wilder of the musical instruments which had belonged to See also:Henry VIII. is the following See also:item bearing on the question: " foure gitterons with See also:iiii. cases they are called Spanishe Vialles." Vial or See also:viol was the See also:English See also:equivalent of vihuela. The transitions whereby the cithara acquired a neck and became a guitar are shown in the miniatures (fig.

3) of a single MS., the celebrated See also:

Utrecht Psalter, which gave rise to so many discussions. The Utrecht Psalter was executed in the See also:diocese of See also:Reims in the 9th century, and the miniatures, See also:drawn by an Anglo- Saxon artist attached to the Reims school, are unique, and illustrate a b c the Psalter, See also:psalm by psalm. It is evident that the Anglo-Saxon artist, while endowed with extraordinary See also:talent and vivid See also:imagination, See also:drew his See also:inspiration from an older See also:Greek illustrated Psalter from the See also:Christian See also:East,' where the evolution of the guitar took place. One of the earliest representations (fig. 4) of a guitar in Western Europe occurs in a Passionale from Zwifalten A.D. 1180, now in the ' De nature deorum, ii. 8, 22. 2 See Etymologiarium, See also:lib. iii., cap. 21. ' See See also:British Museum, Harleian MS. 1419. fol. 200.

' The literature of the Utrecht Psalter embraces a large number of books and See also:

pamphlets in many See also:languages of which the See also:principal are here given: See also:Professor J. O. Westwood, Facsimiles of the Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and Irish See also:MSS. (London, 1868); See also:Sir Thos. Duffus-See also:Hardy, See also:Report on the Athanasian Creed in connection with the Utrecht Psalter (London, 1872) ; Report on the Utrecht Psalter, addressed to the Trustees of the British Museum (London, 1874) ; Sir See also:Thomas Duffus-Hardy, Further Report on the Utrecht Psalter (London, 1874) ; See also:Walter de See also:Gray See also:Birch, The History, See also:Art and See also:Palaeography of the MS. styled the Utrecht Psalter (London, 1876) ; Anton See also:Springer, " Die Psalterillustrationen See also:im fruhen Mittelalter mit besonderer Riicksicht auf den Utrecht Psalter," Abhandlungen der kgl. See also:sachs. Ges. d. Wissenschaften, phil.-hisl. Klasse, Bd. vjii. pp. 187-296, with lo facsimile plates in autotype from the MS.; Adolf See also:Goldschmidt, " Der Utrecht Psalter," in Repertorium See also:fur Kunstwissenschaft, Bd. xv. {See also:Stuttgart, 1892), pp. 156-166; See also:Franz See also:Friedrich Leitschuh, Geschichte der karolingischen Malerei, ihr Bilderkreis and See also:seine Quellen (See also:Berlin, 1894), pp. 321-330; Adolf Goldschmidt, Der See also:Albani Psalter in See also:Hildesheim, &c.

(Berlin, 1895); See also:

Paul Durrieu, L'Origine du IlHS. celebre dit le Psaultier d' Utrecht (Paris, 1895) ; Hans Graeven, " Die Vorlage See also:des Utrecht Psalters," See also:paper read before the XI. See also:International Oriental See also:Congress, Paris, 1897. See also Repertorium fur Kunstwissenschaft (Stuttgart, 1898), Bd. xxi. pp. 28-35; J. J. Tikkanen, Abendldndische Psalter-Illustration im Mittelalter, part iii. " Der Utrecht Psalter " (See also:Helsingfors, 1900), 320 pp. and 77 ills. (Professor Tikkanen now accepts the Greek or Syrian origin of the Utrecht Psalter) ; Georg Swarzenski, " Die karolingische Malerei and Plastik in Reims." in Jahrbuch d. kgl. preussischen Kunstsammlungen, Bd. See also:xxiii. (Berlin, 1902), pp. 81-too; See also:Ormonde M. See also:Dalton, " The Crystal of See also:Lothair," in Archdologie, vol. lix. (1904) ; Royal Library at Stuttgart.' St See also:Pelagia seated on an See also:ass holds a See also:rotta, or cithara in transition, while one of the men-servants leading her ass holds her guitar.

Both instruments have three strings and the characteristic guitar outline with incurvations, the rotta differing in having no neck. See also:

Mersenne' See also:writing See also:early in the 17th century describes and figures two Spanish guitars, one with four, the other with five strings; the former had a See also:cittern head, the latter the straight head bent back at an obtuse angle from the neck, as in the modern instrument; he gives the See also:Italian, See also:French and Spanish tablatures which would seem to show that the guitar already enjoyed a certain See also:vogue in See also:France and See also:Italy as well as in Spain. Mersenne states that the From Dr H. Janitschek's Geschichte der deutschen proportions of the guitar Malerei. demand that the length FIG. 4.-See also:Representation of a See also:European of the neck from See also:shoulder Guitar. A.D. 1180. to nut shall be equal to the length of the body from the centre of the rose to the tail end. From this See also:time until the middle of the 19th century the guitar enjoyed See also:great popularity on the See also:continent, and became the fashionable instrument in See also:England after the See also:Peninsular See also:War, mainly through the virtuosity of See also:Ferdinand Sor, who also wrote compositions for it. This popularity of the guitar was due less , to its merits as. a See also:solo instrument than to the ease with which it could be mastered sufficiently to accompany the See also:voice. The See also:advent of the Spanish guitar in England led to the wane in the popularity of the cittern, also known at tat time in contradistinction as the English or wire-strung guitar, although the two instruments differed in many particulars.

As further evidence of the great popularity of the guitar all over Europe may be instanced the extra-See also:

ordinary number of books extant on the instrument, giving instructions how to See also:play the guitar and read the tablature? (K.

End of Article: GUITAR (Fr. guitarre, Ger. Guitarre, Ital. chitarra, Span. guitarra)

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