History of Guitar

A Brief History of the Guitar

by Paul Guy

The guitar is an ancient and noble instrument, whose history can be

traced back over 4000 years. Many theories have been advanced
about the instrument's ancestry. It has often been claimed that the
guitar is a development of the lute, or even of the ancient Greek
kithara. Research done by Dr. Michael Kasha in the 1960's showed
these claims to be without merit. He showed that the lute is a result
of a separate line of development, sharing common ancestors with
the guitar, but having had no influence on its evolution. The
influence in the opposite direction is undeniable, however - the
guitar's immediate forefathers were a major influence on the
development of the fretted lute from the fretless oud which the
Moors brought with them to to Spain.

The sole "evidence" for the kithara theory

is the similarity between the greek word
"kithara" and the Spanish word "quitarra".
It is hard to imagine how the guitar could
have evolved from the kithara, which was a
completely different type of instrument -
namely a square-framed lap harp, or "lyre".
It would also be passing strange if a square-framed seven-string lap
harp had given its name to the early Spanish 4-string "quitarra".
Dr. Kasha turns the question around and asks where the Greeks got
the name "kithara", and points out that the earliest Greek kitharas
had only 4 strings when they were introduced from abroad. He
surmises that the Greeks hellenified the old Persian name for a 4-
stringed instrument, "chartar". (See below.)

The Ancestors
The earliest stringed instruments known to archaeologists are
bowl harps and tanburs. Since prehistory people have made bowl
harps using tortoise shells and calabashes as resonators, with a bent
stick for a neck and one or more gut or silk strings. The world's
museums contain many such "harps" from the ancient Sumerian,
Babylonian, and Egyptian civilisations. Around 2500 - 2000 CE
more advanced harps, such as the opulently carved 11-stringed
instrument with gold decoration found in Queen Shub-Ad's tomb,
started to appear.

"Queen Shub-Ad's harp"

(from the Royal Cemetery in Ur)

A tanbur is defined as "a long-necked stringed instrument with a

small egg- or pear-shaped body, with an arched or round back,
usually with a soundboard of wood or hide, and a long, straight
 neck". The tanbur probably developed from the bowl harp as the
neck was straightened out to allow the string/s to be pressed down
to create more notes. Tomb paintings and stone carvings in Egypt
testify to the fact that harps and tanburs (together with flutes and
percussion instruments) were being played in ensemble
3500 - 4000 years ago.

Egyptian wall painting, Thebes, 1420 BCE

Archaeologists have also found many similar relics in the ruins of

the ancient Persian and Mesopotamian cultures. Many of these
instruments have survived into modern times in almost unchanged
form, as witness the folk instruments of the region like the Turkish
saz, Balkan tamburitsa, Iranian setar, Afghan
panchtar and Greek bouzouki.

The oldest preserved guitar-like instrument

At 3500 years old, this is the ultimate vintage
guitar! It belonged to the Egyptian singer Har-
Mose. He was buried with his tanbur close to the
tomb of his employer, Sen-Mut, architect to
 Queen Hatshepsut, who was crowned in 1503 BCE. Sen-Mut
(who, it is suspected, was far more than just chief minister and
architect to the queen) built Hatshepsuts beautiful mortuary
temple, which stands on the banks of the Nile to this day.

Har-Moses instrument had three strings and a plectrum suspended

from the neck by a cord. The soundbox was made of beautifully
polished cedarwood and had a rawhide "soundboard". It can be
seen today at the Archaeological Museum in Cairo.

Queen Hatshepsut

What is a guitar, anyway?

To distinguish guitars from other members of the tanbur family,
we need to define what a guitar is. Dr. Kasha defines a guitar as
having "a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and a
 flat back, most often with incurved sides" .
The oldest known iconographical representation of an instrument
displaying all the essential features of a guitar is a stone carving at
Alaca Huyuk in Turkey, of a 3300 year old Hittite "guitar" with
"a long fretted neck, flat top, probably flat back, and with
strikingly incurved sides".
The Lute (Al'ud, Oud)

The Moors brought the oud to Spain. The tanbur

had taken another line of development in the
Arabian countries, changing in its proportions and
remaining fretless.
The Europeans added frets to the oud and called it a
"lute" - this derives from the Arabic "Al'ud"
(literally "the wood"), via the Spanish name "laud".
A lute or oud is defined as a "short-necked
instrument with many strings, a large pear-shaped body with
highly vaulted back, and an elaborate, sharply angled peghead".

Renaissance lute by Arthur Robb

 It is hard to see how the guitar - with "a long, fretted neck, flat
wooden soundboard, ribs, and a flat back, most often with incurved
sides" - could possibly have evolved from the lute, with its "short
neck with many strings, large pear-shaped body with highly
vaulted back, and elaborate, sharply angled peghead".

The Guitar
The name "guitar" comes from the ancient Sanskrit word for
"string" - "tar". (This is the language from which the languages
of central Asia and northern India developed.) Many stringed folk
instruments exist in Central Asia to this day which have been used
in almost unchanged form for several thousand years, as shown by
archeological finds in the area. Many have names that end in "tar",
with a prefix indicating the number of strings:

Dotar
two = Sanskrit "dvi" - modern Persian "do" -
dotar, two-string instrument found in Turkestan

three = Sanskrit "tri" - modern Persian "se" -

setar, 3-string instrument, found in Persia (Iran),
(cf. sitar, India, elaborately developed, many-stringed)

four = Sanskrit "chatur" - modern Persian "char" -

chartar, 4-string instrument, Persia
(most commonly known as "tar" in modern usage)
(cf. quitarra, early Spanish 4-string guitar,
modern Arabic qithara, Italian chitarra, etc)

five = Sanskrit "pancha" - modern Persian "panj" -

panchtar, 5 strings, Afghanistan

Indian Sitar
The Indian sitar almost certainly took its name from the Persian
setar, but over the centuries the Indians developed it into a
 completely new instrument, following their own
aesthetic and cultural ideals.

Persian Setar

Chartar ("Tar")

Tanburs and harps spread around the ancient world with travellers,
merchants and seamen. The four-stringed Persian chartar (note
the narrow waist!) arrived in Spain, where it changed somewhat in
 form and construction, acquired pairs of unison-tuned strings
instead of single strings and became known as the
quitarra or chitarra.
From four-, to five-, to six-string guitar

As we have seen, the guitar's ancestors came to

Europe from Egypt and Mesopotamia. These early
instruments had, most often, four strings - as we have
seen above, the word "guitar" is derived from the Old
Persian "chartar", which, in direct translation, means
"four strings". Many such instruments, and variations
with from three to five strings, can be seen in
mediaeval illustrated manuscripts, and carved in stone
in churches and cathedrals, from Roman times through
till the Middle Ages. Right: Roman "guitar", c:a 200 CE.

Mediaeval psalter, c:a 900 CE.

Angel with guitar, St. Stephen's church, 1591.

 By the beginning of the Renaissance, the four-course (4 unison-
tuned pairs of strings) guitar had become dominant, at least in most
of Europe. (Sometimes a single first string was used.) The earliest
known music for the four-course "chitarra" was written in 16th
century Spain. The five-course guitarra

battente (left) first appeared in Italy at around the same time, and
gradually replaced the four-course instrument. The standard tuning
had already settled at A, D, G, B, E, like the top five strings of the
modern guitar.

In common with lutes, early guitars seldom had necks with more
than 8 frets free of the body, but as the guitar evolved, this
increased first to 10 and then to 12 frets to the body.
 5-course guitar by Antonio Stradivarius, 1680

A sixth course of strings was added to the Italian "guitarra

battente" in the 17th century, and guitar makers all over Europe
followed the trend. The six-course arrangement gradually gave
way to six single strings, and again it seems that the Italians were
the driving force. (The six-string guitar can thus be said to be a
development of the twelve-string, rather than vice versa,
as is usually assumed.)

In the transition from five courses to six single strings, it seems

that at least some existing five-course instruments were modified
to the new stringing pattern. This was a fairly simple task, as it
only entailed replacing (or re-working) the nut and bridge, and
plugging four of the tuning peg holes. An incredibly ornate guitar
 by the German master from Hamburg, Joakim Thielke (1641 -
1719), was altered in this way. (Note that this instrument has only
8 frets free of the body.)

At the beginning of the 19th century one can see the modern guitar
beginning to take shape. Bodies were still fairly small and narrow-
waisted.
6-string guitar by George Louis Panormo, 1832
 The modern "classical" guitar took its present form when the
Spanish maker Antonio Torres increased the size of the body,
altered its proportions, and introduced the revolutionary "fan" top
bracing pattern, in around 1850. His design radically improved the
volume, tone and projection of the instrument, and very soon
became the accepted construction standard. It has remained
essentially unchanged, and unchallenged, to this day.

Guitar by Antonio Torres Jurado 1859

 Steel-string and electric guitars

At around the same time that Torres started making his

breakthrough fan-braced guitars in Spain, German immigrants to
the USA - among them Christian Fredrich Martin - had begun
making guitars with X-braced tops. Steel strings first became
widely available in around 1900. Steel strings offered the promise
of much louder guitars, but the increased tension was too much for
the Torres-style fan-braced top. A beefed-up X-brace proved equal
to the job, and quickly became the industry standard for the flat-top
steel string guitar.

At the end of the 19th century Orville Gibson was building archtop
guitars with oval sound holes. He married the steel-string guitar
with a body constructed more like a cello, where the bridge exerts
no torque on the top, only pressure straight down. This allows the
top to vibrate more freely, and thus produce more volume. In the
early 1920's designer Lloyd Loar joined Gibson, and refined the
archtop "jazz" guitar into its now familiar form with f-holes,
floating bridge and cello-type tailpiece.

The electric guitar was born when pickups were added to Hawaiian
and "jazz" guitars in the late 1920's, but met with little success
before 1936, when Gibson introduced the ES150 model, which
Charlie Christian made famous.

With the advent of amplification it became possible to do away

with the soundbox altogether. In the late 1930's and early 1940's
several actors were experimenting along these lines, and
controversy still exists as to whether Les Paul, Leo Fender, Paul
Bigsby or O.W. Appleton constructed the very first solid-body
guitar. Be that as it may, the solid-body electric
guitar was here to stay.
 Some history of Guitar and a brief Timeline

The guitar's roots are in Spain. Realistically, it cannot be traced

back further than the 15th Century. It is thought to have been
invented by the people of Malaga. This early instrument was a
"four course" guitar, from which the ukulele is derived. The first
guitars were very small, and were originally strung with four
pair of strings. Each pair was call a course.

During the Renaissance, the guitar never had the respect the lute
enjoyed. It was not considered a serious instrument. The first
publication for guitar is thought to have been Alonso Mudarra's
"Tres Libros de Musica en Cifras para Vihuela." Eventually, the
guitar began to attract players, more publications and music began
to appear.

During the During the Baroque period, A fifth course was added.
Even more music became available. It's repertoire and the
complexity of the music increased.

The fifth course was tuned in one of three ways.

1. A low "A" as it is now.

2. A low "A" plus an octave for the second part of the course
3. Both strings an "A" an octave higher than the modern guitar.

If a modern player really wants to have a complete, accurate

repertoire of the Baroque Guitar, it would be necessary to either re-
string for different pieces, or have at least three instruments for the
different tunings.
At the end of the Baroque period two significant changes were
made. The double strings were replaced by single strings, and
instead of five pari, there were six single strings.
During the Classical period there were many publications,
composers and performers. Fernando Sor, Mauro Guilliani, Matteo
Carcassi, Fernando Carulli and many others wrote music,
published methods and performed concerts. The guitar was very
popular and guitar concerts were common.

Sor played the guitar as a solo instrument at the London

Philharmonic Concert in 1817. In memoirs, George Hogarth stated:
"He astonished the audience by his unrivaled execution."
Paganinni was also active, playing and writing for the guitar as
well as the violin. Stradivarius made guitars as well as violins.

At the end of the 19th century, the guitar had fallen out of favor,
but was resurrected by Francisco Tarrega. His best piece in my
opinion is the now very famous "Receurdos De La Alhambra." He
did few public performances and chose to perform for friends at
his home. He did compose, and he wrote a method for teaching
guitar. He also transcribed many pieces of music for the guitar.
Segovia was one of many guitarists that were influenced by him.
Tarrega began the tradition of playing with the fingernails.

Up until this point the instrument itself was small and narrow.
Antonio de Torres (1817 - 1892) worked with the design and
construction of the guitar. He increased the size and experimented
with anything that would improve the sound, and was especially
interested in volume. He was the first maker to use "fan" bracing
underneath the top. He once built a Guitar with a spruce top and
paper mache back and sides to prove his theory that it was the top
that produced most of the volume. He was the father of the modern
guitar.

Some well known composers who played the guitar are Carl Maria
Von Weber, Rossini and his wife, Verdi, and for many years Franz
Schubert did his composing on his guitar which hung over his bed.
He didn't have a piano at the time. Berlioz also composed the
guitar.
Segovia performed, transcribed, taught and discovered a
tremendous amount of music. He also encouraged many
composers to write for the guitar. He was the first person to
perform in a concert hall... Before Segovia, people believed this
could not be done.

Although Segovia did all these things, the real debt that we owe to
him is that of making the guitar truly a world instrument. By
traveling and performing throughout the world, he brought respect
and recognition to the instrument.

Nylon strings were a big improvement over gut strings. They

replaced gut in 1946.

Today there are many concerts of guitar music. There are many
societies and magazines devoted to the guitar.

Here follows a brief Timeline

 1265 Juan Gil of Zamora mentions the early guitar in "Ars

Musica.
 1283-1350 Guitarra Latina & Guitar Moresca are mentioned
multiple times in the poems of the Archpriest of Hita
 1306 A "gitarer" was played at the Feast of Westminster in
England
 1404 "Der mynnen regein" by Eberhard Von Cersne makes
reference to a "quinterne."
 1487 Johannes Tinctoris described the guitarra as being
invented by the Catalans. This refers to the four course
guitar. Each course represents one pair of double strings.
 1546 "Tres Libros de Musica en Cifras para Vihuela" by
Alonso Mudarra is the first publication to include music for
guitar.
 1551-1555 Nine books of tablature were published by Adrian
Le Roy. These include the first pieces for 5 course guitar.
 The addition of the fifth course was attributed to Vicente
Espinel
 1600-1650 Many publications of tablature for the guitar. It's
popularity begins to rival the lute.
 1674 Publication of "Guitarre Royal" by F. Corbetta
increased the guitar's popularity. It was dedicated to Louis
XIV.
 1770-1800 A sixth string was added to the guitar and the
courses were replaced by single strings.
 1800-1850 Guitar enjoyed a large popularity both in
performances and publishing. Fernando Sor, Mauro Guiliani,
Matteo Carcassi and Dioniso Aguado all performed, taught,
wrote and had published their compositions.
 1850-1892 Guitar maker Antonio de Torres develops the
larger more resonant instrument we know today.
 1916 Segovia performs at Ateneo, the most important concert
hall in Madrid. Before this it was thought that the guitar did
not have the volume for this type of venue.
 1946 Nylon replaces gut as a string material

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