Guitar history

Yaowapha intarachit 65054335 TIMELINE OF MUSICAL STYLES & GUITAR HISTORY In the Beginning ● According to Farabi, the oud was invented by the sixth grandson of Adam, Lamech. Legend has it that the grieving Lamech hung the body of his dead son from a tree. As the bones of the skeleton bleached in the sun and dry air, they inspired the shape of the first oud. The music of the oud was deemed suitable for the praise of Allah. 3000 BCE ● The oldest pictorial record of a lute-like stringed instrument dates back to the Uruk period in Southern Mesopotamia-Iraq (current-day Nasria city) on a cylinder seal acquired by Dr. Dominique Collon and currently housed at the British Museum. The image depicts a female crouching with her instruments upon a boat, playing right-handed. These instruments appear throughout Mesopotamian and ancient Egyptian history from the 18th dynasty onwards. They appear in long and short-neck varieties. There are examples at the Metropolitan Museums of New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and the British Museum on clay tablets and papyrus paper. The close relatives to these instruments have been a part of the music of each of the ancient civilizations that have existed in the Mediterranean and the Middle East regions, including the Sumerians, Akkadians, Persians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Armenians, Greeks, Egyptians, and Romans. 1

Yaowapha intarachit 65054335 Harpist playing and singing before the Egyptian god Ra Harakhte. XXI Dynasty, 1069-945 BC. 1011 BCE ● The future King Solomon was born. In approximately 985 BCE Solomon penned the lyrics to the 1965 AD number 1 hit “Turn! Turn! Turn!” as covered by the Byrds. The words were recorded in Ecclesiastes 3:1. The music was later provided by Pete Seeger in 1959 AD. This makes King Solomon the earliest known author (with writer’s credit) of a Billboard 100 charted hit. 7 BCE ● In late March and early April, the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn produced an unusually bright light in the sky. This celestial event is assumed to be the star that led the three wise men to the city of Bethlehem. This also agrees with the appropriate time of year for a census, called for by Augustus Caesar (31 BC – 14 AD), requiring all to return to their place of birth to be counted. Spring is the appropriate time for travel. As this occurred during the local reign of Herod (who died on March 12th or 13th, 4 BCE), it is the likely birth date for Jesus Christ. 325 2

Yaowapha intarachit 65054335 ● Christianity becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire. As Emperor Constantine had converted to Christianity, he felt it was appropriate that the rest of the Empire should follow suit. This change was fertile ground for the creation of many new songs. 500 – 1400 AD (CE) – Medieval Period ● During the Middle Ages, guitars with 3, 4 and 5 strings were already in use. The Guitarra Latina had curved sides and is thought to have come to Spain from elsewhere in Europe. The Guitarra Morisca, as brought to Spain by the Moors, had an oval soundbox and many sound holes on its soundboard. 590 – 604 ● The Gregorian Chant was developed, also known as the Plain Chant or Plainsong. It was named in honor of Pope St. Gregory the Great and used formally in all church services. Through the influence of the Church, the new form of music spread quickly toward the West. 695 There is evidence of the early form of counterpoint — the development of ‘Organum’. 711 AD (CE) 3

Yaowapha intarachit 65054335 ● The oud was most likely introduced to Western Europe by the Moors — Arabs who established the Umayyad Caliphate of Al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula. Oud-like instruments such as the Ancient Greek Pandoura and the Roman Pandura likely made their way to the Iberian Peninsula much earlier than the oud, but it was the royal houses of Al-Andalus that cultivated the level of oud playing and raised the popularity of the instrument. The most famous oud player of Al-Andalus was Zyriab. He established the first music conservatory in Spain and added a fifth course to the instrument. The European version of the oud came to be known as the lute (luth in French, laute in German, liuto in Italian, luit in Dutch, and alaud in Spanish). The word “luthier,” meaning stringed instrument maker, is also derived from the French luth. Unlike the oud, the European lute introduced frets (usually tied gut). ● Construction of the oud is similar to the lute. The back of the instrument is made of thin wood staves, edge-glued together. The instrument usually has an odd number of staves — a center stave rather than a center seam. Contrasting trim pieces are often used between staves. Patterns and wood species generally vary between luthiers. The top is generally made of two book-matched pieces of spruce. Transverse spruce braces are glued to the underside of the top. The necks were generally made of a single piece of wood and veneered in a striped pattern similar to that of the back. The peghead meets the neck at a severe angle. 850 ● The vocal structure of the Gregorian Chants used in Roman Catholic Church services began to evolve from simple chants to parallel intervals — the development of polyphony and eventually harmony. 1000 – 1100 ● The 11th and 12th centuries saw the rise of the Troubadour and Trouvére — a developing tradition of secular song about chivalry and courtly love. One of the better-known Troubadours of the period was Guillaume d’Aquitaine. 1150 – 1250 ● Rhythmic music notation appeared during this time and the center of musical activity in Europe was found at the Notre Dame school of polyphony. ● One strain of music during this period was ‘Geisslerlieder,’ the songs of the flagellants. It was simple ‘folk’ music practiced by believers of self-mortification — they would whip themselves to demonstrate humility and worthiness. 4

Yaowapha intarachit 65054335 1100 – 1300 ● In Germany, lyric and songwriting in the Troubadour tradition from France took hold and became known as ‘Minnesang’. The topics were still courtly love and secular pleasures. Those who made names for themselves included Hartmann von Aue, Henric van Veldeke and Wolfram von Eschenbach. 1265 ● The first mention of a guitar in historical records. 5

Yaowapha intarachit 65054335 1349 ● Records exist of the Duke of Normandy employing musicians playing instruments known as Guiterre Morische (Moorish Guitar) and Guitarra Latina (Latin Guitar). The Guiterre Morische evolved into the European Lute and the modern Arabic oud. The Guitarra Latina, however, eventually evolved into the guitar. A guitarra latina (left) and guitarra morisca (right), Castile/Spain circa 1320. 1400 – 1600 Renaissance Period ● The gittern (English for Renaissance guitar) resembles a small lute or guitar. It was carved from a single piece of wood with a curved (“sickle-shaped”) peghead. An examplee has survived from around 1450. ● The increasing reliance on the interval of the third as a consonance is one of the most pronounced features of early Renaissance European art music (in the Middle Ages, thirds had been considered dissonances: see interval). Polyphony, in use since the 12th century, became increasingly elaborate with highly independent voices throughout the 14th century. The beginning of the 15th century showed simplification, with the voices often striving for smoothness. This was possible because of a greatly increased vocal range in music — in the Middle Ages, the narrow range made necessary frequent crossing of parts, thus requiring a greater contrast between them. Stringed instruments gained strings to extend their usable range. ● The modal (as opposed to tonal) characteristics of Renaissance music began to break down towards the end of the period with the increased use of root motions of fifths. This later developed into one of the defining characteristics of tonality. 6

Yaowapha intarachit 65054335 ● The Italian humanist movement, rediscovering and reinterpreting the aesthetics of ancient Greece and Rome, influenced the development of musical style during the period. ● The first guitars are thought to have originated during the 15th Century in Spain. These had four ‘courses’ of strings or sets of two strings tuned to the same note to give the guitar resonance. However the Lute was consistently favored by the public over the Guitar until the end of the 15th Century. 1487 ● Johannes Tinctoris described two forms of the instrument — one “invented by the Spanish which both they and the Italians call the viola… This viola differs from the lute in that the lute is much larger and tortoise shaped, while the viola is flat and curved inwards on each side.” ‘Viola’ or ‘vihuela’ in Spanish, is not referring to the modern viola, but an early guitar. The other instrument described by Tinctoris is “the instrument invented by the Catalans, which some call the guiterra and others the ghiterne… the guiterra is used most rarely because of the thinness of its sound. When I heard it in Calaonia, it was being used much more often by women to accompany love songs, than by men.” In Italy these were known by other names: the ‘viola da mano’ with six courses of strings and the ‘chitarra’ with 4 courses of strings (or ‘guitarra’ in Spain). 1500s ● Faxardo wrote that the guitarra “won’t bear the fingers but must be touched with a fine quill to make it exert its harmony.” Documents of the day refer to the Vihuela de Mano (played with the fingers) and the vihuela de penile (played with a quill). ● Tobias Stimmer (1539-84) stated, “One can tell by the looks of it that it served as an introduction to the lute for accompanying old songs, for reciting old tales and a good many other things. We should preserve the tradition of our elders.” 1520s ● The Vihuela de Mano (examples can occasionally be found today) was the largest guitar to date. It used gut strings in six courses and was played with a pick, unlike the other early guitar forms, which were bowed. 7

Yaowapha intarachit 65054335 1535 ● Earliest surviving music for the vihuela consisting of Courtly dances and song accompaniments. Seven manuscripts survived; written for the upper classes. The music was transcribed in a form of tablature. 1538 ● Various tunings were recorded by Juan Bermudo (1510-65), including ADGBEA and GCFADG. Note the fifths in the former. 1543 ● The book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) by Nicolaus Copernicus (2/19/1473 – 5/24/1543) was published shortly before the author’s death. Copernicus was the first to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology with the sun – not the earth – at the center of the universe. 1546 ● Tres Libros de Musica en Cifras para Vihuela by Alonso Mudarra is published to include music for guitar. The instructional book Tres Libros de Musica en Cifras Para Vihuela. 8

Yaowapha intarachit 65054335 1547 ● Henry VIII of England had 21 guitars in his collection of musical instruments. 1551-1555 ● Nine books of tablature were published by Adrian Le Roy. These include pieces for 5 course guitar. The addition of the 5th course was attributed to Vicente Espinel. 1556 ● In the French court a record states, “In my earliest years we used to play the lute more than the guitar, but for 12 or 15 years now everyone has been guitarring.” 1562 ● The Counter-Reformation was set in motion by Pope Pius IV as he strove to restore church music to its true essence, by the elimination of all instruments (except the organ), the removal of all melody and harmony, and a return to the simple vocal chant. This, in theory, would help eliminate any trace of secularism that had crept into the church. Giovanni Da Palestrina, while staying within the strict dictates of the Pope’s wishes, composed the piece “Pope Marcellus Mass,” and may have saved polyphony. 1565 ● St. Paul’s dictum had prohibited women from performing in public — even in church. The need for soprano and alto parts in harmony was filled by young boys. The problem was that their voices tended to drop with puberty at about the same time that they were well trained and familiar with the ever more difficult singing parts. The solution in Italy was castration. This tended to preserve the high voices. The practice was common by 1574. 9

Yaowapha intarachit 65054335 1584 ● 48-year-old Chu Tsai-yu published a work called A New Account of the Science of the Pitch-Pipes. Though the work was not published outside China at the time, it would have a profound effect on all of Western music. In essence, he solved the problem of equal temperament. There is a misfit between the natural 7 octaves and 12 perfect 5ths equal temperament — they don’t fit. It doesn’t work mathematically and didn’t work tonally. Chu Tsai-yu devised that the 5ths can be tempered not by the relative lengths of the pipes but by the ratios of their sizes. He calculated a formula that yielded a scale of evenly spaced notes where the semitones fit properly into the octave. Ironically, the discovery was irrelevant to Chinese musical theory, which was based upon a 5 tone scale. The Jesuit Priest Matteo Ricci, as part of a group of Jesuit Missionaries in the Southern port of Macao, appears to have passed the information out of China around 1595. See 1620. 1588 ● In England, a movement led by Sir Thomas Morley established the English Madrigal School. The complex harmonies were secular in nature and told tales of grief or love. 1590-1604 ● Opera is born in the salon of Count Giovanni de Bardi as a group of intellectuals and musicians gathered to find a way to combine music and drama. 1598 ● The first Italian opera is produced, Jacopo Peri’s Dafne. 10