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The family of fretted instruments includes the lute, the guitar, the mandolin, the zither, the bala- laika, and an assortment of national and regional folk instruments down to the plebian banjo and ukulele. In a vague and somewhat snobbish way the bourgeois intelligentsia of western musical society has created a hierarchy among these instruments: the lute is acceptable, probably because of its associa- tion with Elizabethan music and theatre; the guitar is an occasionally welcome guest; the other fretted instruments are below the salt, beyond the pale, not quite top drawer. The guitar occupies its ambiguous position because it is par excellence the instrument of folk singers and a motley crew of unwashed chanters of socio-political doggerel. This once proud Spanish
instrument has become as much an outward sign of
the new Perpetual Adolescents as the dirndl skirt
and the faded, snug-fitting levis. There is a sociology
of musical instruments, and the guitar has suffered a
loss of caste tu the extent it has been subverted to
non-musical ends. One might draw a reasonably close
analogy between the popular guitar player of today
and the itinerant Aliismer of Slavonic Europe during
the latter half of the 19th century. However, the middle third of the 20th century
has witnessed pari passu the resurrection of a classical
guitar school led by a notable instrumentalist, Andre
Segovia, and we can no longer look down our
patrician noses or over our horn-rimmed spectacles
with a polite distaste. There is a considerable body
of Spanish music for guitar dating back as far as the
16th century and a small but select corpus of Italian
music of the 17th century, — the now fashionable
early baroque — which was carefully written and
which should command our attention and respect. It
was not infra dig for Mozart to have Don Giovanni
serenade Donna Elvira with a mandolin. The Italian
school of guitar music continued well into the early
19th century. The Spanish school, especially that
based on the vihuela de mano has been fairly well
represented on recordings. Up to now the resources
of the Italian school have scarcely been taped. The
present recording contains music written for the
guitar and orchestra as well as one selection for
guitar solo, and covers a span from Guiseppe Torelli
in the late 17th century through Niccolo Paganini
in the 19th century.
MAURO GIULIANI: Concerto for Guitar and Strings
in A Major, Op. 30
Born in Barletta in 1781, Giuliani was a self-
taught guitar virtuoso with almost incredible and
certainly legendary powers of execution. The pas-
sage of time has effaced many of the details of his
life, but his fame was widespread over Europe. In
1807 he went to Vienna, then the musical capital of
Europe, and moved in the same circles as Hummel,
Moscheles, and Diabelli. Beethoven arranged a few
of his songs such as Ich denke dein and Der Jiingling
in der Fremde for guitar accompaniment to oblige
the popular guitar virtuoso. In 1823 Giuliani paid an
extended visit to London where he was so popular
that a magazine titled the Giulianad was published ;
it was devoted to Giuliani and his activities, and
managed to survive for several issues. Among his
other achivements Giuliani perfected a new style of
guitar with a shorter fingerboard which he named
the ghitarra di terza. He died at Naples in 1828.
The Concerto in A Major is a full scale concerto
constructed on classical lines. One might even say
that Guiliani was the Tartini or Viotti of the guitar
concerto. The first movement is marked allegro
maestoso and is in sonata form. Development of both
subjects features elaborate figurations for the solo
instrument and the cadenza exploits the expected
pyrotechnics. The second movement is an andantino
siciliano which shows the guitar in a tender, lyrical
mood; the movement in È minor is based on a song-
like theme of the sort that abounds in southern
Italian music, and the melody is elaborated and
decorated by the guitar as the strings play a discreet
accompaniment. The finale is marked alla polacca, a
bright, lively movement with dance rhythms repu-
tedly Polish in origin but actually international in
idiom.
GUISEPPE TORELLI:
Concerto for Violin, Guitar, and Orchestra in A Major
Only in recent years has the importance of Torelli,
that great Bolognese master, begun to be appreciated.
Much of the musical form of the early Italian
baroque owes its contour to his pioneer efforts.
Torelli transmitted his ideas to Corelli who brought
them to Rome from which focal point they became
widely disseminated. The Torelli influence also ex-
tended northward to Venice where Albinoni and
Vivaldi profited from his example. However, Torelli
himself rarely left the region in which he was born
(Verona, 1658). He moved to Bologna as a young
man, worked carefully, leaving his home base only
in 1701 for a tour of duty with the Margrave of
Brandenburg, but returning to die in Bologna in
1709. For two centuries he was known to scholars by
virtue of his Concerti Grossi, Op. 8, published in the
vear of his death, but more recent investigations of
his manuscript legacy show that he wrote a large
number of finely constructed concertos for other
instruments as well as a number of chamber music
compositions.
The Concerto for Violin and Guitar is a short
symmetrical work dating from the end of the 17th
century. The two outer movements, each an allegro
in A major, feature a rapid dialogue between the
two solo instruments, but are essentially monothe-
matic. They are separated by a brief, lyrical adagio
in E major which is little more than an undeveloped
song, an agreeable vocal interlude.
FERDINANDO CARULLI: Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra
in A Major
Ferdinando Carulli (1770-1841) was born at Naples in the same year as Beethoven. Like Giuliani
he was a self-taught guitar virtuoso and, according
to Grove’s, attained “a perfection of execution before
unknown.” Carulli arrived on the Paris scene in
1808 when Napoleon’s empire was riding the crest
of the wave. Despite Napoleon’s downfall and the
upheavals in French social and musical life, Carulli
remained ever popular, turning out over 300 com-
positions during the twelve-year span from 1808 to
1820. In 1825 he published his book, L’ Harmonie
appliquée a la guitare, a treatise on the art of accom-
paniment with that instrument. During the 1830's
his popularity waned somewhat, and he died in 1841.
The Concerto in A Major is in one movement.
It sets a brisk pace and displays the guitar’s range
and flexibility as well as testing the skill of the per-
former. In essence it looks back upon 18th century
idioms rather than forward to the 19th century.
NICCOLO PAGANINI: Romanze for Solo Guitar in A Minor
Even the greatest virtuoso of the violin, Niccolo
Paganini (1782-1840) was moved by the guitar.
During the course of his chequered career he com-
posed no less than a dozen sonatas for violin and
cuitar, six quartets for violin, viola, cello, and guitar,
as well as a scattering of shorter works. They rate
among “lesser works by minor masters,” but they are
as revealing of his instrumental style as his better
known concertos. Paganini could write for any
stringed instrument with grace and fluency, and the
Romanze in A Minor is no exception. Even more
than the works by Giuliani and Carulli, it captures
the romantic spirit of the early 19th century, still
retaining a traditionally Italian melodic spirit.
DR. WILLIAM B. OBER
TMK(S) ® Turnabout + Marca(s) Registrada(s) - Prtd. U.S.A.
MAURO GIULIANI
CONCERTO in A Major for GUITAR and Strings, Opus 30
1. Allegro maestoso (11:44 min.)
2. Andantino Siciliano (6:28 min.)
3. Alla Polacca (8:22 min.)
per } S { i, Side 1
A 26:40 min. TY 3412 (
KARL SCHEIT, Guitarist
Kammerorchester der Wiener Festspiele
WILFRIED BOETT ER, Conductor
TV 341238 A (S-2327)
Made in U.S.A.
7 GIUSEPPE TORELLI \ ‘ CONCERTO in A Major for GUITAR, X
Violin and Orchestra è À (7:27 min.) \
À 1. Allegro (2:10 min.) ì À 2. Adagio (2:28 min.) W
4 3. Allegro (1:45 min.) y
/ N i ci - ) |
\ TV 3412358 È Side 2 À ì Made in U.S.A. i 21:32 min. j
FERNANDO CARULLI 4. CONCERTO in A Major for GUITAR and Orchestra (in one movement - 9:32 min.)
\ NICCOLO PAGANINI J > 5. ROMANZE in A Minor for GUITAR SOLO (4:20 min.) É
i n KARL SCHEIT, Guitarist É Kammerorchester der Wiener Festspiele È
Ì WILFRIED BOETTCHER, Conductor
\ TV 341235 B pai @)(S-2328)