Early Romantic Guitar Web Site

Gaetano Guadagnini - 1828 Lacôte Guitar c1850 "The guitar here is based on a late example of Lacôte's work which was Madame Sydney Pratten's concert guitar. It has a spruce front, birds eye maple back and sides (also available in flamed maple or rosewood), ebony veneered neck and a raised ebony fingerboard with 19 brass frets. This guitar has Jerome style tuning machines and a string length of 63cm." -Gary Southwell

The Early Romantic Guitar encompasses a style and a time period of playing guitar. This so-called "Early Romantic Guitar" era began at the adoption of the 6-string single-course guitar around 1785 and ended after the time of Tarrega, roughly 1909. Since the term "classical guitar" is so widely used for so many time periods, the term "Early Romantic" guitar is coming into vogue to describe this era, which is actually Late Classical and Early Romantic. This web site covers the guitars and composers of that era, and covers specialized artists and recordings. The late Classical and Early Romantic era was the guitar's "Golden Age". Composers such as Sor and Giuliani were prominent, and hordes of guitarists took up the guitar, which enjoyed immense popularity especially in Paris and Vienna. See the "Composers" section of this web site for more information about the composers biographical information, pulled from other web site sources, and the editor's pick of essential repertoire for each which is available today. The instruments of the day were much smaller, lighter, and easier to play. The tone was largely treble-dominated, with good balance across bass, mid and treble, more crisp and piercing, with a rapid response attack compared to today's large bass-heavy, mellow sustain guitars. See the "Guitars" section of this site for more information about the instruments, and where you can get one. Lately, revisionist attitudes have thankfully given way to "Historically Informed" interpretations which serve the music on its own terms, in its own time. Although nobody knows for certain the playing habits and style of these performers, we can come to a reasonable approximation by studying period methods and facsimile repertoire, and playing on period guitars or modern reproductions of historical guitars. There is nothing wrong with playing old music on modern instruments; rather, the historically informed twist adds new depth and interest to the music that you do not often hear. See the "Recordings and Artists" section of this site for good recordings of 19th Century Period Early Romantic Guitar music, as well as performers who specialize in that style today. The editor's bio is listed below. Contributions of information to help build this site are welcomed. Many individuals have emailed with bits and pieces of what they know; acknowledgements are listed below.

Welcome to EarlyRomanticGuitar.COM. This web site was created out of my desire to find good organized information about the period guitar practices, composers, and instruments of the early 19th century, known also as the Early Romantic Guitar era. Much to my surprise, I could not find a web site dedicated to an overview of 19th century early romantic guitar - other than a few with a narrower specialty - so therefore I created one. Most general classical guitar sites mention the pre-Tarrega rich history of early romantic guitar only in passing; it is my hope that such sites will link to this site so that the reader can obtain more specific information. I include composers up to and including Tarrega, but the emphasis is placed on the first half of the 19th century.

The goal of this site is to have a central web site that brings together diverse and widespread information into one place. It is an educational overview of the early romantic 19th century guitar: the period composers and instruments, and the artists who specialize in that time period and style today. The target audience is the guitarist who wants to learn more about this genre, but does not have much information or access to instruments - perhaps being exposed to it for the first time. The links to outside sources will allow the reader to pursue further information.

This is a non-profit web site, run by a single volunteer. The reason I engage in this endeavor is to learn more about this era myself, through the research I have done, as well as emails from others. The editor is most grateful for the people who have contributed links, information or graphics. Product recommendations are the opinion of the editor based on experience. There are no advertisements, pop-up or banner ads, nor any paid endorsements on this site. I recognize that .COM does not best describe this site's purpose, given its non-commercial nature, but .COM is easier for most people to remember.

This web site covers only the Early Romantic 19th Century Guitar era, because the modern era which starts with Segovia to today, has been widely covered elsewhere. Another goal of this site is to address the bias that exists by some guitarists toward the pre-Torres guitar, and to inform the public.

"Copyright" refers to legal protection for works of authorship. In the USA, such protection is automatically provided to authors, and no registration is required. Therefore, this web site and the material contained therein, is automatically under copyright protection in USA. A good overview is the circular (find section 107 in the PDF for Fair Use): United States Copyright Office: Copyright Basics. Copyright protection laws vary by country.

"Fair Use" is a provision in the US Copyright law which allows use of copyright material for certain purposes. Based on the "Fair Use" provision, as an educational, non-profit entity, this web site is entitled by law to use the photographs, quotations, and other source material contained herein. However, I respect the wishes of content owners and I have sometimes withheld material by request - although I feel this is not in the public's best interest. Similarly, anyone may use any of the material on this web site according to the "Fair Use" provision - for example, non-profit scholarship of this material is fair use, but selling a book which copies the published material on this web site is not fair use.

"Spam" refers to unwanted advertising-related email. This web site does not send spam or advertisements of any kind. This web site does not send outgoing mail. If you receive an email from "Mail@EarlyRomanticGuitar.com", do not open it because it did not originate from this site. It may even contain a virus. All replies to emails will be sent out on a different e-mail account. It is common practice for spammers to steal e-mail addresses from legitimate sites like mine and send advertisements with false headers, trying to deceive the recipient into thinking the spam originated from the other site. If you examine the message header properties, you can usually determine who the real sender is.

When sending emails to this site, please indicate something in the header which is guitar-related so that I know your email is "real" and not spam. Because so many emails contain viruses and spam, I am very cautious when opening emails from unknown senders. I often delete emails with suspicious or vague subject lines. I apologize if I deleted a legitimate email, but if the subject line is not clear, I have no way to tell if the message contains a virus or spam.

In addition, there are no advertisements of any kind on my web pages. However, advertisements might be present on web sites which are linked to from my site. I have no control over advertisements on other third-party web sites. Goods and services are mentioned on this site that pertain to the early romantic guitar; however, these are for informational purposes only - I do not receive any payment from these vendors nor am I affiliated with them.

Contact is available by email only. Hit any of the email links listed at the bottom of each page, or mail to:

Primary Email Contact: Mail@EarlyRomanticGuitar.com

I am depending on you, the reader, to help build this site. If you have information, pictures, links, etc., to contribute, please send an email and I will probably incorporate it into this site. I am not an expert or a professional musician, so I rely on the open internet concept, where the readers help by contributing information.

Please send email relevant to the nature of this web site. This web site has a very specific focus: early 19th century classical guitar.

I especially welcome the following types of emails and contributions:

• Emails which provide content, for example historical information about a guitar builder or composer
• URL Links to useful and interesting web pages concerning the 19th century early classical guitar
• Articles and information that may be freely posted on this site with your permission
• Links to authentic period guitars for sale, or historical reproductions
• Good graphics of 19th century guitars, composers, etc
• HTML Code submitted by other volunteers to improve this web site

The Editor reserves the right to decide what goes here and what does not. For example, many guitars from the 1800's will not be listed, because they incorporate post-Torres design characteristics and thus fall outside the scope of this web page.

Also send any web site problems addressed to the editor, Len. If you are having a problem viewing this site, please be specific, and indicate which browser and version you are using. HTML web sites are interpreted differently by different browsers, so it may work fine on my browser but not yours. I will attempt to correct any problems, but I cannot guarantee every page will view perfectly on every browser version. Better yet is if you can fix the HTML code which is causing the problem and send me a fix to post on the site.

Anyone may link to this site, and is encouraged to do so to help spread the information. The Editor reserves the right to decide what will be listed on this site. The many links from other sites to this site are greatly appreciated, but not all of those links are provided back. The reason for this is two-fold: first, lack of time; second, many sites that have linked up have a broader focus than early romantic guitar and thus fall outside the scope of this site. This site is not a general-purpose classical guitar site, it links only to sites which specialize in the ERG genre. Here are some suggested link graphics, submitted by other users, and suggested text you can use or edit freely:

www.EarlyRomanticGuitar.com

Early Romantic Guitar Home Page, an educational overview of the early romantic 19th century guitar: the period composers and instruments, and the artists who specialize in that time period and style today. The target audience is the guitarist who wants to learn more about this genre, but does not have much information or access to instruments - perhaps being exposed to it for the first time. Links to outside sources for further information.

A more simplified link description might be: "Information about Early Romantic composers, guitars, and current artists."