Classical Guitar Scores. +10,000 pages!

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Classical Guitar Scores. +10,000 pages!

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The Very first guitars started to appear in ancient times. Early guitars served a double purpose: as hunting bows! These instruments, when held by the mouth of the user, produced an incredible resonating sound.

A few thousand years later, in ancient greece, a legend tells of Hermes, who climbs out of his cradle to steal the cattle of Apollo. On his way home with the stolen cows, Hermes kills a turtle, cuts out the bottom part of the shell, stuffs some sticks into the head and tail holes, stretches leather over it and stretched cow-gut between the sticks, and starts playing away. Hearing the music, Apollo follows his ear until it leads him to Hermes (who still has the stolen cattle.) According to legend, Apollo agrees not to kill Hermes in return for the new turtle-shell guitar.

Besides turtle, some types of guitars were made of clay, wood, or even melons.

The first recognizable guitars began to appear at the point where the form of the instrument took on the shape of a woman's body: softly rounded at the shoulders, curving inward at the waist, and concluding with another gently rounded curve at the bottom.

A rather funny Spanish proverb I came across was "La mujer y la guitarra, para usarlas hay que templarlas." What this means is: to use a woman or a guitar one must know how to tune them!

Lute type instruments came from the 12th century crusaders, who returned with a great many gifts of all sorts. As time passed, these instruments transformed into the lute.

Plucked instruments came in a variety of sizes, usually very small, for ease of transportation. Many of the early guitars look more like ukuleles than guitars. Over time, a number of definite features began to emerge that led to the "modern" guitar.

The guitar used be called a tavern instrument; one that could not meet the demands of classical music. In the early nineteenth century,

Fernando Sor

set in motion the quest that continues today, to raise the guitar to the greatest musical level possible. Sor was one of the most prolific composers for, and promoters of, the guitar as a "concert" instrument, in the last two hundred years. He, and others like him paved the way for

Andrés Segovia

to emerge and bring the guitar to the immense popularity, and respect it enjoys today.