Here’s a look at the composers who wrote the majority of music that all classical guitarists play.
Have you ever noticed that the composers featured in the official Examination Repertoire and Studies album for guitar published by the Royal Conservatory of Music aren't the same ones featured in the piano books? For example, piano repertoire often includes works by Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann and Chopin. I love the works of these great masters, and their lives and compositions are discussed in considerable detail in practically every classical music reference book.
Composers who wrote for the classical guitar, however, are often mentioned only briefly or completely ignored in standard music history textbooks. These books tend to concentrate on composers who wrote primarily for orchestral instruments and the piano, such as Brahms, Mahler, Stravinsky and Strauss. These are prominent figures in the history of music, but they wrote very little, if anything, for the classical guitar.
One thing that bothered me, though, is that when I started learning classical guitar, there was no mention whatsoever of the composers whose music I was learning. I would eagerly open my history book to read about the composers that wrote the works for classical guitar that I had come to love, only to be disappointed with the scarce information available. Then, I would open the dictionary of composers and eagerly search for Fernando Sor or Mauro Giuliani only to find nothing! No mention of any of those names.
Here’s the information that I would have liked to have found inside these reference works on the history of classical music.
The Baroque Guitar
We’ll start in the 17th century with the baroque guitar, which typically had five courses of strings. Unlike the modern guitar, which has six individual strings, the Baroque guitar generally had paired strings, although the arrangement varied.
Gaspar Sanz
In Spain, Gaspar Sanz (1640–1710) was a priest, composer, guitarist and organist. He is best known for his influential guitar treatise, Instrucción de música sobre la guitarra española, first published in 1674. The collection contains numerous pieces demonstrating the characteristic techniques and musical styles of the Baroque guitar. One of its most famous compositions is Canarios, a lively dance that remains popular with classical guitarists today.
Robert de Visée
Over in France in the court of the French Kings, we have Robert de Visée (c. 1652–1730). He was a guitarist, theorbo player, singer and composer associated with the royal court of Louis XIV. His Prélude from the Livre de guittarre dédié au Roy (1682) is an excellent example of early guitar music. De Visée was later rediscovered in the 19th century by guitarist Napoléon Coste.
The Classical Guitar
Moving on towards the late 18th century, as the classical era begins, the guitar becomes popular among amateur musicians and is played in domestic musical settings throughout Europe. The guitar also transforms and becomes more modern. Among other improvements, the five-course guitar gradually gives way to a six-string instrument, with individual strings replacing the paired courses. These developments helped establish the foundation of the modern classical guitar.
Fernando Sor
During the later half of the 18th century, the greatest guitar composer and virtuoso of the 19th century was born. Fernando Sor (1778–1839), who is also known as the Beethoven of the guitar, is perhaps also the most well known Classical Guitar composer. His work spans across all levels of guitar technique, from virtuoso guitar sonatas to beginner studies, and even the youngest students of the Classical Guitar encounter his works. His Menuet from the Grande Sonate, Op. 25 (Paris, 1826) is an excellent example of the classical repertoire. His sonatas also represent an important part of the historical development of guitar sonatas.
While he is most well known for his huge variety of études and concert pieces for the guitar, he also composed operas, symphonies and other works. His music demonstrates a thorough understanding of classical harmony, counterpoint and musical form. However towards the end of his life he became bitter as the publishers demanded he write simpler music whereas he was more inclined to write more difficult pieces for the guitar.
Dionisio Aguado
Another Spaniard who was in Paris at the time and became friends with Sor is Dionisio Aguado (1784–1849). He wrote numerous guitar studies and contributed to the advancement of guitar technique. One of his improvements included using the fingernails to strike the strings of the guitar, instead of the fleshy part of the fingertip. He was also one of the first composers to switch from using tablature to the standard notation using a staff with 5 lines.
Aguado also contributed to the development of guitar notation and performance practice. His influential guitar method, Nuevo método para guitarra (1843), contains detailed instructions on technique, notation and musical interpretation.
You can see in the photograph his guitar being held by a sort of guitar holder or stand that he invented for the instrument, which he called the tripodison. He also became friends with Fernando Sor, and their friendship resulted in a famous set of musical variations composed by Sor for the two guitarists.
Mauro Giuliani
During the classical period we also have many Italian composers of note, the most well known (again, for guitar players) is surely Mauro Giuliani (1781–1829). Whilst Sor and Aguado were based primarily in Paris, Giuliani moved to Vienna to perform and while there became acquainted with Rossini and Beethoven.
An interesting note is that Giuliani, probably influenced by his native Italy, wrote music more in the bel canto style; that is, melodic lines that were influenced by the singers of the opera. This is especially noticeable in the second movement of his Sonata, Op. 15, which bears the tempo marking Adagio con grand'espressione.
Ferdinando Carulli
There were also Italians in Paris, starting with Ferdinando Carulli (1770–1841) who was one of the most prolific composers for classical guitar. The Opus numbers for his later works are in the high 300’s. Students of the Classical Guitar quickly encounter one of his many études for guitar, since they are very easy for beginners to play. But he also wrote many concert works for more advanced players, including two guitar concerti.
Of course, it’s Carulli’s works for beginners, such as the Andante from 18 petits morceaux faciles, Op. 211, that are one of the first works that any classical guitar student will encounter.
Matteo Carcassi
Another Italian guitarist and composer who was somewhat overshadowed by Carulli during his time in Paris was Matteo Carcassi (1792–1853). Carcassi left his native Italy and first moved to Germany before settling in France. During his time as a concert guitarist, he was known as an excellent performer. Carcassi’s Twenty-Five Melodious and Progressive Studies for Guitar, Op. 60, have lost nothing today in their didactic value. These studies develop essential techniques such as arpeggios, scales, slurs and position changes.
The Romantic Guitar
As the musical world moved into the Romantic era during the 19th century, the composers of the classical guitar essentially stuck to the harmonic language and classical forms such as those found in the works of Joseph Haydn and the early works of Beethoven. In general, composers of the Classical Guitar did not start writing in the romantic style until much later, towards the end of the 19th century and the turn of the 20th. Although Romantic influences gradually appeared in guitar music, the instrument’s repertoire generally developed more slowly than that of the piano.
Johann Kaspar Mertz
One of the exceptions to this trend is Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806–1856). Born in Pressburg (now Bratislava, Slovakia), then part of the Kingdom of Hungary within the Habsburg Monarchy, Mertz eventually established himself in Vienna. He was thoroughly influenced by the Romantic composers of the piano such as Robert Schumann and Frédéric Chopin. The story goes that as he was deathly ill after having nearly been poisoned and being nursed back into health, he would listen to the works of the Romantic masters being played by his wife on the piano. This influence is shown in the work Bardenklänge, Op. 13 or “sounds of the bards” and the evocative titles of each of the works, such as An die Entfernte from Bardenklänge Book 3 or “To My Distant One”.
Napoléon Coste
The classical guitar tradition was continued in Paris by Napoléon Coste (1805–1883) who was a student and friend of Fernando Sor. Although during his lifetime the guitar was on the decline and becoming less popular, his guitar works still demand a high level of virtuosity and skill from the performer, much like the earlier works of Fernando Sor. His Marche funèbre et rondeau, Op. 43 contains an unusual mix of a somber first movement and country dance which finishes with a brilliant display of virtuosity that is punishingly difficult for all but the best classical guitarists to execute cleanly.
The Late Romantic Guitar
The end of the 19th century and the turn of the 20th brought significant changes to the construction and musical possibilities of the guitar. These changes to the construction of the instrument transformed it from the Romantic guitar to the modern classical guitar that we recognize today. The Spanish guitar maker Antonio de Torres played a particularly important role in this transformation. His redesigned instruments featured a larger body, improved internal bracing and other structural innovations that contributed to a fuller and more powerful sound. His designs established many of the characteristics of the modern classical guitar.
Francisco Tárrega
One of the most important guitar composers of the late romantic period was the Spanish composer Francisco Tárrega (1852–1909). As well as championing the guitars by Torres, he also improved and modernized the technique of the classical guitar, such as the use of the foot stool. His shorter works for classical guitar are encountered by intermediate players, such as Adelita (Mazurka), a lyrical composition that demonstrates his melodic sensitivity and expressive use of the guitar.
Agustín Barrios Mangoré
Another composer of the late Romantic era but who played and wrote for the modern guitar is Agustín Barrios Mangoré (1885–1944), a Paraguayan guitarist who bridged the gap between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although his music draws heavily on Romantic traditions, he also incorporated elements of Latin American folk music and popular dance forms into his compositions. Mangoré was an extremely prolific composer and performer who toured extensively throughout Latin America and Europe. Some of his recordings survive to this day as testament to his virtuosity. His early Vals, Op. 8, No. 3 seems easy enough to play until you decide to increase the tempo.
The Classical Guitar in the Twentieth Century
Thanks mainly to Andrés Segovia (1893–1987), the classical guitar in the 20th century finally became an instrument which was adopted by mainstream composers who were not necessarily guitarists. Segovia championed the instrument through international performances and recordings, while encouraging composers who were not themselves guitarists to write new works for it. This helped expand the repertoire considerably and established the guitar as an accepted instrument in the classical concert world.
Joaquín Rodrigo
Probably the most recognizable line for classical guitar is the opening of the Concierto de Aranjuez, composed in 1939 by the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo (1901–1999). Written for guitar and orchestra, the concerto is among the most famous works ever composed for the instrument. Its second movement, Adagio, features an unforgettable melody that has become one of the best-known themes in classical music.
And later, guitar virtuosi would open the guitar to mainstream composers of their respective countries. For example Julian Bream in the UK would commission works for guitar by mainstream British composers like Sir William Walton or Benjamin Britten. Thanks to the works of these guitarists, the repertoire of the classical guitar has vastly expanded in modern times and has assumed its place in the world of classical music.