The Guitar Review

The Guitar ReviewNo. 15 1953

The present issue of THEGUITARREVIEW marks a departure fromour policy to devote these pages, almost erclusively, to theclassic guitar and to its music. Aside from a few pieces ofmusic in which the guitar is paired with vocal themes and aspecial issue devoted to the lute, we have hardly deviated fromthis path. In the past we have favored the guitar solo. This isbut natural, for in our undertaking we have received inspira-tion and encouragement from the great solo masters, past andpresent-composers, arrangers, and performers alike. In timesof disparagement when our instrument, under the pressure ofthe polyphonic style, was in danger of being displaced entirelyby the keyboard instrument, they kept faith and carried theguitar to new and even greater glory. And we assure you thatwe will never lose sight of this.

Published and copyright 1953, by the Society of the ClassicGuitar (a non-profit membership corporation)409 East 50th Street, New York 22, N. Y.Editors: Vladimir Bobri, Gregory d'AlessioAssociate Editor: Sydney BeckLute and Recorder Section: Suzanne Bloch, EditorSpanish Editor: Eithne GoldenAcademy Section: Terry Usher, Editor; Jack Duarte, Co-EditorArt Editors: V. Bobri, G. GiustiCirculation: Saul Marantz, Karl NoellAdvertising: J. Robert Theaman, Anne SchieveGeneral Manager: J. Robert TheamanSubscription (6 issues): $6.00. Single issues: $1.25Foreign: $5.00. Single issues: $1.10Publicado y propriedad par The Society of the Classic Guitar,409 East 50th St., New York 22, N. Y. US.A., Subscripción: (Seisnúmeros) $5 (Cinco Dolares Americanos). Número solo: $1.10Representación en la República Argentina:Casa Nuñez (Diego, Gracia y Cia, Sarmiento 1573, BuenosAires, R.A.

However, in the interest of our instrument, The ClassicGuitar, in the light of historical facts and in order to be andto become better guitarists we must consider ourselves musi-cians first and guitarists afterwards. There can be no doubt inour minds that we should and must regain for the ClassicGuitar at least some of the lustre-at least some part of theTole which in the past its progenitor played in concert withother instruments.The Classic Guitar, as progeny of the lute family, has fallen

heir to a proud and rich musical past, a past during ohich itplayed a leading role in chamber and orchestral music. Of allRenaissance instruments the lute was the most popular andcontinued to be the favorite during the early and far into themiddle baroque. Professor Manfred Bukofzer, in his "Musicin the Baroque Era," states that the art of the lutenist laid thebasis for that of the clavecinist and that the lute was considered

CONTENTS

the noblest of all instruments Cover George GiustiAnother witness attesting to the past importance of the lute,

Dr. Curt Sachs, in his "History of Musical Instruments" says:"There was another instrument that successfully competedwith the keyboard instruments-the lute. Handier, and withthe advantage of being traditional, it became the universalinstrument. It could replace in an ensemble any other instru-ment, high or low; it accompanied singers, indeed it could re-produce all parts of an instrumental or choral composition atonce; lute arrangements of all kinds of instrumental and vocaensemble music were published in the sizteenth century aspiano scores are published in our time." In another placeProfessor Sachs goes on to state that "the lute could be super-seded by the harpsichord, both as a chord instrument to accom-pany on a figured bass, and as a solo and chamber instrument.But its portability could not be matched by any harpsichord,clavicord or piano; it blended with the player's body and re-flected his every feeling by the directness of the touch in play-ing. This attraction belonged to another simpler instrument

Music Supplement Layout George Giusti

ARTICLES

Editor's Corner

Chaucer's "Floyte"

Music and the Guitar-Part III

The Elements of Technical Proficiency

A Remarkable Elizabethan Lute Manuscript

Alfred FrankensteinJack Duarte

Terry Usher

in the British Museum Suzanne Bloch

MUSIC

Drewries Accordes

Semi Dolent

Branle

Welsher Tanz

Pavana

Courante

Minuet

Toccata

Scala Obliqua e Contraria per Chitarra

Two Studies

Cordao de Prata

Preludio para los Principiantes

Estudio

too, the Mediterranean Guitar.Far be it from us to envision the classic guitar as a member

of the orchestra as we know it today; nor can we conceive itpaired with certain present day instruments. There are, how-ever, instruments which are definitely compatible with theclassic guitar; they deserve and invite eforts of collaboration,

Jane Pickering's Lute Book

J. Dowland

Adrien Le Roy

Hans Neusiedler

Luis Milan

J.S. Bach

Bach

J.S. Bach

Nicoló Paganini

Napoleón Coste

Brasilio Itiberê

R. Saenz de la Maza

R. Saenz de la Maza

study, and further erploration.Editorially we shall probe the past for literature and music

in which the guitar or its progenitor, the lute, played a promi-nent or leading part in concert with other instruments and weshall feature those musically important and guitaristicallycompatible. We hope that our eforts will encourage the writ-ing of modern chamber music in which these instruments arefeatured and henceforth intend to publish regularly duets,trios and chamber music of mired instrumental character. Itis hoped that our endeavours will open to the professional gui-tarist new avenues to broader felds of musical activity and tothe amateur, new vistas and those pleasures which stem fromthe sociability which is an inherent characteristic of almost all

J.S.

musical instruments, ours not ercluded.To make a beginning we include in this issue of THEGUITAR

REVIEWSCores for the flute and two guitars and for the re-corder and guitar. The new department will be in the ablehands of Miss Suzanne Bloch, eminent musician and lutenist.