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

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\ 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)