Hist Of Guitar
The guitar’s history can be traced back in time through monuments, pictures, poems and sculptors. The name of the guitar can be derived from a modification of the Greek word cithara. It is a musical instrument strung with gut or nylon strings played by the fingers having a body with flat back and slight curves. Its history can be traced back over 4000 years. The oldest evidence of the existence of the guitar dates back to 1900-1800 B.C. It was found in Babylonia on clay plaques, which portray nude figures playing instruments that bear a general resemblance to the guitar. There are many cultures that take claim to inventing the guitar, but many accounts report the Egyptians had a fine example of the guitar with ribs and incurvations and a long neck identified on a monument in Cappadocia, Syria in 1000 B.C. There still seems to be great disagreement in those who claim the guitar originated in Europe or those who state it came from the Arabs. The guitar originally had two courses of strings, two double, the top course single, that ran from a violin-like peg box to a tension bridge glued to the soundboard, or belly; the bridge thus sustained the direct pull of the strings. In the belly was a circular s
By the eighteenth century, Germany had become increasingly active in this particular music field. It too accumulated an impressive number of guitarists and composers especially as baroque music reached its peak. Meanwhile in France, the guitar had attained the status of an instrument par excellence by the nobility. Soon after, the French revolution caused many nobles to be exiled and surprisingly the guitar actually became more popular as the general public adopted the instrument. The first of the guitars was represented in Western Europe in 1180 A.D. but only had three strings. It can be viewed in a picture found of St. Pelagia seated on a donkey holding a cithara, while of the men servants leading her donkey holds her guitar. Another masterpiece was found in 1188 A.D in Spanish church. There are several musical instruments pictured which seems to represent the original Spanish viol or guitar. The sides were curved but were not played with a bow. The earliest printing of music was by Aloso Mudara in 1546. In France the guitarre (or guitar) was very popular at this time and was often the instrument of choice of local dances and concerts. Music was the sort of entertainment in towns also the guitar was easy to bring around because of its size back then. The guitar was known as early as the 16th century when the Spanish colonizers sold vihueles to the Aztec Indians. The coming Spanish and Portuguese artists in south America led to the promotion of the guitar. With 20th century technology and mass transportation the guitar became popular all over the world. With size and tonality the guitar was the perfect instrument for fast and easy travel. There are two reasons for the popularity of the guitar today. The first being the revolutionary technological progress and the development of mass communication. Musicians are now able to perform all over the world they are able to reach a mass amount of audiences through recordings, broadcasts, computers, and television. The second reason is that the guitar is a natural consequence of developme
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Approximate Word count = 1388
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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