# Falling in Love with Classical Guitar



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I've written three works for solo piano which I'm proud of. (I took down the link).

Now I kind of want to master guitar and compose works for that instrument I'm proud of.

A favorite is David Russel - Leyenda to name an example.

Beauitful instrument, I also enjoy lute music. I don't have any of those in my collection yet though.


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Listen to Sor -- this CD is a bit of a landmark 


25 Progressive Lessons, Op. 60: XXIV. Progressive Lesson No. 24. Allegro moderato - YouTube


----------



## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Captainnumber36 said:


> I've written three *amazing* works for solo piano,
> Now I kind of want to *master* guitar and compose *a grand work* for that instrument.


My advice: start with a lower bar, it won't be quite as daunting. Points for verve though.


----------



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Mandryka said:


> Listen to Sor -- this CD is a bit of a landmark
> 
> 
> 25 Progressive Lessons, Op. 60: XXIV. Progressive Lesson No. 24. Allegro moderato - YouTube


Wonderful! Thanks. I really wasn't trying to toot my own horn in the OP, I'm really just happy with what I came up with on the piano, and hope to create music on the guitar that satisfies me just as much or more.


----------



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

NoCoPilot said:


> My advice: start with a lower bar, it won't be quite as daunting. Points for verve though.


So true!


----------



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

What are some good Lute albums?


----------



## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Captainnumber36 said:


> What are some good Lute albums?


----------



## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

Captainnumber36 said:


> What are some good Lute albums?


Hopkinson Smith ,Nigel North and Lutz Kirchhof &wife also
These are good lutenists you could try


----------



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Would I be correct in saying the Lute has a sharper and more staccato tone to it when compared to the guitar? Does it have nylon strings as well?


----------



## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Lutes come in a wide variety of styles, over several centuries, but yes they have more strings and a more percussive sound. This style, with the built-in bass strings, is called a theorbo or archlute.


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Guitar music?
Agustín Maruri ranks among the most distinguished of current classical guitar players. He's also the executive producer for the Spanish label EMEC Discos, which specializes in guitar and lute music (but which also features an assortment of non-guitar style works, all of them well-produced, well-performed, and, quite often, surprising in most pleasant ways).

Three of my favorites from the catalogue:




























That first album, EMEC Discos E-002 (E-002X as the reissue) presents an assortment of composers ranging from the 18th century to modern times, featuring several works by masters such as Sor, Torroba, Ponce, and Castelnuovo Tedesco. Also, the lesser known 18th century composer Adam Falckenhagen (who died two years before Mozart was born) is represented with a solo guitar Concerto, and the 20th century composer Nicholas Marshall (born 1942) with his "Three Japanese Fragments." A wonderful recital overall.

The second album on this list (E-143HR) is essential, containing, as it does, the Twelve Etudes and the Five Preludes of Villa-Lobos. As a somewhat guitarist myself, I treasure these works and have quite a few versions of each in my disc collection. I could live with only the Maruri performance. The sound of the SACD is stunning: it places the guitarist right in your listening room where you can virtually distinguish which finger is on which string or fret the sound is so crystalline and precise. A gorgeous disc.

The _XXth Century Guitar Music_ disc (E-009) is compelling for the "new music" it presents, from both well established composers (Rodrigo, Torroba, de Falla) as well as some lesser known but remarkable compositional voices (including
Antón García Abril and Tomás Marco). This disc has spent a lot of time spinning in my SONY disc player.

Lute music?

A friend of mine, a professional guitarist and instructor, swears by the lute-like sound he achieves on his classical guitar by placing a capo on the third fret. All of the folks mentioned here, better players than I, have much to offer via the guitar and flute, and I take them seriously at their word and their fingertips. 

Among the non-Maruri performance discs featured in the EMEC Discos catalogue is E-142:










Perhaps it takes a producer with the guitar skills of Agustín Maruri to realize an album of lute music so wonderfully performed as here by Konstantin Shenikov. This is certainly one for a lute lover's collection. And you needn't have a capo on the third fret in order to enjoy it!


----------



## Nate Miller (Oct 24, 2016)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Would I be correct in saying the Lute has a sharper and more staccato tone to it when compared to the guitar? Does it have nylon strings as well?


the lute uses courses of strings, meaning 2 string close together like on a 12 string guitar or a mandolin. They would have been gut strings, but today there are nylon sets, but they are different gauges than guitar strings, so you would have to get individual strings to make up your set, or buy a set of lute strings. Lutes have different numbers of courses as well. Some have 8 courses, some have 15, some have other numbers of courses. 

The courses of strings is what gives the lute its sound. That "staccato tone" is because a course of strings will be loud at the attack, but doesn't sustain. There is also not much vibrato to be had in a course of strings.

The lute uses a slightly different right hand technique than the classical guitar as well. With lute, your thumb will be behind your fingers and the lute technique doesn't use fingernails like the classical guitar.

Lutes were tuned differently as well. Like the modern 5 string banjo, there really isn't a standard tuning but more like a handful of common tunings.

for guitar, a composer to check out is Mauro Giuliani. He was the top virtuoso of his day, wrote tons for the instrument, was friends with Beethoven and Rossini, but since he is a guitar composer, apparently nobody has ever heard of him. His Sonata op15, Grand Overture, and Sonata op150 are pillars of the guitar repertoire, but he wrote lots of music accessible to players of all levels.


----------



## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

Nate Miller said:


> Lutes were tuned differently as well.




Elizabethan lute is from low to high in double coarse; G-2,C,F,A,D,G

A baroque lute or theorbo I would have no clue,I'd imagine fretted strings the same as the Elizabethan lute with bass drone strings not fretted.


----------



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I've learned Cello before, so I'm going Cello shopping tomorrow!


----------



## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Captainnumber36 said:


> I've learned Cello before, so I'm going Cello shopping tomorrow!


You missed a bargain , a famoous Gagaliano is sold for $ 200 in Berlin. 
It was stolen I must add


----------



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Rogerx said:


> You missed a bargain , a famoous Gagaliano is sold for $ 200 in Berlin.
> It was stolen I must add



I'm looking at this one:


Premiere Cello Outfit – Antonio Violins 

It should do the trick for what I'm looking for.


----------



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I'm also considering this one:

Maestro Cello – Antonio Violins 

It's cheaper, but it looks beautiful and like it might sound better. One of those two most likely.


----------



## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Captainnumber36 said:


> What are some good Lute albums?


Check out the music of Sylvius Leopold Weiss. He was a contemporary of Bach, an outstanding lute player and the composer of a massive amount of lute music. I have a number of recordings of his work by various lutenists, but I think my favorite performances are by Robert Barto.





.


----------



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

There is something so beautiful about acoustic guitar albums performing Baroque Era music.


----------



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I think I prefer Impressionist music arr. for classical guitar.


----------

