English guitar ( English guitar ) is a stringed musical instrument from the cistern family (and not guitars, as one might suggest by name). It was distributed in Europe around 1750-1850. A typical version of the English guitar contained 10 strings, of which the four upper ones were paired ; typical setting: c, e, g, c 1 , e 1 , g 1 [1] ; There were also 12-stringed instruments with choirs for all six pitch.
| English guitar | |
|---|---|
 English guitar (1772) at the Sydney Museum. | |
| Classification | Stringed Instrument , Chordophone |
| Related tools | Portuguese guitar |
Term and History
The “English” attribute arose around 1780 to distinguish the instrument from the 6-string Spanish guitar, which at that time was pan-European (and, in the end, completely supplanted the “English guitar”). In historical times, the English guitar existed not only in England (where the term English cittern was used more often for this instrument), but also in other European countries (in France it was called French guitare angloise ; in Norway it is simply a “guitar”) and in the USA ( it is known that it was played in the family of J. Washington ). The English guitar served as a prototype of the Portuguese guitar imported into Portugal during the British protectorate (XVIII — XIX centuries).
In the second half of the XVIII century. English guitar has gained popularity among music lovers who wanted to learn some “uncomplicated” instrument for salon music making; it is spread as a tool of street musicians. The repertoire was based on the processing of popular arias, songs and dance tunes. Of the academic composers for the chamber ensemble with the participation of the English guitar, Felice Giardini and Francesco Geminiani wrote. The authorship of the sonata for English guitar (c. 1775) is attributed to I.K. Bach .
Notes
- ↑ Batov A., Mileshin N. Stringed plucked instruments from the collections of the Museum named after M.I. Glinka . - Scientific directory. - M .: VMOMK them. M.I. Glinka , 2013 .-- S. 12 .-- 135 p. - ISBN 978-5-8493-0252-2 . Archived March 5, 2016 on Wayback Machine
Literature
- Spencer R., Harwood I. English guitar // The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London New York, 2001.
- Rossius A.A. English guitar // Musical instruments. Encyclopedia. M .: Deka-VS, 2008, p. 26-27.