The Classical Guitar: A Complete History

by John Morrish

(Book). Offering essays by the world's top experts in a full-color, coffee-table quality book, this is the first work to tell the complete story of the classical guitar and its repertoire, players and makers from its 19th century European roots to modern international interpretations. This handsome softcover volume features lavish photography of classical guitars made by the best luthiers in the world. Additional essays cover use of the classical guitar in pop music, different playing and teaching techniques, the collectors' market, and the science of the guitar. It also features profiles of legendary artists such as Andres Segovia, Julian Bream and John Williams, plus a full discography, a glossary, an index, a bibliography, and a guitar measurement chart.

Genres: Music

1 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2002

Reviews

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that is like walking through a small exhibit on the history of the classical guitar, focusing on the luthiers and the musicians that played their guitars. I started out thinking I would read this very carefully from start-to-finish, but the font of the essays is rather small, and as I progressed, I realized the large format, with fold-out pages and photos with captions here & there was more for perusal, to turn the page sooner for what's less interesting, and to pause and thoroughly read what's more interesting.

I love reading about craftsmanship, experiments/innovations, and examining the decorative rosettes around the soundhole. I also really liked the essay on factory guitars made in Spain by Jaap Van Eik, who visits a few of them and reports some funny but disturbing processes. This finally resolved my confusion on why I would see the word "factory" (which I associate with machines and automation) but also see the guitar described as "hand-made" in the same description. Apparently they are still made almost entirely by hand, just not by a single luthier. And maybe they are still using fine materials but they are built with the intention to meet x requirements at x price, so those materials aren't as optimized as they could be for high performance.