From the ages of about 12 to 18, I loved playing the guitar, and would often lose track of the hours practising scales, exercises, the latest piece I wanted to learn, and trying to compose. As my interest turned towards building classical guitars, I gradually started to stop playing. Especially during my twenties, as I spent more and more time in the workshop honing my craft, I quite lost touch with the player side of myself.
In recent years however, having refined my instruments to the point where I want to show them to the whole world, I started to leave my workshop more. I started to attend events such as classical guitar festivals and concerts across the UK and Europe. In these places I have met the most fantastic, talented, dedicated people. People whose passion for the classical guitar strikes a chord with my own former interest in playing. After crossing paths with such talent and love for the classical guitar, I have been pondering some existential questions.
Classical guitarists play their instruments hours a day, a large percentage of their life; what are they getting out of it? What is it about the classical guitar that provokes such interest and dedication? What is the aim/purpose of the classical guitarist? And by extension, what is the purpose of the classical guitar maker, as well as composers, music theorists and all the other entities in this part of musical society? I have in some form been pondering these questions for several years, the questions themselves gaining clarity only slowly, and the answers beginning to gradually appear as well.
My name is Michael Edgeworth. I am a classical guitar maker. This is my article exploring the deep, philosophical, existential question: Who is the modern classical guitarist?
The Guitar Conversation in London
My thoughts on these questions came to a head after attending a particular event at the Royal Academy of Music in London. This event was an afternoon of three talks called ‘The Guitar in Conversation: Beyond the Notes’. https://www.guitarconversation.com/ . There will be more talks so I recommend keeping an eye out.
I have been researching music conservatoires recently, and during my research I noticed this event, and decided to go. The RAM is well located in central London, on the same road as St Pancras station, only a brisk 20 minute walk. RAM was originally founded in 1822 and has long been considered one of the best music conservatories in the world. It felt great to step foot through the doors of such a historic musical institution, and vitalizing to feel the energy of a conservatoire on top of the usual intent, busy energy of central London.
A London Street
The afternoon consisted of three lectures/conversations on the classical guitar and its origins, performance practices and cultural traditions, from the 1600s to modern times. The first lecture was called Latin American Guitar Traditions, c. 1650 - 1850 by Richard Savino. All the lecturers are fantastic guitarists who have contributed greatly to the contemporary guitar scene; Richard is also a specialist in early instruments, and accompanied his lecture on a vihuela, an early guitar. His electrically energetic talk covered the early origins of the guitar as well as the traditions, culture, and influences surrounding the early musical forms written for the guitar. He honed in on figures in early guitar history who wrote extensively for the guitar, some leaving behind treatises and guides on how to play the guitar at that time. The last section of the talk focused on early guitar dance forms, their places in Spanish and latin american culture and what each form was associated with. It was really fascinating.
Richard’s talk reminded me of a period of about 5 years when I had become interested in early music, and read some music history books. I had particularly enjoyed reading ‘Music in the Renaissance’ by Gustav Reese, where I could learn about composers lives, works, the situation in which they lived (ie. their culture at that time). Many of the composers of the Renaissance wrote in forms such as masses and motets. It was interesting to see how, within these quite restrictive forms, these composers could show their own style and personality. Within these forms, some composers really shone above the rest, such as Josquin des Pres, Montiverdi and some others. It simply occurred to me as Richard was talking, that many classical guitarists must enjoy similar research and discoveries, adding depth to their own performances in the process.
The second talk was by Adrian Walters, who is the Emeritus Director and Emeritus Professor of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, specialising in 19th century guitar. He is a friend and long term collaborator of John Williams. He accompanied his talk by playing on a copy of a 19th century Guadagnini instrument, as well as an historical instrument provided by James Westbrooke that sounded especially good. Adrian described how he has studied not only treatises of guitarists from past periods, but also vocal treatises and for other instruments too; this has offered new perspectives and ideas in how to approach musical phrases and can change how the audience will receive the piece. He also described where the guitar lay in the context of the history of that time, and how cultural events influenced the destiny of the guitar. Adrian once quoted from a book, Stravinsky in conversation with Robert Craft; this is a book I read as a teenager and inspired me back then. But I’ve really read nothing like it since, and now feel inspired to seek out similar works.
The last lecture was called Connecting The Dots by the amazing guitarist John Williams. He spoke about the contemporary guitar, how his own approach to interpreting past styles of music has changed throughout his career, and how guitarists can inform their approach to interpreting and arranging, with knowledge of the time and context a piece was written. John accompanied the lecture by playing pieces on his Smallman guitar, which was brilliant to hear, and he also described why he was first drawn to the Smallman instrument. After this lecture there was a question and answer session featuring all three speakers, Richard Savino, Andrew Walters and John Williams, as well as moderator Oliver Chandler, a guitarist and music theorist. It was a great afternoon and I had a thoughtful train ride home thinking about the classical guitar.
What do classical guitarists get out of playing the classical guitar?
In my guitar making, I’m focused on finding my own sounds, developing my own designs. I had previously wondered how fulfilling it could be to play a classical instrument, where you mostly have to play other people’s stuff. However, after attending these lectures a few pieces of the puzzle have fallen better into place.
Firstly, playing any instrument is fun and rewarding. This aspect of music hopefully never goes away, and it’s what keeps people being drawn to learn instruments. The classical guitar, however, stands out. It has, for example, the most tender, quiet tone; an instrument you can practise without driving your neighbours and family crazy. It is conveniently sized and perfectly shaped to the human body. Best of all, it is a solo instrument on which you can play both single notes, chords, polyphony; whole pieces, like on the piano.
The act of transforming the note on the page into living music is something special. Interpreting the music and bringing it convincingly to life for the listeners, in a way the composer envisioned, or perhaps better than he hoped, is the difficult task for which guitarists train many years. The guitar is a notoriously difficult instrument to master. I spoke with the guitar professor in Brno Vladislav Blaha, who described how a player can lose ‘it’ after just a day of missed practice, and then spend weeks getting it back. I think the difficulty of the guitar, the depth of the guitar, means that it is a lifelong quest; there is enough to learn that it remains always interesting.
As these lectures reminded me, there is more to interpreting music than just playing the notes on the page. The classical guitar has a great wealth of history that guitarists delve into, deepening their understanding of the time and place in which a piece was written, and learning about a composer's life and what his intentions were when he wrote a piece of music, who the composer learned from etc. In this way the guitarist is always discovering new things in the music. Throughout musical history, guitarists and musicians of other instruments, have written musical treatises so that today’s classical guitarists have hundreds of years worth of resources to explore. Adrian Walters, in his talk, remarked that once a guitarist is drawn to researching the past, there is more than a lifetime’s worth of fascinating things to discover. It is also possible for guitarists to come across previously unheard or unappreciated works, just as John Williams brought to light the work of Barrios.
I have watched masterclasses between conservatoire students and professionals. It was fascinating to see the extent they zoom in on individual musical phrases and work out the exact way to play them, to convey the desired emotion/musical effect.
Many classical guitarists are also drawn to the joy of teaching, which is also a career option for classical guitarists. I think some people are natural teachers, and those people can have a huge effect on the whole lives of their students.
The classical guitar is quite unique in that there is a consensus: that handmade contemporary classical guitars offer the best potential for a really strong instrument. I don’t think any other instrument benefits from this situation. Steel string and electric guitars are factory made, and the same for piano, woodwind and brass instruments. Violin makers and players idealise Stradivari and Guarneri instruments from the 1600/1700s, so there’s no element of innovation or personality from maker to maker. A classical guitar maker, on the other hand, is often on his own quest to develop his own designs and sounds. Classical guitar players are on a sometimes lifelong mission to find their ideal guitar. This is an exciting situation that makes the classical guitar a particularly interesting instrument.
Finally, there is a brilliant community of classical guitar players. The unique difficulty of the instrument has inspired players to come together and collaborate. Out of that, we have countless classical guitar festivals and societies throughout the world.
What is the function/purpose of the classical guitarist in musical society?
I think there are many different types of classical guitarists and each differs in what they are trying to do with the classical guitar. I suppose an important purpose is to vivify the work of composers past and present . If a guitarist plays to themselves the purpose is for them themselves to experience the emotions and feelings evoked by the compositions; if playing to an audience, the aim is to convey those emotions to them. Another purpose may be to teach and inspire other guitarists/composers. As the classical guitar is not the most ‘in’ instrument in today's culture, today’s classical guitarist might be driven to be heard as much as possible and promote the beauty of the instrument, perhaps inspiring today’s composers to write for the instrument more.
People have different natural inclinations, and some guitarists with a desire to understand the compositions deeply, may eventually be drawn instead towards music theory or music history. Those who have an inclination for creation may be drawn more towards composition, or even guitar making. Each has an important role in the guitar/music ecosystem. When I was researching the Royal Academy of Music, I really appreciated their emphasis on collaboration. From those lectures I feel my understanding of the classical guitar has grown even though it was a lecture on guitar making.
As for classical guitar makers, I think our purpose is to understand the classical guitarist, the composer, the theorist, the audience, the teacher, the student, the historian, and try to build instruments that help them in what they’re trying to do.
