Charting the stylistic turnovers of Western music over the breadth of five centuries, demarcation lines have been drawn, period stamped and chapter-headed. Defining epochs in terms of their trends and time scales is not merely one of partitioning them into tidy-minded chronological bandwidths; more so they provide co-ordinates marking successive breakthroughs, transitions and lapses of musical movements. Indeed the headings of each period alone are sufficient to arouse associations, soundings and visions of their time.

Within these cross-overs the traits of a preceding era inevitably endured alongside novel strides. With the benefit of hindsight it is easier to pinpoint fresh departures than the receding planes of foregoing movements. Once under way however, each successive era acquires a perceptible identity that enables us to place it in temporal and stylistic context within the canons of music history.

 In some cases the eclipse of one period over another was prompted by forward-thinkers who regarded prevailing movements as played out and even stifling in their mounting complexity. How much further say could vocal polyphony of the late 16th century gain in breadth before it burst at the seams? A counter-response was the revolutionary implementation of monody – a single voice and continuo. Moving on, certain precursors of Classicism reacted to what they felt as the state of turgidity that Baroque music had reached. Regarded by some as interminable note-spinning it was time for change, a breath of fresh air. To satisfy wider hearing, the Galant style with its clarity of phrase and euphonious harmony came in. Within the swathes of universal Classicism that followed individual thrusts gave rise to Romanticism. These advances led in turn to the welters of late 19th century orchestrations. Resistance to Austro-German dominance was met from one quarter by the tonal canvasses of Impressionism. Now, at the dawn of the 20th century traditions have diffused in convulsions of experimentation, the dissolution and regeneration of tonality.

Period identifications also facilitate cross-comparisons and correlations between different stylistic pursuits across the European map – that is, just when and where certain trends prevailed in one quarter and new movements emerged in another. Some held fast here, others, progressive, surpassed them there. Observed in the tides of music at large, these ebbs and surges were similarly traced in the repertoires of plucked-string instruments. Through temporal co-ordinates equally were their stylistic phases monitored. Homing in on the lute from the early 1500s, it was observed as a carrier of a genre all its own, namely the ricercare, an incipient fantasia. Much off their own backs as well, lutenists cobbled dance suites – Dalza being one. In passing from the Renaissance to the Baroque, fresh currents stirred. This turning point is striking for the emergence of its distinctive national musical seams. As the lute of the later English Renaissance rose to its zenith, across in Italy lutenists from this quarter heralded the new age with their toccatas. French lutenists meanwhile were propagating novel varieties of instrumental dances. Concurrently guitarists were tilling their own furrows with rasgueado. A diversity of overlapping activities agreed, but they can still be placed in context – cross-compared and contrasted in terms of their time, style, traits and eras.

Historic phases also serve as yardsticks against which the developments of specific genres are measured. In Renaissance Italy for instance the evolution of the fantasia among other genres was tracked and noted in terms of its burgeoning and cumulative density across the breadth of a century. Within the same time-frame fantasias from elsewhere were similarly monitored. Through periodic vistas too, the incremental expansions of variations were traced. From forerunning ostinatos to their flowering in Italy, a sideways glance lit on the florid variation settings propagated in France. Concurrently across the Channel scintillating ballad and dance divisions of the Golden Age were coming into swing.

Needless to say that these observations aren’t intended as evaluations, assessments of progress, but of charting transformations, evolutions. Progress implies improvement. Can we justifiably place a hierarchical value on say those out-reaching fantasias by Molinaro from the later century than the trimmed affairs of Francesco da Milano and Narváez from decades before? Each has intrinsic merits.

Harmony

The Larousse Encyclopedia of Music heads its opening chapter on the Baroque as ‘The Age of Harmony.’ By this, diatonality founded on the major-minor scales is now in full fettle. Stemming from it are chords allocated specific functions and aligned as formulated progressions; yet the premises for these were established well beforehand in the lute and guitar repertoires of the Renaissance. Solid vertical chords and their sequences took root early in the 16th century as ostinato variations. Harmony also provided the bearings for instrumental dances. Dalza in 1507 comes to mind in this respect and Attaingnant, 1529, to name two. Then as a declaration of chordal applications are the Consonancias of Spanish vihuelists and keyboardists. Through the enterprises of Baroque guitarists, lasting chord progressions were set in place. Owing nothing to textbook norms these rough-cast progressions were wrought at and for the instrument.

Fidelity?

Music conceived for a particular kind of instrument with its customary tuning is needless to say preferably played on that carrier. Yet others with narrower pitch compasses can at times stand in. Long since has crossed-instrumentation on plucked strings been practiced. This may well have entailed vaulting certain bass notes of the original setting up an octave to lie within the tuning of the instrument in hand. Such expedients were advocated by 17th century lutenists to widen the accessibility of their music. Nicolas Vallet remarked in Regia Pietas (Amsterdam, 1620) that although his tablatures were intended for a lute with ten courses they could be played on an instrument with fewer by way of octave skipping. French guitarists as well made allowances for such octave bass shifts during the transition from five to six-course guitars by means of an ‘8va’ symbol. Onward Mertz as another utilized this shorthand.

Transcriptions

Modern transcriptions – arguably arrangements – of Baroque guitar music for modern instruments are frequently tailored to latter-day tuning. Consequently later versions with their now deep-set basses have a pitch density which needless to say is absent from compositions stemming from re-entrant tuning. Be that as it may, the robust harmonies and enwidened registers of today’s recastings do at least satisfy our aural expectations, accustomed as we are to hearing low-lying bass lines underpinning melodies and fortifying harmony. Indeed, the music of Sanz and Corbetta for instance endures on today’s guitar healthily through six strings. Besides which present-day writers of Baroque guitar topics have no compunction in presenting this music with bourdons to clarify its bass lines. No fear have they of trampling over hallowed ground. But when campañellas and other sonorities intrinsic to the Baroque guitar are sacrificed in subsequent transcription, their loss is significant. Even so, though denuded of these nuances, campañellas can be simulated to some extent on modern guitars by means of cross-stringing.

Ideally, to appreciate the difference in sonority between Baroque guitar music as it was heard, and subsequently via its reconstructions, a couple of guitars are best to hand: a replica of the former instrument – or if that’s out of reach, a modern one restrung with original tunings. Alongside this, today’s guitar with standard tuning. Tablatures of old are then accordingly read and aurally cross-compared with later notated transcriptions. It’s then a matter of taking account of the aforementioned considerations and those raised in Volume 3, Ex. 45.2 and 45.3. Bearing in mind too, that composers at the time didn’t always specify the tuning for their music. At such times it was left to the discretion of players. Accepting that they exercised this license, why can’t we? Though compromises might be necessary in the process of transcription, they don’t make a case for leaving well alone - that Baroque guitar music should ever remain pristine and exclusive to the instrument of the day. To do so out of inordinate deference for authenticity would deny us finger contact with this fertile period of the guitar’s history.

Then there is the matter of the present guitar’s reaches into the domains of the vihuela and lute. A plausible reservation is that the resonance and tonal density of modern guitars are incompatible with the touch and tone of former instruments. Although crossed-instrumentation can be called into question on aesthetic grounds, the relocation of lute and vihuela music to a six-string fingerboard provides an opportunity for today’s guitarists to familiarize and assimilate this legacy through touch as well as tone. For ease of handling the third string of the guitar is lowered to F-sharp. The intervals of its open tuning will then tally with those of the lute and vihuela. Moreover, a capo could be placed at the third fret of the guitar to concur with lutes and vihuelas tuned to G.

A Roundup.

All repertoires have highlights. The vihuela, lute and guitar repertoires are studded with them. They strike the ear for their ingenuity, sparkle, eccentricity or ever-lasting tunes. Scrolling back, selections of these are recalled in Volume I, Chapter 22, ‘Strings of the Renaissance: on reflection.’ Onwards to the next era are flashbacks from Volume 2, Chapter 40, ‘The Baroque lute: a Retrospective and its Swansong.’ Ahead to Volume 3 is a choice selection in Chapter 54, ‘Adieu the Baroque Guitar.’ Likewise Chapter 68 from Volume 4, ‘The Classical and Romantic Guitar. A backward glance.’ Finally, from Volume 5 are reminders in Chapter 82, ‘Reflections on Recent Music for Guitar.’ Within these retrospectives outstanding compositions are noted. Alongside linger those meriting reruns as exemplars of their genres. Others still are singled-out in being anomalies, out on a limb or ahead of their day. Flagged within the repertoires of their times, they beckon revisits.

Renewals

Little would those at the time of the lute’s demise have guessed that in a distant future it would enjoy a replay. Flickers of interest in the lute from the second half of the 19th century gathered pace. Facilitating its resurgence, archives informing on the instrument and its players hitherto tucked away in libraries are now available through the push of a button for online access. To which the instrument and its composers have received ever-widening exposure through recordings and research. Facsimiles from across the ages have been dusted off and come to light through reprints and reconstructions. Moreover, the craft of lutherie has made remarkable strides with models at hand fashioned from original drawings, documents and sized from extant exhibits. Among them are those typical of the Renaissance, Italian large lutes and along with these, French, English, Flemish and German designs.

The vihuela has yet to receive such recognition. Submerged in the tides of music, its omission is conspicuous in wider historical accounts. Yet those fantasias, variations and song settings endure at the periphery, as gems in the repertoires of plucked strings.

Allowing for dips from favour, the guitar has weathered the years as its Renaissance, Baroque and subsequent yields bear out. To date its music is now one of all-encompassing profusion. Traditional repertoires have been resuscitated with original editions untampered by subsequent editors. Classical favourites mingle with today’s yields of popular idioms, contemporary challenges and a myriad assortment of novelties. Criss-crossing borders, strains from East and West merge. Skipping time zones present composers have dipped into the wells of music history. Throwbacks, reflective clips, archaisms resurface. In all then, the wealth of revived and recent music for guitar proclaims its versatility with a bountiful legacy that will ensure its present standing and future.