In Europe the guitar has from time to time been adopted by the aristocratic world as a fashionable instrument, and several crowned heads have studied and played the guitar with the same interest that Queen Elizabeth I gave to the lute. But the credit for the real progess and development lies on the one hand of virtuoso players who placed the guitar in the concert and recital hall, and on the other with the ordinary people who adopted it as a convenient and lively accopaniment to their folk music.

Almost all the great players of the past were Spanish, but their efforts were received with great enthusiasm in other countries where they often inspireed or revived a tremendous local interest.

A good example is afforded by the life of Fernando Sors, one of the greatest performers of the past. Trained musically in the famous Montserrat monastery, Sors developed a considerable technique on the guitar and wrote prolifically for it as well as for other instruments.

In 1813 he went to Paris, where he acheived great recognition and popularity. Later he traveled to London under the patronage of the Duke of Sussex; there too his performances made the guitar the vogue.

From England he went to Prussia and Russia and was warmly received in St. Petersburg, at the same time one of the great musical capitals, where he composed a march for the funeral of Nicholos I.

From there he returned to Paris, where he remained until his death in 1828, leaving behind him a wealth of guitar music of high standard and a number of studies and didactic works also distinguished by their value.

  
Look out for Francisco Tarrega next time I update my page.....