Program notes
The guitar is a plucked string instrument with a flat bottom. As an instrument that has been widespread throughout Europe since the late fourteenth century, it was probably brought to Spain by the Moors.
The first guitar performances appeared in Tenth Century Spanish works, where it is called “ guitara latina ” or “ gittern ”. In the sixteenth century, it was given the name “vihuela”. It was in the eighteenth century that the guitar adopted its final form: it now has six strings and frets dividing its keys into semitones.
Schubert, Boccherini, and Paganini Weber already played guitar, and even composed for it. While classical guitar – or Spanish guitar – has changed very little since the seventeenth century, other versions have been manufactured in a variety of styles.