"The guitar is the sound of simplicity in a technological age. It's a homey, personal instrument"
- Charlie Byrd (circa 1950) |
"Besides want of melody and design...there are frequent unwarrantable and to my ear, very offensive combinations in harmony." - Charles Burnley (1726-1814) describing the music of John Dowland |
| "Who so please may use. who like not may leave." - Thomas Campion (1567-1620) in his introduction to his Book of Ayres |
"The guitar is an instrument most complete and richest in its harmonic and polyphonic possibilities"
- Manuel de Falla |
...how to shelter your lute in worst weathers (which is moist) you shall do well, ever when you lay it by in the day-time, to put it into a Bed, that is constantly used, between rug and the blanket; but never to be expected, that no person be so inconsiderate as to tumble down upon the bed whilst the lute is there; for I have known several good lutes spoiled with such a trick."
- Thomas Mace (1613-1709) Musik's Monument |
| "as high as it will go" - Luis Milan's instruction on how to tune the top string of a vihuela before the age of tuning forks |
"The late Renaissance provides a most fruitful and enjoyable source of music for the guitarist. The tunes were lively and straightforward; the forms uncomplicated; and most important of all, some of the best composers of the period were writing for plucked strings - Frederick Noad |
| "To the Parish church in the morning, where a good sermon by Mr Mills. Today at noon [God forgive me], I strung my Lute, which I have not touched a great while before." - 21 October 1660, Lord's Day, Diary of Samuel Pepys (1633 - 1703) |
| "if it be not too trickified" - Thomas Robinson in "School of Music" 1610 using a wonderful word to describe a difficult piece of music |
| "There was a certain foreigner at court, famous for the guitar, he had a genius for music, and he was the only man who could make anything of the guitar; his style of playing was so full of grace and tenderness that he could have given harmony to the most discordant instruments... The Francisco had composed a Sarabande which either charmed or infatuated every person; for the whole guitarery at court were trying it, and God knows what a universal strumming there was." - from the Memoirs of the Count of Grammont edited by Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832) and referring to famous court guitarist Francesco Corbetta (1620 - 1681) |
| "...to influence conservatories, musical academies and universities to teach the guitar properly" - Andres Segovia (1891 - 1987) describing the purpose of his life's work |
| "I had only one teacher, myself, and only one student, myself" - Andres Segovia |
| "Sometimes it is impossible to deal with her, but most of the time she is very sweet, and if you caress her properly she will sing beautifully" - Andres Segovia (he often compared the guitar to a woman and was married three times) |
| "When the lute is broken, sweet tones are remembered not". - Shelley 1792 - 1822 |
"It is the little rift within the lute,
That by and by will make the music mute,
And ever widening slowly silence all."
Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809 - 1892) Idylls of the King |
