Classical guitar repertoire

Updated on Nov 21, 2024

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To a greater extent than most other instruments and ensembles, it is difficult to compose music for the guitar without either proficiency in the instrument or close collaboration with a guitarist. As a result, a large part of the guitar repertoire consists of works by guitarists who did not compose extensively for other instruments. Music prior to the classical era was often composed for performance on various combinations of instruments, and could be adapted by the performer to keyboard instruments, the lute, or the guitar. Since the beginning of the 20th century, however, a significant amount of music has been written for the guitar by non-guitarist composers.

Renaissance era

During the Renaissance, the guitar was likely to have been used as it frequently is today, to provide strummed accompaniment for a singer or a small group. There also were several significant music collections published during the sixteenth century of contrapuntal compositions approaching the complexity, sophistication and breadth of lute music from the same time period.

Main compositions and composers:

El Maestro by Luis de Milán (1536)

Los seys libros del Delphin by Luis de Narváez (1538)

Tres Libros de Música by Alonso Mudarra (1546)

Silva de sirenas by Enríquez de Valderrábano (1547)

Libro de música de Vihuela by Diego Pisador (1552)

Orphénica Lyra by Miguel de Fuenllana (1554)

El Pamasso by Estevan Daça (1576).

Baroque era

Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 to 1750 (see Dates of classical music eras for a discussion of the problems inherent in defining the beginning and end points). This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance and to be followed by the Classical music era. The original meaning of "baroque" is "irregularly shaped pearl", a strikingly fitting characterization of the architecture and design of this period; later, the name came to be applied also to its music. It is associated with composers such as J.S. Bach, George Friedrich Händel, Antonio Vivaldi, and Claudio Monteverdi. During the period, music theory, diatonic tonality, and imitative counterpoint developed. More elaborate musical ornamentation, as well as changes in musical notation and advances in the way instruments were played also appeared. Baroque music would see an expansion in the size, range and complexity of performance, as well as increasingly complex forms.

Main composers for the baroque guitar:

Francesco Corbetta (1615–1681)

Gaspar Sanz (1640–1710, Spain)

Robert de Visée (c.1655–c.1735, France)

Ludovico Roncalli (1654-1713)

Sylvius Leopold Weiss (1687–1750, Germany)

Romantic era

Main composers of the early romantic era:

Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826): Weber's Last Waltz

Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840): Several virtuoso pieces specifically for the guitar

The Golden Age

The first 'Golden Age' of the classical guitar repertoire was the 19th century. Some notable guitar composers from this period are:

Dionisio Aguado (1784–1849)

Julián Arcas (1832–1882)

Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805)

José Broca (1805–1882)

Matteo Carcassi (1792–1853)

Ferdinando Carulli (1770–1841)

Napoléon Coste (1806–1883)

Anton Diabelli (1781–1858)

Fernando Ferandiere (1771–1816)

Francois de Fossa (1775–1849)

Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829)

Luigi Legnani (1790–1877)

Antoine de Lhoyer (1768–1852)

Wenzel Thomas Matiegka (1773–1830)

Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806–1856)

Francesco Molino (1768–1847)

Pierre Jean Porro (1750–1831)

Giulio Regondi (1822–1872)

Fernando Sor (1778–1839)

Francisco Tárrega (1852–1909)

Marco Aurelio Zani de Ferranti (1800–1878)

Modern era

Some genres of modern music include atonal music, which rejects the tonal system of nearly all other musical styles, as well as aleatoric, which rejects the absolutism of the composer and allows the player to take an active role in how the piece is played. For example, in Leo Brouwer's Étude No. 20, he supplies a series of melodies that increase in length, and he invites the player to play each section of the melody as many times as he or she chooses. Regional styles are also prevalent in modern guitar music, such as the music of Latin America, where unique harmonies and fresh material can be found.

Guitarist-composers of the 20th century

Heinrich Albert (1870–1950)

Sergio Assad (*1952)

Agustín Barrios Mangoré (1885–1944)

Gilbert Biberian (*1944)

Dusan Bogdanovic (*1955)

Leo Brouwer (*1939)

Abel Carlevaro (1918–2002)

Carlo Domeniconi (*1947)

John W. Duarte (1919–2004)

Roland Dyens (*1955)

Dimitris Fampas (1921–1996)

Angelo Gilardino (*1941)

Brian Head (*1965)

David A. Jaffe (*1955)

Francis Kleynjans (*1951)

Nikita Koshkin (*1956)

Annette Kruisbrink (*1958)

Andrei Krylov (*1961)

Antonio Lauro (1917–1986)

Miguel Llobet (1878–1938)

José Luis Merlin (*1952)

Behzad Mirkhani (*1969)

Gentil Montaña (1942–2011)

Jorge Morel (*1931)

Marco Pereira (*1950)

João Pernambuco (1883–1947)

Máximo Diego Pujol (*1957)

Stepán Rak (*1945)

Brad Richter (*1969)

Rodrigo Riera (1923–1999)

Eduardo Sáinz de la Maza (1903–1982)

Reginald Smith Brindle (1917–2003)

Eythor Thorlaksson (*1930)

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959)

Andrew York (*1958)

Eric Sessler Eric Sessler (composer) (*1969)

Other composers for the classical guitar

In the 20th century, many non-guitarist composers wrote for the instrument, which previously only players of the instrument had done. For a larger list of composers who have written for the solo guitar, see the list of composers for the classical guitar. Some of the better-known are:

Miguel del Aguila (*1957)

Louis Andriessen (*1939)

Malcolm Arnold (1921–2006)

Boris Asafiev (1884–1949)

Georges Auric (1899–1983)

Milton Babbitt (1916–2011)

Robert Beaser (*1954)

Richard Rodney Bennett (1936–2012)

Niels Viggo Bentzon (1919–2000)

Luciano Berio (1925–2003)

Lennox Berkeley (1903–1989)

Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)