San Antonio College Library

In a lively narrative, filled with historical anecdote and the texts of songs and ballads, Frederic Grunfeld traces the guitar's evolution through the ages, in the hands of the people who played it: stone-age hunters who twanged the forerunner of all stringed instruments, the mouth bow; Hittites, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans; the Moorish minstrels of Spain and the medieval troubadours; sixteenth-century Spanish court composers; rococo French voluptuaries;...

The guitar is the national instrument of Spain, so it is appropriate that this program begins with the playing of the traditional vihuela. The story of the instrument's development over the next 400 years includes its replacement of that universal Renaissance instrument, the lute, in both Spain and Italy. Both guitar solo performances and guitar performances with voice appear throughout the program, including one of the last public performances of...