Portuguese guitar
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The Portuguese guitar or Portuguese guitarra (Portuguese: guitarra portuguesa) is a 12 string instrument, strung in pairs or over 6 courses. It is most notably associated with fado, although it's not exclusively used to play it. Over the last few decades its repertoire has been expanding towards new ground and it's slowly making its way into other music forms.
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[edit] History
The Portuguese guitar is the localization of both the Renaissance cittern and what is commonly referred to as the English guitar, a kind of cittern that got to Portugal through Oporto by commercial trade with the British in the 18th century, borrowing features from both. As far as the late 19th century, even though the design of what is now called the Portuguese guitar had already been devised and widespread, many guitars with striking similarity to both kinds of cittern metioned above were still being built in certain regions of the country (usually remote), similar enough to be hard to fairly categorize them as either a cittern or a Portuguese guitar. However, with the advent of the standardization of the very own Portuguese reinvention and adaptation of these instruments, such prototypes quickly disappeared by the turn of the century. Over the first half of the 20th century, the Portuguese guitar underwent considerable technical modifications and improvements (the refinement of the tuning mechanism, body dimensions, etc...), retaining however, its overall appearance, sound, tuning and fingerpicking technique.
[edit] Models and playing style
Three different models of the Portuguese guitar exist, each named according to its city of inception and sporting different acoustic characteristics, size and tuning. One of them has faded into obscurity (the Porto guitar) and is rarely seen nowadays. The Lisboa and Coimbra guitars are heavily associated with the cities they're named after and their respective musical tradition. The advocated technique for both also differs slightly one from the other.
[edit] Lisboa
Armandinho was probably the greatest representative of the "Lisboa" style. His playing technique was followed by other guitarists namely Jaime Santos, Raul Nery, José Nunes and Fontes Rocha. The "Lisboa" Portuguese guitar style is quite intimately tied to the evolution of the Lisbon fado song although a distinctive repertoire of purely instrumental literature also developed.
[edit] Coimbra
Gonçalo Paredes and Flávio Rodrigues, amongst others, were the most respected composers within the traditional Coimbra style. Artur Paredes, on the other hand developed a far more aggressive, dramatic and sophisticated approach, revolutionizing the guitar's potential. Working alongside the Grácio family, from Coimbra - his hometown -, Paredes reinvented and rebuilt the instrument with a view to opening up more possibilities for sharper attacks and longer decays, as well as allowing for more complex and assertive sounds.
At the same time, António Brójo and António Portugal developed both the Portuguese guitar and the Fado de Coimbra, overcoming previous limitations on composition and improvisation.
Carlos Paredes, Artur's son, created new melodies and turned the Portuguese guitar into a concert instrument, playing with jazz musicians, such as Charlie Haden, amongst others. The origins of his style are very diversified and his music defies easy categorizing.
[edit] Tuning
The most commonly used tuning is:
D A B E A B or Ré Lá Si Mi Lá Si
[edit] Currently
Thanks to a new generation of remarkable musicians and luthiers, the Portuguese guitar is steadily attaining reputation as a solo capable instrument, in the classical context, aswell as being explored in other musical genres outside of those it is usually confined and associated with.
[edit] External links
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