The guitar's journey from royal gift to symbol of the sublime
In short: In the late 18th century, the guitar became the ultimate vessel for Romanticism. It wasn't just a musical tool; it was a vehicle for the supernatural, the exotic, and the deeply personal. From royal courts to the pages of Keats and Shelley, the instrument captured the era's obsession with the sublime.
The guitar's presence in England dates back centuries, long before its Romantic peak. Queen Elizabeth I received three guitars as a gift in 1559. By 1660, the instrument had traveled with Charles II from the continent, notably carried by the diarist Samuel Pepys. Queen Anne even published a book of lessons before her death in 1714, though the physical book eventually moved to the Americas. Despite these shifts in ownership and style, the instrument maintained a recognizable form: a figure-eight body, a central circular sound-hole, and frets along the fingerboard.
By the turn of the 19th century, the guitar became a cornerstone of 'salon amateurism' in Regency England. It became inextricably linked with the high tradition of Romantic poetry. The guitar served as a representation of Spanish 'complex allure', the supernatural, and the night for authors such as John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Lord Byron further cemented this association by celebrating Spanish guitars in his work, Childe Harold. For Keats, the instrument held such cultural capital that he once joked in a letter that he might make his fortune if he could only play it.
The guitar's survival is notable because it was often viewed as a 'foreign' or 'untrustworthy' migrant on the musical scene outside of Spain. It occupied a unique social space, played by everyone from high-ranking government officials and society ladies to low-wage apprentices and impoverished soldiers. While critics have been many, the guitar's ability to provide relatively quick results for beginners compared to the violin helped it eclipse the piano to become one of the most popular instruments in existence today.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: The 'Romantic' Guitar - Professor Christopher Page
- Also: The 'Romantic' Guitar
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