Post by socrates on Jun 22, 2018 15:13:27 GMT
BOIJE COLLECTION
The Boije Guitar collection is a collection of classical guitar music mainly from the 19th century, including music by almost every one of the great virtuosi of that period. As far as I am aware it is based on original publications but also it includes some very interesting manuscripts of original works and transcriptions for the guitar which cannot be obtained anywhere else. (for example, Oscar Casterlotti's manuscript of his transcriptions from Renaissance lute music-but this sort of thing is perhaps of more interest to the researcher rather than the practical guitarist).
This extensive collection, probably the most comprehensive for the instrument and period, was donated by amateur guitarist C. O. Boije to the national library of Sweden and all works included are free of copyright and downloadable in PDF format from here:
BOIJE GUITAR COLLECTION
I want to raise two issues regarding this collection:
1 READABILITY of PDF.
The majority of the works are readable/playable strait from the photographs of the original publications given as PDFs, but in quite a few instances (and within the same piece) some details may be unreadable or doubtful or some others confusing or unusual to the modern reader who may be unfamiliar with 19th century publisher's routines and engraving rules. I once thought of the only remedy possible to me: The digitisation of the complete collection, which it is obviously just a dream beyond any individuals time and capability, if it is even beyond the resources and capabilities of the national library of Sweden. But still I have done some donkey work on one of my favourite composer's M. Giuliani. I observed recently that some guitarists with their own sites do similar work but not for free. They digitise a piece of music, they add a tablature and sell it commercially through a digital publisher. I don’t agree with this practice because I believe that the music despite the effort of its digitisation should be offered for free, and also I do not agree with the inclusion of the tablature as it makes any score twice its length, and as it bits the purpose of guitar playing. By the time that a guitarist is technically able to play a piece of grade V and above he should at least be able to sight read at a grade 3 level from the music, in my opinion, otherwise how is he going to familiarise him/herself with the vast guitar/lute repertoire in general?
2 CRITICAL APPRAISAL
For better or worse, the big guitar revival of the early 19th century took place in an era of changing ideologies (like now a days), which saw the firm establishment of the merchant class as the ruling social force and whose assumed "aesthetic" values dictated the pianoforte as the king of instruments. I have nothing against this instrument as far as its serious 19th century repertoire goes, on the contrary I am a big admirer of it. But as far as its didactic material goes, (the kind of Burgmüller, Clementi, Gurlitt, sonatinas, waltzes, and various other musical miseries), I take the position that it is clearer inferior in quality to the analogous didactic guitar repertoire by people relatively less known like F. Sor, M. Carcassi, D. Aguado etc. I am saying this from personal experience first as a student of both instruments and then as a guitar teacher.
There are in my opinion two main reasons for the still lasting unfamiliarity of the general public with early 19th century guitar repertoire (although matters have greatly improved in the 20th century). The first is musical and justified. Sor, Giuliani, Carcassi etc, although admirable as composers and virtuosi they were not as great as Beethoven, Schubert or Brahms in their compositional output. The second is extra musical and rather stupid. The guitar in its second beginning (after the sixth string was added to the instrument) was faced with unprecedented enmity by academics, mostly ignorant of its rich current and long historical repertoire. This is quite laughable as the main classical composers were viewing it with favour, and some like Schubert were capable players on it (probably more of his songs were composed on it and then adopted for the piano), or others like Beethoven were admirers of it and encouraging the guitarist composers with whom were good personal friends (Beethoven and Giuliani were the preferred soloists and teachers in the Vienna high society environment, and Giuliani who was also a cellist was of very big help to Beethoven in the preparation and 1st performance of the 7th symphony).
The enmity and ignorance of the academics and their Victorian mentality lasted well into the 1980ies when I was a student, although more than a century of continuous development and artistic achievement by both guitarist and non-guitarist composers had been accomplished.
This very big repertoire included in the Boije collection is in my opinion still in need of research and correct critical appraisal. Its didactic material is to me, as I said, superior to analogous pianoforte material, but its serious repertoire, although not as great as the piano's it is still very rewarding to listen to. There are for example very few full scale sonatas, mainly due to the efforts of Sor and Giuliani, but the guitars expressive power has reached its zenith in that era through the form of Air and Variations, of which there are many fine examples, as well as waltzes, minuets, divertimenti, studies, etc, which are a joy to play or to listen to.
All in all what is mostly needed is open mindedness.
I will come back when I can with more guitar repertoire information.
Glad to be in this forum again :-)
The Boije Guitar collection is a collection of classical guitar music mainly from the 19th century, including music by almost every one of the great virtuosi of that period. As far as I am aware it is based on original publications but also it includes some very interesting manuscripts of original works and transcriptions for the guitar which cannot be obtained anywhere else. (for example, Oscar Casterlotti's manuscript of his transcriptions from Renaissance lute music-but this sort of thing is perhaps of more interest to the researcher rather than the practical guitarist).
This extensive collection, probably the most comprehensive for the instrument and period, was donated by amateur guitarist C. O. Boije to the national library of Sweden and all works included are free of copyright and downloadable in PDF format from here:
BOIJE GUITAR COLLECTION
I want to raise two issues regarding this collection:
1 READABILITY of PDF.
The majority of the works are readable/playable strait from the photographs of the original publications given as PDFs, but in quite a few instances (and within the same piece) some details may be unreadable or doubtful or some others confusing or unusual to the modern reader who may be unfamiliar with 19th century publisher's routines and engraving rules. I once thought of the only remedy possible to me: The digitisation of the complete collection, which it is obviously just a dream beyond any individuals time and capability, if it is even beyond the resources and capabilities of the national library of Sweden. But still I have done some donkey work on one of my favourite composer's M. Giuliani. I observed recently that some guitarists with their own sites do similar work but not for free. They digitise a piece of music, they add a tablature and sell it commercially through a digital publisher. I don’t agree with this practice because I believe that the music despite the effort of its digitisation should be offered for free, and also I do not agree with the inclusion of the tablature as it makes any score twice its length, and as it bits the purpose of guitar playing. By the time that a guitarist is technically able to play a piece of grade V and above he should at least be able to sight read at a grade 3 level from the music, in my opinion, otherwise how is he going to familiarise him/herself with the vast guitar/lute repertoire in general?
2 CRITICAL APPRAISAL
For better or worse, the big guitar revival of the early 19th century took place in an era of changing ideologies (like now a days), which saw the firm establishment of the merchant class as the ruling social force and whose assumed "aesthetic" values dictated the pianoforte as the king of instruments. I have nothing against this instrument as far as its serious 19th century repertoire goes, on the contrary I am a big admirer of it. But as far as its didactic material goes, (the kind of Burgmüller, Clementi, Gurlitt, sonatinas, waltzes, and various other musical miseries), I take the position that it is clearer inferior in quality to the analogous didactic guitar repertoire by people relatively less known like F. Sor, M. Carcassi, D. Aguado etc. I am saying this from personal experience first as a student of both instruments and then as a guitar teacher.
There are in my opinion two main reasons for the still lasting unfamiliarity of the general public with early 19th century guitar repertoire (although matters have greatly improved in the 20th century). The first is musical and justified. Sor, Giuliani, Carcassi etc, although admirable as composers and virtuosi they were not as great as Beethoven, Schubert or Brahms in their compositional output. The second is extra musical and rather stupid. The guitar in its second beginning (after the sixth string was added to the instrument) was faced with unprecedented enmity by academics, mostly ignorant of its rich current and long historical repertoire. This is quite laughable as the main classical composers were viewing it with favour, and some like Schubert were capable players on it (probably more of his songs were composed on it and then adopted for the piano), or others like Beethoven were admirers of it and encouraging the guitarist composers with whom were good personal friends (Beethoven and Giuliani were the preferred soloists and teachers in the Vienna high society environment, and Giuliani who was also a cellist was of very big help to Beethoven in the preparation and 1st performance of the 7th symphony).
The enmity and ignorance of the academics and their Victorian mentality lasted well into the 1980ies when I was a student, although more than a century of continuous development and artistic achievement by both guitarist and non-guitarist composers had been accomplished.
This very big repertoire included in the Boije collection is in my opinion still in need of research and correct critical appraisal. Its didactic material is to me, as I said, superior to analogous pianoforte material, but its serious repertoire, although not as great as the piano's it is still very rewarding to listen to. There are for example very few full scale sonatas, mainly due to the efforts of Sor and Giuliani, but the guitars expressive power has reached its zenith in that era through the form of Air and Variations, of which there are many fine examples, as well as waltzes, minuets, divertimenti, studies, etc, which are a joy to play or to listen to.
All in all what is mostly needed is open mindedness.
I will come back when I can with more guitar repertoire information.
Glad to be in this forum again :-)