The the same instrument but that is not

The term classical guitar as we use nowadaysand what we mean by it has a history behind it and is a term that was alteredthroughout history. History of the instrument can be found in Mesopotamia in2000 BC and Egypt 1500 BC that seemed to match the instrument by having smallrectangle body and long neck and the flat Coptic Lute in Egypt. Many peopleconnect the term kithara with guitar and think that we speak for the sameinstrument but that is not the case as in Ancient Greek times the term kitharareferred to a plucked instrument that belonged to the family of Lyre.

Thereason that people would connect these two instruments is the Greek wordkithara and the Spanish word guitarra and is because they match in name andnothing more. Another diversity of its history is the debate as whether theguitar is a European developed instrument or was imported the Medieval Europeby the Arabs but this is not a strong claim for the guitar because Arabs haveancient oriental lutes that play in a different way than the European practice. The closest true findings of the guitarin Europe can be traced back the Renaissance period. These guitars wereconstructed both curved and flat backs and the only thing that made them todistinguish between them was the characteristic outline in the front the sameas the Spanish Vihuela which had a waisted body shape and smooth rounded bouts.

In the sixteenth century the Vihuela became the primary guitar like instrumentand that is what we think that the guitar took its lineage. Looking back to theVihuela origins we can’t speak for it as a one instrument because it had manyalterations. Specific instruments can be found as : Vihuela de arco (a bowedform instrument), Vihuela de penola ( played with a plectrum) and Vihuela demano (plucked with fingers). We can find the first two forms in medievalsources but the third one cannot be traced back in the late fifteenth century. In the sixteenth century the plucked Vihuela was so well established in Spainthat people had connect it as the sole instrument.       “ InSpain the vihuela was an aristocratic version of the guitar, being granted thestatus accorded to the lute in the rest of Europe” (Evans 1949, 16) Duringthe fifteenth century alongside the Vihuela and the lute, we have anotherrising instrument and that is the four-course guitar (an instrument that hadmany structural similarities with Vihuela and lute. However we can say thatthis guitar is the ancestor of the classical guitar.

It had the same tuning asthe modern upper four strings. It has an interval octave between the twostrings that give the listener a peculiar timbre and that is what it makes itdistinguish from all the others. The guitar origins are found in IberianPeninsula but it was not until it received the greatest attention in France. Oneof the reasons as to why this guitar became so popular is due to its number ofstrings. A player of this guitar should have to learn five to ten frets andthen the player was able to master the instrument due to its limited number ofstrings.

Comparing it to the six course vihuela and the eight course lute, thefour course guitar was easy to play.