The Guitar

Emerging from a long evolution of instruments with plucked strings stretched over a resonating “box”, the guitar is a fairly modern invention that came into its own only towards the end of the 19th century. Thanks to players like Andrés Segovia and, later, Julian Bream and John Williams, the classical guitar repertoire soon grew. The 20th century was a huge period of enrichment for the instrument, with works like Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez becoming classics. A younger generation of players is ensuring that music for the guitar continues to be written by today’s major composers.