David Cotter: The History of the Collaborative Guitar

Hello everybody, this time we are pleased to welcome our dear friend David Cotter and presenting is fascinating research he did for his Masters and PhD at Cambridge University!

I am so excited for this topic as we all experienced how the pandemic disrupted the work of existing music ensembles. Being in a guitar duo myself I am looking forward into a deep-dive into the History of the Collaborative Guitar!

Join us on a trip back to 1800 as we explore the classical guitar’s immense collaborative heritage. Throughout history, the guitar has been united with a diverse abundance of other instruments, in both canonical and uncanonical settings, but very little is currently known about how the instrument's identity has changed over the last 200 years. In this session we revisit: the origins of the six-string guitar; early guitar methods; how amateur players, Charles Dickens, class, female nannies, and war affected the instrument's identity in the 19th century; the undervalued role of Berlioz, Boccherini, Legnani, Mendelssohn, Paganini, Rossini, Schubert, Weber in the guitar's collaborative history; and the electric guitar's effect on collaborative classical guitar performance.

We are going to be using this thread to gather suggestions and questions!

• What questions do you have on this topic?
• Any particular area you would like me to focus on?

Forum questions will be answered first!