Hi all, New member here, I play classical guitar but came across some english guitar related info and was kindly redirected here by Rob McKillop.
What's the evidence on the english guitar being popular in the Netherlands in the 1770s and/or being used for song accompaniment? To explain why I am asking this: Adamantios Korais is considered a key figure of the modern greek Enlightenment. Some sources on him suggest that as a young businessman in Amsterdam in the 1770s he had guitar lessons. I was able to trace this down to one source, letters sent by his assistant to his business partners complaining about his behaviour . In those letters , the litteral wording is : " he's got a teacher teaching him the guitar, an english instrument,and at the same time he is teaching him french songs [together] with the music". Now the words "english instrument" in combination with the 1770s date and the Netherlands proximity to Britain make me think this is more likely to be the CEGCEG instrument rather than the spanish guitar in either its baroque or classical incarnation. I will appreciate any info on the popularity/repertoire of the instrument in the Netherlands . Regards Stelios To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html