About
Compiled by Dr. Gary R. Boye
Music Librarian, Appalachian State University
There were two main styles of guitar music from the period between 1600 and 1750:
- The Rasgueado Style—with mostly strummed chords
- The Mixed Style—with a mixture of strummed chords and individually plucked notes
The former style is of mostly historical interest; the mixed style contains works more suitable for modern performers. Follow the links above for more thorough discussion of these styles and a detailed listing of guitar tablatures using them.
Most of the information on this Web site was compiled during my research in Italy under a Fulbright Scholarship in 1991-1992. The information contained here is primary research; the result of my visits to over two dozen libraries in Italy, France, and Great Britain where I studied over 100 examples of printed guitar tablatures. My doctoral dissertation, "Giovanni Battista Granata and the Development of Printed Guitar Music in Seventeenth-Century Italy" (Duke University, 1995), resulted from this research.
I've started an additional list, incorporating manuscripts and printed sources up to 1800. See: Tablatures for the Lute, Guitar, and Vihuela (1470-1799)
Lute, Guitar, & Vihuela Home
Baroque Guitar Home