The Baroque Era of the Guitar

The modern guitar is the direct descendant of the Baroque guitar.

The Baroque period was a cultural era of Western civilization that ranged from about 1600 to 1750. It was characterized by drama, ornamentation and grandeur in painting, sculpture, literature, dance, and music.

By the turn of the 17th century the guitar had become more respectable. Many good composer/players began writing music for it.

The courts of princes and kings refined the guitar during the Baroque period through their patronage of players and composers. The construction became much more decorative than it had been earlier. Skilled and famous instrument makers such as Antonio Stradivarius built guitars (King, Don).

The Baroque guitar was used as it was in the Renaissance, and as it often is today, to give a simple strummed accompaniment for a singer or small group.

But there were also numerous important music compilations published during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for guitar comprised of contrapuntal compositions played with the right-hand fingers.