La chitarra e la forma-sonata

In the collective imagination, the guitar, as in a painting by Watteau, always seems destined to accompany the singing of elegant gentlemen for gentle young ladies in idyllic rural landscapes. In reality, from the second half of the eighteenth century until well into the nineteenth century, it slowly built its own clear position in European instrumental music, particularly with the creation of a rich repertoire in the most noble and important area of ​​the classical period: sonata form. After focusing on the thorny issues of “classicism” and “classical style”, the author summarizes the history and theory of sonata form in historical sources between the late 18th and early 19th centuries, outlining the methodological, historical and analytical coordinates that frame and guide the work. In the two subsequent parts - first the works of the eighteenth century and less known of the nineteenth century, then those of the most famous authors of the nineteenth century - 165 compositions by 40 authors are analyzed, the result of research in libraries all over the world. Thus, the annoying cliché about the supposed absence of guitar from sonata repertoire is removed, as if some sort of cultural and aesthetic inadequacy (even of its authors) had prevented it from joining all other instruments. A book already essential for future studies on guitar repertoire and at the same time also very useful for those on instrumental music between eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and on the fortune of sonata form.

(Authomatic translation by Bing)