Guitar Making In Nineteenth-Century London by Dr. James Westbrook
Dr. James Westbrook has just published Guitar Making in Nineteenth-Century London: Louis Panormo and his Contemporaries.
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The works of C. W. Schmölzl
Not much is known about C. W. Schmölzl other than he was a municipal employee in Augsburg who was the teacher of Eduard Bayer. It doesn’t appear that he published more than a few pieces but there are a large number of manuscripts in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Some of them have been digitized.
Daniel Marx has published an edition of opus 4 Introduction und Variationen über “einem Solo-Steyrer Jodler.”
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Felix Horetzky Vol. 1 – Karl Michelson
A wonderful new 2 CD recording of music by Felix Horetzky (1796-1870) performed by Karl Michelson has just been released. Vol. 1 presents his op 1-19 including duets with terz guitar, concert pieces,
divertissements and exercises.
Historical Archive of the Music Publishing House Schott: Production Archive
The production archive from B. Schott’s Söhne, Mainz is now located in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. It contains about 80,000 sources, consisting of about 60,000 items of printed music and 20,000 music manuscripts.
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The Guitar à la Sagrini
Erik Pierre Hofmann has a wonderful article on the “Guitar à la Sagrini” available for free from his website:
https://www.fine-antique-and-classical-guitars.com/editions-des-robins-en/
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Luigi Legnani’s Missing Opus 9
An updated English version of my article on Luigi Legnani’s missing opus 9 has been published by Soundboard Scholar. The original version was first published in Italian in il Fronimo n. 194 in April 2021 and in Japanese in Gendai Guitar n. 696 September 2021. A full facsimile of the original Legnani opus 9 edition is included with the article.
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Early US editions of Fernando Sor
I will present here possibly the earliest publication in the United States of music by Fernando Sor.
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Segovia in Russia 1926
I recently came into possession of a number of programs and articles from 1926 and one article from 1927 regarding Segovia’s concerts in Russia. In Matanya Ophee’s 2017 article “Segovia and the Russians” he included some of these items. I’m sure the book by Vaisbord includes the details from the programs and articles but I don’t have a copy of the book to compare. Hopefully this information will be of interest to others so I make them available here.
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The Renewed Guitar – the Instrument’s Evolution seen through Period Pictures (1775-1925)
An exciting new book from Erik Pierre Hofmann and Stefan Hackl currently in pre-order status. Visit the Les Éditions des Robins website of Erik Hofmann for more details.
J. K. Mertz – Johann or Joseph? – research by Masami Kimura
On the question of the actual name of Mertz, around the turn of the 20th century guitar writers made assumptions about the initials “J. K.” While in the 1980’s Astrid Stempnik discovered the birth name of Mertz to be “Caspar Joseph,” the earlier writers used either “Joseph Kaspar” or “Johann Kaspar.” Somehow “Johann” became the definitive reading of his initial “J.” and has been repeated over the past 100 years. Repetition does not always make information correct. Mertz never used his full first or second name in promoting himself either in concerts or publications. In fact, even after he died his widow posted advertisements to sell his instruments by using his performing name “J. K. Mertz.”
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