Mauro Giuliani is considered to be one of the leading guitar virtuosi of the early 19th century and his pieces still influence established and learning guitar musicians alike today. Although he started training on the cello, as soon as Giuliani picked up the guitar, he found himself fully devoted to it and quickly established himself as a top performer.
Through his use and work with the guitar, Giuliani helped to define a new role for the guitar within European music. With his associations with Beethoven and Rossini, he often cooperated with their concerts in Vienna. Thanks to his talents, he was highly prominent in the city of Vienna and played cello in Beethoven's Seventh Symphony when it was played for the first time in 1813.
Everywhere Giuliani went, he was praised for his musical ability and genius. He began to publish his own classical compositions in 1807, winning acclaim. One of the most popular versions of music in Vienna during his time was the theme and variations. Giuliani was very proficient at this type of music thanks to his innate ability to weave a specific melody into a piece of music while staying true to the instrument through which the music was being played. One such example of this type of musical delivery was "The Harmonious Blacksmith" which he used in his Variations from the theme of Handel's.
In all Giuliani composed nearly 150 pieces for the guitar, including many challenging pieces for the solo guitarist. In total, Giuliani wrote three Guitar Concertos for both solo and dual guitars. In addition, he wrote numerous pieces for quartets, guitar-and-piano combination's and guitar-and-violin combination's. His Allegro in A minor is often used in courses to help students establish guitar playing prowess.
In short, Giuliani was known for his brilliant and dazzling music. This fact is revered by current guitar students and players alike who use his compositions to help fine-tune their own guitar playing skills. The guitar that Giuliani would have used in the nineteenth century is would have been lighter and had a weaker string tension than what students use today while playing his compositions. With the lighter weight and weaker strings, a better flexibility and higher response would be available with his compositions when a student or teacher plays the music.
Studying Giuliani's work allows guitar students to aim for the lightness, musicality and energy that the artist portrayed while he played his instrument. Of course, the guitar did not reach the pinnacle of its popularity until well into the nineteenth century so Giuliani's work was at the cusp of the guitar influence. As the Industrial Revolution took hold, the popularity of the guitar increased drastically and helped to push Giuliani's work more into popular music society. Giuliani was an outstanding artist who was rewarded with a serious and solid reputation while he was alive.
His guitar compositions live on to allow students to learn the finer points of the musical instrument that gave him such joy and continues to yield its popular influence to this day. One of his famous compositions is included in a Mastering Finger Picking course.
Jean Welles is the author of Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class(TM) DVD's, a Christ-centered guitar instructional series used in hundreds of churches. For a Free lesson visit WorshipGuitarClass.com/guitar-video-dvd.html. Related Posts: |
