Re-entering the World of the Baroque Guitar

I was once an avid performer on the five-course baroque guitar, both as a continuo player and as a soloist. Even my doctoral dissertation dealt with an aspect of this repertoire. I loved the music but didn’t like the instrument much. This music cannot be played on my instrument—a regular modern guitar.

Nevertheless, for years I’ve had a modified “modern-baroque guitar” laying around the house, which I play for my own amusement every now and again.

Only a small adjustment to a modern guitar is needed in order to “re-enter” the “re-entrant” world of this repertoire without resorting to wholesale modification to the original tablatures: replace the fourth string with a high e-string (tuned down to d) and replace the fifth string with a b-string tuned down to a. (Both of these should be hard-tension strings, since they’ll be played with the thumb.)

What about the sixth string? Strictly speaking, it’s unnecessary. Still, I have a regular fourth string there, in case I need it.

Any old guitar will do, but the better the guitar the better the results.

If Corbetta, de Viseé or Murcia were to hear this, I’m sure they’d surely abandon their unplayable, colorless, double-strung instruments in favor of this modern hybrid.

I’ll be presenting my recent impressions of this music on a re-strung modern instrument for the first half of my annual recital at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music later this summer—Corbetta, de Viseé and Murcia…