In the work of Maurice J. Summerfield (third edition 1992, Ashley Mark Publishing Company), offers an interesting hypothesis on the origin of the Spanish guitar. Summerfield believes to be descended from Roman instruments or cithara tanbur, brought to Spain by the Romans around the year 400 AD This theory is directly contrary to the conventional one, which says that the direct ancestor of the guitar is the oud, an instrument brought to Spain by the Moors after the invasion of Spain in the eighth century. In the following lines establishing a small controversy based partly on information published by the Prado in Madrid. Want learn to play guitar for beginners ?
There is evidence that a four-stringed instrument like the guitar was played by the Hittites (who occupied a region now known as Asia Minor and Syria) about 1400 BC This instrument is characterized by soft, curved sides – one of the first basic features of any identifiable predecessor instrument of the guitar. The Greeks also built a similar instrument that was later modified by the Romans. Both versions seem to lack the curved sides. What is interesting here is that the Roman cithara centuries appeared in Spain before the Moorish invasion.
Despite this, he has interpreted the first guitar-like instrument that appeared in Spain it was only after this invasion with the introduction of Arabic in the South you. But with the introduction of Roman cithara centuries before we can say that despite the influence of you in the development of the guitar is not his real predecessor. According to this theory derived from the Spanish guitar tanbur of the Hittites, the kithara with “k” of the Greeks and finally the cithara with “c” of the Romans.
However, it is possible that after the arrival of the Moors to Spain, the cithara Roman and Arabic you would have mixed and influenced each other for centuries. However, no specific documentation about this, this may be that the pc and harp builders have seen the work of others, spread through the presentations of the troubadours travelers. By the year 1200 A.D. the four-string guitar had evolved into two varieties: the Moorish guitar, which had a rounded bottom, a neck width and number of incisions in the cap for sound output, and the Latin guitar, which looks more like the modern guitar with one mouth and a narrower neck.
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