জীবনতো নদীর মত অবিরাম বয়ে যায়...

Very few of the young rock guitarists in our country know that how important is classical music in guitar. We should not forget the fact that the guitar was first a gut string instrument, invented as an accompaniment to the voice. As time went by it stood out among the greatest instruments of all time, through its beautiful sound and timbre. It was possible because of the composers, those composers who loved the guitar and made it a wonderful instrument to play. But the guitar was not like we use it today. Its predecessor was the lute, an oval shaped instrument with 14 string set. John Dowland was the most famous lute composer. He composed numerous lute music which are still played both on lute as well as modern classical guitar. As the lute evolved and became the six string guitar, players and composers like Fernando Sor, Dionisio Aguado and others emerged as the masters of this wonderful instrument. Both Fernando Sor and Dionisio Aguado were Spaniards. They gave numerous music to be played on guitar and enhanced its capability as a solo instrument. Italians like Mauro Giulilani, Ferdinando Carulli and Matteo Carcassi made it a favourable solo instrument by doing concertos and writing studies which are at the same time enjoyable and good practice. Then in the 20th century emerged a classical guitarist whose mastery over the instrument surpassed the other composers and who was called the father of modern classical guitar. He was none other than Francisco Tarrega, the Spaniard whose music Recuerdos de la Alhambra (a tremolo piece) captivates the audience all over the world. The famous Nokia tune is taken from his “Waltz in A major” (Grand Waltz), a wonderful waltz among his many beautiful pieces. He also transcribed other famous composers like Mozart, Bethoven and Bach’s music for solo guitar, which increased the repertoire of the guitar and made it a formidable solo instrument as well as a concert instrument. Isaac Albeniz was the national composer of Spain and he was a pianist. Tarrega transcribed his music like “Asturias”, “Sevilla” for guitar and Albeniz admitted that they sounded better on guitar. But may be the world would not recognize fully if one person with his love and passion for guitar had not gave his life to make it his duty to let the world know how beautiful the guitar is. That person is Andres Segovia, the master of classical guitarists all over the world. Now, I will not go to the history on how the guitar subdivided into the categories like acoustic, electric or classical. No matter what kind of guitar we play, we must go back to classical. Legendary guitarist Ritchie Blackmore used numerous shorts excerpts of classical music in many of his compositions. “Difficult to Cure” was his rendition of Mozart’s Ode to Joy, “Hall of the Mountain King”, “Writing on the Wall”, “Greensleeves” were all his rendition of famous classical pieces. In “Death Alley Driver” he uses a short part (which is the most attractive part) of Bach’s prelude in Dm. Y. J. Mlmsteen uses classical music almost in all his music. I read he was inspired by Niccolo Paganini, the Italian violinist who was also a guitarist and his caprices are very famous. Bethoven’s Fur Elise has been used so many times by so many artists that it’s uncountable. All the music that I have mentioned will live forever, no matter how developed the genre of music be. Classical guitar music provides to the student not only the soul of guitar, but also the means of how to create beautiful music.