The rise in status and popularity, and even the acceptance of the classical guitar, is a twentieth-century phenomenon which owes much to the labour of the famed Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia. It is because of the talents of Segovia and his contemporaries that the classical guitar has a wealth of first-class repertoire to call its own. Since the conception of the first twentieth-century work composed specifically for the classical guitar by Manuel de Falla, and because of the efforts of Segovia, a great interest in the instrument-and a large body of guitar musichas come out of France.
This dissertation examines the key figures in relation to the guitar in Paris in the mid twentieth-century, approximately between the years 1920 to 1960. Special emphasis has been given to important French guitarists and French composers who wrote for the guitar. The nature and importance of the works composed for guitar and their relevance and popularity (both in the past and at present) will also be discussed. It is with hope that this thesis may open the doors to a body of works to which many guitarists may be ignorant.
Duncan Robert Gardiner ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/
The Classical Guitar in Paris: Composers and Performers c.1920-1960
