How did the Spanish guitar became the main instrument of Europe?

In the previous posts about Female Composers ("Women will be Women: Female Composers", Part I & Part II), it has mentioned that the information about female composers have been vanished from music history, due to societal constructions. To continue the search for female composers in music history, I would like to highlight a very dedicated woman, who definitely deserves to be mentioned cause of her (re)markably important role. She deserves to be remembered! In this post would like to introduce you to the person who created The Court of the Muses:     Duchess Anna Amalia of Weimar.



Baroque Times: Incomplete guitars
In the times of the Baroque, there were a lot of musical technologies happening.
1. The invention of different guitartechniques, and thus the evolution from the early Spanish guitar called Vihuela, (and viola de mano in Italian) to the guitar in the Classic Era.
(The vihuela is the ancestor of the classical guitar)
2. The competition between Spain, Italy, France and England in music. This is also shown in the different guitartablatures of each country.
3. The "replacement' of the Lute (impopular due to other string instruments like the piano), and so the guitar was smaller and different in shape - and got a different role in music.

Does the Spanish guitar really comes from Spain?
Well, yes. And no. While the Lute was very popular in Europe, there were still many luthenists making new types of string instruments. Even in Italy, France and England names popped up as Gittern, Cittern, Guittar, Gitarre... It is a quite complicated research were still many scholars and guitarists scratch their heads of confusion.
In Spain, there were luthenists too. While the Baroque guitar (with 5 guitarstrings) came up in Europe, Spain decided to create their own version. Sometimes even with multiple guitarstrings.  They used different guitar techniques and guitar strumming: Very fast, rapid and almost seems crazy! It was called: Música Ruidosa. This was the most fascinating thing in the world! As it evolved into the Flamenco guitar later on, we focus on the development of the Spanish guitar in this post.

The Duchess Anna Amalia of Weimar (1739-1807)
Once upon a time.... As every fairytale starts: There was a princess in Germany. A real princess, born in a castle with two parents who happened to be a Duke and a Princess.
Her mother was a well-educated woman and composer who wrote a few marches and played the flute. Her father was not as much into music, and so she had to wait for her father's death in order to be allowed to receive music lessons.

Even so, Anna Amalia of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, grew up well-educated like her mother. She got music lessons from the music composers at court (court composers) where she had been taught to play different music instruments and composition.

Due to the social expectations at that time, she married when she was 16, to a Duke. They got two sons. Unfortunately her husband passed away when she was around 19. And so, her role/title transformed from a German princess to a regent and Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Anna Amalia of Weimar, managed stability within the Seven Year's War. She continued this role till she was 36 years old. She passed on the title towards her son, so she could follow her passion into music again.

Influences
Anna Amalia of Weimar was about 36 when she made her first Opera, called Erwin und Elmire. She was well-known for introducing the music style Singspiel (Sing-play) which combines dialogue with musical sections like arias, ensembles and songs. She founded the Duchess Anna Amalia Library the same year.

Her compositional style is close to the style of Rococo, which represents the transition from Baroque style to the Classical era.
She was wellknown for the sentimental style called Empfindsamkeit. This is a style of musical composition and poetry where "true and natural" feelings could be expressed. The music can change, it can be personal and it shows sudden mood changes. It's like a musical version of a diary: Intimate, emotional and spontaneous.
This was in contrast with the Baroque music style, where the emotions were more single and stylized. This was called Affektenlehre, or the doctrine of affections. Hereby music should express one clear emotion (affect) like joy, sadness or anger. It was way more structured and controlled, one mood at a time.

Cultural excellence
Anna Amalia of Weimar brought more people towards Weimar to build up the cultural admosphere after the war. She created opportunities at the Wittum Palace for artists.
She invited the Seyler Theatre Company to create more performances and operas.  She gathered scholars, poets and musicians for discussions and musical performances. Famous persons like Goethe, Schiller and it seems like the son of William Shakespeare has been working there as well. Hereby she transformed her court and its surrounding into the most influential cultural centre of Germany.

Italy and the Spanish Guitar
Anna Amalia of Weimar continued to work on her own music and music education.
When she was about 50 years old, she left Weimar to study the Fine Arts as well as music in Italy for two years. She was accompanied by Goethe. In this timeframe she had wrote a book about music (although this has been lost due to the Second World War).

When she returned to Weimar, she brought back a very peculiar instrument. It was a Vihuela (guitar), with double (multiple) guitarstrings. The Vihuela in Spanish, is called the Viola de Mano in Italian. Viola de Mano means that it is a string instrument that is played with the fingers. She held social gatherings and she hired a luthier to the court: Johann Jacob Otto (1760-1829). Johann had been asked by her to make similar instruments for the court and noblemen. The noblemen introduced this 'new' (copied) guitar in the big cities as Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin. Johann had been asked again to not only make copies, but also further develop this type of guitar. Hereby the instrument with the double snares developed into a guitar with 6 guitarstrings: The Classical Guitar (aka The Spanish Guitar) has been born. Thereby the amount of requests became too much, as has been mentioned in the found letters by Johann Jacob Otto.

As the popularity of the 'copied' instrument became bigger, 10 years later down the line Anna Amalia of Weimar decided to slowly withdraw from public appearances at court to performances in private circles. She was around 60 years old at the time.

Status symbole
As we read here, the Classical Guitar - aka The Spanish Guitar - has been travelling through Germany and continued being used by the high class society. The guitar has been used for performances in social gatherings and cultural places. Hereby Anna Amalia of Weimar set the example for high class women to use the guitar in smaller settings, like social gatherings and private circles. In this timeframe there were not many concerts as we know nowadays.
Even so, the classical guitar, the piano and the harp, were becoming symbols for women where they could show their graceful playing posture and beautiful hands. By 1801 the guitar has been mentioned as 'a new fashion item of the ladies'.

Concerts will be brought to life by men who were able to play outside of the private circles and social gatherings. And so, the image of women playing concerts outside of private circles has still been a bit of a taboo subject. (Check Part I and Part II for more information).

Around 1800 more and more and more guitar methods were developed. Music schools for the high classes started to pop-up in Europe. By that time Anna Amalia of Weimar passed away. The first music school with music-education for 'citizen' came in 1810.

Because of the reproduction of the guitar, the guitar has been seen as a more important instrument than before: Instead of backing music (accompany) for singers it become a leading instrument. Many Spanish guitarists travelled through Europe to introduce new ways of playing the guitar ("spanish techniques") and supported the music education by teaching guitar on the spanish guitars (guitar classes). This happened mid-1800s. Later on the Spanish guitar has been developed into the Modern Classical Guitar (by guitar maker "father of the modern classical guitars" Antonio De Torres Jurado) and the Flamenco Guitar.

Guitar community
Concerts were still not very much made for guitarists around that time, although many guitar clubs developed at the end of the 19th century. The first guitarclub was founded in 1877 (In Leipzig, not far from Weimar) and many guitarclubs followed. In 1899 the International Guitar Association was founded. In 1907 the first guitar quaret has been founded and many guitar quartets followed. Unions, schools, societies and movements to keep the guitar in the popular culture were created begin of the 20th century.

In 1900 till 1931, a German magazine called "Der Guitarrefreund" (The guitarfriend) was published. Hereby all the news was spread about the guitar in Europe, with discounts for members and some music material included. The magazine was translated in three languages: German, French and English. By that they addressed the importance of the international guitar community.

The European Union of Music Competitions for Youth (EMCY) has a network of national and international classical music competitions for young people within Europe since 1970. One of these competitions is called the Anna Amalia Competition for Young guitarists, which is still running nowadays.

In 2021-2023 more musical work of Anna Amalia of Weimar has been discovered in the collection of Archduke Rudolf of Australia.