In the pipeline … Project Guadagnini

Can we discover what Gaetano Guadagnini’s guitars sounded like when they were newly constructed in the early nineteenth century?

 The innovative guitars of the Guadagnini family that are still so highly valued today for their musical qualities, were made some two centuries ago. Made by one of the most highly regarded families of instrument makers of the time, they were part of a period of intensive experimentation to exploit the timbral, expressive and technical potential of the new six single string guitar.

Instruments that have survived their journey through time to be with us today have often undergone ongoing repair work and even major restorations. Over this period the fabric of the instruments and their timbrel characteristics would potentially have changed, as the inherent character of the original wood would almost certainly been affected by time.

Project Guadagnini is a collaborative research project involving luthier, Hanson Yao (Altamira Guitars) and historic performance practice specialist Adrian Walter. The project will explore a range of constructional methods hand in hand with historic performance practices to gain a better understanding of these instruments as they might have been constructed and embraced by players in the dynamic cultural, social, and interpretive context of their times. What were the key constructional techniques of these revered instruments and how did they influence the playing styles of the early 19th century?  One way we can explore this question further is to compare a modern reproduction, using original materials and constructional techniques, to original instruments constructed by the Guadagnini family.

The first pair of these newly reproduced ‘Project Guadagnini’ guitars are now complete. One was used in the ‘Beyond the Notes’ project and was available for interested participants to try.