Being a guitarist in late Georgian England

Abstract

Late Georgian England has long been a poor relation to other countries in modern histories of the guitar. Yet in England, as elsewhere, the guitar enjoyed a considerable vogue in the early 19th century that only began to wane in the 1840s. In London, as in Paris or Vienna, the guitar was widely agreed to be a very serviceable instrument for accompanying the voice, and a substantial number of method books and songs for the instrument were issued. In addition to these primary materials of the guitar vogue there is a wealth of ancillary evidence in the form of anecdotes, caricatures, reviews and newspaper advertisements. This material is difficult to gather—or indeed to use—in a systematic manner. This article organizes the results of a protracted search in relation to two fundamental questions: what was it like to play the guitar in early Georgian England, and who was doing the playing?