'The notes were not sweet till you sung them': French vocal music with guitar accompaniment, c.1800-1840

Abstract

The article seeks to demonstrate that in the period 1800–40 in France, guitarists were mostly occupied with accompanying songs and not with playing solo repertory, as is generally assumed. A selection of periodicals, bibliographies and guitar methods from the time are examined, with the dual purpose of finding out the ratio of solo instrumental to song repertory and of learning more about the opinions of contemporary guitarists and other authors on the subject of song accompaniment. After that, a survey is made of the different genres of guitar-accompanied song that were available, from the serious to the frivolous. Some attention is given in passing to unknown aspects of guitar song performance practice, such as singing to one’s own accompaniment, strumming, the flexible use of pitches and the arranging of material from operas for voice and guitar.