The Baroque Guitar in Spain and The New World: Gaspar Sanz, Antonio de Santa Cruz, Francisco Guerau, Santiago de Murcia (Frank Koonce) Spiral-bound – Illustrated, 19 Oct. 2006

You might have come across Frank Koonce's indispensable edition of J S Bach's (so called) lute music. If so you will need no encouragement to buy this volume. It contains 47 superb performance editions, in staff notation, of music for 4 and 5 course baroque guitar set for the modern Spanish guitar. The composers are Gaspar Sanz, Antonio de Santa Cruz, Francisco Guerau and Santiago de Murcia. Some of the music will be familiar to the serious guitarist; some will be new.The volume successfully straddles the worlds of academic musicology and practical music making. There are chapters on the history of the instruments, tuning schemes, different tablatures, interpretation and the composers featured. There are also 42 pages of facsimiles of the original tablatures of all of the pieces.It is effectively both a library of and a tutor on, how to play early music on the guitar. Superb!Thank you Frank.B. Arthur is a professional guitarist and guitar teacher active in Northumberland UK.

An impressive and scholarly view of the origins of this music and its performance. The transcriptions however, although extremely good and playable, are for a fairly moderate playing standard (approx UK Grade 5-6). I would have given it four stars if this had been made clear in the purchasing information.

More historical context and photos of original instruments would have been nice; otherwise excellent.