Brahms guitar
Encyclopedia
Paul Galbraith
Paul Galbraith is a Scottish-born classical guitarist known for his unique style of playing.-Biography:Paul Galbraith had his first guitar lessons with Graham Wade, continuing his studies with Gordon Crosskey at the Chethams School for Young Musicians.At the age of 17, Galbraith won the Silver...
in conjunction with the luthier
Luthier
A luthier is someone who makes or repairs lutes and other string instruments. In the United States, the term is used interchangeably with a term for the specialty of each maker, such as violinmaker, guitar maker, lute maker, etc...
David Rubio
David Rubio
David Rubio, , 1934 - died Cambridge on 21 October 2000) was an English maker of stringed musical instruments. His creations included guitars, lutes, harpsichords, theorbos, vihuelas, citterns, panduras, and finally also violins, violas and cellos...
. It was originally conceived in order to perform Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
' Theme and Variations Opus 21a.
The instrument is an eight string guitar
Eight string guitar
An eight-string guitar is a guitar with eight strings instead of the commonly used six strings. Such guitars are not as common as the six string variety, but are used by classical, jazz, and metal guitarists to expand the range of their instrument by adding two strings.-History and variants:There...
, adding both a high and a low string to the conventional six string guitar. The tuning continues in fourths and the frets are splayed
Multi-scale fingerboard
A Multi-scale fingerboard is an instrument fretboard which incorporates multiple scale lengths. The scale length is the vibrating length of the strings....
to allow for the different string lengths.
Galbraith's method is to play the Brahms guitar in the cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
position adding greater freedom to both hands and incorporating a resonating box.
Other practitioners include Everton Gloeden and Luiz Mantovani of the Brazilian Guitar Quartet
Brazilian Guitar Quartet
The Brazilian Guitar Quartet was formed in 1998 to interpret the repertoire for four guitars and make transcriptions of works from diverse periods and styles...
and Galbraith's former students Redmond O'Toole
Redmond O'Toole
Redmond O'Toole is an Irish classical guitarist. He is amongst a handful of musicians performing on a Brahms guitar. His former teachers include Oscar Ghiglia, Paul Galbraith, Graham Devine and John Feeley...
and Matthew Korbanic. The Brahms guitar is also in use by the Dublin Guitar Quartet
Dublin Guitar Quartet
The Dublin Guitar Quartet is an Irish music group that specialises in the performance of contemporary classical music, particularly music associated with minimalist composers such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Arvo Pärt....
who use the instrument in their arrangements of Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
, Kevin Volans
Kevin Volans
Kevin Volans is a composer associated with the post-minimalist movement in contemporary composition. He was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa on July 6, 1949, and even though he has spent most of his life outside his native country, is the best known South African composer active today.In...
and Arvo Part
Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt is an Estonian classical composer and one of the most prominent living composers of sacred music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-made compositional technique, tintinnabuli. His music also finds its inspiration and influence from...
string quartets.
Sources
- http://www.paul-galbraith.com/engl/8string.htm
- http://www.redmondotoole.com/instrument.html
- http://www.luth.org/memoriam/rubio.htm
- http://erez-perelman.com/guitar/brahms.html
- http://www.matthewkorbanic.com/
http://dublinguitarquartet.com