With a player's insight (a guitar of 1825 is my main instrument) this lecture explores the experience of the Regency guitarist: the day-to day business of buying and learning the instrument for the purposes of cutting a figure as a salon amateur or indeed as a professional (to the extent that such a career was feasible - an issue to be explored). It will consider the availability of sheet-music with arrangements of opera favourites, the rise of the governess guitar teacher, the struggle of enthusiasts to cope with contemporary prejudices against the guitar, and the miseries of slipping pegs, breaking strings and damp. The role of the newspapers in advertising instruments, concerts and new music will be an underlying theme of this and several other lectures in the series.

The lecture by Professor Page was illustrated by performances by Ulrich Wedemeier of the following pieces:

Fernando Sor: Que ne suis-je la fougère!, Opus 26 (extract)
Fernando Sor: Minuet from Opus 15.
John Abraham Nuske: Fantasia (extract)
Fernando Sor: The Fantasie élégiaque, Opus 59 (extract)

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/being-a-guitarist-in-the-time-of-byron-and-shelley

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
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