By a long search and patient study which I have made in almost all the libraries of the Italian peninsula on music for the guitar, I have discovered an immense store of hitherto unknown works written in the first half of the Nineteenth Century which I hope to make accessible to the general public. My next intent is to revitalize a substantial part of those works that I deem deserving of performance, presenting them in my concert programs, making critical editions of them for publishers, and putting them at students' disposal.

The examination of this music to such an extent has also permitted, at least partly, a revision of the picture of the repertoire of that period, and has offered much new information on the biographies of many musicians who wrote for guitar, persons who as yet are virtually unknown. It is true that there is a marked indifference by the music world as to the artistic and musical evaluation of this trove of music; I refer first to concert players, who seem reluctant to widen their repertoires with new pieces, staying more comfortably anchored to known and tested works; but I also address myself to researchers, who are too often inclined to confine themselves to grandiloquent essays, avoiding undertaking the difficulty of a historical performance reconstruction, no matter what labor this may require. This indifference is all the more paradoxical when we consider the vast quantity of works that I have seen still preserved in our libraries and files: in my investigation I have identified more than two thousand original printed works for guitar dated in the first half of the 19th century -- add to these manuscript scores that number around a thousand. More than two hundred composers for guitar have created this precious Italian musical heritage; half of these people remain completely unknown to the guitar world, even to the most informed researchers. Thanks to this search respectable musicians have come to light, all surely worthy of occupying a place, though secondary, in the history of our instrument in the Nineteenth Century: such is the case, for instance, of Gabriello Melia, a Roman guitarist who has left many appreciable works, but whose name is rarely mentioned in any contemporary dictionary, essay, or historical analysis. One could say the same of Antonio Maria Nava, a most prolific composer and author of admirable chamber music: I know of no mention of him other than a few scanty biographical facts. Nor has anyone shown interest in Giacomo Monzino, a Milanese guitar maker and composer for guitar of indisputable historical importance, of whom again we notice only the merest mention on the part of guitar scholars. Little attention is paid also to Luigi Moretti, Giuseppe Anelli, Pietro Bottesini, Luigi Picchianti, Pietro Pettoletti, or Luigi Castellacci, all guitarist-composers who could boast of an ample renown in Europe in their day. Finally, there are the absolutely unknown guitarist-composers belonging to local schools of limited circulation, such as Luigi Bacigalupo, Stefano Fontana, Giuseppe Ricca, Luigi Sommariva, Stefano Cogni, Gaetano Marani, Raimondo Cuboni, and others. I have analyzed their works in manuscript that were never published in the Nineteenth Century, and have seen that they will offer rewarding study to any serious scholar of guitar literature.

The authors mentioned above constitute a mere skeleton of the repertoire of Italian instrumental music of the 1800's, a repertoire as of yet poorly plumbed by modern-day musicians. In addition to these names there is an innumerable collection of dilettantes and impassioned supporters of the guitar who have offered musical contributions of debatable artistic quality; but even these affirm the vital presence of the guitar in the 19th century musical world. The telling evidence of this diffused popularity of the guitar is in fact the existence of so many compositions for it, even in the libraries of areas historically without prominent guitar activity.

I need also to report that the laxity of various libraries in making their holdings accessible has contributed to the dearth of research in this area; many facilities are indeed unprepared to offer adequate service. It is inconceivable, in an epoch of mass communication and advanced processing of data, that, thanks to administrative personnel who are hardly up to date in their field, one must quietly do one's own organization of materials lying untouched in libraries. It is quite unacceptable that one must find music from past decades missing in the disorder of the shelves, as has often happened; it has become evident that many pieces have been taken apart and pages lost, if not the entire piece, because someone removed a part for various reasons and never returned it; because of carelessness of the administrators; and even certainly due to uncivil behavior on the part of some visitors. I endured having to stand before the closed doors of some library centers, in some cases for several years; this inexplicable waste of time and lack of economic support indeed prohibited the consultation of collections that could potentially disclose findings of great historical significance. It certainly seemed to me as if the reason behind such delay was the unwillingness to take responsibility and the constant shifting of same to others, in order to stifle a simple natural desire on the part of the researcher to delve into the musical heritage of his own homeland--though I acknowledge that such callous intent has in all likelihood not been the case for all institutions, and the situation has noticeably improved from what it was a short time ago. With subtle subterfuge, using the favor of acquaintances and contacts, or with none other than sheer persistence--the latter arising from my firm commitment to and strong belief in my project--I have consulted more than fifty libraries and private holdings, anywhere where I have managed to pick up material, in photocopy or in microfilms, for an in-depth analysis of the compositions. Only a couple of private collectors would not give the least approval to examine the scores in their possession, a position certainly within their legal rights, but none the less inexplicable.

But these negatives do not stay us from marveling at this overdue recognition of the existing music in Italy, which is becoming more and more available to whomever will want to undertake a more concrete initiative, with the goals of recordings, new ideas of performance and, above all, new publishing projects. This is only a first step for developing further historical search from this point, and obviously has no pretensions of concluding the matter.

[English transl.: Michael Penny ]