GFA Refereed Monograph, Mauro Giuliani: A Life for the Guitar by Thomas Heck Available as E-Book
Monday, February 25, 2013
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Posted by: Connie Sheu
THE
GUITAR FOUNDATION OF AMERICA
is
proud to announce the inaugural publication in e-book form of the
latest
revised edition of Thomas Heck’s life-long work on Mauro Giuliani
Mauro
Giuliani: A Life for the Guitar
(GFA
Refereed Monographs, No. 2)
Superseding the well-known printed edition, Mauro Giuliani: Virtuoso Guitarist and
Composer (Editions Orphée, 1995), this thoroughly revised and updated
e-book not only paints a fuller picture of Giuliani’s life and significance
than ever before, but it also takes advantage of the cross-linking and search
capabilities of e-publication:
· The 1995 printed edition
of this study had about 106,000 words and 440 footnotes. The 2013 e-book version
has 121,600 words and 457 endnotes, each of them instantly available as a
"click” from within in the text.
· The entire work, for the
first time, is key-word searchable using any Kindle e-book reader or software.
After April 2013, an ePub version will also be released.
Searching a name like
Emilia (the composer’s famous daughter) in the e-book version brings up some
thirty hits, including, for example, references to recent published research by
Nicoletta Confalone, and a reproduction of a newly discovered portrait of
Emilia Giuliani by Franz Nadorp. The 1995/97 edition of this book (out of
print), while it had a good index, could point to only eleven pages where
Emilia was discussed.
· Much new research on the
composer and his world, published in Italian by Marco Riboni in Mauro Giuliani (Palermo: Epos, 2011), is
referenced in English in this new e-book version.
· Currently Mauro
Giuliani: A Life for the Guitar is exclusively and inexpensively available
through Amazon’s Kindle stores worldwide, for $9.99 US (and comparable prices
in Euros, GBP, etc.). Free Kindle reader software for PCs, tablets, and smart
phones is available from amazon.com.
In his foreword, Thomas Heck
acknowledges that Mauro Giuliani: A Life
for the Guitar "owes much to a new generation of European guitar scholars
who have given considerable time and attention to Giuliani research, and have
kindly shared their findings with me. I want to thank in particular Marco
Riboni, Andreas Stevens, and Gerhard Penn, whose contributions are signaled
frequently in the endnotes and elsewhere. Erik Stenstadvold has likewise done
us all a great service by bringing out, in 2010, his Annotated Bibliography of Guitar Methods, 1760-1860, which I
frequently consulted in the course of revising this book.”
The
GFA, a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization, respectfully reminds its members and
the public that about 65% of the online sales of titles in the GFA Refereed Monograph
series go directly toward the support the foundation. Currently one other title
is available in the series and recommended for your e-libraries: Sean
Ferguson’s The Guitar Before 1900: What
the Dictionaries Reveal.
Who Was Mauro Giuliani?
Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829), a contemporary of Beethoven and
Schubert, was a musician with a mission: to raise the recently invented (but
rather quiet) six-string guitar to a level of musical prominence in a world
inclined to favor ever-louder operatic, pianistic, and symphonic music. During
the years 1806-1819, while he lived in Vienna, Giuliani’s dazzling performances
made him the darling of that city, whose press and public hailed him as the
greatest guitarist of his generation.
His guitar works, rich in chamber music, were published by the foremost
Viennese publishers and widely acclaimed.
Against all odds, this poor guitarist of modest south-Italian origin
made a place in history for himself. He was decisive in launching the classical
guitar in central Europe as a versatile instrument capable of moving and
enchanting audiences when played with skill and musicianship.
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