ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at a unique and little-studied musical repertoire from the 17th century—the popular dance tunes played upon the Spanish five-course Baroque guitar—wherein we find extraordinary evidence of "triadic thinking" with intriguing theoretical implications. It shows how the chordal textures cultivated in solo guitar dances were integrated within thorough-bass ensembles in the 17th century, with profound consequences for the development of harmonic theory in the 18th century. Most 17th-century guitarists were either ignorant or unconcerned with such theoretical matters. James Tyler has counted at least sixty-nine "song books" published in Italy between 1606 and 1629 calling for guitar accompaniments. Through the success of traveling Italian guitar virtuosi like Francesco Corbetta, rasgueado music also penetrated northwards. Perhaps the most consequential application of rasgueado guitar playing is to be found in the Baroque continuo ensemble. The Spanish guitar met with a similarly enthusiastic reception in England.
