The economics of classical music and the Spanish guitar

From the Philippines (land of my forbears) – plus news about Berta Rojas‘ project there.

The propensity for classical music might be genetic, or the taste might be acquired, or most likely both. What is indisputable is that, on the demand side, the market has been on the decline worldwide for decades, even before the preponderance of digital media and internet piracy and sharing.

If classical music in general is on the wane, the fate of the Spanish or classical guitar suffers a worse fate. The classical guitar has had a long battle to be a solo or even a chamber concert instrument.

In the Philippines, there was a major effort to promote classical guitar music since the early 2000s by visionaries Tonyboy Cojuangco and Greg Yu.

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More on the guitar in the Philippines

Selected Filipino Guitar music posted by Raffy Lata

Some samples of Harana (courtship songs) arranged for guitar