German Jazz Guitars - The Archtop Guitar in Post War Central Europe. In Association with the Bate Collection, University of Oxford. Original English language Edition.

Most guitarists today think of USA as the land of the guitar. Classical guitars come from Spain but rock, jazz and folk guitars must surely be American? They know the 'great' names - Gibson, Epiphone, Fender, Gretsch, Martin. How many of them know that Christian Friedrich Martin was born in Markneukirchen, Germany, in 1796 and emigrated to USA at the age of 37?In fact many of the world's best and most interesting guitars came from a tiny area in the south-eastern tip of what became East Germany and nearby western Czechoslovakia and they are almost unknown in the English-speaking worldThe Bate Collection is a museum of musical instruments in the University of Oxford and owns a collection of over 100 guitars donated by the author. Half of them were made by German-speaking Czech craftsmen expelled from their homeland after WWII, resettling in Bavaria; the other half by their former neighbours in Saxony, with whom they had worked closely for three centuries but who now found themselves behind the Iron Curtain.This book features every instrument in the collection together with a distillation of decades of research into the many makers featured. The introduction offers a summary of the socio-political background and the way it lead to the decline and almost the extinction of what was once the most productive centre of stringed instrument making in the world. Lavishly illustrated with photos of all of the instruments in the collection, plus a unique guide to help the collector to identify the maker of his instrument.The first book of its kind in the English language it is published in co-operation with the Bate Collection Museum of Musical Instruments, University of Oxford.

About the author

With a degree in German Cameron Brown, a retired publisher and former merchant bank director has also performed as a musician throughout his adult life. Has played guitar since he was 11 and over the past 15 years has built up a collection of over 100 German archtop guitars from the 1950s and 60s which he has donated to the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments in the music faculty of Oxford University, his own alma mater.

Product details

• Authors: Cameron Brown, Stefan Lob, Stephan Lob
• Assisted by: Joe McBurnie (Photographs)
• Publisher: Edition Olms
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.05.2025
• EAN: 9783283013363
• ISBN: 978-3-283-01336-3
• No. of pages: 288
• Dimensions: 226 mm x 28 mm x 286 mm
• Weight: 1673 g
• Illustrations: with over 1000 photos in full color.
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Music > Organology; Musikgeschichte, Jazz, Mitteleuropa, entdecken, Zweite Hälfte 20. Jahrhundert (ca. 1950 bis ca. 1999), German Archtop Guitar Makers, Jazz Gitarrensammlung, Archtop-Gitarre, Jazz Gitarre, Deutsche Archtop Gitarrenbauer, Deutsche Jazz Gitarrenbauer, Book Jazz Guitar Collection, Geschichte Jazz Gitarre, Geschichte der Archtop Gitarre, Christian Friedrich Martin Gitarre, The Bate Collection, Christian Friedrich Martin, Jazz Guitar Collection, Archtop Guitar, German Guitar Makers, Gitarrensammlung, german archtop guitars