We were running through some of the songs we've chosen for the Rococo concert yesterday. One of the books has guitar tablature right under the octave treble clef (which they use nowadays for guitar music) so you have the choice of what you like to read. Today we will be looking through a book of songs by the philosopher Rousseau. Those songs mostly have a continuo part that I will make up chords for on the guitar.

Chris and I also read through a couple of violin sonatas and chose a couple. Those are also continuo parts.

At the top is the guitar I'll be playing. It has five courses tuned like the top five of a 12-string guitar. During the late 18th century players were increasingly taking the second string of each pair off, but I will keep them on as some did. (I also like reading the tablature better than the octave treble clef.) At the very end of the century some guitars had a sixth pair, and one or two of the songs we're doing have the option of taking some notes down an octave.

Below is the Comtesse d'Egmont, who was a Spanish noblewoman who kept a salon in Paris. I think the above guitar is more like hers than the one that Madame de Pompadour is playing in the one at the bottom of this post.