Victor Coelho is Professor of Music at the University of Calgary. His publications include Performance on Lute, Vihuela and Guitar (Cambridge, 1997) and Music and Science in the Age of Galileo. As a lutenist he has performed throughout North America and Europe and as a guitarist has released a CD Come on in my Kitchen, with his blues band.

'A certain novelty of perspective makes for an enlightening read, leaving the reader at the centre of historical and sociological threads that run across the essays as opposed to hopping from island to island of isolated stylistic pieces … This wide-angled view permeates the whole book, making for an engaging acknowledgement that social context and direct application of, and experimentation with, technique can transcend genre … strikes a neat balance between comprehensiveness and depth …'. Journal of Popular Music

• Part I. New Guitar Histories and World Traditions: 1. Picking through cultures: a guitarist's music history Victor Anand Coelho; 2. Flamenco guitar: history, style, status Peter Manuel; 3. The Celtic guitar: crossing cultural boundaries in the twentieth century Chris Smith; 4. African reinventions of the guitar Banning Eyre; Part II. Roots and Rock: 5. The guitar in jazz Graeme Boone; 6. A century of blues guitar Jas Obrecht; 7. Rock guitar from the 1950s to the 1970s: the turn to noise Steve Waksman; 8. Rock guitar since 1980: contesting virtuosity Steve Waksman; 9. The guitar in country music Gordon Ross; Part III. Baroque and Classical Guitar Today: 10. Radical innovations, social revolution, and the Baroque guitar Craig Russell; 11. The revival of the classical guitar in the twentieth century David Tanenbaum; 12. Stradivari and Baroque guitar construction Stewart Pollens; Select bibliography; Glossary.