Classical guitar making John Schneider The basis of most "modern" classical guitar designs was developed by Spanish luthier Antonio Torres Jurado in the mid-19th century. Earlier guitars were often smaller bodied (though there are exceptions: Scherzer, Guadagnini, etc.). Torres created a Spanish design, with light materials supported by fan bracing. Torres' fan bracing was influential for modern classical guitars: it consists of wooden strips glued inside the body to provide support and particular deep resonance that is saturated in fundamental. (However, a type of fan bracing was already used before, in some guitars by the Spanish builder Joseph Páges, and after him Louis
Classical guitar 1685), whose baroque lute works have proved highly adaptable to the instrument. Of music written originally for guitar, the earliest important composers are from the classical period and include Fernando Sor (b. Spain 1778) and Mauro Giuliani (b. Italy 1781), both of whom wrote in a style strongly influenced by Viennese classicism. In the 19th century guitar composers such as Johann Kaspar Mertz (b. Slovakia, Austria 1806) were strongly influenced by the dominance of the piano. Not until the end of the nineteenth century did the guitar begin to establish its own unique identity. Francisco Tárrega (b. Spain 1852) was