Georgina Gregory guitar manuscript.Edimburg c.1830-40

The Georgina Gregory manuscript (henceforth, GGms) from 1830s Edinburgh goes some way to revealing much about how one Scottish teenager learned from one of the world’s finest guitar players and composers of the day, Felix Horetsky. Horetsky – a Polish émigré of international stature as guitar performer, composer and pedagogue – apparently lived in Edinburgh’s fashionable New Town district for some twenty years, teaching, publishing and performing, first in Scotland Street, and then in the slightly down market Clarence Street, the move possibly reflecting his dwindling income in old age. He had one student who would become quite famous, Stanislaus Sczepanowski, who, after a period of study with Sor in Paris , would return to Edinburgh to take over the late Horetsky’s teaching practice. Edinburgh could boast two of the finest guitar performer-composer-teachers, active in the heart of the city for some forty years.The GGms contains no lost masterworks, but does contain many tuneful exercises and studies, some Polish airs by Horetsky, a piece by Giuliani, and some arrangements of Scottish airs.