The spread of the guitar in Greece during the second half of the twentieth century is a distinctive phenomenon, both in the intensity with which it manifested itself and in the way in which a musical instrument changed its character. Among the aims of guitarists were the transformation of the instrument’s function from accompaniment to solo and its recognition as a vehicle of art music. The main means of achieving these aims were the choices made in terms of repertoire. The paper examines the features of the guitar repertoire as reflected in the programmes of the first professional soloists. It outlines the unease caused by the lack of original compositions for guitar. It examines the composition and structure of programmes over time and the establishment of specific works in the guitarists’ repertoire. It comments on the tendency to transfer repertoire from other instruments through arrangements. It examines the reception the instrument received from music critics. Finally, all this is linked to corresponding practices followed by guitarists abroad.
Presentation. The paper was presented at the 9th Interdepartmental Conference of the Hellenic Musicological Society “Variations, Elaborations, Transformations” (Teloglion Foundation of Art, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 1–3 December 2017), on Friday 1 December, in the session “Historical and social studies” of the Research Group “Modern Greek Music (19th–21st c.)”. The full text was published in the conference proceedings (2021).