This article reconstructs the biography of a musician of Spanish-French background whose name and existence have hitherto been unknown, the guitarist and singer Mariano Castro de Gistau (c. 1800–1856). He arrived in Britain around 1829, during the relatively brief period when the guitar was widely fashionable there. The article discusses the factors that created this fashion as well as some of the principal forces that would soon challenge the instrument’s position and complicate the life of musicians like Castro (such as the rise of a canonical repertoire performed in concert halls built ever larger). Castro remained in the British Isles until his death in 1856, with a career unfolding mainly in provincial centres like Edinburgh, Dublin, Aberdeen and Cheltenham. Contemporary reviews show that he was a highly respected musician who appeared in concerts both as a guitarist and singer, often accentuating his Spanish background in the choice of repertoire. In addition to giving singing and guitar lessons, he was teaching the French language (increasingly so in later years when the guitar had lost much of its status) and after 1845 he was also engaged as a teacher in various private schools and academies.

中文翻译：

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Mariano Castro de Gistau (d 1856) 和 19 世纪英国的西班牙吉他时尚

这篇文章重建了一位西班牙-法国背景的音乐家，吉他手兼歌手马里亚诺·卡斯特罗·德·吉斯托（约 1800-1856 年）的传记，他的名字和存在至今未知。他于 1829 年左右抵达英国，当时吉他在英国很流行。这篇文章讨论了创造这种时尚的因素，以及很快会挑战乐器的地位并使卡斯特罗等音乐家的生活复杂化的一些主要力量（例如在越来越大的音乐厅中演奏的经典曲目的兴起）。卡斯特罗一直留在不列颠群岛，直到 1856 年去世，其职业生涯主要在爱丁堡、都柏林、阿伯丁和切尔滕纳姆等省级中心展开。当代评论表明，他是一位备受尊敬的音乐家，曾以吉他手和歌手的身份出现在音乐会上，在选择曲目时经常强调他的西班牙背景。除了教授歌唱和吉他课程外，他还教授法语（在后来吉他失去了大部分地位的时候，这种情况越来越多），1845 年之后，他还被聘为各种私立学校和学院的教师。