[VIHUELA] Re: 4c music... is there any?!

[Eugene C. Braig IV]

At 08:00 AM 4/8/2008, Michael Gillespie wrote:
>Hello all,
>
>I am a classical guitar major but I am interested in learning either early
>guitar (4c) or the lute. I would love to stay with guitar but I cannot find
>and music for it. I dont want to have to transcribe everything before I
>play. Any ideas?

Perhaps not a huge body of designated repertoire, but there certainly is a 
fair amount specifically written for 4-course guitar.  The most obvious and 
easily accessible are probably the pieces at the back of Mudarra's vihuela 
book and some of the French pieces by Morlaye and Le Roy.  Mudarra used a 
couple different tunings: "temple viejo" (intervals of 5th-3rd-4th) and 
"temple nuevo" (4th-3rd-4th: the base of what was to become guitar tuning 
into the future).  (I think it's a little amusing that the earliest extant 
designated repertoire for guitar was already referring to "old 
tuning.")  Most 4-course music you'll find corresponds to Mudarra's "temple 
nuevo."

Check out this little page from Appalachian State University (Dr. Douglas 
James' program):
<http://www.library.appstate.edu/music/lute/gtrlst.html>

Also, look into this text:

Tyler, J. & P. Sparks. 2002. The guitar and its music: from the renaissance 
to the classical era. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

It sometimes catches a little scholarly flack for presenting some 
speculation as fact without primary source support.  Knowing this, I still 
find it a tremendously useful reference.

You can find the Mudarra guitar pieces on Wayne's tablature pages, 
specifically:
<http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/tab-serv/tab-serv.cgi?A_Mudarra_Guitar>

I seem to recall there being some quirk to some of them, but can't recall 
what here in the day-job office without instrument in hand.

As these lists have evolved, the "vihuela" list has come to be the place to 
discuss 4- and 5-course guitar issues (I have copied that list in my reply) 
and the sadly too-neglected "early-guitar" list is for early 6-string 
guitar issues (instruments of Staufer, music of Giuliani, etc.).

Best,
Eugene 



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