----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Forrester" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "cittern" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, December 10, 2005 7:55 AM Subject: [CITTERN] guitar?
> David Kilpatrick writes of a guitar by Signorelli in Orvieto cathedral. We > cannot get Channel 5 in the wilds here, but I suspect that this is the viola > de mano from the centre of the group of musicians above the blessed. There > is a somewhat similar instrument, side view, very shallow, being tuned lower > down on the left-hand side. The viola da mano player seems to be the lead > singer of the group which also includes a harp, three lutes, two tambourines > and a viola da bracchio. The vihuela reached Italy before 1500, pictures > also in Naples and Rome, where it slightly altered its form as a plucked > instrument, and greatly altered its form as the viol family. > > Peter > Hi Peter; Here's a copy of the full image -- for you or anyone http://tinyurl.com/cgrpt 200k I gather you're commenting here on Kilpatrick's loose use of terms, "guitar" rather than vihuela? One thing I'll add is that the alterations in forms are perhaps less great than usually thought. I don't know how much people here are familiar with the earliest vihuela and viola, plucked and bowed, so forgive me, but just in case, I'll point people specifically to the sharply waist-cut models of vihuela and viola (both), in Spain and in Italy, from about 1475 onwards. It's from these waist-cut instruments, less often seen but actually representing more than half of the landscape and playing field, that viols, bowed guitars, vihuela de arco, viola cum arculo, come. The perceived alterations or leaps between plucked and bowed varieties of vihuela and viola diminishes significantly once one becomes aware of this other line of plucked viola/vihuela. There are indeed some refinements that become specific to each, plucked or bowed, but there appears to be an early point where a single instrument might have served double-duty, pluck or bow, single course stringing or paired courses, 4, 5, and 6 string, all existing concurrently and right from the start, plucked and bowed, since around 1475, believe it or not. That's a lot to have squeezed into one paragraph, but if people will take a look at all the images on this page 2 (at least) of the full 6 pages section . . . http://www.thecipher.com/viola_da_gamba_cipher-2.html . . . noting in particular all the waist-cut models of vihuela and viola, plucked and bowed, and note the early instruments which while most resembling plucked machines, are in fact being bowed (see their low flat glued down pluck-style brides, etc). You can probably skip most of the text and just see the pictures. There are tons of other instruments and relationships to be viewed on pages 3, 4, and 5, as well, i.e. to really see the progression and steps to what we commonly think of as viols, and to really see the greater vihuela-viola-guitar-family, plucked and bowed, in an integrated fashion, side by side, reunited. By the 17th century, much of the visual "guitar-ness" of viols is lost, so seeing late 15th and all 16th century examples, the genisis, is important. Amazing to discover, for example, that many many early viols were played almost horizontally across the lap, neck out to the left, just like a guitar, rather than held verticle "da gamba". Even more surpising to see is the smaller viols that were actually played "da braccio", on the arm, like a violin. I spent a great deal of time exploring that part of the story, and when you see it, it makes perfect sense, and does recapture another essentially lost and forgotten thread of the family story. Bottom line is that the leap from a Signorelli body-style vihuela to a viol, a bowed guitar, would justifiably seem great, but there were other players on the field, pluckers, with a very different kind of appearance and body-shape, yet still being true and actual vihuela and viola, plucked and bowed, in Spain and Italy alike (and not only there, quite a few very early French examples exist as well, and still others). I could single-out individual instruments, and point to them in a particular sequence, if anyone wants. Let me know. Thanks Roger To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
