Roger E. Blumberg wrote: > >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. > > > I thought the sheer size and depth of body of the Signorelli instrument made it something other than a viola de mano or vihuela. Where the viola has survived, in Portugal and the Azores, there's nothing remotely as big as that. The tendency has been to get smaller, not larger, however.
The instrument second left to the 'vihuela' is, unless Signorelli's studio induced a variation in painting technique, intended to be seen as very distinct from the large and small lutes on either side of the vihuela - entirely different body shape, apparently a flat back. And the viola de mano being tuned is of a completely different size and depth, and has a different type of headstock. Signorelli would appear to have used perspective extremely well and his apparent shapes and details of instruments are likely to be more than commonly accurate. Incidentally, this thread led me to look at the citole information. I think the fairly simple almost triangular four-course instrument I obtained a while back, made in Germany in 1965 by an amateur luthier, is meant to be a citole or at least played as if one. It also made me wonder about a peculiar old bone 'plectrum' which I obtained with a box of early 20th century mandolin strings and instrument parts (mainly violin bits) from an antique stall last year. It is about three and a half inches long, drilled with a hole to be threaded with a lanyard, has extensive playing wear on the pointed tip, and some crude scratching of 'MM' on one side and 'MT' on the other. It fits the fingers well, held like a pen, and while I could never work out why it would be any good from a normal playing position, the moment you place an instrument above the arm and the hand below the strings, it works. I was going to use it to make a bone saddle piece at some stage but wonder now if it's older than the crude scratching on it looks. David To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
