Steve: In thepast, I have read that the reson the Spanish preferred the vihuela is because it was a differnt shape from the lute, which for them had Arab associatioinsThe opposite of your suggestion.. Although, that theory may not hold water as there were double waisted Arab instrument as well. Brad
Steve Schaper <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: The Celt-Iberian Portuguese and Galiceans were not under the Mohammadan yoke, at least not compared to Castile, Aragon and Andalus. As a result, they may not have felt the need to invent something that did not resemble al Oud after their liberation from the seven century long Mohammadan occupation, so they may have stayed with the pear-shaped single bout for that reason, instead of going for the double-bouted vihuelan shape. Of course, our terminology is all messed up. What most folks called guitars should probably be called vihuela. :-) To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html --------------------------------- Get your own web address for just $1.99/1st yr. We'll help. Yahoo! Small Business. --
