At 01:43 13.12.03 -0600, you wrote: >Dear Arto and friends, > >Roman is completely right. There is abundant Spanish >iconography from the 15th century, less so from the >16th, showing lutes. I don`t have the information >about the sources at hand right now, but if there is >interest I could compile a list over the weekend. On >the other hand, to address your question about the >attitudes of Spanish society towards the lute in the >16th century, I can give you the answer in a nutshell >(slightly different from received opinion): the >guitar, as is commonly held, was a truly popular >instrument; the vihuela was widely esteemed throughout >the social scale and not only among the higher classes >as is generally believed; but the instrument favoured >by nobility and upper classes was, precisely, the >lute. (The long and detailed answer is my Ph.D. >dissertation, which draws evidence from a wide variety >of sources, buy I shant bore you with those details).
Antonio Corona wrote: >It still remains to find a satisfactory explanation >for the fact that no music was printed specificaly for >the lute, as Ariel and Stewart pointed out, but I >believe we can now rule out the argument about dislike >for arab culture. Sometime ago I listened to a radio feature on German radio with the title "forbidden instruments". The author claimed there was a law in spain at the begin of the 16. century prohibiting the possession of an oud. I don't know the details anymore but I will try to find out. Isn't it possibly that the iconographical evidence for the lute in 15. century spain and the lack of it in the 16. century indicates a change in the attitude towards arab culture after the reconquista? Best wishes, Stefan Ecke
