Dear Vance and friends, Roman does have a point, insofar as the extant vihuelas have, for some reason or other, been considered as atypical examples of what could have been the "normal" vihuelas (but that is matter for yet further debate and discussion). Thus, all the three surviving instruments have, as Vance mentioned, pegs for a double first course, and some woodcuts (not the most accurate media, incidentally) also share in this characteristic. So much for the "historical information" about the vihuela's double first course.
On the other hand, using a single first can also be proven to be a historical practice. To mention some examples that prove this fact, the poet Pedro del Pozo published in his _Cancionero_ of 1547 the following riddle, whose answer is, precisely, the vihuela: Passing through a garden I saw a very dark house with a lace at the door of a very stange make. Eleven dead I found inside teased by one alive who sang thus unto them: When the dead complain with such an excessive pain, what should I, still alive, do? It is clear that the eleven dead must be the strings, made of "dead animal" gut, and therefore, for a six-course instrument, there must be a single one. Another poet, Antonio de Villegas, in a certain poem of 1565, compares himself to the vihuela, mentioning that he takes rests from crying "like those who judiciously slacken 'la prima de la vihuela' (in the singular) to save it for another day". An inventory of the goods left in 1591 by a lady from Barcelona, Elizabet Farrera y abans Balle, mentions "three viols, one of nine strings, and the other two are, one of eleven strings, and the other bowed". We should remember at this point that the term "vihuela" was used also for the bowed instrument, and that Miguel de Fuenllana included music for the five-course vihuela in his Orphenica Lyra of 1554. Hence the nine-stringed instrument, which - it must be admitted taking into account the late date, could have been a five-course guitar; there is ample evidence that the term "vihuela" was also used during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to name the Spanish (nowadays "baroque") guitar. In any case, the use of a single first in the vihuela is not altogether unjustified from a historical point of view. With best wishes, Antonio --- Vance Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> escribi�: > Dear Roman: > > I am just parroting what I have picked up from this > forum. If I am wrong I > apologize but I guess you have to consider the > source of my information. > > Vance Wood > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Roman Turovsky" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Vance Wood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "lute list" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; > "Martin Shepherd" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2004 9:18 AM > Subject: Re: new pictures > > > > > > > The thing that surprises me about this issue is > that Vihuelaist that > have > > > posted to this list seem to play that instrument > without the doubles > first > > > course, when the historical evidence points to > the fact that they were > all > > > made with the doubled first. > > I thought there was no evidence whatsoever about > the physical specifics of > > vihuelas..... Vance seems know something we > don't........................... > > RT > > ______________ > > Roman M. Turovsky > > http://turovsky.org > > http://polyhymnion.org > > > > > > > > _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Informaci�n de Estados Unidos y Am�rica Latina, en Yahoo! Noticias. Vis�tanos en http://noticias.espanol.yahoo.com
