Dear Ed, Monica, et al, Information about different sizes of vihuela may be found in Antonio Corona's article, "The Viola da Mano and the Vihuela, Evidence and Suggestions about their Construction", _The Lute_, vol. XXIV (1984, part 1), pp.3-32. My references below to Bermudo are from this article.
In his _Declaraci�n de Instrumentos Musicales_ (Ossuna, 1555) Bermudo draws two lines, each of 23.4 cm, to show the string length of his ideal vihuela. You add the two together to get 46.8 cm, which gives you a little vihuela discante in c". It is that measurement which Peter Forrester used to design and make me a vihuela discante 12 years ago. Bermudo also mentions a consort of plucked instruments consisting of two vihuelas (a fourth apart - in g' and in c") and a guitar. I have experimented a little with this line-up, and I can confirm that it is extremely effective. By the way, the tunings on p. 28 of Antonio's article were printed incorrectly; his corrections appear in _The Lute_, vol. XXVI (1986, part 1), p. 47. Most intriguing is one of Bermudo's guitar tunings: c, e, g, c', e', g'; he writes, "This is a good tuning for a _guitarra grande_ strung with 6 courses, like a Vihuela, or for a _discante_." (translated from Bermudo, f. ciiiv). This tuning is, of course, the same as the tuning of the wire-strung English guitar, popular in England more than 200 years later than Bermudo. I wonder if there is any connection between the two, and if so, how the Portuguese instrument fits in? Best wishes, Stewart McCoy. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Edward Martin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Monica Hall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Antonio Corona" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "lutenet" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, September 17, 2004 12:40 PM Subject: Re: vihuela as guitar > Yes, I believe this is generally accepted thought on the "usual" > vihuela. But, this is not in each instance. > > The duets of Valderrabano require vihuelas in unison, a third (minor) > apart, a forth apart, and fifth apart. This gives us many possibilities of > pitch, in where to start the configuration. > > Best regards, > > Ed Martin > > At 09:23 AM 9/17/2004 +0100, Monica Hall wrote: > >Nevertheless, the standard 6-course vihuela, like the lute, seems to have > >been tuned in G or A, whatever that meant in terms of actual pitch at the > >time - > > > > g c f a d g or > > > > a d g b e a > > > > Edward Martin > 2817 East 2nd Street > Duluth, Minnesota 55812 > e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > voice: (218) 728-1202 To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
