Dear Antonio:
Thank you very much, that helps a great deal. I have other questions but I
think I'll wait to post them.
Vance Wood.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Antonio Corona" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 5:43 PM
Subject: Re: vihuela vs guitar
> Dear Vance,
>
> You are right to be puzzled; the vihuela is one of the
> most polemic and puzzling instruments from the
> Renaissance. All I can provide is my own opinion,
> based on the available facts being fully aware that
> other scholars might differ in certain aspects.
>
> A rough definition of the vihuela could run in these
> terms: a "guitar-shaped" (a polemic description, I'm
> aware, but also a practical one) instrument used in
> 15th- and 16th century Spain and areas of Spanish
> influence, strung with 5 or 6 courses of strings,
> played by plucking with the fingers (in the same
> fashion as the lute), and fulfilling similar functions
> as the lute elsewhere in Europe (the lute was also
> played in Spain, but that is a diferent story).
>
> From what we know we cannot be more specific than
> that; iconographic sources show a variety of shapes,
> so this aspect cannot help us to narrow the
> definition.
>
> The guitar, on the other hand, had a similar shape, at
> least from the middle of the century onwards
> ("guitarra" meant a small lute-shaped instrument -
> gittern - during the middle ages, 15th century and
> probably during the early part of the 16th); its
> distinguishing feature is that it was strung with four
> courses. According to sources from the late 16th and
> 17th century this was the instrument that served
> Vicente Espinel as the base for the creation of the
> five-course baroque guitar (guitarra espa�ola) with
> the addition of a fifth course. This probably happened
> in the late 1570s.
>
> I have mentioned several times an article that gives
> fuller details for considering this as the taxonomy of
> vihuela and guitar:
>
>
> "The Vihuela and the Guitar in Sixteenth-century
> Spain: a critical appraisal of some of the existing
> evidence", The Lute, Vol. XXX, 1990, pp. 3-24
>
> As to the genuine vihuela issue, we have three: one
> the Jacquemart Andr�e Museum in Paris, a second in
> Quito and a third in the cit� de la musique museum
> (you may consider the Dias instrument as a five-course
> vihuela, which would be a fourth, I prefer to consider
> it as a five-course guitar). The problem here is not
> about their authenticity as vihuelas, but of
> determining how adequate they were to play, and what
> kind of music could be played on each, if possible.
> The Jacquemart-Andr�e one was probably an apprentice�s
> examination masterpiece, the Quito one, dating from
> the early seventeenth century was used (there is
> evidence) to accompant songs and it was probably
> played by strumming. The third one, from the cit� de
> la musique, is the best example we have so far of an
> instrument adequate to play the poliphonic music of
> the vihuela books.
>
>
> With best wishes,
> Antonio
>
>
>
> --- Vance Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> escribi�:
> > Dear List:
> >
> > I have been following this string on the
> > Vihuela/Guitar and have become
> > puzzled. Does anyone really know for sure what a
> > Vihuela is. It seems to
> > me that one man's Vihuela is another's
> > ________(insert preference here).
> > From what I have been reading it seems that all we
> > really have to go on is
> > one academic's opinion as opposed to another
> > academic's opinion, not
> > pointing fingers at anyone in case someone thinks
> > that I am. There seems to
> > be no real clear choice or definition. Am I wrong
> > in assuming that there is
> > no real "Genuine Vihuela" still in existence? I
> > keep hearing this credible
> > source sighted and quoted and that credible source
> > sighted and quoted, both
> > disagree with each other. When it comes down to
> > arguments about the number
> > of courses it seems the argument is desperate and
> > perhaps rhetorical,
> > understanding there is no correct answer attainable
> > with the information we
> > now have.
> >
> >
> > VW
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Roman Turovsky" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > To: "Antonio Corona" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
> > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2004 5:07 PM
> > Subject: Re: vihuela vs guitar
> >
> >
> > >
> > > >>> Not a bad idea altogether. Batov renames his
> > > >>> instrument a five-course
> > viguela/vihuela/biguela
> > > >> (and
> > > >>> there are further variations on the spelling),
> > and
> > > >>> makes it as a five course instrument and we
> > can
> > > >> all
> > > >>> get on with our lives; Roman as well.
> > > >> Not quite. BIGUELA UNIVERSAL as opposed to
> > > >> ORDINARIA. Any number of courses
> > > >> he sees fit, as he is a practitioner rather
> > than a
> > > >> methodologist.
> > > >> RT
> > >
> > > > Go ahead, be practical and create your own
> > categories,
> > > > as long as you don�t pretend they are based on
> > > > historical fact there is no objection.
> > > > AC
> > > Why? Mainstream scholars of history do it all the
> > time, with relative
> > > impunity.
> > > RT
> > >
> > > ______________
> > > Roman M. Turovsky
> > > http://polyhymnion.org/swv
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > To get on or off this list see list information at
> > >
> >
> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > To get on or off this list see list information at
> >
> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
> >
>
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