Antonio,
With Vance I thank you for the description (and the drawings I've seen
confirm them).
But if you will forgive me for correcting your English (and I only do so as
I prefer to be corrected when I speak in another language). I don't think
you mean "polemic" when describing the vihuela. Polemic means "aggressive"
or "attacking", and can be used as a noun (as in "a polemic") or as an
adjective (as "a polemic speech" - sometimes misused as "a polemical
speech"). You might mean "generic", as in a word that refers to a class of
things - or you might mean something else (but your meaning is clear from
the context).
But the guitar versus the vihuela raises and interesting question at to the
form of the music, rather than the form of the instrument. My source book on
ancient and modern instruments classifies the vihuela with the guitars, etc.
But notes that it is a guitar shape "tuned as a lute". Given that the lute
tuning seems to be older (can't prove that, but it seems to be), then why
did the Spanish change the tuning? (On the assumption that the "guitar"
tuning is an adaptation). It is a minor change, just shifting which course
has the "third" step. My guess is that the "guitar tuning" allowed the left
hand to move as a whole into chording patterns for polyphony, whereas the
"lute tuning" developed before polyphony. Although I play both I'm too new
to the lute to answer my question, but the fingering patterns seem to
suggest that. Comments solicited.
Best, Jon
----- Original Message -----
From: "Antonio Corona" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 8:43 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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