Hi Ed How's your health, doing a little better again?
Thanks for your reply. It confirms my hunches. It's not much more than hunches, anyway, with vihuelas, right? I love the story of the Quito-instrument: we cannot get acces because it belonged to a saint! Now, if that is not inducement enough to pick up the instrument, I don't know what is. I do love the design and sound of the Chambure instrument. Vihuela or not, it does work. I saw a copy by Stephen Barber (he's working on my new attiorbato/archlute right now) that I really liked. I have the booklet from the Cité de la Musique explaining all (much) about vihuelas, including their Chambure. Highly recommended reading. So, no octaves because of consensus today that polyphony works better without the octave strings? Doesn't convinve me yet. It works on early 16th century 6-course lutes. So, why not on vihuelas? I'm contemplating a 7th course to make it more versatile in non-tablature, or transposed downwards, song accompaniments, but I don't want to spoil a pure 6-course sound with a reverberating, boomy bass either. I could always tune the 6th course a tone down, I suppose, it does help in 'proto-continuo' or whatever you want to call it. An F and especially F# below the low G is very usefull. But so is a D. Ah, eternal doubts! Anyway, thanks again. I'll fret some more. David ----- Original Message ----- From: "Edward Martin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "LGS-Europe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Lute net" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2005 4:23 PM Subject: Re: [LUTE] vihuela stringing questions > These are great questions, David. I cannot recall the sources, but most > agree that vihuelas should be strung in unison to the 6th. I personally > think that Milan sounds the best in unison, but some of the later > vihuelists sound good with octaves starting at the 4th, particularly the > intabulations & polyphony. However, I do not think there is a definitive > answer to this theory. > > Of all the music (Spanish) that is extant, there were the 7 printed books > (Milan, Narvaez, Mudarra, Valderrabano, Fuenllana, Pisador, Daca, plus the > Henestroza book, and some feel Cabezon is also for vihuela) and they all > are for 6 course vihuela in standard tuning. In his Declaration, Bermudo > talks about 7 courses, and he give tuning examples, but they are all > tunings I have never tried, and he gives examples that are not in standard > lute (vihuela) tuning and states they are for the vihuelist to compose > intabulations. > > In Italy, the viola da mano had 6 or more courses. Most agree that octave > stringing starting at the 4th was standard practice. > > Although people now lean towards unison stringing, there is new evidence > that vihuelas were strung with octaves starting at the 4th; this evidence > is from the vihuela in Paris, the E.0748 (i.e., Chambure) vihuela. Close > examination of the bridge reveals deeper, smaller grooves on each of the > lower strings on courses 4,5, & 6, indicating that octave stringing was > used at some point of this instrument's life. > > So, I think that anything you do is OK with a vihuela, in terms of > stringing. Personally, I use unisons throughout on my 6 course Spanish > vihuela, and I love the sound. It is not too "tubby" in the 6th course, > and it sounds beautiful that way. > > For the "other " vihuelas that I use (Dan Larson constructed a consort of > the Chambure vihuelas in F, G, Bb, and C) we do unisons to the 5th, and an > octave at the 6th. We would have strung them as the original (octaves at > the 4th), but for the Valderrabano duets, the majority of that music is > polyphonic intabulations, and the voices sounded clearer, in our opinions, > than if we had used octaves. The octave at the 6th gives more depth to > the bass. > > In terms of design, there are only 3 in existence. The Jaquemart Andre in > Paris, the Chambure (E.0748) also in Paris, and the Quito, of which access > is not permitted for us to see. Otherwise, some makers devise a plan from > iconography. Personally, I like Dan Larson's vihuelas, as I like them the > best. I would recommend getting 6 courses, as all the repertoire in the > books is for 6 course instruments, with exception of some of them for 5 > course in Fuennlana's book. John Ward sites in his dissertation names of > many vihuelistas that played 7 course vihuelas, but no music has survived > for 7 course vihuela, so we do not know how they were tuned. Did they > follow Bermudo's odd tunings, or did they merely add a course a step or a > 4th lower? We do not know this. > > At any rate, the vihuela is a fantastic instrument to play... get one! > Also, there is a vihuela list... perhaps you could join that list as well. > > Sincerely, > > ed > > > > At 11:10 AM 10/22/2005 +0200, LGS-Europe wrote: >>Ola vihuelistas! >> >>A few questions on vihuela stringing. >>The vihuelas I saw so far don't have octave strings on 5/6/etc. Is that >>today's common practice or is there a source (or more sources) saying so? >>Contemporary, early 16th century lutes were supposed to have octave >>strings >>from the 4th course downwards. So why the difference? >>What would be good for a general purpose vihuela: 6 or 7 courses? >>Primarily >>intended for vocal accompaniment but also used for all the wonderfull solo >>repertoire, of course. >>A more general vihuela question: what models and/or makers do vihuela >>players out there prefer at the moment? >> >>muchas gracias >> >>David >> >> >> >> >>***************************************** >>David van Ooijen >>Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>Http://home.planet.nl/~d.v.ooijen/ >>***************************************** >> >> >> >> >>To get on or off this list see list information at >>http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > > Edward Martin > 2817 East 2nd Street > Duluth, Minnesota 55812 > e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > voice: (218) 728-1202 > > >
