Yes - now I recall that someone called Frederick Cook wrote quite a few
articles about the vihuela in the 1970s including one "The capo tasto of the
vihuela". His suggestion was that the "panezuela" was some kind of wooden
device. He says the word is derived from the verb "panear" which means "to
run along side". But he thinks it was placed alongside the bridge rather
than the nut and has even included a drawing of how he thinks it worked.
"Pontezuela" is more likely to refer to the bridge than the nut.
The article was in the periodical "Guitar and Lute", no. 8, Jamuary 1979.
I have never discovered what other people thought of his suggestion.
Monica
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Winheld" <[email protected]>
To: "Lutelist" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 8:34 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Capo use on early instruments
Monica, Stephen, et al-
I also remember the English (tenative?) translation of the Bermudo
"panezuelo"- seems like it would have to be some sort of movable/removable
nut, stopping the strings from below as opposed to our modern capos; which
presumably would not have worked too well without being subjected to very
fussy construction details, when you consider the difficulty of such a
device- it would have to stop the thickest gut basses along with their
octave strings with equal firmness.
And then, with multi course lutes & cambered fingerboards it would become
truly not worth the effort. And, inasmuch as pitch was so fluid,
unstandard, and musicians- esp. the more highly trained/educated- could no
doubt transpose more skillfully than most of us can these days, the capo
might not even have been a passing thought.
This panazuelo as a nut business seems more likely (if I'm not completely
off the wall here) in view of the general opinion that open string sound
was the more highly esteemed instrument sound, vs. fingered notes- indeed,
one of the vihuelists considered it "the best you can get" from the
instrument, almost seeming to regard frets and fingered notes as a
necessary evil. Certainly any capo device would be regarded as something
that would "choke" the very essence of lute/vihuela sound. Polar opposite
to Jazz electric guitarists, who seemed to me to avoid open strings as
much as possible.
Dan
On 9/25/2013 11:56 AM, Monica Hall wrote:
There is a passage in Bermudo which seems to refer to the use of some
sort of device to raise the strings of the vihuela a semitone or a tone.
It is in Book 2, Chapter 36 f.30. It is referred to as a "panezuelo"
which literally seems to mean a handkerchief but there is some doubt as
to whether this is really what it means. He says that experienced players
place this under the strings close to the nut (pontezuela) and this
rasies the pitch of the strings.
Maybe someone more of an expert on Bermudo can elucidate.
Monica
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