Dear Martyn, Like you I have never been very convinced by the "rich Spaniard" hypothesis. I also share your observation that the music looks just like lute music - both include many intabulations of great polyphonists like Josquin, just the sort of music which octaves are supposed to ruin (which of course they don't).
As far as I know, the evidence for unison stringing is sparse, to say the least. John Ward's (1955) PhD thesis makes some statement to the effect that unisons were used and this has become established "fact", even though I have never seen the evidence (if any) on which he based this assertion. Pisador's tuning instructions imply a unison 4th course, but say nothing about the rest. If anyone has more evidence, please share it! Best wishes, Martin Martyn Hodgson wrote: > >Not so much controversial perhaps but I'd be grateful for views on 16thC 6 >course vihuela stringing. There's some evidence that the basses were, unlike >the contemporary lute, tuned in unisons but I wonder.................. > >Eph Segerman believes it was partly because the Spanish were so very rich in >the 16thC that they could afford expensive bass strings in pairs whereas >mortals in lesser favoured countries (ie everywhere else) had to make do with >octaves; this has always seemed a pretty rum explanation to me to me. If they >did, indeed, favour unison basses then perhaps the clue is in the music but, >to be frank, the texture etc seems much the same as contemporary Italian >tabulatures which employed octaves.......... > >Finally, what precise historical evidence is there for single or double firsts? > >Martyn > > > >Monica Hall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >I think everyone must have left the list in a huff. > >Pity really! > >Can't we think of some controversial comment to revive it? > >Monica > >----- Original Message ----- >From: Garry Bryan >To: >Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 6:12 PM >Subject: RE: gee, it's cold in here ... > > > > >>Croatan was the name of a local Indian tribe. Roanoke was the "Lost >> >> >Colony". > > >>I doubt that the colonists possessed vihuelas, but I keep wondering if >> >> >someday, > > >>someone might unearth evidence of one in St. Augustine, Florida, which was >>founded ( by the Spanish ) in the same time period the vihuela >> >> >flourished. > > >>Garry >> >>P.S. The story is that the colony vanished and that the word "CROATAN" was >> >> >found > > >>carved on a tree or something similar. There are many theories... >> >> >> >> >> >>>-----Original Message----- >>>From: bill kilpatrick [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 12:49 PM >>>To: Garry Bryan; vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu >>>Subject: RE: gee, it's cold in here ... >>> >>>sorry, didn't see you ... it's so gloomy in here. >>> >>>wasn't coatan the name of an adjacent island carved >>>into a tree? i thought the colony was called roanoke. >>> >>>--- Garry Bryan wrote: >>> >>> >>>> >>>> >>>>>-----Original Message----- >>>>>From: bill kilpatrick >>>>> >>>>> >>>>[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>> >>>> >>>>>Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 8:18 AM >>>>>To: vihuela list >>>>>Subject: gee, it's cold in here ... >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>where'd everyone go? ... weird - worse >>>> >>>> >>>>>than roanoke ... >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>CROATAN >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>>>:) >>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>>To get on or off this list see list information at >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>>___________________________________________________________ >>>Yahoo! Messenger - want a free and easy way to contact your friends >>> >>> >online? > > >>>http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> >> > > > > >--------------------------------- > Yahoo! Messenger - want a free & easy way to contact your friends online? >-- > > > >
