Vihuela

Template: Infobox musical instrument / Maintenance / parameter range missing template: Infobox musical instrument / Maintenance / parameter Klangbeispiel missing

The vihuela is a Spanish plucked string instrument, which had its heyday in the 16th century. It belongs to the group of box -necked lutes and can, like the European lute, be regarded as a forerunner of the modern guitar.

Construction

The more oval body of the vihuela was easy eingeflankt on both sides and had a flat bottom, which was connected to the ceiling by frames. The ceiling was provided with one or more sound holes and usually intricately carved rosettes. On the ceiling of a cross bar (bridge) was further applied to fix the gut; often decorated with ornaments. As wood for back and sides well served maple; for the ceiling rather spruce.

The fingerboard was not placed, but just worked out of the wood ceiling and usually had 10 to 12 gut frets. The stringing was strictly chorus and was limited mostly to 6 pairs of gut strings. The head plate was flat and had, in contrast to the lute behind constant swirl of wood.

As seen in iconographic representations and illustrations, many instruments were fine and lavishly decorated with inlays and marquetry. Were used as materials for this purpose probably ivory, tortoiseshell, mother of pearl, ebony and precious cases even gold.

Moods

The general and most widespread mood of the vihuela corresponded principle of the renaissance lute. Differences were found, however, that all the choirs of the vihuela in unison, but were voted in the sounds from the 4th Choir in octaves. In addition, the vihuela usually had no Chanterelle, so a high melody string, but was covered reeds.

The mood was for sechschörige vihuela: Quart - Quart - major third - Quart - Quart. The mood usually started from the G or A or was based on the ultimate strength of the highest string pair.

From this mood, there were regional variations and modifications. Juan Bermudo, a Spanish theorist, also reports on instruments with seven choirs, but they should not have been of great importance.

Early sources and documents

First images of the vihuela can be found in the Cantigas de Santa Maria from the 13th century by Alfonso X. The first written records, mostly in novels, date from this period. Here, the following sources are:

• Libro de Apolonio ( 1250 )
• Milagros de Nuestra Señora de Libro and Alixandre of Gonzalo de Berceo (13th century)
• El Libro de Buen Amor ( 1330) by Juan Ruiz

In 1484 John Tinctoris ' treatise De inventione et usu musicae, in which he described the vihuela as an invention of the Spaniards and structurally clear boundaries of the lute appear in Naples. She was also known in Italy as Viola mano and was often played loud Tinctoris there.

Notes and textbooks

In the period 1530-1580, the siglo de oro the vihuela, numerous music editions and textbooks have been written specifically for the instrument. Annala and Mätlik call for the period of 42 years ( 1536-1578 ) eleven titles, including works by Luis de Milan, Luys de Narvaez, Alonso de Mudarra, Enríquez de Valderrábano, Diego Pisador or Miguel de Fuenllana. Seven of the most important books are in a modern edition before on CD -ROM.

Variants

• Vihuela de mano: She was plucked with the fingers.
• Vihuela de Pendola: It was played with a plectrum ( bird quill ).
• Vihuela de Arco: It was played with a bow and can be counted to the family of string instruments.

Received historical Vihuelas

According to present knowledge, only three historical Vihuelas are obtained.

• Guadalupe vihuela ( Musée Jacquemart -André, Paris)
• Vihuela Chambure ( Cité de la musique, Paris)
• Quito vihuela (Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús, Quito )

In the vihuela Guadelupe it is likely due to the very long scale length ( approximately 800 mm) be a bass vihuela. This seems credible, since it is precisely in the Renaissance, many instruments have been built in the so-called families, so in different tones of voice. In addition, it may be, the instrument is not a normal " standard" size, as practical attempts to play former literature from the vihuela books fell through. This vihuela is shown above.

The specimen found in Quito also dates from the 16th century. With the Spanish explorers arrived and culture and music and thus the tradition of the vihuela to South America.