A Tour of My Vihuela with Clive Titmuss
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- Clive talks about his vihuela and plays "Conde Claros" by Alonso Mudarra.
Vihuela: The word is a Spanish variant of the Medieval Latin root word--it is a cognate for the words viol, violin, and viola which come from Italian, and the Portuguese generic name for number of fretted instruments, violão.
English Pronunciation: It’s a choice--“bee-KWAY-lah”, which is the Spanish pronunciation, but most English speakers say "vee--HWAY--lah". Some orthographic sources, especially from Latin America, spell it "biguela", a closer reflection of the actual dialect pronunciation in the Americas.
More about the Vihuela and its music, things that may not be easily conveyed in a video:
There is a modern folk instrument played in various countries from Mexico to Chile/Argentina with the same name. This is actually a five-string or five-course guitar. Examples from Mexico show that the instrument was and is used for simple rhythmic accompaniment. Often they have very high action and only five frets. Some have tied frets, some metal with raised fingerboards. The back is often vaulted, with two large ribs. Like various Andean instruments, this model may be a wooden version of the original, made from the shell of the Armadillo.
The vihuela appears to have been a vector for music in both directions during the Spanish colonial period, about 1500-1650. Chordal dances, such as the Zarabanda, Pasacalle, and Ciacona, certainly the jig-style known as the "Canarie" originated in the New World and were brought back to the Old. These are mainly dances of the 1600's, not the style of the earlier vihuela, which is contrapuntal owing to its ecclesiastical heritage. The composers of vihuela music enlarged the repertoire with variation forms such as the Conde Claros setting by Mudarra, played here. The Tiento, a form favoured by Mudarra, Milàn and others seems to be a popular song style, found in both accompanied and instrumental versions in the sources (listed below).
The famous Quito vihuela, which is pictured in our thumbnail, is an excellent example of how ecclesiastical music was transmitted and preserved in Latin American colonies, while this style of music faded in Spain. It also shows how the traditions of the vihuela lasted longer, at least a generation, after the main period of publications in Spain, c. 1540-60. The Quito vihuela was identified as such in the late 1950s by Michael Prynne. It had been thought to be a six-course guitar, which did not actually exist until around 1770, but the decorative elements, especially the Italianate tracery, and shape indicate a much earlier date. This inconsistency was not observed. It may date from 1590-1610, based on these features, well after the period of publications, c. 1536-1560.
Two other sources which mention the vihuela are actually keyboard music--Obras de Musica para Tecla, Harpa y Vihuela... of Antonio Cabezon, 1578, and Libro de cifra nueva para Tecla, Arpa y Vihuela, the keyboard (organ) book by Venegas de Henestrosa, which transmits a number of pieces "de vihuela" (of or from the vihuela) in New Keyboard Tablature. Only a few from either book may actually be played on the vihuela as written. The vihuela traditions are used as models for keyboard setting-they are transcriptions.
Juan Bermudo published a treatise, 1555, which talks about the vihuela and is a source for the techniques. Mudarra includes several fantasies in which he specifies which technique that he wishes the player to use: "dos ded[os]" (two fingers), "ded[illo]" (probably thumb and index). He is inconsistent in his notation, but seems to like thumb/index for louder passages in the higher register, and he uses the two finger technique in the lower, or for softer passages.
Among the sources, Luis Milan's El Maestro is the earliest, published 1536 and he sets the principle of “consonances et redoubles”, chords and diminutions, which establishes the textures seen in later books.
Alonso Mudarra's Tres Libros en cifra de Vihuela, 1546 are mainly variation forms and fantasias;
Luis de Narvaez' Los seys libros del Delphin de música de cifras para tañer vihuela,1538) has a mixture of intabulations and variations;
Enriquez de Valderrabano has piece for two vihuelas a tone or a fourth apart in his 1547 work Libro de música de vihuela intitulado Silva de Sirenas;
Miguel de Fuellana's Libro de música para vihuela intitulado Orphenica Lyra 1554 is mainly intabulations of vocal works with rubrication for the sung voice, while his fantasias mainly eschew the diminution style of his contemporaries.
The Poema Harmonico of Francisco Guerau, for five-course guitar, published in 1694, seems to be a continuation of the vihuela tradition into the later period of that instrument’s Spanish literature.
Most of these sources are now available on IMSLP (International Music Library Petrucci). imslp.org/wiki...
Please leave a comment because we love to hear from you!
Hello! Susan and Clive! Thank you for your video.❤.💞.
illuminating video Clive, thank you
I'm happy that you like it!
Thank you!
Over the years I've listened to a good many vihuela recreations and this seems by far the most convincing. It seems less barring is the way to go!
Yes, over the course of constructing a number of vihuelas with different soundboard and rib materials, I found that somewhat larger unbarred areas made the vihuela sound better. This certainly goes against the conventional thinking about guitar bracing. The choice of material and its thickness has a lot to do with offsetting the need for bars. The idea is to let the wood do the work. My theory is that this looseness contributes to the individual strings' sounding more distinct and this fits well with the contrapuntal character of the music. Thank you for watching!
@@EarlyMusicStudio1 I remember back in the 90s people were having trouble making baroque guitars with historical bracing and thicknesses, they just weren't holding up. Thank you for your blog with details of your building process. Much of interest there. The sound you get with the thickness you used is a revelation. I am reminded of an early 20th century Spanish guitar by a well known maker that has no top bracing and yet is reasonably successful. The relationship between soundboard design and sound is ever-unfolding.
I had to make 12 vihuelas before I figured out how to do it right, but with 19th century guitars that I made I pretty much followed well-established precedent. To me the success of the instrument remains in the choice of the model. With vihuelas there are hardly any examples but with 17th century guitars and 19th century guitars there is a wealth of details. Even so, each maker has to work this out by empirical means. I appreciate your kind words, and thanks for watching! @@AndSendMe
Loved it.. the timbre, the playing, the music of the period and the wonderful lecture...
Stay blessed sir..
Thanks very much!
The sound comes right through my computer. This is a superb presentation. I always suspected that the ornamentation (parquetry, rosace etc.) was symbolic.
Thank you so much for the kind words. Indeed, the vihuela is an art object as well as an instrument, and this genre of music is still relatively little known. Though the music is now often played on the guitar, nothing conveys the flavour of the Gothic, Catholic and Moorish influences like the music itself. I'm glad I made this union of music and instrument clear for you.
@@EarlyMusicStudio1You are obviously more than a musician, but also a man of civilization; for, one cannot understand the Siglo de Oro except through the lens of its essential spirituality...
The Spanish music of this period is a departure from the northern European traditions. The writing is very spare and is always classified by the number of voices (Fuellana) rather than the way we would classify it as in dance, choral or singing style, so we tend to see this music through our own traditions. The music of the vihuela is a strangely isolated thread which began and then ended in a relatively short period. The number of instruments can be counted on the fingers of one hand so there is quite a bit of interpolation as a result. I really appreciate your understanding!
@@EarlyMusicStudio1 Could we say that, precisely because the vihuela is so idiomatically Iberian and it's existence of such brief duration, the interest it is garnering in our century speaks to its actual power and charm?