hat is the Vihuela?
The vihuela was a prominent musical instrument of 16th century Spain and other countries on the European continent. It's equivalent is possible to find, for instance, in French vielle, in Italian viola, or even in German fiedel.11 Vihuela de mano is still in the shadow of other early plucked instruments, however it's importance in the development of western music is undeniable.
According to the Diccionario crítico etimológico de la lengua castellana, the term vihuela appears as early as the 14th century, yet its origin is still uncertain. The most probable etymological explanation of the origin of this word would be a derivation from the noun viula or the verb viular (to play vihuela).12Vihuela is a stringed instrument, flexible especially in the ways of playing. We can specify the type of vihuela based on the diverse ways of playing: vihuela de arco (the instrument was placed between the knees or on a shoulder of a player and it was played with a bow), vihuela de péndola (the use of a plectrum or a quill) or vihuela de mano (played with the fingers, similar technique as on a renaissance lute). Initially, the shape of body of all aforementioned instruments was very similar.13 The majority of information about construction is accessible from surviving iconography and references from period literature. According to the musicologist Ian Woodfield,14 experimentation with the construction of vihuelas started in the 15th century.15 Woodfield was also the first one who during his research formulated the opinion that vihuela de mano and vihuela de arco were originally the same instruments. In his essay, which is also based mostly on iconography, he compared approximately one hundred and twenty sources (thirty vihuelas de mano, eighty vihuelas de arco, and ten vihuelas without a predetermined way of playing). It is important to mention that those records are mostly from the time of the reign of Isabella I of Castile. Ian Woodfield was focusing mostly on the area of the Kingdom of Aragon and its Italian provinces. Due to this very narrow geographical placement, his opinion may have been limited. He pointed out a connection between the playing technique of the vihuela de arco and the Arabian instrument rábel árabe and the consequent origin of vihuela valenciana simultaneously with its migration to Italy.16 The iconography from this period is not showing us just the differentiation of construction proportions of the instrument but also changes in the playing technique itself. These developments persisted mostly during the times of Isabella I of Castile. After the year 1500, vihuela models were established and with slight changes remained in existence until the end of the 16th century. Vihuela de arco also continued in its development outside Spain until it diversified into a form of viola da gamba. Later changes are focused on the shape of the body of the instrument, number and appearance of frets, and the number of strings. From the second half of the 15th century, vihuelas had five strings, marking the beginning of the appearance of courses (double strings in unison or octave). With time, the number of strings increased. The common vihuela, how it is described by Juan Bermudo in his Declaración de los instrumentos musicales (1555) had six courses, although we can find also seven-course vihuelas or some fascinating examples when the instrument had only three strings.17 Vihuela tuning is the same as the tuning of the renaissance lute. There is still a discussion about the use of octave strings within courses.18 Some of the vihuela players were trying to avoid this use of octaves, for better understanding and projecting of polyphony onto the vihuela. The literature for vihuela de mano and renaissance lute is easily interchangeable in meaning, and it is possible to play it on both instruments without any kind of problems. The Italian version viola da mano was a widely distributed instrument in the 16th century and was used by composers such as Francesco da Milano, who is mostly known as a lute player. On the other hand, the renaissance lute was not an unknown instrument either, as we can imply due to the absence of lute literature sources in Spain.19 The diversity of vihuela repertoire is exemplified in vihuela books, which contain a wide variety of settings including solo pieces, secular and sacred intabulations for various musical formations.
The records about vihuela players show the widely distributed popularity of this instrument throughout all social classes. There are several references to names of vihuela players, especially in the area of Zaragoza, such as Rodrigo Osorio de Moscoso (a soldier, ca. 1466 - 1510), Hernando de Castillo (a poet, unknown exact dates of birth and death), other court musicians, and Arabic or Jewish musicians. It is interesting that in the list we can find also female names such as María Villabuena (a record from 1480). Other important groups from this area are so-called oracioneros, blind musicians, who were singing or reciting prayers with vihuela as their accompaniment. Those musicians had permission to perform in public places, but also in private houses on the occasion of weddings, funerals, or baptisms.20 This can serve as a good example of the use of vihuela outside the court sector. Although, those records are sometimes not as precise as evidence about vihuela players we have from the Royal Court. During the reign of Queen Isabella I of Castile, players including Rodrigo Donaire (1489 - 1500), Vincente Ferrer (1498 - 1505), Diego de Medina (1439 - 1495), or Alonso de Beana (1493 - 1495) make an appearance. Rodrigo Donaire was most likely a teacher of royal children. It is important to mention that the majority of the names above were players on vihuela de arco. The fact that vihuela de arco was the dominant variation on the royal court proves the record of inventory of Isabella I from Alcázar in Segovia from 1503. This list does not include any vihuela de mano, just vihuelas de arco, a harp, an organ, and several other musical instruments.21 As Zaragoza was considered to be the city of vihuela and culture during the reign of Isabela I, Sevilla has the same role during the reign of Philip II. The importance of Sevilla is proved also by the fact that there were printed books for vihuela as Tres libros de Música de cifras by Alonso Mudarra and Libro de música para Vihuela, intatulado Orphénica Lyra by Miguel de Fuenllana. From this era we also have some evidence of vihuela players, especially due to the records contained in Libro de descripción de verdaderos retratos de ilustres y memorables varones (1599) written by Francisco de Pacheco. From this book we can learn about the most significant people associated with vihuela, such as Cristóbal de Sayas (the soldier and vihuela player), Pedro Bravo, Pedro de Mesa, or the famous composer Francisco Guerrero and poet Garcilaso de la Vega.22
From the time of Isabella I, we know about only a few vihuela makers who were active primarily in cities such as Sevilla, Toledo, Málaga, or aforementioned Zaragoza. They were called by several names including: hacedores de laúdes, hacedores de vihuela or as violeros. In their workshops they built not only vihuelas but other instruments such as lutes, harps, and monochords. The proof of the common origin and similar constructional elements of those instruments is based mostly on iconographical sources.23 From this era several builders can be mentioned:
- Pedro García is the oldest of the builders known by name of the stringed instruments (also known as Citolero sevillano). He was active in Sevilla around 1444.
- Juan de Albariel (active between 1463 and 1469), also known as maestro de hacer laúd, monocordis e instrumentos or as maestro de hacer vihuela was a founder of an important workshop active in Zaragoza until the end of the 16th century.
- Lope de Albariel was other important builder documented in Zaragoza.
- Mahoma Monferris was an Arabian builder and allegedly a builder of the first claviorganum for prince Juan, the son of Isabela I of Castilla.
- Juan Pérez was one of the very few Christian builders in Zaragoza who appears there around the year 1499.24
In Toledo existed a street specialized in lute construction called Calle de los Laudores, where several workshops appeared. Although, according to the census in the year 1561, there were only four active vihuela builders in Toledo. The most important was Juan de Guadalupe, who was likely the builder of one of the few surviving instruments we have nowadays. We only have four surviving examples of vihuelas: vihuela Guadalupe25 which is situated in Musée Jacquemart André in Paris, vihuela Chambure, situated also in Paris in Cité de la Musique, vihuela de Quito, currently based in the church La Iglesia de la Comañía de Jesús in Quito, Mexico and the last of known survived instruments is vihuela by Belchior Día built in 1581 in Lisbon and currently placed in the collection of Royal College of Music in London.26
At the end of the 16th century, the “old-fashioned” vihuela almost disappeared for several reasons, including the increasing difficulty of polyphonic repertoire. This instrument was starting to be replaced by the baroque guitar, an instrument with was very distant from the renaissance and polyphony world of the vihuela. For several years, vihuela and baroque guitar overlapped (mainly between the years 1580 - 1590 as we can see in examples of vihuela de Quito and the instrument built by Belchior Díaz). From the time of publication of El Parnaso by Esteban Daza (1576) we can identify approximately forty-five players on vihuela.27
Nowadays we have several survived publications for vihuela printed between the years of 1536 and 1571 with over 690 compositions. Chronologically:
- El Maestro by Luis Milán (Valencia, 1538)
- Los seis libros del Delphín by Luis de Naváez (Valladolid, 1538)
- Tres libros de música by Alonso de Mudarra (Sevilla, 1546)
- Silva de sirenas by Enríquez de Valderrábano (Valladolid 1547)
- Libro de música de Vihuela by Diego Pisador (Salamanca, 1552)
- Libro de música para vihuela, intatulado Orphénica Lyra by Miguel de Fuenllana (Sevilla, 1554)
- El Parnaso by Esteban Daza (Valladolid, 1576)
In addition to these main sources, we can add several manuscripts containing other music for vihuela. Those are mostly of smaller extent and placed in libraries in Spain, Austria, and Poland. In Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid there is a copy of Mudarra’s Tres libros de música de cifras, in which an unknown author added a few of his compositions. Similarly, the copy of Valderrábano’s Silva de sirenas in Vienna included a small number of compositions. A more extended collection of music for lute and vihuela (approximately 35O pieces) is placed in Biblioteka Jagiellonska in Cracow. This collection was most likely written by a Spanish composer in Naples.28 Another interesting source of vihuela compositions is an anthology entitled Ramillete de Flores (MS 6001)29 currently placed in Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, wherein the middle of the book can be found a few pages with tablature for vihuela.
