----- Original Message ----- From: "Antonio Corona" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Lute Net" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 9:01 PM Subject: [LUTE] Re: For Bill -- Small bodied vihuela-viola-guitars come charango?
>> Out of curiosity, do you (or anyone here) know approximately when the word >> vihuela dropped completely out of usage and consciousness in Spain, and then >> also in the New World lands? Did it ever, in fact? Current Mexican Mariachi >> bands employ a 5 course Vihuela (their name) but I think that tradition >> dates back to the early 1900's (only). Is there a few hundred year span and >> gap where the word essentially disappears from usage and application to >> guitar-like instruments? >> >> Roger >> > Dear Eugene, > > The etymology of vihuela, according to Joan Corominas, > author of the most reliable etymological dictionary of > Spanish, runs more or less along these lines (I am > quoting from memory): > > It comes, in the first instance from the Latin "fides" > (string) which later underwent various transformations > as "fidicula", "vitula", "viula", and finally > "vihuela" (I may have skipped some stages, I can't > remember just now). > > Later on, after the sixteenth century, the term was > also adopted to name the "guitarra española" (or > baroque guitar), as shown by a goodly number of > sources which use both terms interchangeably. > Thereafter the usage became even more free, but it was > principally associated with the guitar -in whatever > manifestation- and instruments of this family. Thus > you have a 19th century Argentinian gaucho in _Martin > Fierro: stating that "aqui me pongo a cantar, al > compás de mi vihuela", or 19th, 20th and 21st-century > mariachy bands in Mexico happily strumming a "vihuela" > that seems more related to a chitarra battente. > Incidentally, "lira" has undergone a similar process, > at least in Mexico. > > With best wishes, > Antonio > Antonio; this is what I suspected, that the term has been applied to guitar-like instruments non-stop since the late 15th century and even earlier (14th century, 1350, Juan Ruiz, (Archpriest of Hita), Spanish/Castilian, in his "Libro de buen amor" (The Book of Good Love), mentioning vihuela de arco and vihuela de penola). So anyone wanting to now limit the term solely to the early 16th century Spanish 6 courser, will have to take their argument to the last 500 years of Spanish nationals who've used the term freely, plus the nationals of all the New World lands, the Caribbean, Central and South America. People will have to convince _them_ that they had no right to use the word, and that they must repent for the blasphemy and disrespect shown to their vihuelista ancestors and their one and only "true" vihuela. The implications of this seem clear to me. Calling charango a vihuela, and recognizing it as being in the vihuela/guitarra family, a descendant and offspring of, as it clearly is, seems fair game. There is more than enough precedence, and in the lands and by the peoples who first gave us both the term and class of instrument, the heritage. Again, I'm really just playing devil's advocate here. I understand there is a particular moment in history and a particular repertory that people are wanting to distinguish and attach the term vihuela to (exclusively) as a convenient label and communications aid. Right or wrong, good or bad, appropriate or not, the waters of usage have already been long muddied. That is the real and true "tradition" of the matter. It's pretty hard trying to rewrite the record, wipe the slate clean and start over, at this point in the evolution of things, this late date. Roger To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
