Dear Arto, I have never heard of a surviving example of a viola da mano, but Stephen Barber & Sandi Harris make a very convincing recreation of the viola da mano based on the Raimondi engraving. What struck me most about playing one of these instruments was its remarkable clarity of sound - in some ways better than a lute for playing polyphony because of the evenness of colour across its range. If the historical originals sounded that way I can understand why Francesco would have liked them.
Best wishes, Denys -----Original Message----- From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of wikla Sent: 17 August 2010 21:04 To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Subject: [LUTE] Re: Francesco and flat back lute? Thanks Daniel and Edward, I know that only very few Spanish vihuelas exists today. Did any Italian version manage to survive? And has any modern luthier tried to recreate those Italian "hand violas"? Arto On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:54:31 -0500, Edward Martin <e...@gamutstrings.com> wrote: > Arto, > > The 1536 edition of Farancesco's works state that the pieces in this > book are for liuto or viola. The reference to viola is viola da > mano, which is essentially a vihuela da mano. There is a > Raimondi engraving of a player of the viola da mano, in which the > instrument resembles a vihuela da mano, with exception that the peg > head was of the sickle design. It is standard thought these days > that the Italian version may have had the sickle design. Otherwise, > the viola in reference is one and the same as our concept of the vihuela. > > ed > > > > At 02:20 PM 8/17/2010, wikla wrote: >>Dear lutenists, >> >>didn't Francesco da Milano play also a flat back lute, "viola" or >>something >>like that. Perhaps the Neapolitian tabulature was connected to that >>instrument? >> >>Years ago there was some discussion also here, if memory serves..., not >>often does, though... ;-) >> >>But what is the latest "educated guess" (=science) of his flat back lute? >>Any recent analysis? >> >>Arto >> >> >> >>To get on or off this list see list information at >>http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > > Edward Martin > 2817 East 2nd Street > Duluth, Minnesota 55812 > e-mail: e...@gamutstrings.com > voice: (218) 728-1202 > http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1660298871&ref=name > http://www.myspace.com/edslute