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THE VIOL IN SPAIN There has not been much research done (on the Viol) in spain, whereas

its cousin , the vihuela de mano (plucked vihuela) is better known these last decades. The viol was usually called vihuela de arco or just vihuela, which can lead to confusion. Depending on the context it could refer either to the bowed one or to the plucked. Earliest citations to the vihuela de arco come from the Cancionero de Baena (beguining of XV century)1 but it probably refers to a drone accompaniment instrument (with a flat bridge). We can see such an instrument in El Pilar cathedral, in a work by Damian Forment (1509).

The origin of what we would call a Viol is well known thanks to Ian Woodfields Early History Of the Viol, where it says the instrument develops from using the bowing technique of the rebab (Moorish instrument) on a plucked instrument like the vihuela de mano in the Aragon-Valencian kingdom and then taken to Italy by the Borgia family when they got into Papacy. Holman2 also suggests these kind of instruments were taken to the north of Italy & Lowlands by the expelled Jewish musicians from Spain In Spain the viol appears in the court with the Flemish musicians that came with Carlos V on the first quarter of the XVI c. He kept two musical chapels: that from his home, the Flemish and the one from his new kingdom, the Spanish.

Imperial, Francisco. 'Poesas [Cancionero de Baena] ca 1409'. Brian Dutton; Joaqun Gonzlez Cuenca, Visor (Madrid), 1993 2 Peter Holman. 'Four and twenty fiddlers: the violin at the English court, 1540-1690'. Oxford Monographs on Music 1996

Carlos Vs grandson, Phillip II, personally plays the viol and sings along with. He also plays at consort with his friends motets from Guerrero3 At court the viol had three main uses One was teaching the 'cantorcillos' (choirboys) Teaching the members of the Royal Family and play in masques and these kind of partys(parties) Playing at the chapel at religious celebrations such as Lent, Semana Santa or Christmas4 Around 1620at the Royal Chapel violins start to take importance above the viol (which is still in use to teach the 'cantorcillos' and the sons of FelipeIII). Even in 1623 Henry Buttler enters Royal Chamber and Chapel to teach Felipe IV but viols 'as a group were put aside by the violins'5. We see the use of the viol in the royal household but it has not been so thoroughly studied on the lesser nobility and civil context. We can find some examples as the list of possessions of a Madrid banker in 1588. - A viol and its case (una biuela de arco con su caxa) 8 duc. - Another,old, viol without a case (otra vihuela de arco sin caja bieja) 12 rs6 We also know that the Dukes of Medina Sidonia in the first half of XVI century in Seville had Viol Players at their sevice7 Or even that it was quite common to play in consort as in this quite arcadian view of Valladolid: Gentelmen approach the coaches filled with women or follow the promenade to other parts of this meadow; some amuse themselves with conversation or read a book
3

Luis Robledo Estaire. 'La musica en la casa de la reina, principe e infantas'. Pp210-211 Aspectos de la cultura musical en la corte de Felipe II Fundacin Caja Madrid. Madrid, 2000 4 Luis Robledo Estaire. 'Vihuelas de arco y violones en la corte de Felipe III' Espaa en la musica de occidente Vol. INAEM 1987 5 'Vihuelas de arco y violones en la corte de Felipe III' 6 Beryl Kenyon de Pascual. Two Sixteenth-Century Spanish Inventories The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 49 (Mar., 1996), pp. 198-203 7 Juan Ruiz Jimnez. Power and Musical exchange:the Dukes of Medina Sidonia in Renaissance Seville.Early Music August 2009 pp.401-415

under the shadow of trees, other listen to the concert of viols or sing themselves, tuning their voices to thew sound of their guitars accounted Barthelemy Joly during a stay in Valladolid at the beguining of the XVIIth century. 8 Nevertheless it is also recorded that viols were used in royal entrances in towns and also in cathedrals for liturgical music. THE SPANISH VIOL There are not known extant Iberian instruments on public collections of the gamba family from the renaissance and baroque period. There are some XVIII c violin family instruments and a violon, 5 stringed bass instrument at the Convento de la Encarnacin in Avila, attributed to Domingo Pescador. Anyway, how many of the unauthenticated (anonime Italian and centroeuropean instruments)could be of Iberic/Spanish origin? There are also two gamba basses, the Ash.02.Boyden 3 (Venetian viol) at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Domenico Ruffo at the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck, Myrna Herzog suggests they could be from the same maker as they are very similar9. The one in Innsbruck has a label that says Dominico Russo (Ruffo?)No date nor place. Could this be the same Dominico as the one in the inventory of PhillipII five bowed vihuela of white wood with square inlays by the hand of Dominico in three boxes These two instruments have square inlays (much in a moorish style) These are cello shaped (quite square bouts) very similar to the instruments painted by El Greco. Looking at iconography there is very little research done in relation to viols, even though we can find a few examples in baroque period paintings (and all I have found are cello shaped), some nice ones from the sevillian school.10

Cristina Diego Pacheco Beyond church and court:city musicians and music in Renaissance Valladolid Early Music August 2009, Page 371 9 Myrna Herzog. Violin Traits in Italian Viol Building, Rule or Exception? The Italian Viola da Gamba. Edition Ensemble Barroque de Limoges 2002 10 Mara Teresa Dabrio Gonzlez. 'Los instrumentos musicales en la pintura andaluza.' Cuadernos de arte e iconografa/ Tomo VI - 11. 1993 http://www.fuesp.com/revistas/pag/cai1145.htm

Viol sizes

THE CONTEMPORARY VIOL In 1935 is founded Ars Musicae de Barcelona which lasted until 1980. It was leaded by Lamaa, Gispert and at the end by Escalas (nowadays director of the Museu de la Musica de Barcelona where some of the instruments they used are housed). In Madrid there were also a few groups. First was Agrupacin de Msica Antigua de Madrid by Alejandro Mas. Later came Atrium Musicae, with the Paniagua brothers and Cuarteto Renacimiento, with Ramn Perales de la Cal. At the beguining these ensembles played with not much knowledge of tecnique and the viols they used were far from the instrument we know today. More rigorous viol playing in Spain starts with the recording of the Tratado de Glossas by Jordi Savall, along with Casademunt and Glvez in 1970 . SEMA (Seminario de Estudios de Musica Antigua) can be considered the next generation. It finished its life ten years ago and it is the group where the viol teachers of today came from (all of them after having studied abroad). Nowadays there is a fair amount of students in Spain. Some of them have started playing the viol from scratch but many of them come from the cello, the guitar or the doublebass. In some of the main cities one can find public schools that teach viol playing for the primary and medium grade and one can get a degree on viol playing in Barcelona Madrid and Sevilla.

There are also short courses during the year organised by the University of Salamanca and summer courses in different places some of them going through trouble due to lack of public founding in these times of recession Viol makers are all along Spain, many of them gathered around the 'big' viol teaching centers. Latelly there is a current of making 'strong' viols, with high fingerboard projection and heavy tension strings along with the path of 'light' viols. And we can not forget the chinese viols, which have become quite popular for their afordability. Up to my knowledge there are no ensembles playing baroque or renaisance music using the more historical approach of all gut stringing. Even today, it is quite common to see renound bands playing spanish renaisance repertoire with ornated seven string french viols . Still a long way to go but thanks to teachers and viol makers there has been a huge improvement in the last decades.

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