Vihuelistas

The Vihuelistas were Spanish musicians who played the vihuela de mano, a 16^th century plucked string instrument that looked and sounded like a guitar.  The vihuela had six or seven strings.  It was tuned the way that a lute was tuned, but it was easier to hold and to play than a lute was.

Because the vihuela was so easy to play, it was seen as the perfect accompaniment to a solo song.

Spain's earliest instructional songbooks contained arrangements for voice and vihuela, or for vihuela solo.

Libro de Música de Vihuela de Mano Intitulado El Maestro (Vihuela de Mano Music Book, Entitled "The Teacher") by Luis Milán, written in 1536, was the first of these instructional books.

In the original edition of the book, the music for voice and the music for vihuela were both written in tablature, but the voice part was printed in red ink. The vihuela player was probably supposed to play both the part that was in red and the part that was in black, doubling over the voice part and playing an accompaniment at the same time.

El Maestro included a number of different song forms:

The romance was made up of four successive melodic phrases that corresponded to the four lines in each verse.  Romances often deal with historical subjects.

The villancico was written in ABBA form, where the A sections had a common refrain.

Los Seys Libros del Delphin de Música (The Six Music Books of Delphin) were published by Luis de Narváez in 1538.

These six books were written for Vihuelistas.

In his romances, Narváez printed only the first four lines of text. He felt that these songs were so well known that the singer could add as many verses that he wished from memory.  A Spanish gentleman was expected to know the words to the more famous romances by heart.

Ya Se Asienta El Rey Ramiro (King Ramiro is Seated) is a song by Narváez about the adventures of King Ramiro of Aragon.

Los Seys Libro del Delphin contains one of the most popular romances of Renaissance Spain:  Paseabase el Rey Moro (The Moorish King was Walking). This song describes the Moorish king walking through his gardens after he has learned about the capture of Alhambra.

Alonso Mudarra published Tres Libros de Música en Cifra para Vihuela (Three Music Books in Tablature for the Vihuela) in 1546.

Mudarra was the first to print the melody on its own staff.

Mudarra expanded on the subject matter of the previous published compositions for the vihuela. For example, he published romances about biblical subjects, such as Triste estaba el Rey David (King David was Sad - about David's lament for Absalom).

Other songbooks for the Vihuelista were:

Libro de Música de Vihuela Intitulado Silva de Sirenas, by Enríquez de Valderrábano, which was published in 1547,

Libro de Música de Vihuela, by Diego Pisador, which was published in 1552.

Orphénica Lyra, a collection of songs and instrumental works by Miguel de Fuenllana was published in 1554. Fuenllana was a blind Vihuelista who was born in Madrid. Orphénica Lyra is one of the richest collections of Spanish renaissance music. It contains a number of reworkings of arrangements by earlier composers.

The last book of musical works for the vihuela was El Parnaso by Esteban Daza, which was published in 1576.