Vihuela History

The renaissance is ultimately the golden age for technology, science, art, industry, and innovation, and this state of innovation and creativity surely included music. Due to technological advancement there was a breakthrough in instruments manufacturing, and this led to the invention of many new instruments, and this lead to new genres in music, that formed the musical atmosphere of that era. One of most amazing instruments of the renaissance was the viol or viola da gamba. In this paper I’m going to explain the origins of this instrument, and what influenced it, and the posture that was used for playing it, and how it continued to survive in modern days. The viol was a popular instrument during that era, and when I first started researching
Some people believe that vihuela, the favorite court instrument in the sixteenth-century in Spain is the parent for the viol. The vihuela resembles a glitter-like fretted plucked instrument with six courses of double strings, and because of its sound uniqueness, and popularity, musicians started to experiment with fitting this instrument in a curved bridge and playing it with a bow, in the manner of the Morrish fiddle rabāb. Trade, travels, always helped cultures borrow technologies from each other, and mix it with its own to create a unique mix that gathers the good aspects of both places. The viol made it’s trip to Italy, due to trade, and the cultural exchange between Italy, and Spain at that time, Spanish musicians brought a new instruments with them to Italy. The Italians first called it viola spagnola, and then adopted the term viola da gamba which translates as leg viol because of the sitting position the player has to take while
The reason is behind the great interest on the posture, and because of the great popularity of the viol in England. This popularity made viol concerts great social events, and English musicians needed to appear graceful. Any misalignment in the posture would be heavily criticized by the viewers, so the good posture didn’t merely play a technical aspect of playing the viol, but more as a social advantage for the viol player