In the end this proved to be increasingly dificult to read so the maximum number of lines was to be 7. One could increase the number of lines as the lute gained more strings. This system proved to be much more flexible. the positions for the left hand fingers were indicated by numbers. Here lines were used to indicate the courses of the lute. The second system to be developed was the Italian tablature. The last printed German tablature was issued in 1592 by Mattheus Waissel. Despite this drawback this system remained in use untill around the year 1600. 3 alternative ways of notating the 6th course are given in N2. As time progressed the lute gained more courses thus undermining this systems integrety.Ībove a luteneck is depicted showing all symbols used. It is based upon the idea that every position on every course should have its own symbol. The earliest, German system was invented around 1470 for the then fashionable 5-course lute by the blind organist and luteplayer Conrad Paumann. Various systems of tablature were in use. Thus instead of the music itself, the way to produce it is notated. Stops for the left hand fingers are indicated by numbers or letters. I made a mould consisting of two flat plywood plates separated by a block to space them the correct distance apart, with a “toast rack” of pieces of jelutong for the vaulted back.Tablature is a system of notation in the Renaissance developed especially for fretted instrumens like the lute, guitar, lyra viol and vihuela. Having never made a guitar-shaped instrument before, I had some learning and improvising to do. It seems the body is quite shallow, and the shape of the case suggests the back is slightly vaulted rather than flat. We cannot see the back of the viola in the engraving, but luckily Achillini is resting his foot on the case and this gives us some useful information. In any case I decided to shorten the body in relation to the neck in order to get a neck long enough for ten tied frets. I assume that the end of the bridge is just visible below Achillini’s arm, but it is hard to tell whether this is really the end of the bridge or not. ![]() Unfortunately in the engraving, while there do indeed seem to be ten frets on the neck, the body of the viola is longer than it should be according to this proportion. ![]() This is because a fret cannot be tied close to join due to the “heel” of the neck. The music also requires ten tied frets, which is confirmed by the iconography generally and means the join where the neck meets the body must be about where the twelfth fret would be – halfway along the string. I subsequently decided to reduce this to 68cm to get the tenth fret slightly closer to the body/neck join, which also had the effect of making it possible to tune in f’ or e’.Īchillini’s viola seems to have nine pegs, suggesting a five-course instrument, but attempts to count the strings suggest seven courses! Written sources confirm that both five and seven-course vihuelas existed, but all the surviving music for is for six courses, so I opted for a six-course version. I settled on a string length of 69cm, to be tuned in e’ at modern pitch, having had good experiences with six-course lutes of this size and pitch. We know, however, from written sources (and from Enríquez de Valderrábano’s duets for two vihuelas) that several different sizes were in use. This may be because modern players prefer small instruments and it is true that some of the solo repertoire occasionally requires difficult left-hand techniques which are not suited to large instruments. Most modern reconstructions of these instruments have been much smaller, with string lengths in the region of 50-60cm. His instrument is clearly quite large, with a string length probably nearer to 70cm than 60cm. It shows the philosopher Giovanni Filoteo Achillini (1466-1538) playing a viola da mano. I started with the engraving (based on a lost painting by Francesco Francia) by Marcantonio Raimondi (c.1510) (right). There are however seven large printed books of music published in Spain between 15, containing a huge amount of high quality music, so there is every reason to attempt modern reconstructions of these instruments. ![]() ![]() The Spanish vihuela and the Italian version, the viola da mano, are problematic for the modern luthier because there is very little information with which to work – possibly three surviving vihuelas (all of which are probably atypical to some degree) and iconographic sources.
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