Vihuela strings

Milán opened El Maestro with a woodcut of Orpheus playing the vihuela, “the first inventor” of the instrument. Twenty years later the friar Juan Bermudo described it in his Declaración de instrumentos musicales:

«LA vihuela cõmun tiene seys ordenes de cuerdas: las quales se llaman sexta, quinta, quarta, tercera, segunda, y prima. Esta vihuela en vazio, sin hollar traste alguno tiene desde la sexta hasta la prima vna quinzena, que son dos diapassones, o dos octauas.»

“The common vihuela has six courses of strings, called the sixth, fifth, fourth, third, second and treble. Played open, without stopping any fret, it spans a fifteenth from the sixth to the treble, that is, two diapasons or two octaves.”

(Juan Bermudo, Declaración de instrumentos musicales, Osuna 1555, book II, ch. 31, fol. 28r)

Orpheus playing the vihuela, woodcut in Luis Milán, El Maestro, Valencia, 1536, fol. A6v. Biblioteca Nacional de España.

The courses are tuned in fourths with a major third between the 4th and the 3rd, the same intervals as the Renaissance lute: Bermudo calls it “the common tuning used in Spain”. Today vihuelas are usually tuned in G (g′ d′ a f c G) or in A, and makers also sell sets in F and E. The vihuela had no fixed pitch: Milán tells the player to choose the treble by the size of the instrument and to tune it as high as it will bear, then tune the other courses from it. Bermudo adds that the five-course guitar of his time is “nothing but a vihuela with the sixth course and the treble taken away”; see our baroque guitar guide.

«Si la vihuela es grãde / tenga la prima mas gruessa que delgada. Y si es pequeña / tenga la prima mas delgada que gruessa: y hecho esto / subireys la prima tan alto quanto lo pueda suffrir: y despues templareys las otras cuerdas / al punto dela prima»

“If the vihuela is large, give it a treble rather thick than thin; if it is small, a treble rather thin than thick. When this is done, raise the treble as high as it will bear, and then tune the other strings to the pitch of the treble.”

(Luis Milán, El Maestro, Valencia 1536, “Declaración del libro”, fol. iii v)

The vihuela with the sol-fa intervals for tuning it, Luis Milán, El Maestro, Valencia, 1536, fol. iiij.

The vihuela was strung in gut, and the trebles and middle courses are still plain strings today: gut, or synthetic gut for stability in changing weather. A false string, uneven along its length, will not play in tune on the frets, and Milán explains how to spot one before fitting it:

«Estirareys con dos dedos de cada mano la cuerda de vihuela: la qual ha de ser de largaria dela vna pontezica hasta la otra justo. Y assi estirada / darle eys con otro dedo / como quien la quiere tañer: y si la dicha cuerda haze como que son dos cuerdas es buena: y si haze como que son mas de dos cuerdas / es mala: y no se deue poner enla vihuela.»

“Stretch the vihuela string between two fingers of each hand, at exactly the length from one little bridge to the other. Holding it stretched, pluck it with another finger as if you were playing it. If the string looks like two strings, it is good; if it looks like more than two, it is bad and must not be put on the vihuela.”

(Luis Milán, El Maestro, Valencia 1536, fol. iii v – iiij r)

Miguel de Fuenllana, Orphénica lyra, Seville, 1554, title page. Biblioteca de Catalunya.

The 5th and 6th courses (and the 7th on seven-course vihuelas, which Bermudo describes and drew) need basses: loaded or wound strings, or gut catlines for an all-gut setup. Each bass course can be strung in unison or with an octave string; the string makers offer both, and the choice is the player’s. The octave string is always a plain string, never lower in tension than the bass it is paired with.

“Demonstration of the seven-course vihuela”, Juan Bermudo, Declaración de instrumentos musicales, Osuna, 1555, fol. 110r. Biblioteca Nacional de España.