Guitar Etymology & Morphology

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The H ispanization of the guitar: From the guitarra latina to the

guitarra espanola
Madriguera, Enric Felix, Ph.D.

The University of Texas at Dallas, 1993
Copyright 1993 by M adriguera, Enric Felix. All rights reserved.
UMI
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The Hispanization of the Guitar:
from the Guitarra Latina to
the Guitarra Espanola.
by
ENRIC F. MADRIGUERA, M.A.
DISSERTATION
Presented to the Faculty of
The University of Texas at Dallas
in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements
for the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HUMANITIES
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS
AUGUST, 1993
The Hispanization of the Guitar:
from the Guitarra Latina to
the Guitarra Espanola
APPROVED BY SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE:
Dr. Robert X. Rodriguez

Chairman
D r . Gavin*Hambly
PV\ {CÂ
Dr. Dennis Kratz
Dr.Esteban Egea/
Copyright 1993
Enric F. Madriguera
All Rights Reserved
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The inspiration for this project came about as a result
of my attempts to find any substantial writing on the early
history of the European guitar, while formulating my masters
thesis at the University of Texas at Dallas. Due to lacunae
in scholarship from which to analyze the development of the
guitar prior to the Renaissance, my thesis was limited in
scope to the social history, and the development of technique
and repertoire of the guitar and lute in Europe, from the
Renaissance to the present day. It is the hope that this work
will be of assistance to those who have wondered about the
pre-Renaissance culture of the guitar in the Iberian
peninsula, and the subsequent influence of Medieval Spanish
convivencia upon the development of the guitar.
Several grants enabled me to research and collect the
photographs for this project. A grant from the Dallas County
Community College District enabled me to underwrite the time
and expense that three months of extensive travel throughout
Spain entailed. A fellowship from the National Endowment of
the Humanities provided me with a stipend and visiting faculty
status at the University of Kentucky at Lexington for six
weeks. There, I attended a seminar entitled "Alfonso X 'the
Wise' and the 13th-century Spanish Renaissance", directed by
the distinguished Spanish Medievalist, John Esten Keller. The
sessions there presented me with a wealth of ideas from more
than a dozen experts on the Alfonsine period and the Medieval
culture of the Iberian peninsula.
For the writing of this thesis, I undertook research in
Spain at the following centers: Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid
(Salon de manuscritos y libros raros) ; the Archivo de la
Corona de Aragon. Barcelona (Salon Monsenor Hiainio Angles) ;
the Museo y biblioteca Provincial. Pontevedra, Galicia, and
the Salon de investigacion. Biblioteca del Monasterio Real de
San Lorenzo del Escorial.
In the United States, libraries in which I have received
valuable assistance include: the library of the Hispanic
Society, New York; the Morgan Library, New York; the Seminary
for Medieval Studies ltd., of the University of Wisconsin,
Madison; the University of Kentucky at Lexington, the Fondren
Library, the Hamon library of Art and Music, and the Bridwell
Theological Library on the campus of Southern Methodist
University; the Fine Arts and Humanities sections of Dallas
Public Library; the University of Texas at Dallas, and other
major research libraries in the North Texas area. I would
like to thank the librarians at those institutions cited as
well as those of my home institution, Eastfield College, who
were all so helpful and generous of their time.
At the University of Texas at Dallas, I would like to
express my gratitude to Robert X. Rodriguez for his help
throughout the creative process involved in the production of
this text. He has freely offered his thought, advice,
leadership and support. Equally, Gavin Hambly has given
generously of his time, musings, enthusiasm and his
knowledgeable help with Hispanic iconography, literature, and
expertise in the presentation of scholarly research. Thanks
to Professors Dennis Kratz and Esteban Egea for joining the
committee, and reading and commenting upon the text.
Professor Amado Carandang of Eastfield College advised me in
the translation and in the understanding of nuances in Latin.
I would also like to thank Professor Maria Dos Santos of East
Texas State University for her advise with some of the
translations from Galician-Portuguese into English. Needless
to add, none of those named above is responsible for any
errors which may be found herein.
I enjoyed several illuminating conversations with Dr.
Theodore Beardsley, Director of the Hispanic Society of
America; Thomas Glick of the Boston University; John Nitti
of the Medieval Seminary in Madison, Wisconsin; and Nicolas
Toscano of St. John's University, the editor of Anuario
Medieval. Doctor Toscano has published two articles which are
abstracted from this dissertation entitled: "Guitarras
moriscas and latinas in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.11 and "The
Hispanization of the Guitar: The Literary Tradition."
Foreign scholars who offered advice and encouragement and
whom I would like to thank include: Jose Filguera Valverde of
the Museum and Library of Pontevedra in Galicia, Spain;
Roberto Pla, Professor Emeritus of the Royal Conservatory in
Madrid; and Jose Lopez Calo s j ., of the Conservatory of the
University of Santiago in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
ABSTRACT
This dissertation presents an interdisciplinary study of

the early history of the guitar in the Iberian peninsula. The
history of the guitar is traced in two ways: first, in terms
of the ascendency of the guitar vis-a-vis its relatives and
rivals; and secondly, the process by which the guitar evolved
from the ouitarra latina of the court of king Alfonso X "the
Wise" of Castile and Leon (r.1248-1284) to become known as the
guitarra espanola by 1596, and flourish in much of Europe in
that guise during the 17th century. This dissertation has a
multi-disciplinary focus in order to explain the complex
confluence of cultures, personalities and events which shaped
and ultimately defined the Hispanization of the guitar.
There are six chapters discussing the guitar and its
closest relatives. Chapter one treats the relationship
between name and shape, and offers an analysis of the often
contradictory names and changing shapes of early plucked
stringed instruments. Chapter two surveys the images of
chordophones from the 9th through the 17th centuries. The
Spanish propensity for visual expression in both two and
three-dimensional art is essential to the premise of the
Hispanization of the guitar. The third chapter offers a
chronicle of the Hispanization of the guitar through literary
sources. This process of selection and adaptation is traced
through references to the Medieval guitarra latina. a musical
vestige of Roman occupation of the Iberian peninsula, to the
Renaissance vihuela. and culminating with the Baroque
guitarra espanola. The fourth chapter presents a history of
the position in society held by players of the guitar, ranging
from the servitores (minstrels) to the oratores (intellectual
elite) and even, at times including the bellatores (nobility
and military elite).
Chapters five and six are devoted to the Hispanization of
the guitar through its musical repertory: Medieval music in
chapter five, and Renaissance and Baroque in chapter six, the
Medieval music discussed in chapter five - the Cantigas de
Santa Maria - although scored for the voice, actually
constitutes a proto-repertory for the guitar. The later
repertories from the 16th to the 18th centuries in this survey
discussed in chapter six, were specifically composed for the
plucked string. The guitar and its relationship to the music
of Spain are discussed on two levels: first, in a survey of
the instrument within the performative tradition of Hispanic
culture, and second, in relation to its repertoire. Elements
which make Spanish music unique, and how the guitar fulfills
its role within that music are the focus of the discussion.
The conclusions offer a summary of the material presented in
the dissertation plus a further analysis of the guitar both
from an ethno-cultural perspective and from a broader view:
how the guitar came to function as a universal element in the
world of music.
Dedication:
"A los maestros de la guitarra."
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction................................................. 10
Chapter One: Name and Shape (Etymology and Morphology)...21
Chapter Two: The Iconographic Tradition.................... 38
Chapter Three: The Literary Tradition...................... 68
Chapter Four: The Social Tradition......................... 98
Chapter Five: The Musical Tradition: Middle A g e s ......... 130
Chapter Six:The Musical Tradition: Renaissance & Baroque.158
Conclusions.................................. 195
Afterward................................................... 210
Appendix I: Iconography...... 215
Appendix II:Analysis of selected Cantigas de Santa Marla.. .216
Appendix III:Timeline ..................................... 223
Bibliography................................................ 225
Vitae....................................................... 240
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10
INTRODUCTION
In 1894, for the first edition of the Diccionario tecnico
de la musica. Spanish musicologist Felipe Pedrell stated of
the guitar:
Guitarra. Instrumento que px*ocede de la Arabia,

segtin la opinion mas generalizada, y que nos fue
importado por los moros arabes de Asia y Africa. 1
Guitar. An instrument that comes from Arabia,

according to general opinion, and which was
imported by the Moorish Arabs from Asia and Africa.
Pedrell's definition of the guitar associates the instrument
with the Arabic culture which, in spite of its historical
impact upon Spanish culture, was considered in post-
Inquisition Spain as alien. His definition of the lineage of
the guitar raises a question which has produced considerable
controversy among musicologists: specifically, was the guitar
of Arabic origins, as some musicologists such as Pedrell,
maintained - or was there a prior European ancestry?
The article entitled "guitar " in the most recent edition
of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
summarizes the nature of the question, and points towards a
possible answer:
1 Felipe Pedrell, Diccionario tecnico de la musica. Barcelona

1894, p.212. Pedrell's encyclopedic dictionary was concurrent to
the first generation of modern dictionaries and encyclopedias of
music which were published in Europe in the last decade of the 19th
century.
Authors note: Throughout the dissertation, the use of orthographic
accents in Spanish will conform to the standard usage of the
respective historical period from which the citations are derived.
11
One subject of disagreement has been

whether the guitar was of indigenous
European development or was instead among
the instruments introduced into Medieval
Europe by the Arabs. These speculations
often betray a lack of detailed analysis
of the instruments considered;
clarification will depend on a thorough
study of their morphology and performing
practice in the light of relevant
ethnomusical information.2
In light of the statement by the Grove Dictionary, if one
assumes that the definition by Pedrell is factual, then there
must be a story in the how and why the guitar came to be known
as Spanish. Finding evidence which shows how the guitar came
to be associated with Iberian/Hispanic culture is the
objective of this dissertation. To establish the guitar's
Hispanic identification, it is first necessary to trace the
history of the early guitar from the middle ages to the early
modern period on the Iberian peninsula. Although there are
several histories of the guitar such as texts by Bellow,
Evans, GrunefeJd. Turnbull, and Tyler, this is the first
intrepretative history of the early guitar and of the
selection process which ultimately gave the guitar a Spanish
identity. Hence the aims of this dissertation are two-fold:
first, to track the ascendancy of the guitar in relation to
its relatives - and rivals - amongst the plucked string
2 Harvey Turnbull,"guitar", In the same article, it is further

argued that: "An a priori approach to the problems involved carries
little conviction further uncertainties arise in establishing
the extent to which intercultural connections are a factor in the
diffusion of instruments." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians: Sixth Edition, Vol. VIII, London, MacMillan, 1980,
p.827.
12
instruments and second, to define the historical moment for
the Hispanization of the guitar.
The history of an instrument might well begin with an
examination of the musical scores written for that instrument.
Musical scores leave a traceable - hence definable - record,
open to empirical analysis, which traditionally has provoked
the greatest interests for musicological researchers. Using
this method, the history of the guitar would begin in 1536,
when the Spanish courtier Luys Milan published El Maestro. the
first printed book for vihuela, which was for all intents a
guitar.3 The inadequacy of this approach becomes apparent
when we see that the printed musical page tells only part of
the story, inasmuch as there exists music written for other
mediums - i.e. Medieval vocal repertoire - which nevertheless
has a bearing on the guitar.4 Moreover, the 1501 appearance
of Harmonice musices odhecaton by the Italian Ottaviano dei
Petrucci (1466-1539) which revolutionized the art of music
through the printed page was, in the case of the guitar,
preceded by a long history of literary and iconographic
3 This view, which is not without its counterpoint, that the

vihuela was actually a lute, is discussed at length throughout the
dissertation.
4 The medieval vocal repertoire of the Cantigas de Santa Maria

is discussed in chapter five as a possible proto-repertory for the
guitar. The vocal repertory of the cantigas has many traits which
make many of the cantigas suitable for instrumental performance.
One theory, (discussed in chapter five) which has been advanced by
the Spanish Arabist Julian Ribera, in fact, posits that the
cantigas originated on the plucked-string (guitarra latina
guitarra mgrisca) and were later adapted for the voice.
13
sources. Accordingly, this dissertation will have a multi
disciplinary focus in order to explain the complex confluence
of cultures, personalities and events which shaped and
ultimately defined the Hispanization of the guitar. There
will be five chapters discussing the guitar and its closest
relatives in terms of etymology and: morphology/shape,
literary references, iconography, sociology, and musical
repertoire.
The first chapter treats the relationship between
etymology and morphology: the often contradictory names and
changing shapes of early plucked stringed instruments
throughout the history of music. References in the first
chapter to the Greek and Roman cultures of Classical Antiquity
serve as an historical underpinning of this history which
takes place primarily on the Iberian peninsula. The chapter
will examine historical documentation which shows an ongoing
ambiguity which existed in Medieval Europe regarding the
terms: vi o l . vielle. vihuela. lute. and guitarra
kithara.cithara. cittern, citola. cetra. qittern. guitar.
guitare. violao. Scholars who have addressed the multiplicity
of names and shapes for plucked-string instruments include,
Lawrence Wright and Emmanuel Winternitz. Wright discusses the
apparent confusion of using the term "guitar1' as an
appellation for instruments that were really more akin in
shape to the lutes of Medieval Europe. Winternitz follows a
similar method with the kithara from classical antiquity to
14
early Medieval Europe, employing the perspective of an art
historian. The scholarship of both these authors served as a
model for the first and second chapters of this dissertation
as regards the Iberian peninsula. Ironically, in defining the
chordophones of the Iberian peninsula the same type of problem
exists but in reverse order; at times historians have referred
to instruments such as the vihuela. as being lutes, (J.B.
Trend, Count Morphy) when these instruments are actually
better described as guitars. The goal of this study is to
uncover the etymological/morphological roots of the guitar and
its closest relatives, and in so doing to determine the
cultural lineage of the terms. Some of the terms and shapes
of Iberian chordophones were either discarded as alien to the
culture, or ultimately evolved into the name and shape of the
guitarra espanola. the Spanish guitar.
The second chapter studies the etymology/morphology theme
from the vantage point of the visual arts. Art historians
have noted the unique richness of the iconographic traditions
of Spain, which preserve the history of the country and
display the character of its people. The Spanish propensity
for visual expression in both two and three-dimensional art is
essential to the premise of the Hispanization of the guitar.
Information used in this chapter derives from an iconographic
tradition which includes illuminated manuscripts of the Beatus
Commentary on the Apocalypse, ranging from the 8th to the 13th
century; sculptural representations in stone; and the
manuscript illustrations of musical instruments in the
Cantigas de Santa Marla of Alfonso X (r.1252-1284). The
frequency of depictions of the Renaissance and the Baroque
guitars increase the with advent of printing. In these
guitar, lute and vihuela texts, one finds illustrations of the
early modern versions of the instrument which is the prototype
for what today is called the Spanish or the Classic guitar.
The iconography which closes this chapter includes
illustrations from selected early manuals and anthologies for
the vihuela and the guitar, composed by the Renaissance and
Baroque masters of those instruments.5
The third chapter explores the Hispanization of the
Guitar through literary sources. This process of selection
and adaptation is traced through references to the Medieval
guitarra latina. a musical vestige of Roman occupation of the
Iberian peninsula, to the Renaissance vihuela. and
culminating with the Baroque guitarra espanola. In this
chapter, references to plucked-stringed instruments are traced
through various literary genres, namely: epic poetry,
goliardic verse, prose works, and inventories of royal
households, dating from the 13th to the 17th centuries. The
term guitarra espanola. which occurs in the Amat text of 1596
is preceded by three and a half centuries of references to the
5 The controversy as to whether representations of the vihuela

is first discussed in chapter two (iconography) . It must be
remembered that names and morphology of musical instruments may -
at times - be in conflict.
guitar and its closest relatives in prose poetry and manuals
for the guitar. Manuals for the guitar are discussed in this
chapter for their usefulness in the establishment of a
chronological framework for the Hispanization of the guitar.
The literary examples include works produced by the great
writers of the Hispanic tradition from the Libro de buen amor,
(the Book of Good Love), of the Archpriest of Hita, to La
Dorotea of Lope de Vega. Through the writing of these
authors, the ubiquitous nature of the early guitar within the
context of daily life in a variety of settings from the court
to the tavern is documented. A discussion of the various
terms relative to the history of the guitar within the prose
and poetry of Spain and its vernaculars, serves as a
linguistic history of an emblematic instrument within a
culture.
The fourth chapter presents a history of the position in
society held by players of the guitar, ranging from the
servitores (minstrels) to the oratores (intellectual elite)
and even, at times including the bellatores (nobility and
military elite). It is the intellectuals who made it possible
for the guitar to attain the cultural stature which allowed
the instrument access to the each of the three estates and to
thrive on Spanish soil.
The final chapters which discuss the repertory and
musical practice of the guitar, bear out the observations
which are made in the previous chapters discussing
17
iconography, literature and social values. It is appropriate
to divide the discussion of the repertories in this fashion:
Medieval music in chapter five, and Renaissance and Baroque in
chapter six, because the Medieval music discussed in chapter
five - the Cantigas de Santa Maria - are scored for the voice,
while the later repertories of the 16th through the 18th
centuries in this survey discussed in chapter six, were
specifically composed for the plucked string. The guitar and
its relation to the music of Spain are discussed on two
levels: first, in a survey of the instrument within the
performative tradition of Hispanic culture, and second, in
relation to its repertoire. Elements which make Spanish
music unique, the development of a playing technique specific
to the Spanish guitar, and how the guitar fulfills its role
within that music are the focus of the discussion.
Chapter five presents a central point in the
Hispanization process of the guitar which occurred in the
poly-cultural atmosphere at the court of the Medieval king of
Castile and Leon, Alfonso "the Wise" where a guitar existed
for each of the two dominant cultures of the Medieval Iberian
peninsula. The guitars took the form of the guitarra latina
and the guitarra morisca, the Latin and the Moorish guitars.
The personality and artistic preferences of Alfonso provide
a unifying theme in this dissertation in that Alfonso's
cultural, and educational policies, (discussed in chapters two
18
and four) and his political interests in large measure served
to define musical culture and the place of the
creator/composer and performer within Medieval Spanish
society. It is argued in this dissertation that the balance
of the diverse cultures of his kingdom was of necessity tilted
toward the primacy of European culture. The guitarra latina
is thus an instrument of Alfonso's socio-political thinking as
well as his cultural preference. His association with the
guitarra latina. as depicted in the Cantigas de Santa Maria,
is fundamental to the premise of this dissertation which
posits that the emblemization of the guitar to Hispanic
culture first occurred in the Alfonsine epoch.
The cultural influence of Alfonso, however, extended far
beyond the Middle Ages. He founded the first university chair
of music in Europe, and he created an early doctrine entitled
the Declaratio de senhor rey N' Amfos de Castela - unique in
the Europe of his time - by which the Medieval troubadours
defined their societal status. Further, the Renaissance
vihuelist and Baroque guitarists of the following centuries
owe a portion of their social acceptance to their predecessors
at the Alfonsine court.
Chapter six presents the repertories of the Renaissance
and the Baroque. The "siglos de oro" of the arts, and the
apogee of Spain as a political force in the 16th and 17th
centuries was also a golden age for the guitar. It is in the
17th century that the instrument develops both its own
19
repertory and its Hispanic identification. The geographic
location of Spain has placed it within the sphere of a variety
of influences from cultures notable for their musical
accomplishments, both from north of the Pyrenees and from the
south of the Straits of Gibraltar. The Hispanic tradition has
been able to synthesize these influences and incorporate them
into a distinctive national style. When Gaspar Sanz (b.
Calanda, Aragon, mid-17th century; d. early 18th century)
characterized the strummed style of Spanish guitar-playing as
"musica ruidosa" (noisy music), he was fully aware that there
existed similar styles of plucking and strumming both in Italy
and France; in fact, he even pays homage to the great French
and Italian players in his introduction - and yet, it is the
Spanish style, la musica ruidosa. which has best stood the
test of time. Thus chapters five and six offer a survey of
significant musical works from the Middle Ages to the close of
the 17th century. An Appendix to the chapter gives a musical
analysis of representative pieces.
Epigraph
Siquidem Hispanorum Inventio;
Indeed the invention of the Spanish.
Tinctoris, Inventione et usu mfisicae. 1487.
21
Chapter One
Etymology-Morphology
"Quia sicut pulsus est cordis in pectore
ite pulsus chorda in cythara"
"He that plucks the
strings of the heart
plucks those of the cythara"
Etvmologiae. St. Isidore of Seville.
Dictionaries and encyclopedias of music, as well as of
language, link the word "guitar" with the Latin cithara. as well
as the Greek kithara. to an instrument that found popularity in
Hellenistic Greece, and later in the Roman empire.6 In fact,
the popular saying that "the Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome
burned" is erroneous in that Nero was a citharist, not a
fiddler.7 The linking of the terms kithara and guitar is
6 Martha Maas, and Jane Mcintosh Synder, Stringed Instruments

of Ancient Greece. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, pp
60-66, 1989. The Kithara probably originated in Asia Minor. It was
introduced to Greece during the Hellenistic period. The kithara
became one of the most important instruments of Greco-Roman
antiquity. It was used as an accompaniment instrument for songs of
praise for heroes.
7 Tacilus, Annales. Bk.XIV, tr. M.Grant, Harmondsworth: Penguin

Books , 1956, p. 363; Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, tr. R.
22
confusing because the kithara was a type of lyre, with free
standing strings, and not a plucked-string instrument with a
neck and fingerboard like a guitar or lute. The awkwardness and
sometimes apparent conflict between the etymology and morphology
of musical instruments is highlighted in the following article
from the Oxford English Dictionary:
"Musical instruments are subject to great alteration

of structure and shape, in process of time, and in
different countries. Consequently, cognate names,
regularly descended from the same original, come at
length to be applied by different nations to very
different types of the instrument. Sometimes, also,
one or more derivative types, distinguished by
diminutive or augmentative names, are used in the same
country. When, as often happens, any of these
national or local form of the instrument become
subsequently known and introduced in another country,
they usually take their local name with them. Hence,
the modern languages often use two or three
modifications of the same original word applied to as
many instruments which different peoples have
developed out of the same type. Thus cither, cithern
or cittern, citole, gittern, guitar, zither, are all
found in English as names of extant or obsolete
instruments developed from the cithara.8
Graves, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1957, pp. 218-219, 220-

222,and 231. Apparently Nero was fond of exhibiting his skill as
a citharist, as we know from accounts of his visits to Greece to
perform in competitions. Nero would return to Rome to display his
trophies and perform, an activity which apparently, was to the
detriment of the Roman Empire. "....the Emperor Nero preferred
showing off as a concert artist to being a thoroughly good ruler.
People were obliged to attend his performances. Once they were
inside the theater, locks were turned to prevent their leaving."
Kenneth Levi, Music: A Listener's Introduction. New York: Harper
and Row, 1983, p.5.
8 See xCithara' in the The Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford:

Clarendon University Press, 1970, vol. II, p.441.
23
This definition describes musical instruments known as
chordophones, one of the source families of musical instruments.
A chordophone is a generic term used to describe instruments
which produce their sound by strings stretched between fixed
points. Morphologically, the family of chordophones includes a
wide variety of musical instruments. Musical instruments with
fingerboards such as the guitar, lute, Turkish Zarb, and banjo
qualify as members of the chordophone family, as well as
instruments with free-standing strings, such as the harp or the
zither. Bowed string instruments of the string family such as
the violin, viola, violoncello, and bass viol are also members
of this family.
The chordophone group is equally broad in its ethnology.
For example, the above definition takes into account not only
the plurality of names, but of cultures. The terms cittern.
citole. guitar, and aittern are linked to the European
tradition, while the term zither is a Middle Eastern cognate.
In later chapters, arguments will be presented for the use of
more precise terminology to describe specific varieties of
plucked stringed instruments. In order to do so, it will first
be necessary to present a survey of the overlapping and, at
times, contradictory terms used by theoreticians and historians
of music to describe chordophones.
24
Christopher Page maintains that Boethius (475-525 A.D.) in
De Institutione Mtisicae is specific in defining the Latin
cithara as an instrument with a string for every note.9 This
definition ignores the possibility that the cithara could have
divided a single string into eight parts, based upon the
Pythagorean monochord to which Boethius refers in his writing.
In one passage Boethius wrote:
After the division of the standard monochord I think

we should discuss those matters about which ancient
musical scholars express contradictory opinions. Sharp
discernment needs to be summoned concerning all these
things, and that which is purposely omitted from this
treatise must be supplemented with the aid or ordinary
learning. Another division can take place in which
not only one string is brought into use and divided
according to the proposed ratios, but eight. A
kithara of this kind mav also be made, in order that
a complete theory of ratios might be discerned, set
out before the eyes, as it were, in a number of
strings, however many are necessary."10
9 Christopher Page, Voices and Instruments of the Middle Ages.

Berkeley: University of California Press, p.149, 1986. Page
maintains that "... the Latin cithara. a borrowing from the Greek,
was reserved for various forms of lyre. This is the usage
transmitted, for example, by Boethius's De Institutione Musica.
where it is clear that the cithara is an instrument with a string
for every note." This passage in De Instituitione Musica. is open
to a quite different interpretation.
10 Boethius, Fundamentals of Music, translated by Calvin M.

Bower, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990, pp 162-
163. This appears to be a clear reference by Boethius to an
alternative, fingerboard kithara. to compliment the traditional
instrument with free-standing strings, which contradicts the
statement by Page.
25
In this statement by Boethius, there is the implicit
possibility for the fingerboard instruments (at least in the
theoretical sense), not necessarily to replace the kithara, with
its free-standing strings, but to present an alternative kithara
with a fingerboard as yet another possibility for a musical
instrument. Since the traditional Hellenistic kithara already
existed and Boethius proposed an alternative version as a
speculation, this appears to be a plausible alternative
interpretation of the passage.
Boethius was anticipating future developments, for by the
13th century it is precisely the instruments with fingerboards
which were able to divide the string into different pitches;
they were in fact the standard for string instruments, as they
were considered more advanced due to the additional harmonic
capacity. In his article on the history in art of the kithara.
Emmanuel Winternitz argues for the possibility of kltharas with
fingerboards in use as early as the 6th or even the 5th-century
usage.11 Winternitz argues for the shape of the kithara
evolving into the cittern a steel-string fingerboard instrument
rather than the guitar. The cittern retained the 'wings'* of the
kithara as opposed to the smooth "shoulders" of guitar.
Regardless of the nuance here between guitar, gittern, and
11 Emmanuel Winternitz.Musical Instruments and their Symbolism

in Western A r t . New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1967,
p. 64. Winternitz posits that the drawings in the Utrecht Psalter
were based on earlier models,".... probably Eastern and possibly
Alexandrian, antedating the conquest of Alexandria."
26
cittern, the connection with Spain persisted as one finds in the
inventory of Henry VIII which upon the his death listed:
Foure Gitterons with iiii cases to them:

they are called Spainshe Vialles. 12
In Spain, St. Isidore of Seville (560-636) placed the term
cithara in a broader context. Isidore traces the etymology of
the term to the language of the Dorians. He defines the term
kithara in Dorian as referring to the human breast or chest.
This conforms to the performance practice for these instruments,
for both classical antiquity and the middle ages: the earliest
kitharas were held chest high, and even had a resonating chamber
in a shape reminiscent of a chest. This word-play is compounded
by Isidore's definition of the term string:
Chordas autem dictas a corde, quia sicut pulsus est

cordis in pectore, ita pulsus chordae cithara.13
The term string derives from the heart, thus in the

same manner that in our breast we have beats of the
heart, likewise in the cithara we pluck the string.
According to Page, Isidore used the term cithara in the
Etvmolocriae as a generic for the plucked-string family of
instruments.14 So when Isidore likens the plucking action on
the strings of the cithara to the beating of mens' hearts, he
12 Mary Remnant, Musical Instruments of the West. London: B.T.

Batsford ltd., 1978, p.37.
13 St. Isidore of Seville, San Isidoro de Sevilla. Etimoloaias.

(edicion bilingue), ed. Jose Oroz Reta, Madrid: Biblioteca de
autores Cristianos, 1932, p.447.
14 Page, op .cit. p. 149.
27
could equally be referring to the Medieval guitar, psaltery,
lyre, or harp, also held chest-high. Thus, as early as the 7th
century A.D. in Spain, the term cithara seems to have been
applied generically both to instruments with fingerboards as
well as to those with free-standing strings.
The scholar of Arabic music, Henry George Farmer agrees
that cithara and kithara are related terms. In addition, he
asserts that the term kithara is equivalent to kuwitra and
kuwithra. Arabic terms which describe, not a guitar type
instrument, but rather the Arabic lute, which is still the most
popular musical instrument played throughout the Maghrib.
It is common to the whole of the Maghrib 15 and has

four double strings. The name is a diminutive of
kitara or kithara. an instrument used in Moorish Spain
as early as the 10th century. In the llth century the
words kaithar and kaithara equate with the Latin
cithara.The kuwitra or kuwithra is a lute with a
smaller and shallower sound-chest, its head being
fixed obliquely rather than at a right angle as in the
ud. 16
The term lute (Fr.luth, G. laute, It. lauto. liuto: Sp.
laud. Port, alaude ) was derived from the Arabic term al-'ud.
15 The Maghrib area includes Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and

Libya. The Maghrib states are - excluding - Egypt, all bordering on
the Mediterranean sea.
16 Henry George Farmer, 'Ud'. in Encyclopedia of Islam.

Leiden: 1st edn., E.J. Brill, p. 986, 1913-1938. Farmer was a
leading Arabic scholar of the nineteenth century and he studied the
Arabic influence on Western culture, especially as it related to
music.
28
meaning wood. The European names were in turn, all formed by or
derived from the omission of the initial vowel of the definite
article al. In this way the Arabic root word became a part of
the European linguistic system. Farmer describes the instrument
as having a fingerboard, and not the sound chest with the free
standing strings which defined the kithara of Western classical
antiquity. Finally, the term oitar describes a type of tanbur
(lute) which is a name also derived from the Greek kithara. The
Arch-Priest of Hita, in his Libro de buen amor calls the aitar
the guitarra morisca (Moorish guitar). The guitarra morisca and
its companion guitarra latina were instruments of late 13th
century Spain which will be discussed throughout the
dissertation.
The rising importance of secular music in 13th-century
Europe created the need for a descriptive theoretical framework
in which musical thinkers could apply their skills to this new
style. This re-ordering of musical priorities which took place
during the Ars Nova period (c.l4th century) created new
possibilities for the use of musical instruments. The first such
treatise to list and describe the capabilities of musical
instruments was De Musica by the theorist Johannes de Grocheo
(fl c. 1300). Grocheo's treatise appeared in Paris, at the
outset of the Ars Nova period. In his treatise, he expresses
his view of the superiority of fingerboard instruments. He
29
attributes this to the greater number of notes of which
fingerboard instruments were capable, thus enhancing the
possibility of additional musical subtleties:
"Among these (those four) instruments which hold the

major place (instruments) whose types are the psalter,
the cithara, the lyre, the Saracen guitar and the
vielle. In these there is a subtler and better
difference of sound because of the shortening and the
lengthening of the strings, and here, of all the
instruments of the string family, so we feel the
vielle holds the main place."17
In this passage, Grocheo is, in effect, passing judgement
on the technology of musical instruments. The above passage
also recalls the thought of Boethius who, in his time, saw the
possibilities for the greater musical expression of which a
fingerboard instrument would be capable. The principal
difference in the two lies in the fact that while Boethius was
theorizing, Grocheo described an actual practice. The vielle of
which Grocheo speaks so admiringly was the mainstay of the
French troubadour tradition of the 13th century.
It may be noted that there is a direct relation between the
chordophones that belong to the vielle family and those of the
guitar family, through their relation to the Spanish word
vihuela. Terms in other European languages, which are
etymologically linked to the term vielle and which describe
17 Johannes de Grocheo, De Musica, translated by Albert Seay,

Boulder: Colorado College Music Press, 1974, p. 14. Johannes de
Grocheo was the first theorist to discuss secular monophonic music
in detail.
30
similar families of instruments, include the Portuguese violao.
the German fiedel. and the English fiddle, all of which
originally derive from the Latin term for a stringed instrument,
fides, of which the diminutive is fidicula and the Low Latin is
vitula. The term was used generically to describe string
instruments with fingerboards. It was inclusive of both the
plucked and bowed variety of instruments.18 In Medieval and
Renaissance Spain this was exemplified by the vihuela de arco
(the bowed viol), the vihuela de pefiola (the plectrum viol),
and the vihuela de mano (the plucked viol). Thus, the Spanish
vihuela de mano was an instrument that had some of the
characteristics of the guitar, such as the incurved sides, and
some of the lute, such as double strings. We find the prototype
of the Renaissance vihuela referred to in the writings of the
18 Edward John Payne, 'violin' A Dictionary of Music and

Musicians, ed., ed. Sir Charles Grove, London and New York:
MacMillan and Co., 1895, vol. 4, p.268 illustrates this point:
Latin Fides, a string
Diminutive
Fiducula
(Southern group)-------------------------------(Northern Group)
(low Latin) (Old French)
Fidiula -or- Fidula Fideille
(Spanish) (Provencal) (Italian) Medieval Anglo-

French Saxon
Vihuela Viola Viola Vielle Fithele
Viola Viula (Fr.Viole
Eng. Viol) Medieval High
English German
Fidel Fiedel
31
Archpriest of Hita, Juan Ruiz, (ca.1283 - ca.,1350) although he
spells it vivuela;19
El rabe gritador, con la su alta nota

cab' el orabin taniendo la su rota
el salterio con ellos, mas alto que la mota
la viyuela de pendola con aquestos y sota
The whining Persian fiddle with its highest note

playing "My Arab Heart" as well as could a rote
the psaltery with them, higher than the mote
the plectrum viol joined with those of high note.
Between the 14th and the 16th centuries treatises of music
published in Europe included many references to both vihuela and
guitarra. Apparently, the guitarra and vihuela were closely
intertwined in the popular mind, and both of these instruments
were closely connected to the lute. Johannes de Tinctoris (ca.
1436-1511), the Franco-Flemish theorist and composer, makes this
clear in his De Inventione et Usu Musicae:
Siquidem hispanorum inventio: ex lyra processit

instrumentum quod ipsi ac Itali violam Gaiiici vero
dimidum leutum vocant. Que quidem viola in loc a
leuto differt: quod leutum multo majus ac testudineum
19. Corominas, Diccionario Critico Etimologico de la Lengua

Castellana.Bern: vol. IV, 1954, pp. 844-845. Another spelling
which is found in medieval Spanish texts is biguela. discusses
the term which he characterizes as etimologically... un vieio v
oscuro problema. " an old and deep problem."
20 Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita, Libro de Buen A m o r . C.

1340, modern edition edited by Nicasio Salvador and Jaques
Joset: Madrid, Espasa-Calpe, 1939, 1087, vs. 1229, pp 194.
32
est: ista vero planl: ac (ut plurimim) ex utroque

latere incurvata. 21
Indeed the invention of the Spaniards, the instrument

which they and the Italians call viola and the French
demi-luth is descended from the lute. However the
viola differs from the lute in that the lute is larger
and shaped like a tortoise-shell whereas it is flat
and in most cases curved inwards on each side.
The instrument to which Tinctoris refers is clearly the
Spanish vihuela. which in many ways was similar to the lute
except for its shape, the incurved sides of which are guitar
like. Curiously, it appears from Tinctoris's description that
this instrument had a flat back, like the guitar, while the
vihuela had a gently rounded back, although less than that of
the lute.
Tinctoris also gives a definition for the term ahiterra.
This instrument had a curved back, unlike the modern day guitar,
and was more akin to the shape of the cittern well known to
Chaucer.
Quinetiam instrumentum illud a Catalanis inventum:

quod ab aliis ghiterra: ab aliis ghiterna vocatur: ex
lyra prodisse manifestissimim est: hec enim ut leutum
21 Johannes Tinctoris, Inventione et Usu Musicae ,

1487.pp.42. Also see, Mersenni, F. Marinsi, Hcirroonicorun
Libri,(1635), (Harmonie Universelle).The Books on Instruments:
Translated by Roger E. Chapman: The Hague: Martinez Nijhoff,
1957, pp.134-135. Proposition XIV: To Explain the shape,
tuning, tablature, and the playing of the guitar. The first
guitars, the invention of which seem to have been in Spain, had
only four courses of strings of which the first is single, and
called the treble string like the first of other instruments,
because it serves for the part of the soprano and after sings
the melody.
33
(licet eo longe minor sit) et formam testudineam: et

chordarum dispositions atque contactum suscipit.22
Furthermore it is very obvious that the instrument

invented by the Catalans, which some call the ahiterra
and others the ahiterna. is descended from the lute;
for it has the same tortoise-shell shape, tuning and
method of playing as the lute, though it is much
smaller
Although Flemish by birth, Tinctoris passed much of his
life in the service of the Crown of Aragon. In 1487, he was
sent abroad by his master, Ferdinand I of Naples (1445-1511), to
recruit musicians for his court. He dedicated his Liber de arte
contrapuncti to Ferdinand II of Aragon (1479-1516) .23
In his treatise Libro de Declaracion de Instrumentos(1555),
the leading Spanish theorist Fray Juan Bermudo considered the
vihuela and guitarra as practically interchangeable:
Digo si de la vihuela quereis hacer guitarra, quitadle

la prima y la sexta y las cuatro cuerdas que le quedan
son las de la guitarra. Y si quereis de la guitarra
hacer vihuela, ponedle una sexta y una prima. 24
I say that if of the vihuela you would like to make a

guitarra. remove the first and the sixth string, and
the four that remain are those of the guitarra. And
if you would like to make the guitarra a vihuela. add
the first and the sixth string.
22 ibid. pp. 42.
23 Higinio Angles, , Historia de la Musica Medieval en

Navarra. Pamplona: Institucion Principe de Viana, 1970. p. 352.
The Spanish musicologist is an authority on medieval musical
practice in the Spanish kingdoms.
24 Fray Juan Bermudo, Decalaracion de Instrumentos

Musicales, Osuna, 1555, Book IV, Chap. XXXVI.
34
Bermudo attributed the invention of the guitar to Mercury, the

Roman equivalent of the Greek god Hermes who - among his many
traits and accomplishments - invented the flute and the lyre:
Mercurio fue el inventor deponer la musica

en quatro cuerdas a imitacio de los quatro
elementos: y duro esta manera de instrumento
hasta el tiempo del gran musico Orpheo. 25
Mercury was the inventor to who assigned

music to four strings in imitacion of the
four elements: and this style of instrument
until the great musician Orpheus.
Bermudo's allusion to the gods of Classical Antiquity is inhigh
Renaissance style, and it also places the guitar within an
historical framework which would make it the predescessor to
both the vihuela and the lyre, for which Orpheus was famous.
Bermudo sees himself as the 16th-century theoretician who
rediscovered the guitar and he shows how the other, more modern
instruments such as the vihuela were derived from it:
Detal manera los instrumentos perfectos de

este tiempo avemos de confermar, y augmentar
quanto pudieremos: que sepamos los que los
antiguos usaron. Por lo qual me parecio
resucitar la guitarra del gran Mercurio.26
In such fashion we should confirm the

perfect instrumentsof our time, which we
improve upon as we are able: as we know the
instruments which were used by the Ancients.
For this reason it occurred to me to revive
the guitar of the great Mercury.
It would appear from Bermudo's endorsement of the guitar that
the fortunes of the instrument were assured. This, however, is
25 Bermudo, ibid.
26 Bermudo, ibid.
35
not the case, at least not in Bermudo's lifetime, for between
the vihuela and the guitarra. the guitar being smaller than the
vihuela and having less strings, was considered as the lesser of
the two instruments. In any case, as future chapters of this
dissertation will show, the juxtaposition of the guitar and
vihuela is a topic which through the centuries generated a large
amount of polemic.
Bermudo7s Declarcion served as a model, not only for the
Renaissance scholar but was adopted by successive generations of
Spanish scholars. Thus, the 1611 edition of the Tesoro de la
Lengua Castellana Espahola. refers to the guitarra as the
contemporary version of the vihuela;
VIGUELA. Instrumento musico de cuerdas, que

segun Covarrubias, era la lyra antigua; pero
oy comunmente vale lo mismo que Guitarra.27
VIHUELA. A stringed musical instrument, that

according to Covarrubias, was the lyre in
antiquity; but today is commonly equal to a
guitar.
Corominas, in the Diccionario Etimologico. attributes the
first usage of the word guitarra in Castilian to the
Libro de buen Amor. While it is accurate to attribute the first
use in Castilian verse to the Archpriest of Hita, it is not the
earliest use of the term in Spain. At some time during the late
27 Diccionario de la Lengua Castellana.Real Academia

Espahola. Madrid: "Vol". VI, pp. 486, 1739. This is also true
of the 1739 edition of the Diccionario de la Lengua Castellana.
36
13th century, several decades prior to its use ir the Libro de
Buen A mor. Fray Juan Gil De Zamora uses the term in his treatise
Ars mtisica.
Musicalia instrumenta inventa fuerunt secundum

deversitatem temporaum adiversis. De quibus divina
Danielis III faciens mentionem, dicit quod de mandato
regis Nabuchodonosor et principum eius, praeco
clamabat valenter: Vobis dicetur populis et tribus et
linguis, in hora que auditieritis sonitum tubae, et
tistulaue, et citharea, sambucae, psaltereris, et
symphoniae, et universis generis musicorum cadentes
adorate satuam avream quam constituit
Nabuchodonosorrex. Canon et medius canon, et
guitarra, et rabe, fuerent postremo inventa. 28
The instruments of music were invented in different

epochs by different inventors. Concerning the diverse
scriptures, the third book of Daniel mentions them: by
the order of King Nabuchodonsor a herald proclaimed in
a loud voice: "To you of all nations, tribes and
languages, the hour is nigh for you to hear the sound
of the trumpet, the citharae. sambuca. psaltery, and
symphony, which are among the family of the world of
music, prostrate thyselves and adore the statue of
gold, that constitutes the King Nabuchodonosor. The
canon, the half-canon, the guitar and the rebec were
invented later.
At the end of the passage in which Gil de Zamora lists a number
of musical instruments in Latin, he uses the vernacular for the
terms guitarra and rabe (rebec) . Had Gil de Zamora blindly
followed the precepts of Isidore, then the term citharae or
28 Fray Juan Gil De Zamora, Ars Musica. ed. by Michel

Robert-Tissot, Corpus Scriotorum de Musica. American Institute
of Musicology, 1974, vol.XX, Chap.XVII. Juan Gil de Zamora was
predictably, influenced by the Etvmoloqiae of Isidore of
Seville. For a brief account of his career, for which the
chronology is very sparse, see Charles Faulhaber, Latin
Rhetorical Theory in Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century Castile.
Berkeley: University of Californian Press, 1972, pp 103-121.
37
cvthara. as it appears in the Etimoloaiae of Isidore, and which
Gil de Zamora cites in the same context earlier in the
paragraph, would have sufficed. Isidore is thought to have used
this term in a generic sense to indicate a plucked stringed
instrument either with or without a fingerboard. In this sense,
the term citharae. or cvthara. would apply equally to harps,
psalteries, lutes, and guitars. Gil de Zamora may have been
influenced by the example of his king, Alfonso X of Castile, who
was renowned for preferring the use of the vernacular to Latin
in his chancery and scriptorium. Another possibility is that,
since the term may have recently entered into the vernacular,
Gil de Zamora may not have recognized the Latin equivalent.
It thus appears that since Gil de Zamora uses both the
Latin term citharae and the Spanish guitarra in the same
context, there must have been a clear distinction between the
instruments. Since the guitarra was much in vogue in the
Alfonsine court, it is more likely that Gil de Zamora was quite
familiar with it and distinguished it from other contemporary
plucked stringed instruments which he listed as citharae.
In any case, from this time onwards, the word guitarra in Spain
refers to a distinct musical instrument, while the
undifferentiated grouping of lutes, harps, guitars, and zithers
under the generic of the term cvtharae or cythara was more a
characteristic of writers prior to the late 13th century than of
the later Middle Ages.
38
CHAPTER TWO
THE HISPANIZATION OF THE GUITAR:ICONOGRAPHY
The lack of extant scored music for the guitar prior to the
Renaissance seems to have inhibited historians of the instrument
from pursuing their researches back into the Medieval period. 29
In their caution, they have also missed the wealth of
information to be derived from an iconographic tradition which
includes illuminated manuscripts of the Beatus Commentary on the
Apocalypse, ranging from the 8th to the 13th century; sculptural
representations in stone; and the manuscript illustrations of
musical instruments in the Cantiaas de Santa Maria. of Alfonso
X.
With the advent of printing and in the arts of the
Renaissance and the Baroque, illustrations of the early modern
versions of the instrument which today is called the Classic or
Spanish guitar become increasingly frequent. Such material
includes early manuals and anthologies for the vihuela and the
29 Harvey Turnbull, The Guitar from the Renaissance to the

Present Da v . New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,1974, p 2. In
the Preface to his text Mr. Turnbull cites the following reason
for the time frame of his book: "The Renaissance has been chosen
as a suitable starting point, as it is only from this period
that one can consider the guitar in relation to its music."
39
guitar, composed by the Renaissance and Baroque masters of those
instruments. 30
As Latin Christendom approached the first millenium, one of
the prevalent themes in both Christian manuscript illumination
and sacred sculpture was the Apocalypse. Many Christians
expected the imminent end of the world and the Second Coming of
Christ, and these anticipated events provided powerful imagery
for both writers and artists. 31 In Mozarabic Spain (and also
in southern France), there arose between the 10th and 12th
centuries a distinct tradition of illustrating Apocalyptic
subject matter derived from the twelve-book Commentary of the
Apocalypse (ca. 776) of the Asturian monk, Beatus of Liebana.
The earliest fragment of an illustrated Beatus manuscript (from
30 There is some controversy as to whether representations

of the vihuela may be regarded as a type of guitar, however, it
must be remembered that names and morphology of musical
instruments may be in conflict. Authors such as Harvey
Turnbull, Tom Evans, and Frederic Grunefeld prefer the purist
point of view that the guitar and the vihuela were separate
instruments. Others, such as Gilbert Chase, and J.B. Trend,
deny the distinction and thereby tend to agree with sixteenth-
century authors such as Fray Juan Bermudo and Miguel de
Fuenllana. In most cases, it is the shape of the instrument-
the unmistakable figure-eight silhouette - which itself defines
a guitar, but, in some cases instruments are referred to as
lutes by musicologists, when according to the cultural context
in which they exist, and in their musical use, they are closer
to the guitar. Thus the chapter will close with illustrations
from the important guitar methods of that epoch.
31 Robert E. Lerner, "Millenialism, Christian", D M A , vol 8,

p.388. Frederic van der Meer, Apocalypse: Visions of Revelation
in Western A r t . 1978. For Christian millennial art and thought,
see the bibliography.
40
Silos) has been dated to the late 9th century, but between the
10th and 13th centuries more than twenty manuscripts of the
Commentary. with sixty miniatures illustrating the text, have
survived.32 Their subject matter frequently includes fairly
precise representations of contemporary musical instruments.
According to Curt Sachs and Karl Geiringer, the earliest
European depictions of chordophones are to be found in the
Beatus of Liebana manuscripts of 9th- and 10th- century Spain,
illustrating Revelation, 5:8, 33
Habentes sinauli citharas et philiales aureas plenas

odoramentorum. quae sunt orationes sanctorum. 25
Each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of

incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
It is interesting to consider Sachs' description of the
instrument as a lute in the light of the history of Spain at
that period. The Beatus manuscripts referred to above came from
the cathedral of Seo de Urgel in Catalonia, the Benedictine
foundation of St. Dominic of Silos, and Leon. All three were
located in the northern heartland of Christian Spain, which due
32 John Williams, Earlv Spanish Manuscript Illumination. New

York: G. Braziller, 1977.
33 Curt Sachs and Karl Geiringer, The History of Musical

Instruments. New York: W.W. Norton and Co.1940, p. 274.
25 Although English translations of the Bible from the time

of the King James Authorized version opt for harp, the Vulgate
original is cithara. which lexicographers render into English as
both harp or lyre or any stringed instrument, including the
guitar.
41
to the configuration of the reconquest had been exposed to less
Arab influence than Toledo and the Iberian heartland. Since
most of the peninsula to the south was under the control of the
Arab Amirate of Cordoba, a strong Arab influence in science,
arts and letters was to be felt there. Christian art, however,
in the kingdoms of Navarre and Catalonia, with their Frankish
frontiers, or in the Asturias in northwest Spain were more
influenced by France than by the Arabs. Jose Lopez-Calo
indicates that the apocalyptical theme of the Spanish Beatus was
in fact adopted from French practice.26
In his study entitled: Early Spanish Manuscript
Illumination, author John Williams asserts unequivocally: "Pre-
Carolingian art from beyond the Pyrenees contributed more
essentially to the formation of the Leonese style than did the
non-Christian art of Andalucia"27 Thus, it is reasonable to
assume that the elliptical shape of the cithara pictured in the
early Spanish Beatus shows more of an affinity both
26 Lopez-Calo, Jose S.J., La Musica Medieval de Galicia. La

Coruna: Fundacion "Pedro de la Maza, Conde de Fenosa. pp.81,
1982.
27 In his study, Williams compares the only extant

illuminated manuscript which treats a Christian theme and
portrays overt Arabic influence, the Biblia Hispalense completed
in Seville in the tenth century, with the Leonese Bible of the
same epoch. He concludes: "A comparison of the Leonese Bible
with the Andalusian Bible reveals very little to support the
proposition that the manuscript painting of the kingdom of Leon
was inspired in a fundamental way by Mozarabic or Islamic art."
In Early Spanish Manuscript Illumination by John Williams: New
York, George Braziller, 1977, pp. 19.
42
morphologically and culturally to the Gallic vielle. known in
Spain as vihuela - of the plucked variety - than to the Arab
lute. The Inventory of Music Research, lists the instruments as
gitterns and describe their morphology as having a "rebec
shaped with a peg box bent back (like a lute)." 28 It may well
be that the best possible way to consider this instrument is to
use the rubric - transitional - thus describing a step along the
path of evolution from the ellipticle shape of the vielle to the
ultimate curvature of a holly-leaf shape which traces the
guitarra latina.
Plate I is of a beatus manuscript belonging to the
cathedral of Seo de Urgel. It shows horns, cymbals, and an
elliptically-shaped cordophone, with a long neck and a T-shaped
head, but with no tuning pegs. According to the original
commentary derived from the biblical text, this final instrument
should be referred to as the cithara.29 Each of the elders
appears to be playing or preparing to play on his respective
instrument. The normal placement function of the hands is
reversed in Plate I whereby the right hand of the citharista
grasps the neck about mid-way, the left hand appears to be
damping the strings, near the bridge.
28 The complete listing is: Beatus of Liebana. Commentary

on the Apocalypse with Jerome's Commentary on Daniel. Spain:
Leon, probably San Salvador de Tabara. Written and illuminated
by Maius for the monastery of San Miguel de Escalada.
29 Citara is the term used in the Commentary on the Beatus.
43
Plate II, from a manuscript from San Isidro of Leon,
depicts a similar scene, six elders shown with percussion
instruments, horns, and cithara. This time the citharist is
shown on the left-hand side of the group. The hands are shown
in their traditional posture with the left hand stopping the
strings while the right hand plucks. The left hand is
distorted, no doubt due to lack of practical knowledge on the
part of the artist. The right hand, however, is gracefully
depicted in a plucking action, near the fingerboard where the
most dulcet sounds of the instrument would be obtained.
Plate III, from the same manuscript displays citharas
associated with symbols imbued with meaning to the Medieval
Christian. In the first instance, there are three elders, each
playing a three-stringed cithara. The number three had several
levels of significance for the Christian mind. Symbolic of the
Trinity, the number three was favored both in the
representational arts, i.e., art and architecture, and in the
abstract arts, such as music. In music, the number three was
manifested both as visual imagery in the structure of the
instrument (the three tuning pegs on the headpiece, indicative
of three strings) as well as embodied in the structure of the
music itself. In all certainty, the music played on the cithara
was in a Medieval modal rhythm based on a tripartite division of
the beat. Thus the Medieval cithara was used for the highest
conception of worship:
44
Habentes sinaulas citharas. id est. corda laudantium.

(Each having a citharas. which is to say, the heart
strings of praise)
This last thought is underscored by the representation in
these Beatus manuscripts of the mystical lamb of God. Teh
cithara thus achieves a special category relating both to the
Apocalypse and subsequent salvation: habentes cithara Dei. The
cithara is thus identified with the throne court of God. 30
In referring to the chest-high playing position of the
citharists in the Beatus manuscripts Sainz echoes the Medieval
Christian belief that the earliest Greek kitharas were in the
form of a breast and were held at that level, and also
(recalling again) the words of St. Isidore of Seville referring
to the 7th-century Spanish cithara: quia sicut pulsus est
cordis in pectore. ita pulsus chordae in Cithara (he who plucks
the strings of the heart, thus plucks those of the cithara).
The same apocalyptic theme of the Beatus was later
transferred from vellum into stone in the cathedrals and
churches of northern Spain, where the iconography of chordophone
instruments is abundantly represented. In Galicia, a number of
30 The historian Diodorus Siculus, (d.after 21 B.C.),

likened the three strings of the kithara to the three seasons:
the first and highest string indicating summer; the second or
middle string indicating spring; and the lowest string
indicating winter.
45
churches and cathedrals feature the theme of Christ Pantokrator,
(the "all powerful") accompanied by the elders and their
instruments. The most spectacular depiction of this scene is
to be found on the tympanum in the cathedral at Santiago de
Compostela.31 The work, of an otherwise unknown master named
Mateo, was begun in 1180 and was completed on the 1st of April
1226. 32 Plate IV shows the central portion of the portico
which supports the tympanum, with Christ Pantokrator at the
center. The central figure of Christ is flanked by the four
Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, with their respective
symbols: a man with a book, a lion, an ox, and an eagle,
Angels are also present with objects associated with the passion
of Christ, such as the cross. The sculpture contains other,
smaller figures who occupy the space between the figure of the
Pantokrator, the Evangelists, the angels, and the twenty-four
elders and their instruments.
According to Lopez-Calo, one of the unique conceptual
components of this work is the element of movement which is
present especially in the figures of the twenty-four elders. 33
31 In an arched entrance to a church (usually at the West

end) the tympanum is the space above the lintel of the doorway
and below the arch proper.
32 There is speculation that Mateo was French, or at least

very familiar with the French Gothic style of cathedral
sculpture. He was said to have been a bridge-builder before
Fernando II of Leon (1157 - 1188) summoned him to work on the
cathedral.
33 J. Lopez-Calo, pp. cit. p.91.
46
The biblical text on which this sculpture is based is
Revelations, 5:9
And they sang a new song 34
The elders are not in the act of playing the instruments, but
rather are tuning them in preparation for performance. Their
gaze (Plate V & VI), directed toward one another, is a
naturalistic and expressive element in the sculpture. Another
scholar has written:
The whole constitutes a masterpiece of imaginative

invention and practical skill...In the spiritually of
their expressions, these statues are superior to
anything achieved before, Indeed they are unmatched in
the history of sculpture."35
In the words of the Galician poet, Rosalia de Castro:
Parece qu'os labios moven, que falan quedo

os uns c'os outros, e alo n'altura
d'o ceu a musica vai dar comenzo,
pois os groriosos concertadores
tempran risoiios os istrumentos 36
They seem to move their lips, speaking softly

with one another, in heavens height
the music will begin,
as the glorious musicians
happily temper their instruments
34 The Oxford Annotated Bible. Edited by Herbert G. may and

Bruce M. Metzger, New York: Oxford University Press, 1962,
p. 1496. (New Testament)
35 Raheves, Friedrich, Cathedrals and Monasteries of Spain.

London: Nicholas Kaye, 1966, pp. 142 - 143.
36 J. Lopez-Calo, op. cit. p. 91.
47
This description by Rosalia de Castro of the Portico de la
Gloria is reminiscent of the thought expressed by Huizinga who,
in The Waning of the Middle Ages says of the art of the High
Gothic:
Art in those times was still wrapped up in life. Its

function was to fill with beauty the forms assumed by
life. These forms were marked and potent. Life was
encompassed and measured by the rich efflorescence of
the liturgy...37
Another of the ideas without precedent in French prototypes
are the range of instruments displayed, which Lopez-Calo asserts
to be unique to Spain. The instruments belong to the
chordophone group, with the exception of one elder who holds a
gourd-type instrument, which is of the idiophone family. The
chordophones represented include viols and fidiculas, of which
the latter are the largest group comprising fourteen instruments
in all: among them psaltaries, harps, and an organistrum (hurdy
gurdy). The instrument which is clearly of the plucked stringed
type conforms to the elliptical shape of the vielle or citara
group. (Plate VI)
The church of St. Martin in the town of Noya, also in
Galicia, presents a variant on the same theme of Christ
Pantokrator surrounded by elders, bearing musical instruments.
37 J. Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle A g e s . London:

Edward Arnold, 1924, p.223. Although Huizinga's study treats
late medieval France and the Netherlands, his aesthetic
judgement on late medieval liturgical art is equally true for
Christian Spain.
48
In this case, due to the limitations of space, the number is
reduced to twelve. (Plate VII) On the basis of the crowns worn
as headgear, it appears that the passage used from the Book of
Revelations, is Chapter 4, verse 4:
Round the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated

on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clad in white
garments, with golden crowns upon their heads.38
Chordophones again are the primary instrument. A citara with
gently incurved sides is displayed in Plate VIII. The pose of
the elder is in a performance position with both the left and
right hands gracefully poised and in contact with the strings.
The next stage in the Hispanization process of the guitar
relates to the early guitars and lutes at the court of Alfonso
X, "The Wise", of Castile and Leon. Alfonso is remembered as
one of the great patrons of learning and culture of the high
Middle Ages. He is also supposed to have demonstrated a degree
of cultural pluralism which in turn reflected the diverse ethnic
composition of his kingdom. In fact, the musical instruments in
use at the Alfonsine court, which combine a morphology and an
etymology derived from both the Judeo-Muslim and Christian
traditions, attest to this fact. The cultural plurality of the
Alfonsine court was underscored by the existence of not one, but
two instruments with the appellation quitarra. Known as the
38 Oxford Annotated Bible, o p . c it. p. 1495.
49
quitarra morisca and the quitarra latina. they are clearly
representative of their respective cultures, which had been the
two dominant cultural forces on the Iberian peninsula prior to
Alfonso's lifetime.
The earliest evidence of the visual representation of the
quitarra morisca and the quitarra latina. as well as of similar
instruments on the Iberian peninsula and throughout all of
Europe, is to be found in the illuminated manuscripts of
Alfonso's own Cantigas de Santa Maria.39 The Cantigas de Santa
Maria, is a collection of four hundred and twenty-seven
canticles, which recounts miracles of the Virgin Mary in lyric
verse, illumination, and song. The prologue features Alfonso
with musicians and singers in his royal chapel. Every tenth
cantiga, is a song of praise to the virgin entitled cantiga de
loor. and features musicians performing on the various families
of musical instruments which flourished at the Alfonsine court.
Thus the cantigas are an excellent source for the study of
musical instrument iconography.
The four extant volumes of the cantigas are housed in
Madrid at the Biblioteca nacional. which has the text and music
for only 128 items and is thus incomplete; the volume of the
39 Hortense Panum, Stringed Instruments of the Middle

A g e s .London: William Reeves Bookseller ltd. (no date) p. 409,
The Danish musicologist discusses three instruments depicted in
the CSM, which she identifies as lutes; on long necked, and two
short necked instruments of which she states: "all of them
resemble the Persian lute of the seventh century."
50
cantigas at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence, Ms.
II.1.213 contains only the texts of the songs; the volume at the
Biblioteca del Real Monasterio at El Escorial has the most
complete extant volumes. The first MS T.j.l, has 200 and is thus
incomplete, while El Escorial MS J.b.2, is the most complete
having 402 cantigas. 12 additional songs, and a prologue.
The depiction of musical instruments in these manuscripts
indicates that instruments of Arab provenance outnumbered their
European counterparts at the court of Alfonso X several times
over. Could the numerical dominance of Arab musical instruments
have influenced the early history of the guitar, as some
musicologists maintain, or was there a prior European ancestry?
Recalling the article from The New Grove Dictionary of Music
and Musicians, cited in the introduction to this dissertation,
it appears that there is still some disagreement among musical
scholars as to the ultimate lineage of the guitar on the Iberian
peninsula and in Europe. Thus,it is worthwhile to study the
guitarra latina and the guitarra morisca of the Alfonsine court
which were at the crossroads of the ethno-history of the guitar.
As the two prominent chordr phones in the Alfonsine court,
the guitarra latina and guitarra morisca project two distinct
shapes: the former having incurved sides approximating to a
holly-leaf shape; and the latter being pear-shaped with a convex
back. Both instruments anticipate European plucked-string
51
instruments which became popular at a later date. The incurved
sides of the quitarra latina presage the Spanish guitar, while
the belly-like curvature of the resonating chamber of the
quitarra morisca points toward the European lute. During the
Renaissance, the lute flourished as the instrument of choice
throughout the courts of Europe other than those of Spain.
The instrument held chest-high by the minstrel in Plate IX
(left) depicts the incurved sides of the quitarra latina. The
instrument on the right is the quitarra morisca. In shape and
nomenclature, these guitars are symbolic of east and west. As
regards their dress, both instrumentalists represent typical
courtiers or minstrels of the Alfonsine age.
Significantly, there are many more lute-type chordophones
pictured in the Cantigas than there are guitar-type instruments.
There are two classes of lutes illustrated in the Cantigas.
consisting of long and short-necked types, and bearing distinct
names. The long-necked variety is exemplified by such
instruments as the baldosa and the vihuela de penola. while the
short-necked include the quitarra morisca and the laud. There
are several depictions of lutes in the Cantigas. as in Cantiga
30, which shows two minstrels side-by-side holding lutes, and
Cantiga 170, which shows two minstrels, one performing on a
bowed instrument and the other on a lute. There are also a
significant number of plucked-string instruments depicted, such
as the baldosa. shown twice in Cantiga 120; the citola. pictured
52
in Cantiga 130; the vihuela de pehola. in Cantiga 140; and the
guitarra morisca. in Cantigas 20 and 150, all of which
approximate to the oval or pear shape of oriental lutes.
On the other hand, out of more than a dozen different
chordophones depicted in the Cantigas. the guitarra latina.
depicted in Cantigas 1, 10, 150, and the Prologue, is the only
instrument which has incurved sides. The guitarra latina.
unique for its incipient figure-eight shape, was eventually
destined to become the favorite of the Spanish. In fact, the
guitarra latina is depicted in yet another text, that of
Alfonso X's Libro de Aiedrez. here illustrated in Plate X. It is
adorned along its border with the alternating pattern of lions
and castles which is emblematic of the royal house of Leon and
Castile. It is the only chordophone in the musical iconography
of King Alfonso's court to bear this regal emblem. Were these
heraldic devices used by the scribes and miniaturists of the
Alfonsine Scriptorium to link the royal house of Castile and
Leon with a preferred instrument? The answer to this question
can be found in the study of the instruments in the two extant
illuminations of the prologues - there are two versions (Plates
XI and XII) - to this manuscript where there is an illustration
showing Alfonso X in his royal scriptorium flanked by several
musicians. Of the extant copies of the illuminated manuscript
of the Cantigas de Santa Maria, the Escorial volumes Ms.T.j. 1
and Ms. T.b.2 are of interest for the differences in
53
distribution of the musical instruments pictured with Alfonso in
the two versions of the prologue.40 In Plate XI, there are two
courtiers to the far left of Alfonso, holding quitarra latinas,
while to the far right the players are holding and tuning the
bowed string-instruments known as vihuelas de arco. In the
center of the scene sits Alfonso, dictating a cantiga to his
scribes and singers. In Plate XII, there are fewer figures, and
the instrumentalists are in a grouping of three to the far right
of Alfonso. On the far left, there is a group of four men who
appear to be studying a score as if in anticipation of a
vocalization. Alfonso is again in the center of the picture
flanked by scribes on either side. The minstrels playing upon
instruments to the left of Alfonso have vihuelas de arco. early
bowed viols. To the right of Alfonso are two musicians, each
holding a quitarra latina. a plucked stringed instrument. Is
this merely a decorative representation of the king accompanied
by several of his courtiers, or does the scene with this
particular selection of instruments have a deeper level of
significance?
It may be argued that the auctoritas which the quitarra
latina achieved as a result of Alfonso's personal identification
with the instrument was, in fact, politically symbolic of the
primacy of Hispano-Christian culture over the other cultures,
40 They are numbered respectively: Codexes Til, and bI2. The

codex for the Libro de Acedrex. is referred to as TI6.
54
Muslim and Jewish, which co-existed on the Iberian peninsula.
In a court which historically was characterized by its cultural
diversity, this last statement carries both social and musical
resonance.
Each of the instruments in these miniatures is
representative of European practice. The vihuelas de arco. the
bowed viols, clearly relate to the tradition of the French
troubadour, whose preferred instrument was the vielle.41 This
was to be expected, given that other elements of the Cantigas
are derived from or influenced by French practice: the
illuminations themselves and the musical structure of the
Cantigas show strong French influence. The French influence in
the musical elements is a topic which will be discussed in
chapter five.
Alfonso enjoyed the reputation of being a learned and, in
contrast to other Iberian monarchs who either preceded or
followed him, a relatively tolerant ruler. Indeed, his court
has sometimes been described as a model of coexistence of the
three faiths, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. On the other
hand, as ruler of Castile, Alfonso was charged with the
protection and the propagation of the Christian faith, and the
Cantigas de Santa Maria, show the depth of Alsonso's religious
41 Edward John Payne, "vielle11 in A Dictionary of Music and

Musicians. ed.by Sir Charles Grove, First Edition: London,1897,
vol. IV. pp. 261-262.
55
commitment. Furthermore Alfonso pursued for many years - to the
financial detriment of his own kingdom - the title of Holy Roman
Emperor.42 Thus, it was only fitting that the king who aspired
to the imperial title would seek to create ties to Latin
Christendom.
The only instruments other than the guitarra latina to
display the royal emblem of Castile and Leon are of the
aerophone family. The long-bore trumpets shown in Cantiga 320
display small banners with a pattern of alternating lions and
castles, the emblem of the Alfonsine court. Historically,
these types of horns were associated with the court.43 As
depicted in the Cantigas, they were used for the purpose for
fanfares, announcing no doubt the arrival of Alfonso himself.
Thus the emblem of Leon and Castile was an appropriate
decoration for an instrument which invoked the authority of the
King. (Plate XIII)
The trumpet belonged to a group of instruments known during
the late-13th and 14th centuries as haut in French (alto in
42 Upon the death of Conrad IV in 1254, Alfonso aspired to

the throne of the Holy Roman Emperor. Alfonso's lineage gave
him this claim as his mother Beatrice of Swabia, was a
granddaughter of Frederic Barbarossa (r.1152-1190). This claim
Alfonso pursued over many years, until the election of Rudolf of
Hapsburg in 1273.
43 Stanley Sadie, 'Trumpet', The Norton/Grove Concise

Encyclopedia of Music. London, New York, W.W. Norton, 1988, p.
781. The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans used trumpets. In the
middle ages trumpets were played by vagrants,... later
trumpeters found posts as town musicians; in the Renaissance the
trumpet had considerable importance in court functions."
56
Spanish), "high" instruments, which referred not so much to
their relative pitch, as to their loudness. The haut
instruments were reserved for out-of-doors music, which required
greater volume and projection capability.
The opposite was true for the guitarra latina. which like
the other chordophones of the Alfonsine court, belonged to the
bas (bajo) family of "low" volume instruments. The music
performed within the royal chamber for the king was played on
bas instruments, the bowed vihuela and the guitarra latina.
Significantly, the instruments pictured with Alfonso in his
court hail from the Latin tradition. Perhaps the depictions of
Alfonso with European instruments may be considered as a kind of
official portrait, for surely the illuminators were well aware
of the importance of the use of symbols. Thus with the
haut/loud instruments, the trumpets, and the bas/soft, guitarra
latina a matched set of instruments bearing the royal emblem is
evident.
There is a strong hint of hostility in the Cantigas towards
non-Christians, as in those Cantigas which show Muslims and Jews
blaspheming and acting in ways which underscore their need of
the saving grace of the Virgin. This was characteristic of a
religiously diverse society where communal hatred and violence
was never far from the surface. 44
44 Albert Bagby I.,Jr. "The Jew in the Cantigas of Alfonso

X, el Sabio." Speculum 46 (1971): pp.670-88; "The Moslems in the
Cantigas in the Cantigas of Alfonso X el Sabio." Kentucky
57
With regard to the musical culture of the Alfonsine court,
there is one miniature which, it may be argued, implicitly
demonstrates the prevailing cultural bias. The illustration in
question is of the Cantiga de Loor #120. In Plate XIV a
Christian and a Moor are seen playing the plucked stringed
instrument called a baldosa. The Christian is well-dressed, his
red stockings indicating status as a courtier. To his right is
a Moor, indicated by both his dress and the dark color of his
skin. Between the two players is a small table with a jug of
wine and a goblet which is placed adjacent to the Christian. In
his book, Spain. A Musician's Journey Through Time and Space.
Walter Starkie discusses this scene which he sanguinely
characterizes as a "friendly consort of viols", between a Moor
and a Christian.45 He then goes on to argue that this
representation of both cultures in the illustration is
indicative of the tolerance of Alfonso X and his inclusion of
Christian, Muslim and Jewish musicians at his court, a view
which Medievalists today would treat with some skepticism.
It is worth examining this miniature more closely. At
first sight, here is a well-dressed Christian courtier with
typical headgear, footwear and a sword, standing on a level
plane with a Moor, also in typical dress and a turban. However,
Romance Quarterly 20 (1973): pp.578-83.
45 Walter Starkie, Spain a Musicians Journey through Time

and Space. Geneva, Editors Rene Kristler.
58
on closer scrutiny, it can be seen that the two men are unequal
as the Moor is unarmed and, indeed, barefooted. Relative to
performance practice, today, it may not be surprising to see a
barefoot musician informally "jamming" with a friend. However,
according to Guerro Lovillo, footwear was important to the
Medieval man, and indicative of station.46 Ironically, among
the most sought-after footwear in Medieval Europe were leather
shoes distinctive in style and made in Cordoba (hence Cordobans,
presumably of Muslim provenance). This footwear featured a
pointed toe and was in vogue during the 13th-century in the
kingdoms of Aragon and Castile. Guererro Lovillo's description
of elite footwear fits precisely the shape of the shoe which the
Christian in the Cantigas illumination is wearing.
Physically, the posture of the Moor is natural, and his
manner is self-possessed, as he is hunched over his instrument,
absorbed in performance. His posture speaks of identification
with his instrument and of obliviousness to all else, which is
one hallmark of a fine instrumentalist. In contrast, the
Christian appears to show less of the single-minded focus while
playing on the baldosa. He is depicted as alert and upright in
body posture, projecting his torso to the left as he twists his
46 Jose Guerrero Lovillo, Estudio arqueoloaico de las

Cantigas de Santa Maria. Madrid: Conseio Superior de
Investigaciones Cientificas. 1949, pp. 214-226, Lovillo made a
detailed study of civil, military, and religious dress in the
CSM. His study includes observations regarding the various
modes of dress, textiles, colors and their social implications
to Alfonsine society.
59
neck to study the Moor. Judging from the attitude of his mouth
he appears to be singing or speaking. Of the two musicians, it
is the Christian who clearly has the more dynamic role.
Is this simply a case of friendly camaraderie? There are
elements which point toward shared involvement such as the fact
that they are both playing the same type of instrument, and the
wine jug, although there is only one goblet. But there is also
subtle evidence of cultural differences and even discrimination
in the physical posture, attire and accoutrements of each
individual. These elements point toward a more ambiguous,
interpretation of the illustration. 47
The 14th-century ceiling paintings from the royal monastery
of Santo Domingo de Silos afford further insight into the
instruments of the chordophone family, and their use in daily
life. The old monastery was restored by Saint Dominic (d.1073)
and became a major spiritual center for Medieval Castile.
Nobles sought to be buried there "seeing the miracles and
benefits which Christ bestows by the prayers of the glorious
confessor Lord Santo Domingo de Silos 48
47 Enric Madriguera, "The Guitarras Moriscas and Latinas in

the Cantigas de Santa Maria", in Estudios alfonsinos v otros
escritos. New York: St. Johns University, the National Endowment
for the Humanities, and the National Hispanic Council for the
Humanities, pp.129-139, 1991.
48 Recueil Ferotin, Histoire de l'abbave de Silos.p. 349,

cited in J.N. Hillgarth, The Spanish Kingdoms. 1250-1516. 2
vols. London, Oxford University Press,1976, vol. I, p.127.
60
The cloister, (Plate XV) which has two stories, was
finished in the mid-12th century. In the 14th century, ceiling
paintings in panels in the mudeiar style were added. These
paintings (Plate XVI), depict a panorama of social life during
the period, with numerous scenes and vignettes depicted in
these panels. The mudeiar style, referring to the mudeiars or
Muslims living under Christian rule, and dating from the 12th
century, has been regarded as by some as the constituting the
truly national art of the Spanish people.49 It is in fact, an
art which synthesizes eastern and western elements. While the
ornamentation appears to show Persian and Byzantine influence,
the depiction of the human form is distinctly western. Thus,
mudeiar art combines the work of both Muslim and Christian
artisans. It is possible that the workmen at Silos were Muslim
slaves. 50
49 E.G. Hillgarth, ibid. p.198, "for many centuries it was

the most genuine expression of the people," Torres Baibas, L. in
Alctunos aspectos del mudeiarismo urbano. pp.21-3.
50 Friedrich Racueil, op .cit. pp. 81-82. See also Basilio

Pavon Maldonado, Arte Toledano:Islamico v mudeiar (pub), 1973;
L. Torres Baibas: Arte Mudeiar. Madrid: Ars Hispaniae; Kistoria
Universal del arte hispanica, 1949. Mudeiar art is a strictly
Spanish phenomenon. Although the term refers to Muslims living
under Christian domination, it is now accepted that all possible
combinations of patronage and artists can be credited with art
that falls under this rubric, Mudeiar art was sometimes executed
by Muslim slaves working for Christians masters, but often it
was produced by Christians upon whom the impact of the visual
world of Islam was very great. The nationality of patron and of
artist here is clearly secondary to the character of the work
which is the result of their collaboration. Mudeiar art became
the means by which a great deal of the art of Islamic Spain was
assimilated into a unique Spanish artistic tradition, It
61
Plate XVII, shows a man, belonging, by his dress and
general depiction, to the servant class playing a citara, which
he clutches to his chest. The rendering of the player's body is
executed in simple frontal formality. The feet are pointing
outwards from one another in what appears to be an impossible
angle of 180',perhaps a lack of skill on the part of the
painter.
The next example (Plate XVIII) shows a man dressed as a
courtier. He is in a relaxed pose, with his legs crossed as he
leans against a table. The instrument he is playing is
undoubtedly a guitarra latina. which is obvious by the
characteristic albeit exagerrated figure-eight shape of the
incurved sides of the instrument. The guitarra has a neck which
appears to be in proportion to its resonating chamber; however,
the head-stock is enormous and well out of proportion with the
other dimensions executed.
The angel depicted in Plate XIX, is comfortably holding and
playing a citara. or perhaps a lute. The manner in which the
instrument is cradled in the arms of the angel seems indicative
of a convex back, making the lute the more likely instrument. In
all those preceding examples, the instrument appears to be held
close to the chest of the player, which is possible only if the
represents a moment of irony as well, for Mudeiar art is one

illustration of a Spain that began to embrace Islamic art and
culture at the same moment it banished Islam from the
Peninsula.1' Jerrilyn D. Dodds, "Mudeiar art", Dictionary of the
Middle Ages, vol. 8, pp. 520-521.
62
back is either flat or has the gentlest of curves. The angle of
the neck is the most extreme of the examples shown, as it points
skyward.
Of all those depictions of figures playing musical
instruments, perhaps the most surprising is the man with a
goat's head shown in Plate XX. (In preparation) According to
the opinion of one of the monks at the monastery, who was
interviewed as to these paintings, several of the artisans
working on the ceiling were Muslim slaves. These slaves, when
left unattended, might have painted an occasional grotesque of
this sort, perhaps out of malice. On the other hand, Christians
craftsmen frequently painted or carved grotesque and humorous
figures, as with misericords and gargoyles.
The first depiction of a Renaissance guitar with its four
courses occurs not in Spain but in Paris, as the title page to
Le Premier Livre de Chansons. Gaillardes. Pavannes. Branles.
Allemandes. Fantassies.reduetz en tablature de quiterne par
Maistre Guillauine Morlaye iouer de Lut. (Plate XXI) The text
which was authored by Guillaume Morlaye in 1552 is published six
years after the first published text in Europe to contain music
for the guitar, namely, Tres Libros en Cifra, by Mudarra in
Valladolid - lists the author as a lutenist as if to insure the
public the quality of the offering. 51
51. In 1553, a year after Morlaye published his Premier

Livre , Adrien le Roy and his cousin Robert Ballard, both
lutenists and guitarist obtained the title of music printers to
The coming of the printing press to Spain provided the
impetus for publishing texts of the music of the great
vihuelists of that golden age: Luys Mil&n, Luys Warv&ez, Alonso
de Mudarra, Diego Pisador, Miguel de Fuenllana, and Antonio de
Cabezdn were among the principal masters to publish significant
works for the vihuela. As the greater part of this repertory
was secular, the inspiration naturally sprang from non-religious
sources, such as classical mythological subjects. Plate XXI
bears testimony to this as the instrumentalist depicted here is
none other than Orpheus. The myth of Orpheus traditionally has
him represented with his lyre, but in Luys Millin's El maestro,
the first of the great musical collections for vihuela
(Valencia, 1535), he is depicted with a six-string vihuela.
seen as the contemporary Spanish equivalent of the Greco-Roman
lyre. Due to the pedigree of its etymology, having prior
linkages to the vielle of the 12th-century troubadour and the
fidicula of ancient Rome, the Spanish vihuela was the ideal
instrument to embody the Renaissance passion for the artifacts
of Classical Antiquity. Morphologically, the frontal view of
the vihuela pictured in Milan's El maestro resembles a guitar.
The incurved sides have a gentler waist than the contemporary
guitar, but the figure-eight shape is nonetheless apparent. The
headpiece shows a total of ten tuning pegs indicative of the
King Henry II and maintained a publishing monopoly in Paris

through the rest of the sixteenth century.
64
double stringing of Renaissance five course vihuela. The
marquetry is reminiscent of the vihuela at the Jaquemart-Andre
Museum in Paris. Apparently of all the vihuelas which must have
been constructed in Spain during the 16th century, the only
extant examples are in Paris and Quito. The vihuela from Quito
is more richly adorned, and is housed in a display cabinet as a
relique in the altar of Our Lady of Loreto in the famous Jesuit
Iqlesia de la Compania de Jesus.52
Another text which shows a figure-eight shaped instrument
referred to as a vihuela is the Seis Libros llamado Delfin de la
Musica. (the Six Books entitled; the Dolphin of Music), of Luys
de Narvaez, published in Valladolid in 1538. The title page
shows a boy who is perched astride a dolphin holding a guitar.
In the prologue to his book, Narvaez explains his choice of the
Dolphin in these words;
Mi principal fin este con buendeseo v voluntad he

trabaiado de hazer estos sevs libros de mtisica de
cifras para taner vihuela intitulados de delfin. Y con
iusta causa/ porque es un pescado muv aficionado v
sentido en la musica del aual se escriven arandes
cosas. 53
My principal aim, in this I have worked with good wish

and will, to produce these six books of tablature to
play the vihuela entitled Dolphin (of Music). And
with good reason, because it is a fish which is well
52 Egberto Bermudez, "The Vihuela: The Paris and Quito

Instruments", La Guitarra Espahola/ The Spanish Guitar. New
York, Madrid: Sociedad Estatal Ouintenario.p.25.1992.
53 Luys Narvaez, Los Sevs libros del Delphin de musica; as

reproduced in Opera Omnia. edited by Rodrigo de Zayas: Madrid,
Editorial Alpuerto, S.A.1981,
65
loved and felt in music, and of which are written

great things.
Surely the reference to the dolphin relates to the legend
of Arion, "a semi-legendary Greek bard and great master of the
lyre. When robbed by sailors, he invoked the gods on his lyre,
leapt overboard and was carried by a dolphin to shore". 54
The vihuela of the Spanish Renaissance had double strings
like its European counterpart, the lute. Another characteristic
which it shared with the lute was a convex back, although the
curvature of the European lute was far greater than that of the
Spanish vihuela. In all, it may be argued, that the vihuela de
m ano. (the plucked vihuela^ was an instrument that in most ways
combined the characteristics of two instruments: the lute and
the guitar.
Gilbert Chase asserts that although some historians and
musicologists, among them J.B. Trend, prefer to describe these
instruments as lutes, they were in fact guitars which were
adapted to the greater complexity of the Renaissance
contrapuntal style of music writing. In essence, these vihuelas
were Renaissance adaptations of the four-string Medieval guitar,
which remained a favorite of the populace into the 16th-century
and ever after.55
54 Bell, Dictionary of Classical Mythology.
55 Gilbert Chase, The Music of Spain. New York: Dover

Publications, 1958, pp.53-63.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission of the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission.
66
The morphology and etymology of the guitar crystalize
during the second half of the 17th century. This is manifest in
the guitar manuals and collections of music which were published
in France, Italy and Spain. In Plate XXIII, the instrument in
the lower right of the picture was called a guitarra espanola.
The engraving appears in the famous Instruccion de MGsica Sobre
la Guitarra Espanola (1674) of Gaspar Sanz (1640-1710),
dedicated to his patron and employer, Juan Jose of Austria,
half-brother and chief minister to Charles II.56
A number of guitar texts by a variety of authors, among
them Francois Corbetta, Foscarini, Sanz, and Carles y Amat, were
printed in the European capitals during this period. Pictured
in Plate XXII is the title page of I Ouatri Libri della Chitarra
Spaanola by the Italian musician whose pen name was L'Academico
Caliginoso, detto il Furioso (the Obsure Academician, called
"the Furious") . He was well known to Gaspar Sanz (a topic to be
discussed later), who apparently studied with the Italian
master. There is a splendid array of both bowed and plucked
chordophones displayed on the title page. Among the lutes and
viols pictured there (several of which are played by putti) is
56 Juan Jose of Austria (1629-79), was the natural son of

Philip IV who employed him to crush uprisings in Naples (1677)
and Barcelona (1656-58) and as the governor of the Netherlands
(1656-58). After Philip IV's death in 1665, he became chief
minister of the young Charles II, from 1677 until his death in
1679.
67
the chitarra spacrnola. the Spanish guitar, in the right hand
margin.
Apparently the guitar was only one of several aspects of
culture and fashion which were identified as Spanish and which
found favor beyond the borders of Spain. The list also included
court dress, diplomatic protocol and dance. The guitar however,
was, the most enduring and universally recognized manifestation
of Spanish culture.
68
CHAPTER THREE
THE HISPANIZATION OF THE GUITAR:
THE LITERARY TRADITION
The question of the identification of a people with a
particular musical instrument is an interesting one. How did
the guitar come to be identified with the Hispanic traditions,
or the French horn, the Scottish bagpipes, (actually Hispano-
Arabo in origin), the English horn (actually a reed instrument,
and thus a misnomer, being neither English nor a horn) the
Celtic harp, or the Russian balaika with their respective lands?
In the case of the Spanish guitar, this process of
selection and adaptation may be traced through references to the
guitar in various literary genres from the 13th to the 17th
century. In this chapter, references are traced through epic
poetry, goliardic verse, prose works, and inventories of royal
households.
The term Spanish is not typically applied to the guitar
before the political unification of Castile and Aragon. Thus,
the 13th-century name of the guitar, quitarra latina. refers to
the instrument in a cultural sense, as an artifact of Christian
Europe as opposed to instruments with a non-European, i.e. Arab
provenance.
69
By the late 13th and early 14th centuries, the literature
of the Spanish kingdoms, as well as of their European neighbors,
is replete with descriptions of occasions involving the playing
of instrumental music. The largely secular character of such
events - military triumphs, weddings, amatory feasts, demanded,
and enhanced the importance of musical instruments. The guitar,
in various guises, was invariably featured among the
instruments listed.
A passage in an early 13th century text, the Libro de
Alexandre, describes the triumphant entry by Alexander the Great
into Babylon, accompanied by the celebratory sounds of
minstrels:
El pleyto de joglares eran diera riota

avie y sinfonia, farpa, giga e rota,
albogues e salterio, citola que mas trota,
guitarra e viola que las coytas enbota.57
The suit of the minstrels was quite a riot

there in concert,harp, rebec, and hurdy-gurdy,
flute and psaltery, citole with its runs,
guitar and viol sweetly play in the quiet.
This Medieval re-telling of the conquest of Babylon in the
vernacular of Castile lists the musical instruments with which
a contemporary Castilian court would be familiar, among them
such instruments as the farpa (harp), salterio (psaltery),
viola (viol) and quitarra . The last two were coupled through
their familial connections as chordophones and - as we have seen
57 Ramon Menendez Pidal, Poesia Jualaresca v Juqlares.

Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1942, 1983, pp.41.
70
in the visual survey of instruments in chapter two - instruments
that found great favor in Medieval Spain.
The Poema de Alfonso X I . an extended chronicle in verse of
the kings reign between 1312 and 1390, includes an account of
Alfonso's wedding to Maria of Portugal at the monastery of Las
Huelgas in 1328, and describes the festive atmosphere of the
occasion, including the performance of minstrels upon
"estromentos mill" (a thousand instruments). Included in this
inventory of musical instruments is the guitarra serranista:
El laud ivan taniendo,

estroment falaguero,
la viula taniendo
el rabe con el salterio;
la guitarra serranista,
estromento con razon;
la exabeba morisca,
alia el medio canon;
la gayta, que es sotil,
con que todos plazer han,
otros estromentos mill
con la farpa de don Tristan,
que da los puntos doblador
con que falaga el locano
e todos los enamorados
en el tiempo del verano.58
The lute they went playing, instrument of delight, the

vihuela playing with rebec and psaltery; the guitar
of the mountains, (an) instrument of integrity the
Moorish chime, the shepherds flute so subtle, with
them all pleasures are, to another thousand
instruments, with the harp of Don Tristan, who plays
fleet counterpoint, to delight the surroundings, and
all those who love in the summertime.
58 Menendez Pidal, o p .cit. pp. 44.
71
The musical instruments listed are not only those
indigenous to the Iberian peninsula, but also include the
exabeba morisca. apparently a Moorish percussion instrument
similar to the triangle, and the Celtic harp of the legendary
Tristan. The quitarra serranista (mountain guitar), which
according to its name has a clear association with Spain, is
characterized as an estromento con razon: that is an instrument
which has truth or reason (as in the colloquial, Htiene razon11.
"he is right!").59 Here, the character ascribed to the quitarra
is of interest in that rather than evoking associations of
Dionysian sensuousness, an Apollonian ethos is conjured up. In
Greek myth, the god Apollo, who ruled the intellect, invented
and therefore was associated with the lyre, a plucked stringed
instrument. The god Dionysus, associated with sensuality,
played the aulos. a wind instrument.
The Archpriest of Hita, Juan Ruiz (ca. 1283-ca. 1350), in
his Libro de buen amor presents the guitar in yet another guise.
He lists not one, but two instruments named quitarra in the
59 Pepe Rey "La quitarra en la Baia Edad Media" , The

Spanish Guitar/ la Guitarra Espanola. Madrid: Sociedad Estatal
Quinto Centenario, for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
and the Museo Municipal, Madrid, 1991, pp.56-56. Rey discusses
the term serranista in another sense, as a possible derivation
of the term sarracenica which could be related to the term
morisca. In researching the etymology of the term serranista
the Diccionario etimoloqico is specific in application of this
term as one referring to mountain dwellers.
72
inventory of instruments with which friars, monks, and their
duenas joyously entertained^don Amor:60
Recibiendo los arboles con ramos e con flores

de diviersas maneras de fermosas colores,
recibenlo los ommes e duenas con amores,
con muchos instrumentos salen los atambores;
alii sale gritando la guitarra morisca,
de las vozes agudas e de los puntos arisca;
el corpudo laud que tienen punto a la trista,
la guitarra latina con estos se aprisca;61
The trees received them with their green leaves and

flowers,
In divers manners and with fine colors,
60 Juan Ruiz, Arcipreste de Hita, in the Libro de buen amor.

Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1939-1987, pp. 194, vs. 1227-1228.
61.Elisha Kent Kane, The Book of Good Love. Chapel Hill: The
University of North Carolina Press, 1968, verses 1227-1228. An
alternative rendering of the same poem is shown here by the
Hispanist medievalist Elisha Kent Kane:
The trees received them with their branches green and

with their flowers, in many divers manners with fair
colors in their bowers and man and maid their
homage paid by loving at all hours, and drums with
many instruments came forth to noise their powers.
There issued, screaming weird and loud, an arabic
guitar, with shrilly voice and tempo wild as all
things moorish are; a bulky flute which gave a sound
full merry from afar,'till Spain's guitar, like sheep
in sheepford, added throb to jar.
In spite of its lyric intent, the rendering of the Spanish
phrase corpudo laud as "bulky flute" is misapplied. The word
corpudo refers to the convex shape of the belly of the lute,
which is shaped like a large half-pear. In place of the image
of the "corpulent lute", the translation presents the reader
with a grotesque image of a flute, to which such adjectives as
"light" or "quick" are usually applied.
In the last line of the Kane translation, the reference to
"Spain's guitar" as a rendering of the phrase guitarra latina
is anachronistic. The earliest identification with Spain does
not occur in print until the late-fifteenth century, when
Tinctoris mentions the guitar and its association with Spain in
his Inventione et usu musicae of 1484.
73
embraced by man and maid in their loving,with the many

instruments cadenced war-like drums,
Here issued, the Moorish guitar with its shrill
clatter,
of high voice and a rhythmic patter,
the bulging lute that beats time for the dance,
the Latin guitar joins the flock and all three
advance.
The term latina was used in Western Europe to designate
people and presumably things which were associated with Latin
Christendom - as opposed to the Muslim and Greek Orthodox
cultures - and to distinguish the instrument from its cousin the
guitarra morisca that of the Moorish invader.62 Interestingly,
in the Castilian vernacular during the 13th and 14th centuries,
both the terms guitarra morisca (Moorish or Arab guitar), and
laud flute). as in the above passage by Juan Ruiz, were used to
describe instruments which were quite similar.
The pairing of the two instruments, the guitarra morisca
and the guitarra latina. is to be found in the literature of
Spain and of other European countries in this epoch. Records
show, for example that Jehan Hautemayer and Richard L'abbe
62 Gilbert Chase in his analysis of the guitar's provenance,

advances the possibility that the guitar was an indigenous
instrument to Europe, in The Music of Spain: New York, Dover
Publications, 1941, pp. 51.
74
figure as players of the quiterne latine and the quiterne
moresche in the household records of the Duke of Normandy.63
The French poet and composer Guillaume Machaut mentions the
same instruments in Remede de Fortune:
Et la pris je ma soustenance
En regardant la contenance
L'estat, le maintieng, et le port.
De celle ow sont tuit mi deport.
Mais qui viest apres mangier
venir menistreuls sans dagier,
Pignies et mis en pure corps,
La firent meins divers acors;
Car je vi la tout en un cerne
violle, rubelle, guiterne,
Leu, morache, micanon,
Cytolle, eg le psalterion.64
And after the meal you should have seen the

musicians arrive, all combed and comfortably attired.
They played various harmonies, for there all in a
circle I saw the vielle, rebec, guitar, lute, Moorish
guitar, small psaltery, cittern, and the (large)
psaltery.
Among Machaut's patrons was Charles II."le mauvais11 of
Navarre (r.1349-1387), to whom he dedicated a poem in 1349 and
who was the recipient of his Confort d /ami of 1357. There is, no
concrete evidence of Machaut's presence in Navarre, for Charles
spent the 1350's in northern France pursuing his claim on the
French throne and did not return south until 1360. Moreover,
63 Lawrence Wright in "The Medieval Gittern and Citole: A

Case of Mistaken Identity": Galpin Society Journal. 30 (1977),
pp. 8-42.
64 Guillaume de Machaut, Le Judgement du Roy de Behaiqne and

Remede de Fortune, ed. Wimsaft, Kibler, Balzer, Athens:
University of Georgia Press, pp. 390-391.
75
there are no documents bearing evidence of a musical chapel
under the direction of Mauchaut located in Pamplona at that
time. There is however evidence of payments to Mauchaut by the
chancery of the Kingdom of Navarre, in reimbursement for travel
expenses to Brabant, which does establish a linkage to the
Navarrese Kingdom, however slight. Still, either to the
itinerant nature of Medieval courts, or the travels of Machaut
himself, he acquired firsthand knowledge of both the Latin
guitar and the Moorish guitar - which he cites in the Remede de
Fortune- for surely he had ample opportunity to hear visiting
minstrels from the courts of Aragon, Leon, and Castile who
played the moorish or the Latin guitar.65
In The Canterbury Tales. Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340-1400)
has several references to the giterne (or alternate spelling
65 Higinio Angles in Historia de la Musica Medieval en

Navarra, Pamplona: Editorial Aranzadi, 1970, pp. 191-200,
discusses a document found in the archives of the cathedral of
Pamplona in which the King, Charles of Navarre and count of
Evreux repaid Machaut for a horse which was lost on his trip to
Brabant (...par nos gens et donne de nostre commandement a
Guillaume de Machaut, et pur un/roucin a nostre dit escueir
perdus en un voiage ou nostre tres chere compaigne la royyne
l'envoia en Breban en la some de trentre roiaulz). The document
is explicit in stating that Machaut is an envoy of the King of
Navarre to Brabant, which leads Angles to claim that this
document is proof of Machaut's service to the court of Navarre.
Unfortuneatly this is the only evidence which is presented in
support of his thesis, as no musical documentation has thus far
been located in the Pamplona archives. Also: It is interesting
to note, and it is not widely known, that Navarre sheltered a
small but flourishing community of mudeiars throughout the late
Middle Ages. See; L.P. harvey, Islamic Spain. 1250 to 1500.
Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1990, pp. 138-150.
76
gyternet 66 which in "The Miller's Tale", he rhymes with the
word "taverne":
In twenty manere coude he trippe and daunce

After the scole of Oxenforde tho,
And with his legges casten to and fro,
And pleyen songes on a smal rubible;
Therto he song som-tyme a loud quynble;
And as wel coude he pleye on his giterne.
In al the toun r.as brewhous ne taverne
That he ne visited with his solas...67
Grove states that the term giterne. in popular usage in
Medieval England, was a contraction of the term guitarra latina
In "The Pardoner's Tale", several members of the chordophone
family are cited, the venue is, again, the tavern:
In Flaundres whylom was a companye

Of yonge folk that haunteden folye,
As ryot, hasard, stowes, and tavernes,
Wher-as, with harpes, lutes, and giternes,
They daunce and pleye at dees bothe day and night.68
Thus far, we have seen the guitar characterized in the
popular literatures of Spain and other European states as an
instrument which enlivens social events. The popular image of
66 For giterne. see F.H. Stratmann, A Middle - English

Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1891, p. 295. See
also S.M. Kuhn, Middle English Dictionary. Ann Arbor: University
of Michigan Press, 1963, Part G.Z, p 153 (giterne.
giternes.giterner. gilerner. giterninge) . Also, F. Godefrog
Dictionaire de l'Anciennes Langue Francaise et de Tous res
dialectes du IX e au XV e siecle. Paris, 1885, vol. 4, p. 389.
67 W.W. Skent, The complete Works of Geoggrev Chaucer. 7

volumes, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894, vol IV p.96, lines 3328-
3335. See also line 3353; p.97, line 3363; p.129 (The Cook's
Tale), line 4396; p.563 (The Maunciples Tale), 268.
68 Skeat, op.cit. . vol IV, p. 305, 1. 463-467.
77
the guitar as an accessory of the "bon vivant" is a notion that
has held firm from the times of Juan Ruiz and Chaucer until
today.
There is however another aspect or quality attributed to
the instrument which links it to classical antiquity:
E fet ses estrumanz soner C'onque n'ot Amphion de Thebes

qu'en n'i oist pas Dieu toner harpes a, gigues a rubebes,
qu'il an a de trop de manieres; si ra quitarres e leuz
e plus an e les mains manieres pour soi deporter elleuz... .69
He made the instruments sound so that one might not

hear God thundering. He had many kinds of instruments
and, for playing them, hands more dextrous than
Amphion of Thebes ever had. Pygmalion had harps,
gigues, and rebec, guitars and lutes, all chosen to
give pleasure..
This kind of dichotomy is not unusual. It is merely
indicative of usage: mythical/liturgical versus popular. It is
by no means unique to the guitar to possess this ambiguous
nature; rather, it is a mark of the instrument's versatility.
Although the quotations offered above attest to the usage
and popularity of the guitar in the Iberian peninsula, in the
Middle Ages the guitar had not yet become "Spanish." It is
clear that the instrument was also held in high esteem in
neighboring countries. Since, however, it is beyond dispute
that the guitar eventually came to be known as a Hispanic
69 Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, Romance of the Rose

(Roman de la Rose) . translated by Charles Dahlberg, p. 343,
1.21022-21028.
78
instrument, then it is most likely that Spain played an
important role in the diffusion of the instrument throughout
Europe during the Medieval period.
The royal courts and the ecclesiastical centers of the
Iberian peninsula participated fully in the cultural and
artistic florescence characteristic of Medieval Europe as a
whole. Influential contacts included the sporadic diplomatic
missions of papal and royal emissaries; the coming and going of
clerics, crusaders and members of the military orders; and
long - established commercial contacts between the Iberian
kingdoms, France, Italy, England and the Netherlands. A
significant factor in linking northern Spain to the rest of
Western Europe was the pilgrimage road to the shrine of St.
James at Santiago de Compostela, el camino de Santiago, which
brought pilgrims along the route across the northwest corridor
of Spain, from Roncessvalles to Gal icia.70 The Calixtinus
Codex, attributed to the early 12th century, conveys a sense of
the cosmopolitan character of that event as well as the diverse
musical activities which accompanied it:
...Unos tocan citaras, otros liras, otros timpanos,

otros flautas, caramillos, trompetas, arpas, violines,
ruedas britanicas o galas, otros cantando con citaras,
otros cantando acompanados de diversoso instrumentos,
pasan la noche en vela; .. .Alii pueden oirse
diversidad de lenguas, diversas voces en idiomas
70 See Paula L. Gerson, The Twentieth Century Pilqrim/s

Guide to Santiago de Compostela: Translation and Critical
Edition, (publi), 1988; Edwin Mullins, The Pilgrimage to
Santiago, pub. 1974.
79
barbaros; conversaciones y cantilenas en teuton,

ingles, griego, y en los idiomas de otras trubus y
gentes diversas de todos los idiomas del mundo. No
existen palabras ni lenguaje en los que no resuenen
sus voces.71
...Some play citharas, others lyres, others drums,

others flutes, caramillos, trumpets, harps, violins,
British wheels,others singing with citharas, others
singing accompanying themselves on different
instruments, they pass the night in vigil... There
(Santiago de Compostela), one can hear a diversity of
tongues, different voices in barbaric languages;
conversations and songs in German, English, Greek, and
the different languages of all the world's climes.
There exists not words nor languages in which there
voices do not resound.
As a result of such lively exchanges, visitors with musical
interests such as minstrels and troubadours could then return to
their own country with new songs to sing or a new set of musical
sounds in the form of a highly portable musical instrument, the
guitar, with which to accompany their lyrical ballads. In this
way, writers such as Machaut, who speaks of the quitare and the
morache (Moorish guitar), or theoreticians such as Grocheo, who
mentions the guitarra Saracenica in his treatise De Musica. may
have acquired their knowledge. In any case, the guitar was well
71 Jose Lopez-Calo, S.J. as cited in La Musica Medieval en

Galicia. La Coruna: Fundacion "Pedro Barrie de la Maza, Conde
de Fenosa", pp. 33, 1982; The Codex Calixtinus. also referred
to as the Liber Sancti Jacobi, is a manuscript in the Biblioteca
de la Catedral, Santiago de Compostela, containing material
connected with the cult of St. james. See James Grier,
"Santiago de Compostela, School of", in the Dictionary of the
Middle A ges, ed. Joseph R. Stranger, New York: Charles
Scribner's sons, vol 10, 1988, pp. 650-651; and Walter M.
Whitehill et al., eds., Liber Sancti Jacobi: Codex Calixtinus.
3 vols, pub. 1944.
80
known to the French courtier, and there was a linkage to Spanish
traditions as one sees from the reference in 1530 to a musicians
named Rychaert de Mont, who was described as:
...ghyterneur, suivant le mode espagnole'

...guitarist, knowledgeable in the Spanish style 72
The musician, apparently, was part of the retinue of the Emperor
and Spanish king, Charles V (1519-1558).
Although the guitar was present in the literature of
Renaissance Spain, it was the vihuela which was the preferred
instrument which was used for most of the "high" music produced
in that period of Spanish musical history. In the Diccionario
Tecnico de la Musica. the 19th-century historian of Spanish
music, Felipe Pedrell, offers the following explanation:
... La guitarra era entonces instrumento pobre y

popular, que se tocaba rasgueado, y la vihuela rico y
aristocratico que se tania punteado. Andando el
tiempo la guitarra fue poco a poco invadiendo el
terreno de la vihuela a principios del siglo actual
ya era un solo instrumento, quedando relegadas al
pueblo bajo en algunas provincias, las antiguas
guitarras, guitarros o guitarrillos casi en su estado
primitivo.73
. ..The guitarra was in those times, a poor and popular

instrument,that was played by strumming, and the
vihuela. rich and aristocratic, that was played
through plucking. Through the march of time the
72 Edmund van der Straeten: La Musiaue aux Pays Bas,

vol.7,p. 251, as cited in Turnbull, op. c it. p.40.
73 Felipe Pedrell, see the article entitled "Vihuela", in

the Diccionario Tecnico de la Musica, 1st edition, Barcelona:
Imprenta Victor Berdos, 1894, p. 494.
81
guitarra little by little invaded the territory of the

vihuela and at the start of this century, they were
one instrument, relegated to the lower classes in some
provinces- the antique, auitarras. guitarros, or
guitarrillos were (still) almost in their primitive
state.
This article, on the vihuela. vigorously asserts the
distinction between the two instruments. The coalescence of the
guitarra and the vihuela is presented as a kind of degradation
or decadence of the vihuela. If this was the predominant view
of a 19th-century musical authority then it should come as
little surprise that a similar distinction was evident in the
16th century. 74
The explanation for this bias is quite simple - briefly, to
revisit chapter one - and it has at its core a question of
etymology. The term vihuela is linked to the term vielle.
(viol), which in its various guises was the preferred instrument
of the European troubadour an elite class of verse
74 Surprising as this may sound coming from the lips of a

Spaniard, Pedrell's view was not unusual among the better-
educated musicians in nineteenth-century Spanish cities. This
intellectual elite spurned the guitar, regarding it as an
agreeable instrument, but limited in its resources, and at best
suited for folkloric music and serenading. It was the piano
which was the instrument of preference among this group, even to
the extent that the Barcelona school of pianism, led by
Granados, was renowned for its ability to approximate a
guitaristic style of playing on the pianoI One of my vivid
recollections as a student in the Spanish conservatories of
music, was how the piano students loved toplay famous music for
the guitar, such as "Recuerdos del Alhambra" by Tarrega in
transcription for piano, and the guitarists vice versa-playing
transcriptions of Granados and Albeniz. The ultimate irony
however is that the music of these last two masters was in
effect a paraphrase of Spanish folklore usually associated with
the guitar.
82
technicians/musicians of the Middle Ages. Prior to that, the
term may be linked to the Latin fidicula, thus providing a
classical heritage. The word guitar has linkages on both the
Greco-Roman side with kithara. chitara. and on the Arab/Muslim
side, as in kuwitra or kuwithra which describes contemporary
instruments used throughout the Maghrib, and which relate to the
earlier terms kaithat and kaithara. which according to Henry
George Farmer are the Arabic equivalents to the Latin cithara.
It is clear that the vihuela. with its associations with
the Greco-Roman classical tradition and the troubadour elite of
the Middle Ages, was more representative of the ethos of the
16th-century Spanish musician. It is however ironic to point out
that in fact the musicologist Charles Jacobs maintains that the
vihuela was for all intents and purposes a guitar. 75 In the
forward to his edition of El maestro of Luys Milan,
(Valencia 1536), Jacobs states:
The vihuela. favored over the lute in Spanish court

circles, was in reality a guitar. El Maestro is thus
the earliest extent collection of guitar music.76
This phrase conveys the message that the vihuela is to be
linked to classical antiquity and Milan is himself an heir to
75 Jacobs is in good company for the 16th-century theorist

Juan Bermudo was perhaps the first to advance this view of the
guitar and vihuela.
76 Luys Milan, El maestro, edited and transcribed by Charles

Jacobs, Univ. of Pennsylvania State Press, p.l.
the tradition of Orpheus. Clearly, then, the Spanish vihuela
was the aesthetic equivalent to the Renaissance lute. It is
plausible that this belief which was shared by the Renaissance
Spaniard, who in an age when most Spaniards, and especially the
officials of the Inquisition, were obsessed with limpieza de
sanare. associated the guitar with a tainted pedigree. Thus the
shared "problem" which both the lute (to a greater degree) and
the guitar presented to the Spanish courtier was that of too
close an association with Spain's Muslim past. 77
At a much later date, a short poem by Luis de Gongora is
exemplifies the humble status still allotted to the guitar in
his day:78
En mi aposento... In my lodging
Una guitarrilla tomo, I take a little guitar,
Que como barbero templo Which I tune like a barber
y como barbaro toco. and play like a barbarian.
77. Felipe Pedrell op. cit. p. 212.An excerpt from the

article entitled "guitarra1* offers insight into this point of
view: "Instrumento que procede de la Arabia, segun la opinion
mas generalizada, y que nos fue importado por los moros arabes
procedenteed de Asia y Africa". (An instrument which is of
Arabic procedence, according to gerneral opinion, and which was
imported to us by the Moorish Arabs via Asia and Africa) .
Pedrell's view is similar to that of Julian Ribera.
78 after a painting by Peter Breugel entitled, "The Fight

Between Carnival and Lent".
84
Gongora not-with standing, a change in the musical values
of Spain must have occurred during the 17th century which
brought about a reversal of fortunes for the guitar. Jose de
Aspiazu has suggested that the rise of the guitar was due in
part, to the triumph of the ideas of the pueblo espanol (the
Spanish people) and the elevated cost of the vihuela.79 The
qentilhombres. (gentlemen), caballeros. and the nobility now
engage in guitar playing, for Pedrell was quite correct in his
assertion that the guitar came to usurp the place of the vihuela
during the Baroque epoque, for it was the Baroque guitar, known
as the guitarra espanola which was the rage of the leading
courts of Europe. Moreover, it achieved this popularity by
combining musical elements of both the lute and the guitar. The
music for this instrument was a blend of the counterpoint of
Northern Europe with the strumming so beloved by the Spanish and
79 Jose de Aspiazu, La guitarra y los guitaristas. Buenos

Aires: Ricordi, 1961, pp. 27-28. Las ideas del pueblo comienzan
a triunfar. arrastrando con ellas a su musica v consecuentemente
a sus instrumentos. Este viraie se anunciaba va en el siolo
XVI. como podemos constatar por los libros de Fuenllana. D.
Pisador. Padre Bermudo v J.C. Amat. El tecnicismo excesivo del
laudista v vihuelistas v el costo elevado de sus instrumentos
contribuven en parte a su declive. The ideas of the people
begin to triumph, sweeping along with them their music and
consequently their instruments. This "virus" was foretold
already in the sixteenth century, as we can find in the books of
Fuenllana, D. Pisador, Padre Bermudo and J.C. Amat. The
excessive technicism of the lutenist and the vihuelist and the
elevated cost of the instruments contributed in part to their
decline.
85
other Mediterranean lands.80 Apparently, it was the guitarra
espanola which was the better suited of the two instruments to
perform in this new style.
The advent of printing and the demand for books, not least
in instructional matters, led to a market for method books. The
first book printed in Spain and dedicated primarily to the
guitar was Joan Carles y Amat's Guitarra espanola y vandola en
dos maneras de guitarra. castellana y cathalana de cinco
ordenes. published in Barcelona in 1596. The title refers to
a "Spanish guitar of five strings which may be played in the
Catalan or Castilian style". Of the two styles, the Catalan was
the more contrapuntal, while the Castilian combined elements of
counterpoint and strumming.
The introduction to the text is both informative and
entertaining. Amat, a physician by profession, begins his
preface with an analysis of the Spanish temperament:
La colera espanola, ha sido la causa mas principal

(discreto lector) que haya sacado a luz esta
obrezilla, porque veo que ninguno es tan flematico,
como es menester para ensenar el Arte de taner la
Guitarra, y a se maravillen los que deseavan ser
instruidos en esta Arte, si al cabo de tres dias sus
Maestro estavan muy cansados de ensenarles, porque nos
tiene tan oprimidos a todos los Espanoles, este humor
colerico, que qualquier cosa que emprendamos, por
80 Sanz called the strumming effect mQsica ruidosa (noisy

music). The technique was also practiced in other countries,
especially Italy, which had its own version of the technique.
The techniques discussed here will be analyzed in more detail in
a later chapter.
86
corta que sea, nos parece muy larga. Considerando,

pues yo, la falta que avia en toda esta tierra, por no
aver alfun Autor tratado desto (a lo menos que yo
sepa) he querido escrivir, con este estilo, el modo de
templar, y tocar rasgando, esta guitarra de cinco,
llamada Espanola, por ser mas recibida es esta tierra
que en las otras... 81
The principal cause for the publication of this small

work (discreet reader), has been the choleric short temper
of Spain, because I see that no one is phlematic enough to
master and teach the Art of guitar playing, and thus they
are amazed, those that wish to be instructed in this Art,
if at the end of three days their Masters are very tired of
teaching them, for the choleric temperament of Spain has us
so oppressed that whatever work we begin, short as it may
be, seems long to us. Considering this lack that there is
in all of this land, for not having some Author treated
this theme (at least to my knowledge) I wanted to write
this, with this style, the manner of tuning, strumming,
playing , this guitar of five, called Spanish, as it is
more well received in this land than in others...
Rhetorically, the tenor of this introduction by Carles y
Amat is apologetic. Its message belies the popularity which the
instrument had achieved in foreign lands. Within years of the
publication of Carles y Amat, authors in several European
countries were to publish a number of collections of music and
manuals for playing the guitarra espanola. In Paris, in 1627
Luis Briceno published a text entitled: Metodo facilissimo para
aprender a taner la guitarra la lo Espanol. (The Easiest Method
to Learn to Play the Guitar in the Spanish Style) . In Italy,
Francisco Corbetta published a number of works for the chitarra
81 Joan Carles y Amat's Guitarra espanola. v vandola en dos

maneras de guitarra. castellana v cathalana. de cinco ordenes.
Barcelona: 1596. These notes are taken from a later edition
published in Barcelona in 1636. An edition on microfilm,
property of the Hispanic Society, New York.
87
Spaanola. including: Sherzi Armonicic trovati e facilitati in
alcune curiosissime Suinate sopra la Chitarra Spaanuola
(Bologna, 1639); Varii Capricci per al Ghittara Spaanuola
(Milan, 1643); Varii Scherzi di Sonate per la Chitara Spaanola
(Brussels, 1648); and La Guitarre Rovale (Paris 1671). These
titles leave no doubt that Corbetta was a most ardent spokesman
for the guitar. He served several monarchs including Louis XIV
of France, and Charles II of England, and dedicated La Guitarre
Rovale to the latter.82 It is believed that he is also the
author of a text printed in London in 1677 with the nom de plum
of Seignio Francisco entitled Easie Lessons on the Guittar for
Young Practitioners. Another nom de plume was
Francois Corbetta, reflecting, no doubt, his allegiance to the
court of the Roi de Soleil.
The durable popularity of Spanish plucked-string
instruments was in no way limited to Europe. The Age of
Exploration and the occupation of the Indies by Columbus and the
Iberian explorers and conquistadors who followed him brought the
Spanish chordophone instruments to the New World.
The Spanish mystic Juana de la Cruz (1481-1534) , who was born in
Spain and founded a convent in Mexico, likens herself to a
guitar (vihuela) being tuned and played upon by Christ, in her
visions:
82 Frederic Grunfeld, V. , the Art and times of the Guitar.

New York: Collier, p.
88
Parezaxne veo todos los miembros e benas e coynturas de

mi cuerpo hechas como a manera de cuerdas e teclas o
clavijas de vihuela e a Nuestro Senor tocarlas con sus
sacratissimas manos, ataner con ellas a manera de
instrumento o vihuela e azer muy dulce e suave de
armonia.83
I seem to see all the limbs and veins and joints of my

body transformed into the strings and keys or pegs of
a guitar and Our Lord playing on them with His most
holy hands, playing on them as upon an instrument or
guitar and making a very sweet and gentle harmonious
sound.
Allusions to musical instruments in preaching which Sor
Juana used so well in New Spain stem from the mystical tradition
of Spain. In Spain a commonly used motif in preaching was to
liken the cross to a guitar or vihuela. Ronald Surz cites a
sermon by the Dominican friar Juan Lopez de Salamance (d.1479)
"...who combines the notion of the cross as musical instrument
with the notion of David as a prefiguration of Christ":
...que ansi como David taniendo la guitarra sanava a

Saul, que era demoniado, asi Nuestro Senor, tocando la
guitarra de la cruz con agudas bozes, avia a sanar al
mundo, que era todo atorcijado.84
...for just as David, by playing his guitar, cured

Saul who was possessed, so Our Lord, playing upon the
guitar of the Cross with sharp cries, was to heal the
world that was all twisted.
83 Ronald E. Surtz. The Guitar of God: Gender. Power, and

Authority in the Visionary World of Mother Juana de la Cruz
(1481-1534).Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Press,
1990. pp. 68-69.
84 Juan Lopez de Salamanca, Libro de evanaelios moralizados.

Zamora, (1490), in Surz, op, cit. p.73.
89
Approximately a century later, in the sphere of secular
literary pursuits, another Juana - the well born Mexican who
became a nun - Sor Juana (1651-1695) had contact with both the
indian and the negro population of Nev; Spain influenced both her
language and her vision of the use of musical instruments as
shown in this excerpt from one of her villancicos :
y el eco que refina

la citara, que trina
apostando el violin:
!Tin, tilin, tin, tin!
El tenor gorgoree,
la vihuela discante,
la rabelillo encante,
la bandurria vocee,
el arpa gargantee,
que asi rumor haran:
!Tan, talan,tan,tan!85
the echo which refines

the citara. which trills
apostate the violin:
!Tin, tilin, tin, tin!
The tenor gorgoree,
the vihuela descantes,
the small fiddles chants,
the mandoline voices,
the harp gurgles,
que asi rumor haran:
!Tan, talan, tan, tan!
An interesting note, which reflects the life of musical
instruments in the new world in the lives of those who were not
of the clergy involves two conauistadores. Andres de Barrios,
"the dancer, and Ortiz, "the musician", who played the vihuela:
85 Salvador Moreno, El sentimiento de la musica. Valencia:

Pre-Textos/Musica, 1986, pp. 87-99.
90
apparently, the lands on which Sor Juana built the convent of
San Jeronimo, were donated to her by those two men.86 An
interesting note, which reflects the life of musical instruments
in the new world in the lives of those who were not of the
clergy involves two conauistadores. Andres de Barrios, "the
dancer", and Ortiz, "the musician", who played the vihuela;
apparently, the lands on which Sor Juana built the convent of
San Jeronimo, were donated to her by those two men.87 Bernal
Diaz del Castillo recounts the explorer Cortes fondness for
music in describing the music at a banquet given in Cortes's
honor by the viceroy: "'singers at each seat of honor, and
trumpetry and all sorts of instruments, harps, guitars, violas,
flutes, dulcimers, and oboes' provided music which rivaled the
best any of the guests had ever heard at home in Spain."88
Apparently the ascendancy of the guitar, which coincided
with the Baroque, was due in part to social causes for which the
instrument was particularly suited. This topic will be dealt
with in greater detail in the next chapter. In Spain, the
Golden age writers felt such a sense of identification with the
86 Francisco de la Maza, La Ruta de Sor Juana, in S.

Moreno, op. cit., p.101.
87 Maza, Francisco de la, La Ruta de Sor Juana, in S.

Moreno, op. cit.. p.101.
88 Bernal Diaz del Castillo The True History of the Conquest

of New Spain, as cited in Robert Stevenson, Music in Mexico. New
York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company,1952, p.94.
91
instrument that references to the guitar were often couched in
anthropomorphic terms. In the introduction to his guitar method
Gaspar Sanz, in the fashion of the age, likens the guitarra
espanola to a Spanish senorita:
... la Guitarra buena, o mala, pues es como una dama,

en quien no cabe el melindre de mirame, y no me
toques; u su rosa es muy contraria a la Rosa, pues no
se marchita, por mucho que se toque con las manos,
antes si la cogen de mano de buen Maestro, producir^
en las de todos nuevos ramilletes, que en sonoras
fragancias recrearan el oido. 89
...a guitar, for better or for worse, is a woman for

whom the saying, 'look at me but do not touch me',
does not apply; her rosette sound-hole is the very
opposite of a real rose bud, for she will not wither,
no matter how much you touch her with your hands. On
the contrary, when she is touched and played with a
master hand, she will produce ever new blossoms whose
fragrant sonorities will please the ear.
This personification of the guitar with a woman is not
limited the to Baroque mind. Even in the Spanish of today, one
may find the same relation between woman and guitar, in a well
known refrain:
la mujer y la guitarra, the woman and the guitar

para tocarlas to play them
hay que templarias one must tune them
89 G. Sanz op. cit. p.LXI.
The great writers of the Golden Age, such as Lope de Vega
(1562-1635), and Cervantes (1547-1616), make reference to the
guitar in an ubiquitous way. In his study of the use of musical
terms in the work of Cervantes, Miguel Querol observes that
Cervantes referred repeatedly to the guitar in his writing, in
direct proportion to the instrument's popularity. In Don
Ouiiote de la Mancha. Cervantes alludes to a certain Vicente
Roca, a gentleman who seduces the countess Trifaldi, and whose
principal talent was that he.... "tocaba una guitarra a lo
rasaueado. de manera aue decian alqunos que la hacia hablar. (he
strummed on the guitar so well that some say that he made it
speak). It seems that in the writings of Cervantes, he refers to
the guitar in the sense of an instrument which is an item which
in vogue, and a welcome addition to the social graces of a
gentleman aspiring to have his company welcome to the opposite
sex. Cervantes refers to a youth who...."tocaba la guitarra a lo
rasqado (he played the guitar by strumming)", a style which was
suited to the dances of the day. In the above passage, we find
once more the attribution of a human characteristic to the
guitar. Or perhaps it is more a tribute to the skill of the
player, who is able to coax humanity out of an inanimate object.
Rather than the religious fervor of the mystic, for a performer,
this transcendence of life's traditional boundaries is in Spain
often referred to as a state known as duende (literally,
goblin). It is most often applied in the flamenco tradition to
93
the cantaors. (singers), dancers, and guitarists who have
rendered a notable, or especially a moving performance.90
In his references to the lute and vihuela. Cervantes shows
how the instruments related more to a bygone age, as in his
musical romancing of the maiden Altisadora, which is
accomplished with the vihuela. and done in the style of the
Medieval troubadour:
hallo, Don Quijote, una vihuela en su aposento;

templola, abrio la reja, y sintio que andaba gente en
el jardin; y haviendo recorido los trastes de la
vihuela y afinandola lo mejor que supo, escupio y
remondose el pecho, y luego, con voz ronquilla, aunque
entonada, canto el siguiente romance, que el mismo
aquel dia habia compuesto.91
Don Quijote, finding a vihuela in his quarters; tuned

it, opened the window, and he noticed people walking
about in the garden; and having adjusted the frets of
the vihuela. he tuned it as best he could, he spit and
arranged his posture, and with a scratchy voice,
though in tune, he sang the following romance, which
he had composed that same day.
90 In his study of the flamenco culture of the Spanish

gypsy, author Don Pohren illustrates duende: "Desolate cantes
followed, each further fomenting the dejection of the
impressionable gypsies. Moments such as these incite the iondo
in men, and the miracle of the duende occurs; for the duende is
the exposure of one's soul, its misery and suffering, love and
hate, offered without embarrassment or resentment. It is a cry
of despair, a release of tortured emotions, to be found in its
true profundity only in real life situations, not in the make-
believe world of theaters and night clubs and commercial caves
as a product that can be bought and sold and produced at will."
In, The Art of Flamenco, by D.E. Pohren: Shaftsbury, Dorset,
England, Musical New services LTd, Guitar House, 1962, pp.23.
91 Salvador Moreno, op. cit. p. 18.
94
Don Quijote thus confirms the passing of the vihuela and the
ascendancy of the guitar by linking the former instrument with
a former age, telling Sancho:
quiero que sepas Sancho, que todos los mas caballeros

andantes de la edad pasada eran grandes trovadores y
grandes musicos. .. ,92
I would like you to know Sancho, that all of the best

knights of ages past were great troubadours and
musicians..
At some point in the latter half of the 16th or early 17th
century, the guitar became larger, adding an extra course or
string to its extant four. Thus, it was a five-course guitar
which was the standard. In his play La Dorotea. Lope de Vega
refers frequently to the guitar:
Julio: Donde vas cue has cmebrado la guitarra por

salir deprisa11..93;
Fernando: .. .arrima esta guitarra a esa reia." 94
Julio: Where are you going to have broken the guitar

with your hasty departure.
Fernando: ...slip the guitar through these bars.
In the same work, Lope, cited Vicente Espinel as the one
who added "la prima" to the guitar:
92 Moreno, op. ci t . p. 18.
93 Lope de Vega, La Dorotea: Madrid, Espasa Calpe, Cuarta

Edicion, 1967,pp.30.
94 Lope de Vega, op. cit. pp. 136.
95
...perdonaselo Dios a Vicente Espinel, que nos trajo

estas nuevas decimas o espineias que se usan, y esta
novedad de las cinco cuerdas de la guitarra, con que
ya se van olvidando los instrumentos nobles, como las
danzas antiguas, con estas acciones gesticulares y
movimientos lascivos de las chaconas en tanta ofensa
de las virtud, de la castidad y el decoroso silencio
de las damas.95
...may God forgive Espinel, who has brought us those

new verses, decimas or espineias, and the five strings
of the guitar, so that now everyone forgets the old
noble instruments as well as the old dances, with
these wild gesticulations and lascivious movements of
the chaconne, which are so offensive of the virtue,
the chastitity and the seemly silence of ladies.
Vicente Espinel, a musician and writer was known for his
picaresque novel, La vida de Marco de Obreqon. The hero of the
novel, Marcos, a student at Salamanca, supplements his income by
giving singing lessons. A guitar is his constant companion:
"Fueron con el viento en popa mientras vo cantaba en mi

guitarra ...; (they went full sail, while I sang with my guitar)
Cogi debaio de la saltambarca una guitarra ( I grabbed from
under the clothing the guitar)...v lueqo. sacando la guitarra.
le cante mil disparates..11 ( and later, reaching for the guitar,
I sang a thousand absurdities) ; ...v tomando mi guitarra
cante . (and taking the guitar, I sang).
Espinel is more remembered as a poet and a novelist, as
none of his music survives. As we see in the above quote from La
Dorotea. Espinel achieved renown for his invention of a type of
ten-line stanzas known as espineias. Apparently his ability as
an artistic innovator grew to the extent that he was credited
95 Lope de Vega, op. cit. pp. 46.
96
with the addition of the fifth string of the guitar. This was
highly unlikely, given the date of his birth, 1550, and the
quotation by Bermudo in the year 1555, mentioned in chapter one,
which refers to the guitar in both its four-course and five-
course configuration. None the less, in his times, Espinel must
have been celebrated for he was also mentioned by Cervantes who
cited him in "La Galatea", and lauded him in the Viaie del
Parnaso:
"Es el grande Espinel. que en la guitarra/ Tiene la prima v en

raro estilo."96 ( It is the great Espinel/ he has the first
string, and is in rare form)
Gilbert Chase is of the opinion, that even though it was
unlikely that Espinel invented the five-string guitar, he
probably was the one who popularized the instrument. 97
The references to Espinel in Cervantes and Lope De Vega
clearly indicate the importance of the guitar to the society of
the Golden Age. Moreover,this Spanish enthusiasm for the guitar
travelled abroad. By the early part of the nineteenth century,
the French even coined a term for it: la cmitaromanie. (guitar
fever). Significantly, the European passion for the Spanish
guitar, coincided with an interest in la mode espaanole among
Spain's European neighbors, itself a recognition of the cultural
96 George Haley, Vicente Espinel and Marcos de Obreqon.

Providence: Brown University Press, 1959,pp.46.
97 Gilbert Chase, The Music of Spain: New York, Dover

Publications,1941,1959, pp. 53-54, 60-61.
97
hegemony which Spain continued to exercise to the sixteen-
sixties.
98
CHAPTER FOUR
THE SOCIAL TRADITION:
The first reference to a professional string player in
Spanish literature is not to a man but to a woman. In a
passage in the Libro de Apolonio (mid-13th century), the
heroine Tarsiana becomes a iuqlaresa:
Luego el otro dia, de buena madrugada,

levantose la duena ricament adobada,
priso una viola, buena e bien temprada,
e salio al mercado violar por soldada.98
The next day, a fine morning,

the damsel arose richly dressed,
with her viol, fine and well tempered,
she went to the market to play for a salary.
According to Menendez Pidal, the phrase salir al mercado (to go
to market), was used by Medieval authors to indicate a
performance before an affluent audience. This Medieval
professional verbal code has parallels with today's
instrumentalists' slang which describes colleagues as "cats" or
"monsters", work as a "gig," or a musical instrument as an
"axe" or a "box".99
98 Libro de Apolonio. edited by Manuel Alvar,Barcelona:

Editorial Planeta, 1984, verse 426, p.59.
99 Menendez Pidal in Poesian iuqlaresca v iuqlares, relates

other, similar phrases which include: iuqlaresca de buen
mercado. ioqlar entre los ciutadans; if the public was an
aristocratic one Menendez Pidal provides the following phrases
99
Tarsiana, the daughter of Tarsus and Dionisa, was trained
in the liberal arts, which then included the science of music:
Cuando fue de siet' anos,dieronla al

escuela,
apriso bien gramatiga e bien tocar
vihuela.100
At seven years they schooled her,

Well she learned grammar and how to play the
vihuela.
Early for European musical practice, Spain shows a linkage
between a formalized educational process and pedagogy in secular
music. The fact that Tarsiana is a woman is noteworthy in that
it differs substantially from the norm of European practice for
the Middle Ages. For Tarsiana to have had the opportunity to
become skilled in the performance of a musical instrument,
several important steps in both the culture of music and the
educational process must have taken place on the Iberian
Peninsula.
The first link in this chain of events in Spain, is the
spread of the Hebrew culture and later, that of Muslim culture
both of which in their own different ways enriched Spain
culturally. Life in Spain was conducive to a certain freedom of
artistic expression both for the indigenous cultures which
inhabited it and for both the Jews and the Arabs, whose musical
in Provencal: iocrlar en cort. anar per cortz. anar per cortz de

reis e de oentil barons; in Galician he provides: andar pelas
cortes p.65.
100 Libro de Apolonio. o p . cit.verse 350, p.49.
100
practice had been restricted in their respective homelands.101
For the Jews, outside of the synagogue, music was
considered at best as socially volatile, due to its association
with wine and women.102 A passage from the Jewish scholar
Maimonides, who was born in Cordoba, spending his youth there
before migrating to Cairo, illustrates the caution with which
secular music was treated:
...in reality it is the hearing of folly that is

prohibited, even if uttered by stringed instruments.
And if melodized upon them there would be three
prohibitions: (1) the prohibition of listening to
folly (follies of the mouth), (2) and the prohibition
of listening to singing (ghina), I mean playing with
the mouth, and (3) the prohibition of listening to
stringed instruments. And if it were in a wine shop
[where the listening occurred] there would be a fourth
prohibition, as in the saying of Him Most High,.. 'And
the harp (kinnor) , and the viol (nebel) , the tabret
(toph) , and pipe (halil) , and wine, and in their
feasts.103
101 Henry George Farmer in A History of Arabian Music, pp.23-

25, discusses the moralistic attitude toward listening to music
which characterized the orthodox Muslim. "The legists even
brought the testimony of the 'Companions of the Prophet' and
other illustrious men of Islam against 'listening to music.'
'Abdallah ibn Umar is said to have heard a pilgrim singing and
rebuked him saying,- 'I do not hear Allah from you.' ...In
another tradition the singing-girls and stringed instruments
(ma'azif) are given as signs of the end of the world.
102 Farmer op. cit. p.45. Farmer refers to the stricter

Muslims who proscribed secular music and looked upon its
practice as something disreputable...."it had come part and
parcel of the malahi or "forbidden pleasures," and linked up
with wine-bibbing, gaming and fornication."
103 Henry George Farmer, Maimonides on Listening to Music.

Beardsden, Scotland, 1941. (Published by the Author).
101
This passage demonstrates a concern for the proper use of music
in the recreational setting. With this emphasis on a pure
musical ethos, it is reasonable to assume that the Jews took
equal care in musical training. According to Henry George
Farmer, Jews in general, do not appear to have favored music as
a profession except in Spain:
In Spain under the Arab sultans and caliphs, the Jews

encouraged music both as a profession for
practitioners and as a science for scholars in spite
of the frowns of the legists. Indeed when the
Christians became masters of the land, they complained
of the ostentation of the Jews in that they out-shone
their nobles, one particular objection being that the
Jews instructed their children to excel in music.104
The Jews not only brought their arts with them, but experienced
a liberalization of their musical practice in Spain, for this
acceptance of music outside of the synagogue was unprecedented.
The interest in and excellence of music which flourished in
southern Spain during the Middle Ages, was shared by Jews and
Muslims. This cross-cultural influence among the communities
which originally inhabited al - Andalus (Andalusia), provided a
cultural bridge between eastern and western musical traditions
and gave Spain a musical heritage that is unique in the history
of music.
101 Farmer, Maimonides. p.9.
102
A Muslim musician who was representative of both advances
in music education and the cultural assimilation process which
occurred in the Iberian peninsula during the early Middle Ages
was Ziryab, the 9th-century master of the ud. 105 Ziryab had
achieved renown in Baghdad, and when news of his impending
arrival in Algeciras reached the Amir al-Hakam I (796-822) in
Cordoba, the amir sent a Jewish musician of his court named al-
Mansur, to meet Ziryab and to convince him to join the amir's
entourage. When the two musicians met at Algeciras, the news
reached them of the sudden death of the amir. Al-Mansur then
persuaded Ziryab to offer his services to the new amir,
Abd al-Rahman II (822-852). Al-Mansur thus helped to bring
about the splendid era of Arab music in Spain inaugurated by
Ziryab. Among the latter's accomplishments, his most important
were his contributions to the system of music education. The
music school at Cordoba, which became the conservatory of
Andalusian music, was looked upon as one of the glories of the
country. There is no record of any similar institution, which
specialized in secular music in Europe during the same time
period. At that time sacred music predominated as the Roman
church sought to unify its musical liturgy and Europe was
immersed in the training of singers of plain-chant at the
scholas and in the monastic system.
105 Jose de Azpiasu, La cmitarra v los quitarristas. pp. 11.

In Farsi, Ziryab is the name of a melodious blackbird.
103
Cordoba on the Guadalquivir river, where the conservatory
of Andalusian music was located, was the leading economic and
cultural metropolis of Muslim Spain in the X century. Cordoba
and its neighbor, Seville, were both centers of music and
learning, the former noted for its scholars, conservatory and
libraries and the latter noted for the manufacture of musical
instruments. This set of circumstances gave rise to the saying:
"...when a scholar dies in Seville, his books are sold in
Cordoba; and when a musician dies in Cordoba his instrument is
sold in Seville.11106
Another aspect worthy of note is that the early music
training in al-Andalus - following the liberalized musical
tradition in practice at the school of Baghdad - appears to have
been co-educational. In Arabia, the earliest singers and
performers on musical instruments were females. The Arabs
considered themselves warriors and for them music was thought to
be an unmasculine activity.107 Later, in the 8th century, a
process of liberalization occurred in the major centers such as
Baghdad and Cairo, where eventually both males and females were
accepted as students of music. Generally the students who
attended these schools were recruited from the slave population.
It was this model which was adopted by Ziryab in his school in
Cordoba.
106Farmer.o p . cit.
107 Farmer, op. cit. p. 143.
104
According to Farmer, Ziryab's principal influence on the
curriculum was to provide a three-part structure to the pedagogy
of music. The first elements taught were rhythm and meter,
followed by the words and melody taught to the accompaniment of
a musical instrument (most likely fal-ud), and finally the
"gloss Xza/ida) was introduced. 108
Ziryab was a musical innovator, as well as an educator,
and while in Spain he experimented with the predecessor to the
quitarra morisca. the 'ud:109
Considerable changes had taken place on the

instrumental side, and during the second half of the
eighth century, one of the court musicians, Zalzal,
introduced a new type of ud (lute), which was soon
generally adopted in the place of the ud al-farisi or
Persian lute that had been in common use. This
108 Farmer, op. cit. p.110. See, J. B. Trend, The Music of

Spanish History, discusses Ziryab's pedagogical methods as
deriving the rhythmic emphasis of the words, "Only when he had
mastered the words and the rhythm, was the pupil of Ziryab
allowed to sing the melody; and the melody, both in the
structure of the musical phrase and in its historical
development, was intimately connected with the rhythm of
speech... p.21. In this respect, Ziryabs method seems to
coincide with the teaching of Gregorian chant. See, also, Adolfo
Salazar, La Musica de Espaha: La mfisica el la cultura de Espana.
"Su metodo de canto parte de la voz gritada,adornada enseguida
en proceso descendente. p. 53. This observation by Salazar
points out the influence that this technique of singing as
taught by Ziryab has with the present day cante hondo of the
flamenco cantaor. See, also Julian Ribera, Music in Ancient
Arabia and Spain.Da Capo Press: New York, 1970.
109 Farmer, Arabian Music o p . c it.. pp 128-129. According to

Farmer, "Great respect was paid to Ziryab during his journey to
Cordova [from Algeciras], and the sultan himself actually rode
out of the city to meet him....His greatest fame was made
through his Music School at Cordova, which became the
conservatory of Andalusian music, and its pupils were looked
upon as one of the glories of the country.
105
"perfect lute" was called the ud al-shabbut....it was

still mounted with four strings, although in Al-
Andalus, a musician named Ziryab had added a fifth.
The work of Ziryab and his sucesscrs gave rise to an artistic
culture in Medieval Spain which for a time, was shared among
Christians, Muslims and Jews.
The schools of music and dance which flourished both in
southern Spain and in the kingdom of Valencia provided musicians
and dancers for Muslim and Christian courts alike. Chancery
documents show that Castilian kings of the 13th and. 14th
centuries such as Alfonso X and his son Sancho IV had Arab
musicians in their employ. In Aragon, there survive several
chancery documents which refer to the desire of King Joan I
(1336-1387) to hear moras iuqlaresas and instrumentalists from
Valencia, where the mass of the population was still largely
Muslim. Named Macot, Fuley, and Xamari Mariem, they were
accompanied by Moorish minstrels - who gave a performance at the
King's court and were duly paid by royal order on 9th
September, 1389.110 Thus, the practice of teaching the
110 Maria Carmen Gomez Muntane, La Musica en la Casa Real

Catalano - Araoonesa 1336 - 1442.Barcelona; Antoni Bosch Casa
Editorial, 1984, p.163. Gomez Muntane publishes the order of
payment issued by King Joan I:
9 Septiembre 1389
Lo Rey
Batle general. Sapiats que Macot, Fuley, Xamari Mariem e sa
muller e los altres moros juglars los quals de manament nostre
haviets fets venir aci, se tornen de licencia nostra a lurs
cases. Perque us manam que les paguets co que rahonable sia per
lur tornada... Dada en Montso sots nostre segell secret a IX
dies de setembre de 1 any MCCCLLXXXXIX. Rex Johannes.
106
performance of musical instruments leading to a level of
professional skill was a Muslim custom which the Christians of
Spain adopted, as they did also the practice of training women
in the performance of music.111 This practice was exemplified
at the court of Alfonso X in the person of La Balteira, a female
minstrel. 112 By the mid-13th century, Alfonso X had a
clear awareness of Muslim accomplishments in the arts and
sciences. He often drew upon Arabic models for works which were
translated and rendered into early Castilian at his court, such
as El libro de acedrex. The Book of Chess, and El lapidario. a
book discussing the properties of gem-stones.
Exceptionally among European kings, Alfonso X played a
seminal role in the establishment of music as a profession at
111 Farmer, in A History of Arabian Music, discusses how in

Arab tradition female slaves were, at first, the only musicians,
singers, and dancers. The first males to engage in this
profession had their hands painted because it was considered
unmanly work.p.87; Also, Ismael Fernandez de la Cuesta,
Historia de la Mflsica Esoanola. gives references to the school
which trained Arab women as iualaresas (minstrels), which was
located in Valencia... en 1389 e rev Juan I hace venir para su
solaz v placer a una muier de Alfulev. a su madre v otras moras
iualaresas de Valencia, las mas aptas. con sus instrumentos.
Todavia en 1417. Alfonso el Maananimo recompensaria a Nutza la
bailadora. mora iualaresa de Valencia. v posteriormente
retendria para su servicio a otras dos. Graciosa y Catherina.
(...in 1389 the King Juan I brings for his solace and pleasure
a woman from Alfuley, with her mother and other Moorish
iualaresas from Valencia, the best ones, who brought their own
instruments. Still in 1417, (King) Alfonso the Magnanimous
would pay a certain Nutza, a dancer and Moorish minstrel from
Valencia, and prior to that he retained the services of two
others, Graciosa and Catherina.
112
Menendez Pidal, pp. cit. p. 129.
107
his court. Moreover, his influence was felt in formal
educational training as well as in shaping the troubadour
culture of 13th-century Spain.
Evidence of his contribution to music education is found in
his encouragement of music as a formal discipline to be taught
within the aegis of the University of Salamanca. The Carta maana
de la universidad (Great Charter of the university) of 1254
calls for a professor of music: que ava un maestro en oraano et
que vo le de cincuenta maravedis de cada anno (that there is a
master of organum [singing], who shall be paid fifty maravedis
yearly).113 As a result of Alfonso's statute the University of
Salamanca acquired the first recorded chair in music in
Europe.114
Furthermore, Alfonso's support of music as a formal
practice was conveyed through his writing on music as a part of
the quadrivium of the liberal arts in his General e grande
Estoria:
Et esta est ell art que ensena todas las maneras de

cantar, tan bien de los estrumentos como de las voces
et de cualquier manera que sean de son; et muestran
las cuantias de los puntos en que ell un son ha
menester all otro et ornase a la cuantia d'el pora
fazer cuanto cumplido por boces acordadas lo que ell
un canto non podrie fazer por si,..Et es mtisica ell
arte que ensena todas las maneras de los sones et las
cuantias de los puntos, asi como dixiemos; e este arte
113 ......will create a footnote here.
114 Nan C. Carpenter, "Education in Music II, 3; Middle

Ages, University, Grove's Dictionary, vol. 6, p.5.
108
es carrera para aprender a cordas las voces e fazer

sonar los estrumentos. 1,5
This is the art which instructs all manners of

singing, as much in the use of instruments as in the
voice in any way they may be used; and it instructs in
the values of the notes in that the tones are combined
so that the voices are tuneful....that which the
untrained would not know for themselves,..It is music
the art that teaches all manner of sound and time
which we say; and this art is a career to learn to use
the vocal chords and to play instruments.
Naturally, Alfonso's love of music extended to his court.
His cultivation of music and its practitioners was a trait which
he had surely developed from childhood since his father,
Ferdinand III (1217-1252), had raised his son in an environment
in which he learned discernment in the art of music. Alfonso
described his father as one knowledgeable in music, as well as
a patron of the art:
Era, manoso en todas buenas maneras que buen cavallero

dibieses usar, ca el sabie bien bofordar et
alanzar...et pagandose de omnes cantadores et
sabiendolo el fazer; et otrosi pagandose de omnes de
corte que sabien bien de trobar et cantar, et de
joglares que sopiesen bien tocar estrumentor, ca desto
se pagaba el mucho et entendia quien lo facia bien et
quien non. Onde todas estas virtudes et gracias et
bondades puso Dios en el rey con Fernando porque el
fallo leal su amigo.
He was adroit in all the good qualities that a

gentleman should posses, because he knew well... and
paid men singers as he knew well; and also paying men
of the court who knew will how to sing and versify,
and the iucrlares who knew well to play their
115 Alfonso X, General e grande Estoria as cited by

Fernandez de la Cuesta, op. cit..p.353.
109
instruments, because of this he (Fernando) knew well

who understood and played well, and who did not.
Where all these virtues and graces and kindnesses
placed God in the King don Fernando because he found
in him His loyal friend.
Discernment in music was but one of the accomplishments of
Ferdinand III, who was both a great warrior king of the
reconquest, a patron of the arts, and later, was beatified as
a saint of the Catholic church. He must have made a powerful
impression on Prince Alfonso, for in many ways Alfonso followed
his father's example.
The musical court of Alfonso X served as the catalyst for
the Declaratio de senhor rev N'Amfos de Castela. which
demonstrated Alfonso's involvement in the practical side of
music making. The Declaratio was in fact a reply to the
Supplicatio. a petition of Guiraut Riquier to Alfonso to provide
guidelines for the troubadour culture. In his Supplicatio al
rev de Castela per lo nom dels iuglars. (Supplication to the
Kina of Castile in the name of the jongleurs) , Riquier asked
Alfonso to clarify the terminology used in reference to those
who were engaged in providing lyric verse, music, and
entertainments at the Alfonsine court. In effect, the request
seeks to define the social status of the iuglar in the Castilian
court. In doing so, Riquier, known as the last of the
troubadours, lamented the casual way in which appellations were
used to define this type of person in his home, Provence.
Riquier who was in residence at the court of Alfonso X for
110
almost a decade (1270-1279), developed a relationship with
Alfonso which must have been one of mutual respect, which is
poignantly underscored in the following verse:
Reyes Castellas, vostre laus m'a sabor,

E si per vos non venh en gran ricor,
Al mens per tot n'er pus grazitz mos chans.116
King of Castile, I take pleasure in your praise, and

if by you I come not to great wealth, at least for it
my song will be by all more favored.
And the following equally touching memorial written in 1286:
Anc pus perdei l'onrat rey plen d'amor

De Castella, N'Anfcs, non aye senhor
Que. m conogues, ni.m saubes tant honrar
Que m'en pogues de vergonha cessar.117
Since I lost the honoured, loving king of Castile,

Lord Alfonso, I never had a lord who acknowledged me,
or who could so honour me that I might cease feeling
shame.
In his Supplicatio to Alfonso, Riquier points out that unlike
France, Spain already distinguished between the role of creative
artist and the performer.118 Thus the Supplicatio of Riquier is
significant in several ways: it addresses the clear disarray
prevalent within the European troubadour culture and seeks to
repair it by means of the installation of an approved social
hierarchy . The choice of Alfonso X as the object of address
116 Guiraut Riquier in the Anthology of Troubadour Lvric

Poetry. Ed.and Tr. by Alan R.Press: Edinburgh: Edinburg
University Press.1971, pp. 314-315.
117 ibid, pp.318-319.
Ill
was peculiarly appropriate because not only was the king the
embodiment of the highest courtly ideals at the Castilian court,
but also because Alfonso was himself a troubadour:
Y lo que quiero es decir loor de la Virgen, Madre de

Nuestro Senor, Santa Maria, que es lo mejor que El
hizo, y, por esto, yo quiero ser desde hoy trovador
suyo, y le ruego que me quiera por su trovador, y que
quiera recibir mi trovar, porque por el quiero mostrar
los milagros que Ella hizo; y ademas quiero dejarme de
trovar, desde ahora, por otra dama, y pienso recobrar,
por esta, cuanto por las otras perdi. 119
And what I want is to give praise to the Virgin,

Mother of Our Lord, Holy Mary, which is the best that
He made, and, by this, I want to be from today onward
her troubadour, and I beseech her to accept me as her
troubadour, and that she will receive my lyric,
because it is in this way that I wish to show the
miracles which She has performed; and besides from now
on, I wish to cease as a troubadour for other ladies,
and in such way regain, through Her, what through the
others I have lost.
Here is both a declaration of faith in the cult of the Virgin,
and a personal identification with the role of the troubadour,
as well as a demonstration of the king's interest in music and
musicians. According to the Medieval theory of the three
estates, the King was not only responsible for the protection of
the realm, but for the general ordering of society. In this
latter role, the king also possessed the function of maaister
ludi or arbiter of taste.120
119 Alfonso X, Cantiqas de Santa Maria. Prologue b, edited

by Jose Filgueira Valverde, Madrid.
120 Roger Boase, Troubadour Revival. Rout ledge & Kegan Paul,
London: 1978, pp.55-57, Boase discusses the King as "arbiter of
taste", and offers a quote from Juan de Lucena to underscore
112
In the hierarchy described in the Declaratio of Alfonso X,
the iualar. is defined as one who played a musical instrument,
the remedador. as one who used mimicry or pantomime; those that
travel from court to court were known as segreres; bufones were
clowns and court jesters, while those whose skill limited them
to perform in the streets were known as cazurros. A special
class of performers known as the cantares de gesta entertained
the courts with the great epic ballads.121
The trobador composed in verse and was thus at the pinnacle
of the hierarchy of performance. As a rule, the troubadour came
this point:
Lo que los reyees hacen, bueno o malo, todos ensayamos
de hacer. Si es bueno, por aplacer a nos mesmos; y si
malo por aplacer a ellos. Jugaba el Rey, eramos todos
tahures; studia la reina, somos agor studiantes.
We all try to do what kings do, whether it be good or

bad. If good, for our own pleasure; if bad, for
theirs. The king used to gamble, we were all
gamblers: the queen studies, we are now students.
121 The nephew of Alfonso X, don Juan Manuel, in the Libro de

los Estados. writes of the proper way for the sovereign to spend
his hours after supper which involves the employment of the
iualar. and the cantar de gesta:
Despues que hobiere comido y bebido, lo cual conviene
con templanza et con mesura, a la mesa debe oir, si
quisiere, juglares que le canten et tangan estormentes
ante el diciendo buenos cantares et buenas razones de
caballeria et de buenos fechos, que muevan los
talantes de los que los quieren para facer bien.
Once he will have imbided and dined, it is proper with

at the table to hear, with deliberation and aplomb,
minstrels that sing and play instruments before him
speaking of good tales and reasons for the knight and
his good deeds, which move at the spirit and which
provokes them to do good.
113
from the ranks of the nobility. However, there were instances
where iocrlares of humble origins such as Marcabru, and Bernart
de Ventadorn rose from the servitor class to become celebrated
troubadours. 122 Apparently, the opposite process also
occurred, as where Arnaut Daniel and Raimbau de Baqueiraas,
although nobly born, became professional iocrlares through
poverty. While there was some upward and downward mobility on
the social scale, the position of the troubadour per s e . was not
in dispute. This was unlike the other categories of musicians
and entertainers, who were at the dawn of professionalism in the
musical trade of Medieval Europe, and, through their lack of
defined status, remained close to the bottom of the social
ladder.
The Declaratio of Alfonso X was an attempt to create order
in the world of musical practitioners, and it predates the
formation of the first guild of musicians, known as the Vienese
Nicolai Bruderschaft (the fraternity of St. Nicolas) founded in
1288. The goals of the guilds of Northern Europe were roughly
the equivalent of those to be found in the Declaratio. in that
they sought to establish a hierarchy within the profession and
proposed a framework of professional ethics.
122 Peter Dronke, The Medieval Lyric. London: Cambidge

University Press, 1968,1977
114
An example of this ambiguity in the performer's status, is
to be found in the lot of the jongleur. Its Castilian
equivalent, juglar, is linked etymologically to the old
Provengal ioglar and the English "juggler", all derived from the
Latin ioculatore. The old French jongleur and German jagelor,
literally meant a liar, a gossip, or a prattler - one who earned
his keep through the use of a sharp tongue. Thus originally, the
word jongleur. covered a whole range of professional
entertainers including musicians, acrobats and story-tellers.
A well known boast of a Medieval jongleur, illustrates the scope
of activities deemed necessary for professional survival:
I can play the lute, the violin, the pipe, the

bagpipe, the syrinx, the harp, the gigue, the gittern,
the symphony, the psaltery, the organistrum, the
regals, the tabor, and the rote. I can sing a song
well and make tales to please young ladies and can
play the gallant for them without cutting my fingers.
I can do dodges with string, most extraordinary and
amusing. I can balance chairs and make tables dance.
I can throw a somersault and walk on my head.123
Although this was perhaps appropriate to the Provengal ioglar
or the French jongleur, in Spain juglar meant something
different, for the term had a narrower and more precise
connotation. In the view of Ramon Menendez Pidal, it appears
that in Spain the juglar was strictly considered a musician -
123 D. Mckinney and W.R. Anderson, Music in History Les

dieux Menestriers. in The Art and Times of the Guitar, by
Frederic V. Grunefeld, New York: Collier Macmillan, New
York,London: 1969, p.69.
115
and usually, an instrumentalist who would specialize in a single
instrument. Thus, he states that the true creators of the
courtly lyric in the Castilian, Galician, and Portuguese courts
were those who played the plucked-string citola, yet another
Medieval proto-guitar. 124 He derived this opinion from records
showing payment for iuqlares for their musical expertise in
specific areas. Apparently, this specialization occurred to
such an extent that it was reflected in their nick-names, such
as Citola. used by a iuglar at the court of Alfonso X. 125
By the 14th century, the Castilian term ministril was used
in place of the 13th-century term juglar. The term is derived
from the Latin ministerialis. meaning an official or
functionary, originally of servile status. This shows a
recognition of the official status of the musician in the royal
household. Maria del Carmen Gomez Muntane indicates that there
was a lively exchange, practically achieving the status of an
124 Felipe Pedrell refers to the citola as the 13th- century

equivalent of the citara. He further states that the citola
shares many of the physical features of the quiterna. to which
he refers as a medieval prototype of the modern guitar.
Interestingly, he claims that the Citola usurped the popularity
of the quiterna to such an extent that its makers were named
citoleros. (which could also indicate a player of the
instrument) "....en el siqlo XIII los fabricantes de esta else
de instrumentos se llamaron citoleros. fCitoleurs. franees).
nombre abandonado. desoues. por el de luthiers." (.... in the
thirteenth century the makers of this type of instrument were
called citoleros. (citoleurs.frances), a name which was later
abandoned for that of luthiers. Diccionario tecnico de la
mfisica.p.92.
125 Menendez Pidal, op.cit. p. 131.
116
international market, among the courts of Europe for the
services of talented ministril (s) .126 An important by-product
cf this mobility was the way in which musical taste and hence,
style was influenced by the peripatetic instrumentalists of the
late Middle Ages. Thus, in the courts of Castile and later,
Aragon, the French style which featured wind instruments, was
gradually replaced by the Italian style through which stringed
instruments came to the fore.
Apparently within the incipient social stratification of
musicians in the Middle Ages, string players constituted
throughout Europe an elite class among minstrels. There are
references to them in the sources as "... squires and gentlemen
of the Court; sometimes very arrogant, litigious and murderous
gentlemen."127 In the same sources, there are several entries
for guitarists, including one for the Queen's guitarist Henricus
de Hisoania. and another for Peter le Guvtarer. who visited the
prince's court at Lambeth in 13 06.128
126 M. C. Gomez Muntane, La mflsica en la casa real Catalano -

Araaonesa.1336-1442. Hubo en el sialo XIV alao asi como un
mercado internacional de ministriles en el que la lev de oferta
v demanda estaba requlada de forma basica por la calidad de la
mercancia. en este caso el musico. Barcelona: Antoni Bosch,
1979. p.163.
127 Constance Bullock-Davies, Register of Royal and Baronial

Minstrils. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press: 1986, p. xiv.
In making this claim Miss Davies Bullock cites the references in
the Wardrobe Accounts as her source for this conclusion. For
example, are citations in her book of pardons being granted to
minstrels for various types of crimes including murder.
128 Constance Bullock Davies, pp. cit. pp. 66,148-149.
117
Menendez Pidal discusses the first true flourishing of what
may be described as the school of Castilian guitarists.129 His
listing of guitarists in the service of Juan II (1406-1454) of
Castile include:
Juan de Palencia.ministrer de quitarra.
Alfonso Penafiel, tocador de quitarra del maestre de
Santiago.
Alfonso de Toledo y Martin de Toledo, tocadores de
guitarra.
Perhaps as a vestige of the Alfonsine guitarra morisca and
guitarra latina pairing, the late Medieval guitar is sometimes
paired with the lute. Parallel to the Castilian interest in the
guitar was that of the Aragonese court in the time of Alfonso V,
el Magnanimo (1416-1458), where, during the early years of his
reign, there is a documented exchange between the courts of
Aragon, Foix and Castile. A surviving letter dated 29th
December 1415 from Alfonso, as Duke of Girona and primongenit
de Arago e de Sicilia, recommends the minstrel Rodrigo de la
Guitarra. to the Count of Foix.
Lo Princep de Gerona, primogenit d'Arago e de Sicilia

Comte molt car cosi. Com Rodriguet de la guitarra,
minstrer del senyor Rey, pare e senyor nostre molt
car, vaia en aquexes parts per visitar a vos, pregam
vos affectuosament que per honor mia haiats lo dit
Rodriguet en recomendacio speciale que dintre de
.VIII. dies que sia aqui arribaat lo trametats al dit
senyor, qui en son servey lo ha molt necessari, caar
129 Menendez Pidal, op. cit. pp. 155-157.
118
cosa sera de la qual farets al dit senyor e a nos

plaer molt agradable. E tengaus en sa proteccio
continua la santa divinitat. Dada en Perpinya sots
notre segell secreta.XXVIII. dies de decembre de l'any
de la nativitat de Nostre Senyor MCCCCXVI. A.
Primogenitus. 130
The prince of Gerona,heir to Aragon and Sicily

Dear count and cousin. Since Rodriguet de la guitarra,
minstrel in the service of his Majesty, our beloved
father and lord, is to visit your court, we kindly ask
you, out of respect for our position, to give him
special consideration, and that one week after his
arrival you send him back to our lord who has much
need of his services: this will be greatly
appreciated by us both. And may God protect you at all
times. Given in Perpignan under our secret seal, 29
December in the year of the nativity of our Lord 1416.
A . Primogenitus.
Within two years of Rodrigo's departure for Foix, the new Queen
of Aragon and Sicily, Maria of Castile issued a letter of 20th
April 1417 authorizing the return of this same minstrel to the
court of Aragon. By July of the same year, Alfonso V was
recommending the services of Rodrigo de la Guitarra to his
cousin Juan II of Castile [1400-54]:
Al muyt alto Princep don Hohan por la gracia de Dio

Rey de Castiella e de Leon El fiel ministrer de
cuerda de nuestra cambra Rodrigo de la guitarra con su
criado Diaguillo de nuestra licencia va asci a vuestra
cort por faser a vos servicio e plaser de su officio.
Porque, muy alto Princep, nestro muyt caro e muyt
amado primo, vos rogamos afecttuosament que al dito
Rodrigo por amor nuestra en special recomendacion,
certif icantes vos que sera cosa de que hauremos
plaser... E sia, muyt alto Princep, nuestro muyt caro
e muyt amado primo, en vuestra guarda el Sancto
Spiritu. Dada en Saragoca deius nuestro siello
secreto a XXX dias de julio de anyo de la natividat de
530 Maricarmen Gomez "Some precursors of the Spanish lute

school", Early Music: 1992. p. 582.
119
Nuestro Senyor Mil quatrozintos dezeset. Rex

Alfonsus.131
To the very high don Juan, by the grace of God, King

of Castile and of Leon The faithful minstrel of
strings of our chamber Rodrigo de la guitarra with his
servant Diaguillo by our leave is able to attend your
court to give you the pleasure of his skill. Because,
very high Prince, our dear and beloved recommendation,
which certifies to you that it (he) will be something
which pleases you... And so, high Prince, our dear and
beloved cousin, may the Holy spirit guard you. Given
in Zaragoza by our secret seal on the thirty days of
July of the Year of the birth of Our Lord one thousand
four hundred and seventeen. King Alfonso.
A decade passes before any further record of Rodrigo is found,
but in 1427 Rodrigo and his servant are mentioned in an entry
for a payment of 22 0 sueldos which Queen Maria granted them as
a New Year's gift. It is not until 1458 that another reference
to Rodrigo occurs. By then, he was older, but still able to
participate in the procession for the Feast of the Assumption on
15th August:
...en miercoles dies e seys dias del dicho mes de

agosto del dicho ano dio e paso el dicho senor obrero
y otro por su mandado, a Alfonso Rodriguez e Juan
Rodriguez e a Rodrigo de la guitarra e Juan Laudero e
Pedro e Juan de Soto, juglares tanedores, dozientos e
quarentat mrs. que ovieron de aver por que tanieron en
la procesion el dia de Santa Maria de Agosto delante
de la ymagen de Nuestra Senora quando le levavan en la
procesyon.132
131 Gomez, op. cit. p.584.
132 C. Torroja and M. Rivas, Teatro en Toldeo en el siqlo X V :

'Auto de la Pasion' de Alonso del Campo. Madrid 1977 p.23c as
cited in M.C. Gomez, Early Music.
120
...on Wednesday the 16th of said month of August of

said year it so happened that Senor worker (player)
and another by his command, to Alfonso Rodriguez and
Juan Rodriguez and to Rodrigo de la guitarra and Juan
Laudero and Juan de Soto, minstrels players, two
hundred and forty who worked as they played in the
procession of the feast of Saint Mary of August in
front of the image of our Lady when they carried her
in the procession.
By the 16th century Spain, had embraced the tastes and
interests of the Renaissance with its passionate emphasis on the
virtues of classical antiquity. Clearly this had its influence
on the choice of the vihuela as the preferred plucked-string
instrument of Spanish practice during the Renaissance. As noted
in the chapter on etymology, the Spanish vihuela. a member of
the viol family, was the successor to the Roman fidicula. In
part, it was this association with a European heritage which
gave the vihuela its preferred place over the guitarra and the
lute. In his writings, Bermudo descibes the lute as 11la
vihuela de flandes11. the vihuela from Flanders. The reference to
Flanders is worthy of note, in so far as it ignores any
associations with an Arabic tradition or background - such as
had occurred in the case of the quitarra morisca. Indeed,
although the lute is referred to by Bermudo, according to Evans,
"no music appears to have been published for it and there is
little documentary evidence for its use."133 There is however,
a reference to an apparently well-known lutenist named Baltazar
133 Tom and Mary Anne Evans in Guitars. From the Renaissance
to R o c k . New York: Facts on File, 1949 & 1977, p. 130.
121
Ramirez who resided in Granada. According to Raphael Perez
Arroyo, said lutenist was at the head of an important school of
16th-century Granadinan lutenists. It is perhaps a last
vestige of the school of the lute created by Ziryab of Baghdad
in the 9th century. It must have been fascinating to here the
music of this 16th century lute music from Granada which surely
must have been a distillation of the centuries of Arab musical
influence combined with the Iberian and European musical
traits.134
After the Reconcruista was complete in 1492 with the
conquest of Granada the focus of cultural interchange in Spain
shifted to the geographic regions to the north which produced
art and music which was identifiably European. 135 This
European influence is clearly visible in the lives and
publications of the vihuela and its masters attached to the
courts in 16th-century Spain. The first to publish a collection
of music for vihuela. Luys Milan (b c 1500;d c 1561 or later),
134 Rafael Perez Arroyo, "Los instrumentos musicales durante

el periodo 1450-160011 in Historia de la musica espanola. 2.
Desde el "ars nova11 hasta 1600. by Samuel Rubio, Barcelona:
Alianza Mtasica, 1983, p.287.
135 J.B. Trend indicates that this influence was particularly

stimulated by the ascension of the king of Spain and Holy Roman
Emperor of Europe, Charles V (1500-1558). " The emperor like all
great personages of his day, never travelled anywhere without
his singers and his maestro de caoella. an office which, from
1520 to 1532, was held by Nicolas Gombert." Trend discusses how
the end result of the emperors visit to Seville had as its
musical end, the inclusion of some of the works of the Flemish
master Gombert into the choir books of the cathedral, pp. 144-
145.
122
was also a writer and published books whose subjects ranged from
parlour games,(El iueqo de mandar in 1535), to etiquette (El
cortesano in 1561). His works, which were all printed in
Valencia, reflected the Renaissance ethos of contemporary
Europe. El cortesano by Milan, which was influenced by the
Cortegiano by the Italian author Castiglione, draws an
attractive picture of the social life at the Valencian court of
Germaine de Foix, widow of Ferdinand II of Aragon, where MilSn
must have come into contact with Neapolitan musicians on the
occasion of her marriage to the Duke of Calabria. Antonio
Corona-Alcalde has written of the social milleau of Mildn:
The Valencian educated circle must have been quite

reduced and close to the Vicereine Germaine de Foix
and her husband, the Duke of Calabria, known
protectors of the arts. Luis Mil&n moved freely and
was quite a popular member of this entourage; he was
also quite vain, and it seems reasonable to assume
that when El maestro appeared in 153 6 he would make
certain the event was noticed.136
Corona-Alcaldes's assessment of Milan's temperament is supported
by the cover of Mildn's El maestro.this first great collection
of music for the Spanish chordophones shows Orpheus playing not
a lyre, but a vihuela, with the following inscription:
El gran Orfeo, primero inventor

Por quien la vihuela paresce en el mundo
136 Antonio Corona-Alcalde, "The earliest vihuela tablature:

a recent discovery", in Early Music. London: Oxford University
Press, vol.XX no. 4, pp. 595-609. Nov.1992.
123
Si el fue el primero, no fue sin

segundo..137
The great Orpheus, first inventor

by whom the vihuela appears in this world
If he was the first, he was not without a
second...
This phrase conveys the message that the vihuela is to be linked
to classical antiquity, and that Milan is himself an heir to the
tradition of Orpheus. Judging from the attitude expressed in
the above statement it appears that Milan was self conscious in
his self assertion, not unlike some of his artistic Italian
contemporaries who were known for the teribilitd of their
temperaments and were given titles - in the case of lutenist
Francesco da Milano138 and artist Michelangelo - such as il
divino. Clearly, then the Spanish vihuela was the aesthetic
equivalent to the Renaissance lute, which flourished as the
instrument of preference for art music in other European courts.
If all this appears to indicate that the musical arts of
Spain in the 16th century were derivative of the practices of
other countries, nothing could be further from the truth.
Although there were important influences derived from the
French, the Flemish and the Italian schools, the music for the
vihuela by Milan, Mudarra and Narvaez, the most prominent of the
16th century Spanish masters was high art and for the most part,
137 Charles Jacobs op. cit. p.
138 Francesco da Milano (1497-1543) was a lutenist/composer

to the papacy, to ippolito de' Medici and Cardinal Alessandro
Farnese.
124
authentically Spanish. Further, many milestones were achieved
which will be analytically discussed in the next chapter.
It is useful to see how the European notion of reviving
Classical Antiquity is manifested in the works of the 16th-
century masters for the vihuela. In the adaptation of literature
for musical settings, Alonso Mudarra (1510-1580) was the first
in Spain to set Latin texts of Horace, Ovid and Virgil for voice
and vihuela. Closer to his own day were works which he set for
voice and vihuela by Petrarch and Sannazaro. Alonso Mudarra's
book entitled Tres libros de musica en cifra para vihuela.(1546)
shows clearly that the influence of European composers who were
a part of the mainstream of musical practice had been absorbed
into the Spanish musical vernacular of the 16th century.
Mudarra set to music several mass sections by Josquin, one by
Fevin, and motets by Gombert and Willaert.
Mudarra became a canon of the cathedral of Seville in 1546.
He was elected its major-domo in 1568. Perhaps this explains the
unique liturgical element in his composing and arranging for the
vihuela. It is likely that as a youth, Mudarra was part of the
entourage of the Emperor Charles V on the occasion of his visit
to Italy in 1529. This opportunity came as a result of the good
offices of the great Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (1504-1575),
125
regarded as the last protagonist of the Spanish Renaissance,139
in whose aristocratic household at Guadalajara, Mudarra lived.
The Mendoza home received visitors such as the emperor Charles
V His firsthand exposure to Italian culture at the height of the
Renaissance must have influenced his choice of authors for his
musical settings of texts.
Luys de NarvSez (b Granada 1530), a composer and vihuelist,
served in of the royal chapel as music teacher to the children
of the Infante Philip, later Philip II. It was in his position
as music teacher to the royal family that Narvaez travelled to
Italy and Northern Europe. Among the pieces for which he is best
remembered is his Cancion del Emperador. which was a setting for
vihuela of the famous Mille reoretz of Josquin. The piece, "Song
of the Emperor", - which is discussed analytically in chapter
six - was so named because it was reputed to be the favorite of
the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.
Italy continued to influence the Spanish musicians of the
17th century. After his graduation from the University of
Salamanca, Gaspar Sanz (1640-1710) travelled to Italy where he
studied with Lelio Colista. Upon his return to Spain, Sanz
published the most comprehensive guitar treatise of its time,
Instruccion de musica sobre la quitarra espanola. He also
published two literary works, a Spanish translation of Daniello
139 Helen Nader, The Mendoza Family in the Spanish

Renaissance. 1350-1550. New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press,
1979, pp. 199-204.
126
Bartoli's L'uomo de lettre (Madrid, 1678) and a eulogy for Pope
Innocent XI entitled Ecos Sacrrados (Madrid, 1681).140
Surprising for a country which, historically, exhibits such
affection for the guitar, Spain has had few monarchs since
Alfonso X who have shown interest in the performance of music,
especially when compared to other European kingdoms such as
France and England where generations of monarchs were skilled in
the playing of musical instruments. In England, Henry
V III,(1509-1547) is well known to historians of music as a
collector of lutes and guitars. His daughter and successor,
Elizabeth I (1558-1603), was a lutenist who allegedly was adept
at using her instrumental prowess to political advantage in
beguiling ambassadors of foreign countries. Mary Queen of
Scots(1542-1587) played the guitar, as did her great grandson,
Charles II of England (1660-1685), to whom the Italian
guitarist, Francisco Corbetta dedicated the book Le Guitare
Rovale. In France, Louis XIV was the most notable monarch who
played and cultivated the guitar at his court. Among the many
musical aristocrats of Italy, Count Lodovico Roncalli was both
a composer and guitarist.
140 Robert Strizich," Sanz" in the New Grove Dictionary.

vol.16, 1980, pp.486-487.
127
Among Spanish rulers who were also instrumentalists, Juan
II (1406-1454) of Castile was known for his prowess in music as
well as on the jousting field:
Sabia dell arte de la mtisica, cantava e tania bien e

aun en el justar e juegos de cafias se avia bien.141
He was familiar with the art of music, he sang and

played well, and even in jousts and in contests with
reed spears he would acquit himself well.
Unfortunately, in affairs of state, he was less successful, and
his critics saw him as a weak ruler:
nunca una ora sola quiso entender nin trabajar en el

regimiento aunque en su tienpo fueron en Castilla
tantas rebueltas e movimientos e daiios e males e
peligros quantos no ovo en tienpo de reyes pasados por
espacio de dozientos anos.142
never for a single hour did he wish to understand or

turn his mind to the task of government, even though
during his reign there were in Castile more
disturbances and uprisings and injuries and crimes and
dangers than there had been during the reigns of
previous kings for a period of two hundred years.
Another music-playing monarch was Enrique IV (1454-74), about
whom similar complaints were made:
Era gran musicao y tenia buena gracia en cantar y

taner y en fablar en cosas generales. Pero en la
execucion de las particulares y necesarias algunas
vezes era flaco, porque ocupava su pensamiento en
aquellos deleites de que estava acostumbrado.143
141 Perez de Guzman, Generaciones v semblansas. in The

Troubadour Revival, by Roger Boase, p.93.
142 Boase, pp. cit. p.91.
143 Boase, op. cit. p. 105.
128
He was a good musician and was very gifted at singing

and playing [the vihuela] and discussing general
matters. But in the performance of the necessary
particulars he was sometimes irresolute, because those
pleasures to which he was accustomed would occupy his
mind.
The criticism of both monarchs was that they spent their time in
artistic or intellectual, and other "unworthy" pursuits when
they should have been ruling more effectively. In a country
which had experienced seven centuries of martial struggle
against the Moors, kings were expected to be warriors. To be
otherwise was a damning indictment.144 It is worthy of note
that the Catholic Kings, Isabella and Ferdinand, who succeeded
Enrique IV, were noted for the austerity of their court.
Perhaps, then, as a carryover from Muslim tradition, the
playing of musical instruments was either regarded as unmanly or
simply as an unsuitable activity for the social strata of a
Spanish monarch. What is more, the hidalgo mentality which
discouraged manual labor of any kind was pervasive in late
Medieval Spain. Thus monarchs were protectors and patrons for
instrumentalists - but seldom did a successful monarch in Spain
144 N.G. Round, "Renaissance Culture and its Opponents in

15th Century Castile", Modern Language Review. 57, (1962), pp.
204-215; Peter E. Russell "Arms versus Letters", in Aspects of
the Renaissance. ed. Archibold R. Lewis, Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1967, pp. 47-58; Nader, op.cit.: pp. 12-13; Jose
Antonio Maravall, el humanismo de los armas en Don Ouiiote.
Madrid, 1948. It has been posited that Renaissance Spain was
bedeviled by a debate between "arms" and "letters" which may
have retarded Spain's reception of Renaissance culture.
129
follow the example of his European contemporaries in the actual
playing of the guitar.
130
CHAPTER FIVE:
THE Musical TRADITION:
Cantiqas de Santa Maria
The fifth and sixth chapters trace the Hispanization of the
guitar with special emphasis on the evolution of performance
practice in Spain. It is fitting that the last two chapters
survey the music of the Iberian Peninsula, for it is through
music that the culmination of the Hispanization process of the
guitar is ultimately achieved. Chapter five offers commentary
and analysis on the music of the Medieval period, while chapter
six discusses the music of the Renaissance and the Baroque. The
foci of these two chapters are the musical and performative
characteristics of each period and how those characteristics are
reflective of the reality of the guitaristic culture of Spain
from the Alfonsine epoch through Spain's 'golden age'.
Important to the Hispanization of the guitar are the ethno
cultural elements which achieve a synthesis in the Alfonsine
court and which are reflected in the music, the musical
instruments, the art and even the language of 13th-century
Iberia. The use of guitars at the Alfonsine court which were
categorized according to their cultural affiliation, ie. the
quitarra latina and the quitarra morisca. underscores this
musical diversity. The first part of this chapter discusses
topics relating to the performance practice of these early
guitars in order to show that the poly-cultural elements in the
131
cantioas may even be further distilled from an instrumental
standpoint. Hence, although the cantiqas are part of the vocal
repertory, a case is made for the performance of the early
guitars in the music of the cantiqas. Moreover, selected
cantiqas may in fact be considered as a kind of proto-repertory
of the guitar. The musical analysis which follows the comments
on performance practice is aimed at defining the cultural
context of the music from which the performance practice flows.
The Cantiqas de Santa Maria show a variety of cross-cultural
attributes which make them unique in the annals of Medieval
European music.
The collected Cantiqas de Santa Maria (c. 1250-1280)
from the court of Alfonso X are regarded by modern scholars as
one of the greatest monuments of Medieval music. Of the four
extant manuscripts (which are described in the chapter on
iconography) , all save one have depictions of the miracles,
accompanied by a Galician-Portuguese text and monophonic musical
notation. One of the manuscripts has the depictions and a
musical staff but lacks notation and text. The musical variants
between texts, which are minimal, have been catalogued in the
edition of the cantiqas by Walter Mettman. Of the several
editions of the cantiqas transcribed into modern musical
notation, thus far the version by Higinio Angles is unsurpassed.
Since Angles is considered as the most reliable source of
132
information regarding the cantiqas. the terminology which he
uses will be in employed in this chapter and in the presentation
of selected examples for musical analysis.
In his writings, Fray Juan Gil de Zamora, chamberlain to
Alfonso and tutor to his son King Sancho IV, attributed
authorship of the cantiqas to Alfonso saying,
...compuso muchas y bellas cantigas

(cantinelas) imitando al rey David, para
loor de la Virgen gloriosa, dotandolas de
sonidos convenientes y de proporciones
musicales.145
...he (Alfonso) composed many beautiful

cantiqas (canticles), in imitation of the
King David, in praise of the glorious
Virgin, giving them agreeable tunes and
musical proportions.
This description of Alfonso's authorship is perhaps generous as
according to the Grande e General Estoria - which Alfonso
himself commissioned - one finds a different description of
Alfonso's authorship:
El rey face un libro, no porque el escriba
con sus manos, mas porque compone las
razones del e las enmiendas e yegua e
endereca e muestra la manera de como se
deben facer e desi escribelas que el manda;
pero decimos por esta razon que el face el
libro.146
145 F. Fita, "Biografias de San Fernando y de Alfonso el

Sabio, por Gil de Zamora", Boletin de la Real Academia de
Historla. vol.5 1884, in F. de la Cuesta, Historia de la mflsica
espanola. Madrid: Alianza Editorial,1983, pp. 300-301.
146 F. de la Cuesta, op. cit. pp. 301.
133
The king (Alfonso) writes a book, not

because he writes it with his own hand, but
because he creates the reasons and the means
and the manner in which he desires his
scribes to write; this is why we say that he
is the creator of the book.
Although this quotation does not mention directly the Cantiqas.
it is clear as to how Alfonso organized his creative activities.
If this description can serve for the Cantiqas de Santa M aria,
then, Alfonso can be likened to another historical figure, Pope
Gregory I "the Great" (590-604), for whom the Gregorian chant
was named - but who was more of a "producer", to use a
contemporary term, than the sole creator of that body of music.
PERFORMANCE PRACTICE
How and under what circumstances were the cantiqas
performed? While the monophonic music of the Cantiqas de Santa
Maria was not "scored" for the guitar per se - nor for any of
the other musical instruments present at the Alfonsine court -
there is nonetheless a considerable body of extant evidence,
some of which has been presented in the chapters of this
dissertation, which supports the use of musical instruments in
the performance of the cantiqas. The indications for their
performance posthumous to king Alfonso's death show that the
cantiqas were meant for public performance:
Otrosi mandamos que todos los libros de los Cantarres

de loor de Sancta Maria sean todos en aquella iglesia
134
do nuestro cuerpo se enterrare, e que los fagan cantar

en las fiestas de Sancta Maria. 147
And also it is ordered that all the books of the

Cantiqas de Santa Maria, be kept in the church in
which our (my) body is buried, and that they be
performed on the feast (days) of Saint Mary.
Alfonso's wish gives the Cantiqas a para-liturgical facet, in
that they are meant to be performed at public celebrations of
religious events. After the passing of Alfonso, in the early
14th century there is recorded in the Ceremonial de los reves de
Castilla, a reference to the Cantiqas which were performed as
part of the mass for a royal coronation:
Et diga el que dixere la missa Gloria en excelsis D e o .

Et despues que fuere dicha la Gloria e los Kvrios. et
la oracione et la pistola et la alleluia vengan
doncellas que sepan bien cantar et canten una cantiqa
et fagas sus trebeios. Et entonce levantase el rrey
con sus ricos omnes et vayan se para ante el altar de
Santiago para ser cavallero. 148
It is said that in the mass is the Gloria in excelsis

D e o . After which is spoken, the Gloria and the kyries.
and the oration of the epistle, and the alleluia enter
the damsels who well know how to sing the cantiqas and
they make their (moves). And then the king rises with
his ricos omnes and they go to the altar of Santiago
to become knights.
It is not clear from these descriptions that instruments were
used, although the iconography and literary evidence support the
use of musical instruments in the performance of cantiqas.
147 de la Cuesta, op.cit. p.296.
148 de la Cuesta op. cit.p. 304.
135
JuliSn Ribera has offered the surprising thesis - at least for
the standards of contemporary musicology - that some of the
cantiqas were composed upon the lute and then adapted for the
voice:
Comparing various cantiqas with one another, I

observed that some might be for lute or other
instruments plucked with the fingers or a plectrum.
This type of instrument cannot sustain a sound as long
as can the human voice or a wind instrument. The
notes must be short and of approximately even
duration, and to fill the rhythmic spaces they must be
repeated more or less quickly. Many of the songs are
written this way, and there can be no doubt that this
group (the cantiqas) is instrumental and intended for
the lute.149
As Ribera was an Arabist, he tended to refer to the plucked
stringed instruments illustrated in the cantiqas. at times
incorrectly, as lutes. Ribera's theory - which on the surface
seems to be based on intuitive knowledge - counters the idea of
contemporary musicology, which although accepting of the
iconographic evidence that instruments were used in the
cantiqas. assigns them a position as an adjunct to the voice,
doubling and ornamenting the vocal melody line.
In his text, Music in Ancient Arabia and Spain. Ribera
identifies a Muslim philosopher and musician named Abu Bakr,
with whom, Ribera states, Alfonso was on intimate terms, for he
founded a college in Murcia where Abu Bakr taught Muslims, Jews
and Christians the art of music. Ribera speculates that it was
149 Juli&n Ribera, The Music of Ancient Arabia and Spain. New
York: Da Capo Press, 1929 & 1969, p. 218.
136
Abu Bakr who adapted Arab melodies for their use in the
cantiqas.150 For speculations of this nature, Ribera has been
roundly critized; moreover, his theories have generally been
dismissed by musicologists who have noted Ribera'a lack of
formal training in musicology. 151 Nonetheless, even his most
strident opponents recognize that the cantiqas are indeed
unique, especially some of the cantiqas which are distinct in
their dance-like, hence instrumental nature. Further into the
chapter, the section presenting analysis and comments upon
performance practice which follows discusses the nature of the
cantiqas and presents some options for their performance. Of
the cantiqas. which seem to be related more to instrumental than
vocal technique, several are herein presented.
Perhaps the most striking example is cantiga #411, ex.I,
which has an unusual melodic shape and rhythmic structure and
which sounds oriental due to the extensive use of the intervalic
chains of major and minor seconds. The use of descending chains
150 Ribera, op. cit .pp. Ribera also discusses how Alfonso
sought to convert, albeit unsuccessfully, Abu Bakr to
Christianity.
151 Higinio Angles, La musica de las Cantiqas de Santa Maria

del Rev Alfonso el Sabio. Barcelona: Diputacion Provincial de
Barcelona, 1943, vol. II, pp.42-51 see also, Gerardo Huseby, The
Cantiqas de Santa Maria and the Medieval Theory of M ode.
Stanford University, unpublished doctoral thesis,1982, p.7.
Both Angles and Huseby are critical of Ribera. The former
spends several pages of the introduction to his critical study
of the cantiqas pointing out the flaws of Ribera's approach
including a general lack of knowledge of the paleoqrafia
musical. while the latter simply says that Ribera's approach
does not "hold up" under scrutiny.
137
of seconds both major and minor is not characteristic of the
cantiqas. which as a group have the third as the most prominent
interval - a characteristic which will be discussed in greater
detail later in this chapter. This chain of seconds is
reminiscent of the types of ornaments which one might hear in
contemporary performance of flamenco guitar. The repetitive
figuration in the last line is a kind of an instrumental "riff"
that falls very comfortably under the fingers and can be played
in repitition - and very quickly when it is required.
<y{J 1 ' JnJ--

.}
1 1* ( (j
-
* T t
Another cantiga which has a dance-like instrumental character is
#306,ex.II.
138
Lines three and four of this cantiaa are identical to line two.
This insistent rhythm creates the kinetic momentum necessary to
generate a dance. Cantiqas #306 is syncopated in rhythmic
structure and has melodic motivic elements which are quite
natural for the left hand of the guitarist.
In assessing the claim that Ribera makes of the Arabic
origins of this music one finds ample evidence which raises
questions about Ribera's theory - especially the comments as to
how he believes the compositional process of the cantiqas
occurred. For example, although Alfonso is depicted as either
directing or dictating cantiqas to several instrumentalists, the
instruments displayed are those which are considered to be of
European, not of Arab origin. This Europeanism counters Ribera'a
theory. 152 Of the particular illumination depicting Alfonso in
his (capilla real), which is the prologue to the entire
152 fQur singers are dressed as clerics and the three

instrumentalists are garbed as minstrels or segreres as they
were known in Alfonsine times.
139
collection (recalled from chapter two) - Ismael de la Cuesta has
written:
En esta primera cantiga el miniaturista ha

querido representar, sin duda, los
componentes de la capixla real,
destinatarios del codice, ya que sobre el
debian interpretar el resto de las
Cantigas.153
In the first cantiga. the miniaturist

without doubt, wanted to represent the
components of the royal chapel, to whom the
codex was destined, as it was their task to
interpret the rest of the cantigas.
The message here is clear, they are the work of Alfonso, himself
and he intends for the musicians of his court to perform these
works. As noted in chapter two, the fact that Alfonso is shown
with two vihuelists and a minstrel of the guitarra latina is
significant. Of the several cultural origins of instruments in
the court, these three all hail from a European tradition. If
one regards the prologue as an official portrait - primarily
meant for public consumption - of the king and his minstrels,
then it is most likely that, among the various types of lutes
and Medieval guitars in use at the Alfonsine court, the
guitarra latina. which is depicted in the first cantiga. was
the preferred plucked-string instrument that was used to
duplicate and even ornament the monophonic melody line
heterophonically. Again, this places the European cultural
153 Isamael Fernandez de la Cuesta, Historia de la musica

esoanola. vol. I Desde los origenes hasta el "ars nova.11 Madrid:
Alianza Editorial, 1983, p.329.
140
components of the Alfonsine court at the first level of
importance, and therefore of authority.
On the other hand, while it is true that the official
pictorial representations of Alfonso show him exclusively with
European instruments such as the vihuela de arco and the
guitarra latina, it has also been noted that personally, he
enjoyed a diversity in his own taste, which is evident from the
numerous depictions of Arab instruments and musicians present at
his court. Several years after Alfonso's death an inventory of
his son Sancho IV's minstrels, listed twenty-seven salaried
musicians in his employ. Of that number, thirteen were Arabs,
two of whom were women, and one was a Jew - all of whom Sancho
most likely inherited from his father. Another factor to be
considered is that the tradition of pairing the guitar and the
lute persisted both in the Iberian Peninsula (especially Aragon
more than Castile) and in Europe in general well into the 15th
century.
In some cases, Alfonso was known to have drawn from non-
Hispanic sources, especially Arabic, which was employed in the
production of learned texts for which he was justly famous. As
the Cantiqas de Santa Maria are primarily representational of
proto-Hispanic culture with European and Arab influences, then
interpretative techniques should reflect this diversity. It is
even possible to "flavor" or color a given cantiga by performing
it in the "latina" style as in the case of cantiga #100,
141
(discussed in the Appendix) played with the soft fleshy pad of
the fingertips and a bit of polished nail, or one could adopt a
more percussive approach, using a plectrum in the Arab style for
cantiga #411. This aesthetic in sound was indeed noticed by a
Medieval Spanish writer, Juan Ruiz, the Archpriest of Hita who
opined:
Aravico non quiere la viula de arco, cinfonia e

guitarra non son de aqueste marco, citola e odrecillo
non aman caguil hallaco, mas aman la taverna e sotar
con vellaco. 154
The Arabs do not care for the bowed viol, the symphony
and the guitar are not of that setting, the citole and
the bagpipes do not like that spot, more do they love
the tavern to twang and dance.
Here, Ruiz contends that Arabs do not care for instruments like
the vihuela de arco. cinfonia. and guitarra as they are not
instruments of bellicose sound, but rather of a dulcet tone.
Instruments cited which are related to Arab culture, such as the
odrecillo (bagpipes) or the citola. an Arabic two-stringed long
necked lute, which was played with a plectrum or quill, are
strident in tone quality and therefore, according to Ruiz, more
suitable for the tavern.
Interestingly, what was true of Arab and Spanish technical
dualities of the Middle Ages, has its modern parallel. The
Spaniard in Algeciras plays his guitar finger-style and his
Moroccan counterpart twenty miles away, across the Straits of
154 Juan Ruiz in El libro de buen amor, stanza 1516.
142
Gibraltar in North Africa, uses a plectrum to play his ud. In
Alfonso's court, the quitarra latina was plucked either with the
fingertips or a plectrum, while the quitarra morisca was played
exclusively with a quill.155 Thus what served for performance
style in an ethnic sense in Alfonso's time remains fundamentally
unchanged today.
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS OF SELECTED CANTIGAS:
The poly-cultural Alfonsine court melded musicians and
troubadours from several cultures; moreover, it is indisputable
that Alfonso is known to have surrounded himself with the best
minds available for his many kinds of creative endeavors. A
partial list of the troubadours who are known to have resided in
his court include: the Galician troubadour Pero da Ponte, who
was in the entourage of both Ferdinand III and his son Alfonso
X, Pedro Garcia de Burgos, Vasco Perez Pardal, Pedro d'Ambroa,
Pedro Mafaldo, a Galician, Lourenco, a iuqlar from Portugal,
Pedro Bodino de Burgos, Pero Amigo, Citola, Joan Vasques, Pero
155 Henry George Farmer reports that the great 9th-century

virtuoso Ziryab used either a talon from a falcon or the nail of
a lion for a plectrum.
143
Badoso, Aires Nunes, and from Provence, the last of the
troubadours, Guiraut Riquier.
The French influence which is present in the melodies and
structure of the cantiqas presents reason to conjecture that
these troubadours, who were known to be composers in their own
right, had a part in the composition of the cantiqas. It has
even been suggested that Fray Juan Gil de Zamora - who earlier
in this chapter credits Alfonso with the creation of the
cantiqas - may have had a part in the creation of the
cantiqas.156 It is, however, logical that the king who called
156 Israel J. Katz, "Higinio Angles and the Melodic Origins

of the Cantiqas de Santa Maria: A Critical View, in Alfonso X of
Castile the Learned King (1221-1284). Department of Romance
Languages of Harvard University, 1984, p.58.
Katz posits that the diversity within the "corps" of musicians

at the Alfonsine court must have resulted in a musical variety
as well
The court included a retinue of Provencal, Galician,

and other poet-musicians from various parts of Spain
and Europe. Present also were male and female,
Christian, Moslem, and Jewish iuqlares. who were
proficient singers and instrumentalists. In such a
musical ambience, under the protection of the
Castilian court, highly varied musical presentations
must indeed have been a common occurrence. The sacred
repertoire of the Gregorian tradition was undoubtedly
well-established, and traditional tunes must have been
heard alongside current creations. The non-Christian
musicians attached to the court, certainly provided
countless opportunities for exposure to their
indigenous music. Regional music from a variety of
Spanish areas would have been brought to the court by
travelling performers or troupes. Thus, if the
virelai, which has been purported to have both French
and Arab origins, had enjoyed such tremendous
popularity at Alfonso's court, this was doubtless due
to the vibrant cultural symbiosis characteristic of
144
himself a "troubadour to the Virgin", and who was the
progenitor of the cantiqas. would receive the sole credit for
their composition. Medieval musical practice viewed liturgical
musical composition as an act of divine inspiration as opposed
to an art or craft - which surely would have been enough to
discourage a troubadour, cleric or minstrel at the Alfonsine
court from making a claim of having composed a cantiga.
The transcription from neumatic to modern notation of the
cantiqas shows that rythmically they possess a metric diversity
and rythmic vitality which makes them unique in European
practice. The square notation of the cantiqas. which is
referred to by Angles as notacion espanola. of the court of
Alfonso X is mensural and allows for the clear transcription
into modern notation. The Cantiqas have triple meters as well
as melodies which shift from duple to triple meters and back
again. (See ex. CANTIGA #117 ) The use of metrical shifts is
a musical element in the cantiqas which anticipates the common
practice of the European peers of the Alfonsine court by several
decades. The publication in Paris of the text by the Frenchman
Phillipe de Vitry, entitled Ars Nova (pub. 1300) is the first
text to present the possibility of mixing meters, and in doing
so, theoretically advocates such musical practices a quarter of
the court's humanistic atmosphere, which also played

a great role in shaping its musical tastes.
145
a century after the appearance in manuscript form and courtly
performance in Spain of the Cantiqas de Santa Maria. Proponents
of the Arabizing influence over Spanish and European musics
point to this aspect of the cantiqas as a proof of the Arab
influence in Spanish music. Rhythmic flexibility and the use of
syncopated rhythms are characteristic of Arab music, and this
rhythmic impulse perhaps had a more immediate impact upon the
Spanish music than either harmonic or melodic structural traits.
In so far as melodic structure is concerned, there are two
schools of thought as to the ultimate origins of the cantiqas.
which are, the Arabist and the Latinist/European schools of
thought. Ribera sought to prove that the melodic structure of
the cantiqas was derived from Arabic practice: his theory was
based primarily upon the circumstantial evidence extant from the
Arab occupation of the Iberian peninsula during the Middle Ages.
A fundamental problem with this approach lies in the absence of
musical scores available for analysis, since the classical
Arabic musical tradition was oral. Moreover, Arab music exists
on a tonal continuum which allows for a greater number of
pitches in a given octave than European music. Apparently even
in the Alfonsine epoch, European music had a modal system that
clearly defined the octave into a series of musical steps and
half steps. J.A. Westrup suggests that the resemblances
between Spanish and Arab music are for the most part not due to
any specific influence resulting from the Moorish invasion, but
146
derive from a much more remote origin common to all the
Mediterranean peoples.157
There is however, a repertory which combines elements of
both the classical Arab and the Hispanic cultures in the
Hispano-Arabic noubas. It is this synthesis of the two dominant
cultures on the Iberian peninsula which most likely has had an
influence upon the cantiqas. It is, of course, parallel to the
synthesis of cultures represented in the performance practice of
the cantiqas which is present in the quitarra latina and the
quitarra morisca.
In any case much more has been written discussing the
European nature of the cantiqas than the Hispano-Arabo
tradition. In a recent analysis of the Cantiqas Gerardo Huseby
has shown how their tonal organization appears to be built
squarely upon the European system of eight modes - a point which
is further discussed in the analysis section.158 Although the
cantiqas are modal (ie. European) their modality does not,
however, preclude all Eastern influence, as ultimately the
origins of Western harmony are to be found in the East. Angles
and Huseby are Latinists and therefore ascribe to the cantiqas
characteristics which are European, almost to the exclusion of
157 J.A. Westrup "Medieval Song," New Oxford History of

Music. Vol.II, London: Oxford University Press, 1954, pp 260-
266.
158 Gerardo Victor Huseby, The Cantiqas de Santa Maria and

the Medieval Theory of Mode, unpublished dissertation, Stanford
University, 1982.
147
Arab influences; whereas Ribera, the Arabist, ascribes the
genesis of the cantiqas to Arab poetic and musical forms and
practices. The true nature of the cantiqas lies at the juncture
of the two extremes, just as the of Spain itself is poly-
cultural due to the impressive mixture of foreign cultures who
either migrated or occupied Spain at one time or another. This
synthesis of cultures can be seen clearly in the structure of
the cantiqas. discussed next.
Musicologists categorize the majority of the cantiqas into
two musical formats: either a villancico/zaial or the virelai
format.159 These forms are related both structurally and in a
cultural way. All are strophic song forms with refrains; the
zaial is the Arab equivalent of the French virelai. while the
villancico which is representative of the music of the Iberian
peninsula, also has equivalence to the virelai.
In contemporary parlance the term villancico is generally
used to describe a Christmas carol, either of Spanish or Latin
American origin. As a poetic/musical form, the villancico
consisted of several stanzas (coplas), linked by a refrain
festribillo) . The villancico. however, exibits an assymetry
between the text and the music which points toward the zaial.
which reached its zenith as a poetic form along with the
159 In limited numbers, the other musical structures to be

found in the cantiqas include the ballata and the rondeau.
148
muwassaha in the Muslim courts of al-Andalus during the 10th
century.
Of the musical structures listed thus far, the most
prominent is the virelai. Approximately 300 or 75% of the
cantiqas are composed in this form. The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians states that this seems to suggest a dance
origin - at least in France. 160 The word virelai seems to be
a composite of two terms virer and lai. In old French, virer
means to turn or twist. The lai was one of the early forms of
troubadour lyric which was extended to at times a dozen or more
stanzas each having a different text and music. The virelai then
is one of the forme fixee of the 13th and 14th centuries, in
which the music is the same for each repitition of the verse and
refrain, while the text of the verse may change. Thus it is a
lai which turns (virer) or returns upon itself. This conforms
to the pattern which is to be found in the cantiqas by which we
have a form which includes a refrain, estribillo, followed by a
verse, mudanza and vuelta.
Again, there is some debate over the ultimate origins of
the virelai. and this debate includes the cantiqas. There is a
school of thought which posits that the virelai form (therefore
that of the cantiqas) owes its origins to the Arab zajal. The
other school of thought, no less convincing, holds that the
160 "Virelai11 , in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and

Musicians.
149
virelai was a product of the Latin tradition which originated at
Limoges. The virelai form has been found in Latin songs in an
early 13th-century manuscipt from the monastery of Ripoll. The
following latin song (Ex.Ill) shows classic characteristics of
both the French and Iberian cultures through the use of the
virelai form which it shares with the French chanson and the
Galician-Portuguese cantiga:
n n m m i j,.m u r m i
t o
TEXT
Cedit frigus hiemale, Redit tempus aestivale, Juventus
laetatur. Ecce tempus est vernale Quo per lignum
triumphale, Inter ligna nullum tale, Genus hominum
mortale Morte leberatur.
The winter cold departs, the summer returns, and youth

rejoices. Lo, here is the spring-time, when trough
the victorious tree, a tree beyond compare, the mortal
race of men is delivered from death.
The melody in the above latin song shows a striking resemblance
to the cantiaa number 166 shown in Ex.IV-A . The transcription
by Angles is in the 6/4 meter signature. If the cantiga is
150
transposed to the 6/8 meter as in Ex. IV-B even the rhythmic
relation of the cantiga to the latin song is more evident.
i fey iL
--
'

- - -y\
"7
^ /--- ---.----- 1 1 J J
/
k I
The text which is in Galician-Portuguese no longer sings of the
seasons but rather of the healing power of the virgin:
As men may be crippled through their sons, so may they

afterwards be made sound by the Virgin. Whereby it
happened to a man through the sins that he had
committed that he was paralysed in his limbs from a
disease that he had, and so he could not move for five
years: so were all the limbs of his body in pain.
This lyric shows that the virelai form entered the Iberian
Peninsula and was established as a compositional genre in a
geographic location which had never received Arab influence; the
location of Ripoll is north of Barcelona and due south of
France, which is an area that was never inhabited by Arabs.
What is more, the cantigas display a similarity, thematically
and structurally, to the Miracles de Notre Dame (1214-1233) of
Ex. IV - A
166
Esia [e] como Santa Maria guareceu un ome que era tolletio do corpo et
dos nembros, na sa eigreja en Salas. ^
.V7 A~ y 7 a - n' 37 j n7 b'

1
3 g <* r i i <5* : S
m\
1 " 1
E o,i66, f .2 5 2 c - ^ ------ 4 --
E i, 166, f-159 o-d m :
Co-mo po - dm per sds c u l-p a s os o -m es se-e r con -
^ al a a ^ . c . . ! ^ ^ *
t> ----- C : ----------------

tr e i- to s , as - si po - den pel - a f i r - gen d e-p o is se - er sa - os
a m m
S 11
t / e i - tos. Ond a - v e - o a un o - me, por pe - ca - dos que fe -
al a a
fs 1 a al a a a
1 | N * 1
--------
----------------------- .

=
(fo j--- a--- j---- , -1 | h
* -d= --------
a rJu
--- : '
4 u 1 1 1
---j-----
- r "*" : ! i:1
C
ZQ - ra, que foi to - lle i-to dos netn-bros du - a do - or que ou *
i ^ i n
-ft'- , ' -- r i ---- _ _ - i.._-__ :3_A
-1 r
e - ra, et da - rou a s - s i cine1 a - nos que m o - v e r - se non po -
1 a
1 *' * Is- h* N 1
^
i J 4 J. *' a 1
de - ra: a s -si a - vi-a os nembros to-dos do cor-po m al-trei - tos.
l) Antes de este eplgrafe, t l final de la p ig . in te rio r, se encaeatra otro: Esia e como un home f a i ialleilo do corpo et
dos nembros.
151
the French trouvere. Gautier de Coincy (b Tarbes, 1177-8; d.
Paris 1236) . 161
The ouvert and clos endings of parallel phrases of the
above example in the estribillo of the cantiqas is approximate
to the structure of the virelai. Also, the aforementioned
circumstantial evidence of the confluence of French troubadours
at the Alfonsine court was bound to bring with it
characteristics of the French tradition, such as the use of the
virelai which was among their preferred lyric structures.
In terms of the overall content of the cantiqas. the
Latinist argument is compelling, as it has at its base empirical
analysis. For example, according to Sachs, it is part of the
nature of Western music, both liturgical and folkloric, to be
tertial, i.e. based on chains of thirds.162 An intervallic
analysis of the melodic structure of the cantiqas shows in fact
that it is the interval of the major and minor third which is
161 In his composition of the Miracles de Notre Dame. Gautier

de Coincy, an abbot at Soissons wrote the first substantial
collection of sacred Marian songs in the vernacular. The
cantiqas are often compared to the Miracles of Notre Dame in
that both bodies of work treat the narrative verse recounting
the good works of the Virgin set to secular melodies. The
cantiqas. however, are more elaborate to the extant that they
have illuminations depicting the narrative. Also, the Miracles
de Notre Dame relies more on sacred and devotional words,
whereas many of the cantiqas have the character of folk tales.
Still the Miracles de Notre Dame, c.1214-1233, predated the
cantiqas by several decades and therefore could have served as
a model for the cantiqas.
162 Curt Sachs, The Wellsprinqs of Music. (The Hague:

Martinus Nijhoff, 1961; New York: Mcgraw-Hill, 1965),
152
the most prevalent. There is usually a chain of thirds based on
D, which may have three or four links, D-F-A, or D-F-A-C.
Cantiqas in the Dorian mode, such as #353 (see example 6) which
customarily have two chains of thirds, a primary chain which is
based on the finalis and a secondary chain. In the case of
Cantiga #353, the secondary chain is G-B. However, just as the
European forms have provoked debate as to the possibilities of
their Arabizing tendencies, so there is a school of thought
which advances the idea that the Arab poetic and musical forms
of al-Andalus, which were corruptions of models in classical
Arab, were influenced by Latin models. The fact that a
literatura romanceada existed in al-Andalus which combined Arab
with vernaculars of early Spanish lends authority to this
theory.163
163 An example of the combination of classical Arabic with

the romance tongue in use at the time is taken from the zaial X
in the Cancionero de Aben Guzman:
Ya mutarnani Silibato
Tu 'n hazin, tu 'n benato
Tara 1-yauma wastato
Lam taduq fih geir luqaima.
Oh my foolish Silbato
You are sad, you are
penado(aggrieved)
You will see this day gastado
(wasted)
Nothing but a bite have you
tasted during it!
The romance terms benato and wastato are repectively translated
by A.A. Nykl as penado and gastado: which also is a proof of the
153
In so far as the Arab influence in the music of the Iberian
peninsula in concerned this may be found in the nouba. which is
parallel to this linguistic synthesis found in the zajal. The
nouba or nawba. as it is sometimes spelled, which combines the
musical elements of the Iberian peninsula with classical Arab
models. In the Maghrib there are two types: the eastern nawba
which is the principal form of art music of the Arab Near East,
which traditionally is performed by an ensemble consisting of
ud, quanun (a plucked zither), violin, and nay a flute; and the
western nawba. which is part of the so called Hispano/Arabo
Andalucian tradition. This is a continuation of a tradition
which began in Spain in the 8th century and ended in the 15th
with the expulsion of the Judeo-Arabo population. The
development of a distinct Andalucian style is associated with
the arrival in Spain of Ziryab, (who is discussed in Chapter
Four) the pupil of Baghdadi musician Ishq al-Mawsili and founder
of music education in Andalucia. This nouba is based on a
classical Tunisian model which was popular in 13th-century
Seville. According to Armando Lopez Valdivia the nouba was a
suite of dances. There are very few extant examples, and they
synthesizing characteristic of the zajal. Thus if the structure
of the zaial was used as a base for the cantiqas. it is
reasonable to assume the likelihood of a musical parallel to the
linguistic content of the zajal.
154
are the only record of the Hispano-Arabo music of Medieval
Spain.
An Andalucian nouba is shown here in example 5:
The melody proceeds in stepwise or conjunct motion as in
classical Arab forms until the second section which has an
intervallic skip of a perfect fifth which becomes a recurring
melodic motif throughout the refrain:

l
i
t...
J J . -I
\
' -r & y
i
155
Interestingly, the above phrase of this nouba shows a melodic
contour which is reminiscent of cantiga #353 shown in example 6.
I t>.l-CU-4
The net effect of the European versus Arab polemic has been
to establish a division of opinion amongst musicologists. The
Latinist argument would have one believe that the cantiqas are
a product of the Iberian peninsula with a Latin/troubadouresque
influence from France. Also, the performative style stressed a
syllabic vocal articulation, largely devoid of the oriental
sounding melismas. The use of instrumentalists or even dancers
in the cantiqas is treated as a speculation more than as a
realistic possibility. Angles aimed to discredit the theories
of Ribera, who posited that the cantiqas were owing to Islamic
tradition with its performative musical emphasis on flowing
melismas, instrumentalists and dancers. Yet, Alfonso's court
was known as a haven for troubadours fleeing from Provence in
post-Albigensian times, and as a mecca for musicians of the Arab
and Jewish culture. A final inspection of the prologue (Plate
XI) shows that behind the musicians there appear to be dancers.
It seems reasonable to assume that the court of Alfonso "the
Wise" was most likely more of an amalgam, a "melting pot" if you
will, of cultures which in confluence flowed in and out of his
court. In this respect, the logic of having dual guitars - the
quitarra latina and the guitarra morisca - for a brace of
cultures and their respective performance styles bears out. It
is also clear, however, that Alfonso fully intended for the
Latin/European culture to mantain its primacy over the Islamic
influence, by the choice of the subject matter - the miracles of
the Virgin - and by the choice of the quitarra latina over the
quitarra morisca. Alfonso's choice of the quitarra latina
resonates for the history of the guitar for it is at his court
that the guitar achieves the status of an instrument of royal
preference and also became the proto-type of the quitarra
esoanola an emblem of 17th-century Spanish musical culture.
157
There exists ample evidence to make a case for a diversity
of types and styles of execution in the performance of the
cantiqas. Also, music history shows that the influence and
artistic impact of the cantiqas existed far beyond the
parameters for which they were originally intended. In fact,
approximately a half of a millenium after the appearance of the
illuminated manuscripts of the cantiqas. Domenico Scarlatti
(1685-1757), the Italian composer and harpsichordist to the
Bourbon King Ferdinand VI (1746-1759) and Queen Barbara is said
to have studied the structure of the cantiqas from a volume in
the royal collection which was in his possession and used
several of the cantiqas for models.164 In this century,
selected cantiqas were used as models for the orchestral
overture entitled A Gathering of Angels (1989) by the American
composer Robert X. Rodriguez, further testifying to the musical
timelessness and beauty of the material.
164 Ann Livermore, A Short History of Spanish Music,London:

Duckworth, 1972,p.114, Livermore discusses Scarlatti's interest
in the cantiqas; in a letter to the Duke of Alba in 1769,
Scarlatti claimed that he had no trouble deciphering the Gothic
style of notation of the cantiqas which has proven to be so
troublesome to contemporary musicologists. The combination of
the Gallego-Portuguese and the French form must have been quite
pleasing to Scarlatti's patrons, for Queen Barbara's father was
King John V of Portugal, and her husband was of the Bourbon
line. Works by Scarlatti that are said to have been influenced
by the cantiqas include K. 287, 328, 255, and 254.
158
CHAPTER SIX:
The Musical Tradition:
THE Renaissance and Baroque:
The final phase of the Hispanization of the guitar shows a
change in the fortunes of the instrument: the Medieval quitarra
latina. which had achieved such a formidable status at the
Alfonsine court as to be adorned with the emblem of Castile and
Leon and depicted next to the king, is known during the first
two-thirds of the 16th century as the four-course Renaissance
quitarra. which was considered a smaller type of vihuela. The
larger vihuela was the instrument of preference for the
Renaissance composers and courtier of Spain.165 Still, by the
late-16th century the publications for the quitarra espanola
both in Spain and abroad, gain the instrument a larger and more
significant repertory, and with that a socially more diverse
audience. By the late-17th century and the publication of Sanz'
Metodo para quitarra espanola. the guitar has supplanted both
the vihuela and lute as the instrument of preference in Spain
and much of southern Europe. The reasons for this change of
affairs, which include such elements as the high cost of the
lute and its difficulty of tuning, are the subject of
165 The guitar was in fact, probably more popular in France

in the mid-16th century than Spain if one judges for the number
of publications devoted to the instrument. The guitar was
considered by some as an instrument mainly suitable for the
accompaniment of singing and dancing more than for artistic
performance.
159
considerable debate and conjecture. The ascendancy of the
guitar coupled with the decline of the vihuela and lute are
discussed in this chapter and the conclusions. The subsequent
interest in European music which is evident in the repertories
of the 16th-century vihuela and the 17th-century quitarra
espanola are of central interest to the Hispanization of the
guitar, and will be discussed in this chapter.
In the mid-16th century the guitar realizes the beginnings
of a repertory in print with the publication in Spain of
Mudarra's Tres libros en cifra para vihuela. which contains 70
compositions for vihuela. four-course guitar and voice and
vihuela. The ten pieces included in the Mudarra text are of
high quality, utilizing counterpoint and other compositional
conventions which heretofore had been thought of as the domain
of the lute and vihuela. Three years after the Mudarra text
appears in Spain, the Italian Melchiore Barberiis (fl Padua,
C 1 5 4 5 - 5 0 ) 166 included four fantasias for the chitarra da sette
corde (seven strings arranged in four-courses) in his collection
Opera intitolato contina. which was primarily for the lute. In
France, where the four-course guitar was quite popular, nine
books of tablature were published between 1551 and 1555 by
166 His five volumes of music for lute or guitar (1546,1549)

include ricercares. fantasias and canzonas. arrangements of
vocal works by Fevin and Josquin and dances loosely grouped into
suites.
160
Adrian Le Roy, Guillaume Morlaye, Gregore Brayasing and Simon
Gorlier.
The following narrative provides the cultural context for
a discussion of the ascendancy of the guitar in Spain as well as
its close relative the vihuela. The instruments are combined in
the discussion, just as they were by the 16th-century
maestros/composers for the vihuela - recalling the words of Fray
Juan Bermudo on this topic:
Si de la vihuela quereis hacer guitarra, quitadle la

prima y la sexta y las cuatro cuerdas que le quedan
son las de la guitarra. Y si quereis de la guitarra
hacer vihuela, ponedle una sexta y una prima.167
If of the vihuela you would like to make a guitarra.

remove the first and the sixth string, and the four
that remain are those of the guitarra. And if you
would like to make the guitarra into a vihuela. add
the first and the sixth string.
By January of 1492 the re-conquest of Spain was complete.
An effect of the re-conquest was the presumed extirpation of
Arab cultural influence. Ironically, al ud, the lute of the
Arabs, which made its way into Europe via Spain and evolved into
the Renaissance lute - the most popular instrument in the great
courts of Europe, as noted in chapter four, was vaguely
identified in a Spanish text as la vihuela de flandes. "the
viol of Flanders" by Bermudo. The great fame which the lute and
its courtly music received in the Renaissance occurred
167 Bermudo, Fray Juan, op. cit. Book II, Chap. XXXVI.
161
throughout Europe, with the notable exception of Spain. The net
result of this distancing of influences from the south and Arab
culture, leaves Spain to receive in greater proportion the
influences from the north and to develop and re-invent its own
culture. For the instruments of the guitar family, it meant a
step further in the process of unifying the Hispanic plucked-
string instruments with Iberian culture.
Just as the medium of instrumental music in Spain advances,
so does the diffusion of its own instrumental forms. In
response to the technological advances in music, i.e. the
development of printing, there was a stream of texts - listed
below - containing musical scores for guitar and vihuela. The
forms of documentation are now much more specific, namely, the
methods and collections of music principally for vihuela and
secondarily, quitarra. which were produced in Renaissance Spain.
From 1536 to 1578 ten texts were published, mostly under royal
patronage. Ei maestro. (1536) published in Valencia by Luys
Mildn, Los sevs libros del delphin de la musica.by Luys de
Narvdez, Tres libros de musica by Alonso Mudarra (1546)
Valldolid, Silva de sirenas. (1547) by Enriquez de Valderr&bano,
Libro de musica de vihuela. by Diego Pisador (1552), Orphenica
lvra. by Miguel de Fuenllana (1554), Libro llamado Declaracion
de instrumentos musicales. (1555) by Fray Juan Bermudo, el Libro
de cifra nueva, (1557) by Luys Venegas de Henestrosa; el Arte de
taher fantasia, (1565) by Fray Tomas de Sancta Maria; El Parnaso
162
by Esteban Daca (1576); and Obras de musica para tecla harpa y
vihuela. by Antonio de Cabezon, (1578). After the Cabezon text
of 1578, curiously, texts for the vihuela cease to be published.
Musicologist John Milton Ward suggests that spiraling inflation
caused by the influx of New World gold into Spain could have
been a plausible reason. Ward cites Bermudo himself, who
complains in his Declaracion that he was unable to publish his
sixth book due to... "the lack and high cost of paper, which
rose so much that formerly printing cost a third less than the
blank form does now. God willing, when there is an abundance of
paper, it will be printed "168
In the first book to be published for the vihuela. El
maestro by Luys Milan, the author presents several concepts,
some for the first time in a printed music text, such as the
consistent use of tempo indications. J.M. Ward cites four of the
vihuelists; MilSn - followed by Narvaez, Mudarra and
Valderr&bano as the primary source for tempo indications in
16th-century music: "since these (vihuelist/composers)
constitute the main evidence for tempo indications in 16th-
century music they deserve careful consideration.11 169 Mil&n
refers to three tempi: despacio (slow), Ni muy despacio ni muv
apriesa (moderato) and Apriesa (quickly).
168 Fray Juan Bermudo, Declaracion de instrumentos

musicales,f.142, in J. Ward, The Vihuela de m a n o .p.97.
169 J.M. Ward, op. cit. p. 69.
163
In presenting his "how to" approach for the playing of the
vihuela Milan exhorts the reader to become a proficient
musician:
En fin que cada uno que se quiera dar a

taner por este libro: primeramente tiene
necessidad de saber algun tanto de canto: y
templar una vihuela: y sabido esto: muy
facilmente entendera lo que se sigue.170
Thus, anyone who wishes to play through this

book must first know something about canto
and about tuning the vihuela. and this
known, he will understand easily what
follows.
In the context of this statement, the term canto is used as a
synonym for music. Implicit in this statement to the learning
process of the vihuela is the prerequisite condition of starting
from a base of musical literacy. In the words of historian Jack
Sage, Mil&n's El maestro is offered in "....the pragmatic good
sense of the accommodating teacher." 171 These first texts for
vihuela and guitar place a strong emphasis upon the social
values which encourage cultural achievement, or at the least,
170 Luys Milan, El maestro. edited, translated and

transcribed by Charles Jacobs: University Park, The
Pennsylavania State University Press. 1971. pp. 18-19.
171 Jack Sage "A New Look at Humanism in 16th-century lute

and vihuela books." Early Music: London, Oxford University
Press, vol XX no 4 November 1992, pp.633-641. Sage makes the
point that the pragmatic nature of the vihuela texts is more
neo-Aristotelian than neo-Platonic, hence while the presentation
of the text with its portrayal of Orpheus playing the vihuela
looks on the surface to be indicative of neo-Platonism, the
actual message to the reader is a pragmatic one about
establishing a methodology.
164
utility over simple recreation. Milan's text was preceded by
collections of music for vihuela in scribal notation which,
allowing for the limitations of the scribal medium, helped to
set the stage for the first printed text of music for the
vihuela.172
In many of the above mentioned books, the influence of the
Franco-Flemish composers who were brought to Spain by the
Emperor Charles V is evident. Apparently, the emperor employed
mainly Flemish musicians in his chapel, reserving the native
performers for private music making, where the vihuelists had a
prominent role. However, the sacred and the secular genres were
not mutually exclusive. Judging from the amount of liturgically
inspired music for vihuela. Angles observes that there must have
been a certain amount of cross-cultural influences:
in order to show their admiration for the

ecclesiastical art of the Flemish and French
composers, the Spaniards, in writing their Masses or
when compiling their collections for organ or vihuela.
based their works upon religious pieces of the French-
Netherlands school, chiefly on those of the masters of
Charles V's chapel or of the French royal house, or
transcribed these pieces for instruments.173
172 Antonio Corona-Alcalde, "The earliest vihuela tablature:

a recent discovery," Early Music, London: Oxford University
Press, vol XX no 4 November 1992. pp. 594-600.
173 Angles, I., The New Oxford History of Music. The

Renaissance. "Music on the continent, Spain and Portugal", vol.
IV.p. 379.
165
The third book of the vihuelist Narv&ez contains
transcriptions and settings of several works by Josquin de Prez
(1440-1521) and Nicolas Gombert (1495-1560). Such works include
sections of several masses with the titles: Hercules Dux
Ferrarie. Favsans reares. and Cum Sancto Soiritu. Gombert a
student of Josquin, the greatest composer of the high
Renaissance, was the most influential northern composer to work
for the Spanish crown.
In a parallel to the stylistic output of Josquin, Narv&ez'
work was inclusive of both sacred and secular titles. In the
work of Narvaez and later of Alonso de Mudarra, one can find a
range of music for the vihuela which is surely an accurate
indicator of the breadth of Spanish Renaissance society and
culture.174 Their collections for vihuela combined chapters
(books) containing sacred titles juxtaposed with books which
contained abstract fantasias. Completing the cycle were the
ubiquitous diferencias: a variation form based on the folk
music of the day - which both preceded in print, and were
parallel to the English "divisions." The Diferencias sobre
gu&rdame las vacas by Narvaez were the first variations to be
published in Europe. For example, the first book of the Sevs
174 The sacred titles arranged for the vihuela were meant for
performance within the confines of the court rather than the
cloister. It is clear that while in Spain, minstrels were
allowed into the sanctuary, that this music was aimed at an
aristocratic audience and was more of a counterpart to the
secular titles than a strictly religious genre.
166
libros del Delphln de la musica is a collection of eight
fantasias arranged in order of their modal structure, Primer
tono (First tone or mode) through the Octavo tono (Eighth mode).
The second book is a continuation of the first, having a looser
structure. The third book has liturgical works, which are based
largely on pre-existing themes of the northern European
composers. The fourth book continues the liturgical idea,
adding duets and variations to the collection. The fifth and
sixth books offer music which is based on the folklore of Spain,
and one finds romances. villancos. and diferencias on the well
known tunes of the day, such as cruardame las vacas. or
romanesca. or conde claros. all set in a harmonic context which
combines modality and tonality along European lines of practice.
PERFORMANCE PRACTICE:
How was the vihuela played? The vihuela de mano was
clearly a plucked-string instrument while the vihuela de penola
was played with a plectrum. While the duality of plucking
action appears to be a carry-over from Alfonsine times, a
fundamental difference lies in the morphology of the
instruments; both the Renaissance vihuela de mano and the
vihuela de penola had the same body shape, while - as is evident
167
in the iconography presented in the second chapter - the
Alfonsine quitarra morisca and the quitarra latina had very
different shapes. In fact, the names vihuela de mano and vihuela
de penola simply indicates a difference in the type of action
which was used to pluck the strings. Rather than preserving the
Arab practice, in this case, it is most likely that here one may
find a parallel with the European practice of the dual lutes -
the plectrum lute and the lute which was plucked finger-style
of the early Renaissance. The plectrum or a quill was used in
playing the lute until the late 15th century. The transition
from plectrum technique to a finger style plucking action
without the use of nails can be documented in pictures of about
1480:
Gradually the fingers replaced the plectrum. In

pictures of about 1480 it is common to see players
with the hand in a slightly more transverse position.
For any composition involving chords the advantage of
this change is obvious. Tinctoris observed that
players were becoming so skilful that they could play
four voices together on the lute perfectly.175
In any case, the masters of the vihuela and quitarra
preferred the plucked-string over the picked one, as there
exists far more music for the vihuela de mano than for its
cousin, the vihuela da penola. Musically, this makes good
sense, as the fuller textures of the contrapuntal style of the
Renaissance call for a right-hand technique which allows the
175 Diana Poulton "lute", The New Grove Dictionary of Music

and Musicians, vol 11,1980. p.355.
168
thumb and the fingers to pluck the strings in opposition. As
Tinctoris observed, the technigue of plucking the strings this
way allows for several voices to be played against each other,
whereas, by contrast, the plectrum either strums in chordal
fashion, or would play a single line ornament or melodic phrase.
Apparently, the 16th-century vihuelist/guitarist had
techniques at his disposal which may be considered uniquely
Spanish. For example, distinctions in plucking technique for
vihuela are found in the use of the right hand thumb and its
designations, namely: fiaueta castellana. 'Castilian' style,
with the right hand thumb held outside the fingers, as opposed
to fiaueta estraniera 'foreign' style, with the thumb held
inside the fingers, just as in 16th-century European lute
technique. Other methods of plucking action included: dedillo.
which consisted of rapid inward and outward movement of the
index finger of the right hand - which was deemed unsatisfactory
by Fuenllana, probably because of the unevenness of the upstroke
employing the fleshy pad of the fingertip and the downstroke
where the tip of the nail would percuss against the string,
causing difficulty in regulating accent patterns; and dos dedos,
which consisted of alternating the thumb and first finger, a
technique which Spain had in common with European performance
practice.
169
ANALYSIS:
THE RENAISSANCE TEXTS FOR VIHUELA AND GUITARRRA.
ALONZO MUDARRA: Tres libros de musica.
While Mudarra was the third composer to publish in Spain,
as he was preceded by Milan (1536) and Narvaez (1538), he was
the first vihuelist in Spain and indeed Europe to publish music
for the guitar. Curiously, Angles lauds Mudarra's ouvre for
quitarra. while critiquing Mudarra for his choice of the
instrument:
El grupo de obras para guitarra que incluye aqui

demuestra el grado inesperado de interes musical y
elevacion artistica que el mtisico era capaz de dar a
un instrumento de limitados recursos y de vulgar
aprecio.176
The group of works for the guitar that are present here
display an unexpected level of musical interest and
artistic merit which the musician (Mudarra) was able
to give to an instrument of limited resources and
vulgar esteem.
It is ironic as well as fortunate both for the history of the
guitar as well as for the guitarist in search of original
Renaissance repertory for the instrument that the 16th-century
composer Mudarra did not share this low opinion of the
Renaissance guitar with Angles, the 20th-century musicologists.
Mudarra's compositions for the guitar consist of several
176 Alonso Mudarra, Tres Libros. Critical edition by H.

Angles, Barcelona, 1943, p.68.
170
fantasias, two pavanas. and a romanesca. which was a diferencia
or theme and variation on a popular chord progression. The
Spanish vihuelists are the first Europeans to publish music in
the variation form. Known as diferencias. pieces such as the
Conde Claros by Mudarra and the Guardame las Vacas by Narv&ez
presage the publication of the English "divisions", the Baroque
passacaqlia and chaconne. and finally the theme and variation
form of the Classic period.
Mudarra indicates that there are two types of scordatura
for this quitarra. temple vieio (old tuning) of F,C,E,A, basses
to trebles and temple nuevo G,C,E,A (new tuning). In the temple
nuevo there is a fifth between the third and fourth courses,
which means that the fourth course was lowered a full step to
accommodate the harmonic requirements of the more contrapuntal
Renaissance style. The musical vocabulary in the pieces which
follow display Mudarra's interest in a European musical syntax.
Each of the works has a clear sense of tonality, counterpoint is
employed, and the structures are European: gallarda/galliard,
diferencia/theme and variations, and fantasia/fantasy -
ricercare.
The Gallarda by Mudarra (1546) is the only piece of its
type in the entire collection of music for the vihuela
published in Spain in the 16th century. The vihuelists
concentrated their compositional art upon the variation form -
diferencias - and the fantasia, and unlike the English and
French they did not compose in the binary form which is the
basic structure of the Gallarda. Each of the sections is twelve
measures in length giving a perfect symmetry to the piece. The
meter is triple simple (3/2), with the marking comoSs apresurado
(quickly). Harmonically, the piece is reminiscent of English
lute music to which it is clearly paying homage. The texture is
homophonic with the melody on top of a chordal texture. The A
section begins and ends on the tonic, while the B section
modulates down a tone to C where it stays for three measures
prior to modulating back to the home key of D, which closes the
piece. Example VII Gallarda:
^ 0 ij J 4J 4|- *4 nj.aj
8
= =
Ml" rf rXT M r
Mr oI
.
T T
r 1f f Cli_
I fll sL_ t'J J >I ,ti! Jd-J4
m
f
m 9r T T 8 rr
I -J -J Ii U > E M
% lr 0]* r f r r f f
rg: cr
~ p = ----- o c r o tr
r r r f r
172
The Diferencias sobre el Conde Claros by Mudarra is like a
ricercare in variation form - due to its close-knit points of
imitation combined with its repetitive bass, which is a
quotation of a well- known chord progression in Spain. The key
is D, the meter is quadruple simple, and the tempo indication is
marked tiemoo medio (moderato). The "theme" consists of a chord
progression which is six measures in length commencing on the
tonic chord and at the sixth measure an open cadence occurs on
the dominant chord, leaving the leading tone, C# to flow into
the first two variations, shown in example VIII a.
John Milton Ward has characterized the theme's brevity as an
obstacle which "foils serious music" as each of the diferencias
is derived from the six measure progression.177 Nonetheless,
the development of the theme achieves a kinetic momentum which
177 J.M.Ward, pp. cit. p.204.
173
here is reminiscent in style of the ricercare by the Italian
lutenist, Francesco Canova da Milano (1497-1543), known along
with Michaelangelo Buonaroti by the apellation jJL divino. whose
work Mudarra no doubt became familiar with during his visit to
Italy as a member of the Emperor Charles V's entourage. There
are a total of twelve variations of which variations #9 and 10
have running scales called pasos. followed by a polyphonic
chordal section which brings the piece to a close. It is these
passages with their close points of imitation in a clearcut echo
motif alternating between the bass and treble strings, which are
most like the Italian style, shown in example VIII b.
L- f * ) l !j *3 nU ih ! *! si * J - * - J - * -
XT
f r
XT
Bivn |m Hlii
XT 2AJt(5,
XT
The Fantasia aue contrahaze la haroa en la manera de
Ludovico, (the fantasia which imitates the harp of Ludovico) is
an exciting work which was written in a style to imitate the
harp of the renowned harpist of the Spanish court known as
Ludovico. Apparently, Ludovico, about whom little is known,
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited without p erm ission.
174
save that he was in the employment of Ferdinand "the Catholic"
in the early part of the 16th century, was adept at
improvisation:
con extraordinaria habilidad lograba cromatizar el

sondio natural de cada cuerda y con tal recurso,
clausular no solamente en tonos naturales sino tambien
en los accidentales. 178
with extraordinary ability he (Ludovico) was able to

chromaticize the natural sound of each string and with
such resource, improvise not only with natural
(chordal) tones, but also upon the accidentalized
ones.
The work makes excellent use of the "campanella" technique,
(shown in example IX a) which is the playing of musical scales
or motifs on adjacent strings, thus producing an effect on the
vihuela or guitar which sounds strikingly like the sound of a
harp. ex. IXa:
zfttigp Jil75=|jgj7 [77]v

3 " -- - - J- [ Tg-Jj
-/ /
: m i m a l m a i m a i m i m a i m a I
^ -^j--jPp5Ljj3T3Jir?iL|_ipT3 J773 Ira n P l
3 v -Sff) Trt1! -
Marked compas apresurado. (quickly), the piece begins in duple
meter (2/2) and has several sections which shift back and forth
178 Mudarra. o p . cit. p.65.
175
between both triple and duple meters. In the second half of the
piece, the use of syncopation combined the meter changes create
a sense of rhythmic instability, which although difficult to
execute instrumentally, when well managed by the player is
brilliant. The final section is marked, "acerca del final
hav alqunas falsos: taniendose bien no parecen mal11. (from here
to the end there are some dissonances, playing them well they
will not sound bad). The dissonances cited are in the form of
passing tones and, as this is the quickest section, the
dissonances in fact add to the musical excitement and are an
indication of the level of sophistication in compositional
technique of the vihuela master/composer. In addition to the
daring dissonances the final section of fantasia X it also was
one of the brace pieces by Mudarra to make use of the descending
Phrygian tetrachord which is now considered a hallmark of the
Andalucian style. Robert Stevenson states that the fantasia is
the first printed piece in Europe to show this characteristic. 179
ex.IX b:
179 Robert Stevenson, "Alonso Mudarra" The New Grove

Dictionary of Music and Musicans. New York: MacMillan, vol.12,
1980, p.758.
176
A companion to the Fantasia X and the discovery by Stevenson of
the first descending Phrygian tetrachord exists in the Fantasia
XII for guitarra to be found in the same collection. This work
which is a brief 67 measures, begins with a theme which given a
contrapuntal treatmemt shown in example Xa. A series of scale
passages treated in a descending sequential fashion leads to a
descending tetratchord cadence in the aeolian transposed to the
dorian mode, as shown in example Xb.
r
60 65
ffTf 'rr'r f'uirrtYf***
PHf iw<
iPdEtM met K J E 2 B
i J i I
* "45"7 ^ 1 D ?> 3 i
m 1 > 50;
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LUYS NARVdEZ: Delohin de la Musica. (1538)
While the compositions of Narvaez are solely for the
vihuela. he displays an interest in the quitarra in one of his
diferencias which is based on the well known progression known
as Conde Claros: in the 15th variation Narvdez uses the term
Contrahacienda la quitarra to describe a repeated note technique
which apparently is reminiscent of the folkloric style of the
16th-century four-course Spanish guitar.
In Narvdez' work one finds the French, Flemish and Italian
influences which were so pervasive in Spain of the post
reconquest. In his third book, Narvaez offers four movements in
a setting for vihuela of Faissan Regres by Josquin. The Sanctus,
which is the first movement, and also the first piece in book
three. Shown here is the principal theme, which is a rising
178
single note motif which is used as a base for imitative
counterpoint, (ex. XI)
f 0l 38
o)fol.3 4 . orig. Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus
LIBRO
TERCERO
Sanctus de
la misa de
Faisan R e-
grcs de Jos-
quin son del
Primer tono
p o r Gesol-
reut- (2 )
The Cancion del Emoerador (Song of the Emperor) dedicated
to the Charles V, king of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor is
actually a Hgloss" on the theme of mille regretz of Josquin de
Prez. The theme by Josquin was originally set as a lament for
four voices, upon the death of his teacher, the Franco-Flemish
composer J. Ockegehem (1410-1497). This work which gained renown
throughout Europe, was said to be the favorite piece of the
austere Charles V, hence this setting for vihuela by Narv&ez.
The opening chords which are in the dominant of the key e minor,
lack the third degree, thus giving the piece an immediate sense
of the Medieval modal past. (ex.XIIa) Narvaez7 setting shows
the influence of Josquin for the attention to the melody line,
179
the parallel descending triads, (ex.XIIb) and the near the end of
the piece the overlapping of phrase endings with beginnings, (ex.
XIIc). The piece closes with a quotation of the theme from
Josquin. The text which accompanies the original states the
words: "Oh shed your copious tears, for you have lost a good
father", ex XII d ) .
dfc
of sf = ?r r = /= !n n r s
flf- f
180
The Diferencias sobre "Guardame las vacas11. , also known as
Romaneses, was actually a chord progression. The piece is a
wonderful example of the 16th-century blend of high art based on
Hispanic folklore. Techniques such as imitative counterpoint,
antecedent-consequent scale passages, and descending thirds are
set upon the opening arppegios which trace a progression which
begins in C and modualtes to the relative minor,a, in an eigth
measure chordal ritornello: i-V-vi-III-I-V-viii-V/viii-i:
Ex.XIII
181
The blending of the folkloric and the artistic is a common
thread througout the history of Spanish music.180 Guardame las
vacas is in a compound triple m e t e r (6/4) and is marked tiempo
medio, which is equivalent to our moderato. The piece is quite
symmetrical in format, juxtaposing two-measure chordal phrases
on the tonic C and its dominant G, with an answer in the
relative minor a with its dominant E. These phrase segments
which are four measures in length have a cadential quality of
"open" and "closed" cadences reminiscent of Medieval practice.
The musical style of the 16th-century vihuelist mirrors the
absorption which Spanish aristocracy must have had with re
establishing a European tradition, at the expense of the Arabo-
Judeo heritage which preceded the Renaissance. This refocusing
of artistic energies helps Spanish musicians to participate in
the European Renaissance, and it paves the way for a more well
defined Hispanic musical tradition which develops in the 17th
century with the rise of the quitarra espahola.
180 Martin Cunningham in "Spain: Folk music, general and

historical." states: Since the Middle Ages a close relationship
has existed between folk music and art music, hence early
records of art music give valuable information about the history
of folksong. Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London:
MacMillan, vol 17, 1980. p. 791.
182
The Baroque
For the guitar, the Baroque period presents the
culmination of the evolutionary process which brought the
instrument from the background to the center of the musical
portrait of Spain. The music of this epoch was a hybrid
combining the lively dances of this mediterranean land with the
counterpoint of northern Europe. There is in this new
performance style a re-focusing of musical resources whereby the
delicate nuance of the Renaissance vihuela performer gave way to
the bold-strummed of the Baroque quitarra espanola. The new
strummed style, or musica ruidosa as Sanz called it, used
strummed chords to both color and punctuate the music. Also,
the musical functions which required two different instruments
in the vihuelas and four-course quitarras of the Renaissance,
are subsumed in the Baroque by the quitarra espanola. The
reasons for this turn of affairs will be discussed in the
conclusions immediately following this section.
The appellation quitarra espanola is first used in print in
the method published in 1596 by Joan Carles y Amat. The larger
quitarra espanola with a fifth course is popular in Spain and
Italy - more than in France. These mediterranean countries and
England were where the Baroque guitar achieved the highest
favor. There were a greater number of texts for this instrument
published in Italy than Spain - although this difference may be
183
a reflection of the economic state of the publishing industry of
Spain than of the popularity of the guitar. The titles by
Corbetta alone include: Sherzi Armonicic trovati e facilitati
in alcune curiosissime Suinate sopra la Chitarra Spaqnuola
(Bologna, 1639):Varii Capricci per al Ghittara Spaqnuola (Milan,
1643); and
Varii Scherzi di Sonate per la Chitara Soaanola (Brussels,
1648) .
The most important text for guitar which was published in
17th-century Spain was the Metodo para quitarra espanola by
Gaspar Sanz. The Sanz text presents a type of tablature which
literally shows the position of the hand on the neck of the
guitar, (ex.XIV) This display of chords was coupled with a
system of naming the chords alphabetically known as the
Abededario. (ex.XV) Sanz credits the Portuguese musician
Nicolao Doici, who was in the service of the Cardinal Infante,
don Ferdinand, the spirited brother of Philip IV, who lived in
Naples for the development of this important representational
device. This "chord finder" of the 17th century is the earliest
printed version in Spain of what we have come to regard as the
commonplace chord charts which are found in publications of
popular music today. Simply put, the Abecedario is a symbolic
system which is used in place of, or as an adjunct to notation.
LXXIX
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184
Sanz' style relies heavily upon folklore. Although his
text is entitled Metodo para quitarra espanola. he includes
works representative of Spain's European neighbors: France,
Italy and England, which were all countries where the guitar
enjoyed popularity. Among his listings in the table of contents
are:
El Baile de Mantua, Zarabandas Francesas, una giga que

tiene el aire Ingles, todos los sones de Rasgueado
Espanoles, y otros sones de Punteado muy faciles para
los que empiecan a puntear. 181
The dance from Mantua, French Sarabands, a gigue which

has an English aire, all the rhythms of Spain, and the
other rhythms in an easy counterpoint for those that
would like to begin to play.
Sanz' second book contains titles which are equally colorful:
"clarines y trompetas con canciones muv curiosas espanolas y
extranieras naciones", 3,clarions and trumpets with curious songs
from Spain and other foreign nations11, or "la cavalleria de
napoles con dos clarines" , "the cavalry from Naples with two
clarions". Here is a music which is based not only on the
dances of the people but on their sonic environment. The
"cavalry from Naples" seeks to conjure up the sounds of the
trotting of horses through the technique of rasgueado. a
strumming effect which Sanz referred to as mtisiea ruidosa. noisy
music. For the music of Sanz and for Spain it is a musical
signature that holds currency to this day. The music of Sanz is
181 Gaspar Sanz.Instruccion de musica sobre la quitarra

espanola. Zaragoza: 1674, facsimile edition by Luis Garcia
Abrines, Institucion Fernando el Catolico, Zaragoza,1979, p.9.
185
programmatic in his application of special effects in order to
elicit an extra-musical meaning.
PERFORMANCE PRACTICE
How was the quitarra espanola played? In order to get a
complete understanding of the variety of performance practice
technique which Sanz purports to show in his text, one needs to
search no farther than the title of the first edition of his
1674 text: Intruccion de musica sobre la quitarra espanola: y
metodo de sus primeros rudimentos. hasta taherla con destreza.
Con dos laberintos inqeniosos. variedad de sones. y dances de
rasgueado. v punteado. al estilo Espanol. Italiano. Frances, v
Ingles. Through his system which includes chord charts and an
ingenious system (Sanz' words) which he referred to as the
"labyrinth", a performer can learn to find chord progressions in
the different keys and to accompany oneself on the dances de
rasgueado/strummed dances, and also on the style of plucking
known as punteado which could be used for pieces requiring
counterpoint or ornamental components to be played in single
notes or intervals, as opposed to chords. To this end, Sanz
describes diverse modes of stringing the quitarra espanola:
En el encordar ay variedad, porque en Roma aquellos

Maestros sos encuerdan la Guitarra con cueradas
delgadas, sin poner ningun bordon, ni en quarta, ni en
quinta. En Espana es al contrario, pues algunos usan
de dos bordones en la quarta, y otros dos en la
186
quinta, y la lo menos, como di ordinario, uno en cada

orden. Estos dos modos de encordar son buenos, pero
para diversoso efectos, porque el que quierer taner
Guitarra para hazer musica ruidosa, o acompanarse el
baxo con algun tono, o sonada, es mejor con bordones
la Guitarra, que sin ellos; pero si alguno quiera
puntear con primor, y dulcura, y usar de las
campanelas, que es el modo moderno con que en que aora
se compone, no salen bien los bordones, sino solo
cuerdas delgadas, asi en las quartas, como en las
quintas, como tengo grande experiencia.
There are diverse ways of stringing, for the Maestri

in Rome put only thin strings on their guitars,
without any thick strings for the fourth and fifth
courses. In Spain, on the contrary, some use two thick
strings for the fourth course and two for the fifth,
or at least one thick and one thin string each as is
customary. Both ways of stringing are good, but for
different effects: it is better for someone who wants
to play noisy music, or accompany his own songs with
a bass, to have thick strings on this guitar than do
without them; however, if one wants to play skillfully
and beautifully, and use "campanelas" (cross-string
bells effects) the thick strings are not appropriate
for the modern way in which one composes nowadays, but
only thin strings, both for the fourth and fifth
course, as I know from long experience.182
The passage in which Sanz refers to a type of playing which he
describes as "skillfully and beautifully, through the use
effects such as campanelas..... in the modern style," is of
interest because the use of this cross-string style of
performance was formerly an often used technical element of the
16th-century vihuela: in northern Europe the camoanella
technique was still in use on the Baroque lute: it is, however,
in the Sanz text touted as the modo moderno/modern style of
composing for the guitar. Sanz continues with a brief
182 Sanz, op cit. p LXV.
187
description of each style of stringing and the respective ends
of each and concludes by saying:
....asi puedes escoger el modo que te gustase de los

dos, segun el fin que taneres.
....in this way you can select the style (of

stringing) which you like the best, according to the
end of your performance style. 183
In recommending two possible styles of stringing, it appears
that Sanz is creating a justification for the dual role which
the quitarra espanola had in his time: that of an instrument to
accompany dances strummed in a chordal fashion and also as an
instrument - when strung with thinner strings - that is capable
or reproducing the contrapuntal ideas which were formerly the
musical domain of the vihuela and Rennaissance lute.
The late 17th-century style of performing ''musica ruidosa"
by necessity required a rasgueado (strumming) technique which
was capable of creating a clear and ringing sound. Just as in
contemporary performance practice on the classical guitar, the
right hand technique of the player included the nails, shaped
and polished in order to create this percussive effect. Michael
Lorimer reports that the great 17th-century Italian guitarist
183 Sanz, op. cit LXV.
188
Francico Corbetta canceled a concert at Turin "....because he
had the great misfortune to break a fingernail." 184
On the other hand, the use of fingernails was not
universally applauded. Regarding the use of the nail as a
component in the plucking action of the right-hand, Thomas Mace
in 1676 wrote these words:
But take notice, that you strike not vour Strings

with vour Nails, as some do, who maintain it the Best
Wav of Play, but I do not; and for This Reason;
because the Nail cannot draw so sweet a Sound from a
Lute, as the nibble end of the Flesh can do.185
Here, Mace is referring to technique for the lute, not the
guitar. It appears that the right hand technique for the lute
and the guitarra espanola/Barogue guitar evolved along different
principles. It important to note that just as the guitarra
latina and the guitarra morisca of the Alfonsine court had their
respective techniques for plucking action which find their
equivalents today in the plucking techniques for Spanish guitar
and the oud - so the no-nail technique of the Renaissance lute
player and the plucking with nails of the Baroque guitar, holds
true for most performers of early music today.
Regardless of the point of view which may be adopted
regarding the nail/no nail controversy, it is clear that
184 Michael Lorimer, Saldivar Codex No.4 . cites

Adam Ebert's diary of 1723 as an authority for this
statement. Michael Lorimer; Santa Barbara, 1987, pp.XX, XXI.
185 Thomas Mace, Musik's Monument. London, 1676, as cited in

Ward, p. 368.
189
eventually the lute fell out of favor while the guitar
flourished. The use of fingernails on the right hand of the
Baroque guitarist makes good musical sense due to the
requirements of the music. Also, it was more in tune with the
Baroque musical ethos which prized greater projection of sound
and brilliance than were required of the dulcet Renaissance
instruments.
Traditionally, the reasons given by musicologists for the
decline of the lute are expense, and the difficulty of tuning:
"Matteson said a lutenist of eighty years old had certainly

spent sixty of his years in tuning his lute, and that the cost
in Paris of keeping a horse or a lute was about the same."186
To apply the economic argument to the lute here does not hold up
as well - the decline of the lute occurred in several European
countries, Italy and England for example, and not just in Spain.
Although construction of the guitar is more economical due to
the flat back versus the convex ribs of the lute - the guitars
of the period which are displayed in museums show instruments
which were richly ornamented in mother of pearl with multi
layered rosettes, and thus do not bear the economic theory out
very well. The guitar did have fewer strings to tune, as it was
not in the same predicament as the lute; since the lute had to
186 A.J. Hippins, "Lute," in A Dictionary of Music and

Musicians, ed. Sir Charles Grove, 1st ed.,London: MacMillan, vol
II, 1894. p 177.
190
compete with the other instruments of the Baroque tradition,
(especially keyboard instruments) more strings were added as the
harmonic rhythm increased. The guitar was at that time not
used as much in chamber repertory, and as it had its own
repertory, it thus was not compared to keyboard instruments with
their greater capacity for texture or the violin with its
greater ability to perform cantibile and virtuosic passages.
Moreover, the technique of the right hand action featuring the
fingernails must have appealed more to Baroque musical tastes.
This may seem to be a surprising statement, but as one reviews
the history of musical instruments, one finds a continual search
for both performance and construction techniques which provide
the instrumentalist with the possibility of creating a "bigger
sound." It is my opinion that the quitarra espanola provided
just that for the Baroque ear the appropriate type of sound and
an acceptable level of volume. For these reasons, the technique
which Sanz referred to as musica ruidosa and the French called
baterie helped the guitar gain its following while the lute,
which was played only with the fingertips and no nails, suffered
a decline.
Because of its base in the folklore - mainly of Spain -
the music of Sanz is harmonically straightforward. It is a
mixture of simple harmonies based mostly upon primary chords and
their inversions. The counterpoint is based on motivic points
of imitation, which can be found in the folias and the canarios.
191
In the introductory portion of his second book, Sanz has several
officials of the Catholic Church who, render favorable opinions
about his use of counterpoint.
No hallo en Contrapunto, contra punto de nuestra

Religion Catolica, antes muchos consejos Morales para
no profanar su doctrina, en que acredita el Autor su
Cristiano zelo; y aviendole perfecionado del todo con
Tratado de acompanar sobre la parte muy essencial para
los Organistas, y dexnas Musicos. 187
I do not find in the counterpoint, any points against

our Catholic Religion, before many Moral counsels to
take care not to profane its doctrine, by which it may
be a credit to its author's Christian zeal; and having
perfected completely the Treatise on accompaniment
which is a most essential part for the Organists, and
other Musicians.
The Aprobacion was signed by Diego Xarava y Bruna, Chamber
Musician and organist at the church of Nuestra Sehora del Pilar
in Zaragoza, 19th of November 1674. As if just to make doubly
sure, Sanz has a second Aprobacion signed by Licenciado
Sebastian Alfonso, Maestro de Capilla at the Santa Iglesia
Metropolitana of Zaragoza. Both documents which are positive in
tone towards Sanz' work, also attest to the caution which must
have been felt by a musician seeking to make a name for himself
in the period when the Inquisition flourished.
187 Sanz,op. cit, p. LIX.
192
ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY
Gaspar Sanz published texts with chord charts, rules for
performance practice, harmonization and pieces. As in all
guitar and lute texts published in Europe in this epoch,
tablature is employed. The alfabeto system which is employed to
denote chord changes is reproduced in example XIV.
In his system, Sanz displays what he calls a labyrinth, which is
akin to a chord wheel or chart, followed by the Abecedario
Italiano which applies the chord chart to the changes of several
pasacalles which are shown at the bottom of the page. The
letter names for the chords bear no relation to the modern names
of chords thus the letter A is actually a G major chord in the
first inversion, and the letter C of the Abecedario is the chord
of D. This system however is one of great utility in music
which formed the basis for transmitting accompaniment patterns
which with modifications is still in use today.
The harmony of Sanz music indicate his interest in
folklore, for this is a music that makes use of the I - IV - V
harmonic sequence, which in many of his works is used as a
ritornello. The brief Zarabanda gives one an idea of the
brevity and strength of Sanz' ideas. The mixed meter creates an
weak-beat accent every other measure, which also provides the
impetus for the step of the dancer. This is dance music.
193
E x . XV Zarabanda
100)
Tabuiatur
kL
The passeos shows again the combination of the I - IV - V
ritornello with variations featuring running lines and close
though simple counterpoint.
Ex. XVI Passeos
194
The canarios is another hemiola dance combing 6/8 and 3/4 time
signatures for the weak-beat dance accent that is so central to
the Spanish Baroque guitar style. The name canario refers to
the Canary Islands, a stopping point for the caravels of the
Spanish fleet on their journey to the New World - las espanas.
The dance has a folkloric character and perhaps could have been
a favorite of Spanish mariners. In any case, the strong hemiola
rhythm is pervasive in the music of the Hispanic Americas to
this day. The strumming effects at the close of the piece allow
for the deployment of the most engaging of the effects for the
Baroque guitar, in la musica ruidosa. No doubt, Sanz meant for
this music to be played in order to enliven many a gathering.
Further, in contrast to his Renaissance predescesors - he
probably meant his book, which had eight editions from 1674 to
1797, for a much wider guitar-playing audience than his
predescesors had ever imagined.
Sanz intended for his music to reach a wide audience, but
little did he realize the popularity his music would achieve in
the 20th century, as the thematic base for the well-known guitar
concerto in the concerto for guitar and orchestra entitled
"Fantasia para un oentilhombre11 the "Fantasy for a Gentleman"
by Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo.
195
CONCLUSIONS
As a musical nation, Spain has always fostered a close
relationship between folk music and art music.188 The closeness
of this relationship is the underlying force which this
dissertation has identified as the Hispanization of the guitar.
The forces of musical personalities, musical style, and
nationalism thus combined between the 13th and the 17th
centuries to nurture the evolution of the guitar in two ways:
first, as a musical instrument in relation to its peers and
rivals, and second, as a musical emblem for a nation, 17th-
century Spain. The important historical points along this path
are: the Medieval court of Alfonso X with his quitarra morisca
and quitarra latina. the Renaissance and the vihuela and four-
course quitarra. and finally the Baroque quitarra esnanola. the
so-called Spanish guitar. The winnowing down of the
multiplicity of plucked stringed fingerboard-instruments in
Spain to one hardy survivor during this four-hundred-year span
shows the continuity and unigue durability of the guitar within
the culture in which it developed.
188 Martin Cunningham, "Spain," II Folk Music, The New Grove

Dictionary of Music and Musicians. New York: MacMillan, vol. 17,
1980. p. 791.
196
This dissertation has sought to identify the reasons for
the connection between the guitar and Spanish culture. Central
to the Hispanization of the guitar are three themes which recur
throughout the text and which will be summarized in this final
chapter. First is the morphology theme which details the
emblematic Hispanic identification with a plucked-stringed
instrument, known throughout the four-century time span by a
variety of names, but always found in the figure of eight.
Second is the advent of a Spanish style of guitar playing. From
the Castilian (Spanish) style, which was first identified in the
late 16th century, one gleans technical elements of musicianship
that were distinguishable from instrumental technique employed
in North Africa and Spain's European neighbors. Finally, this
dissertation considers the personages whose contributions and
ideas in music, art, literature, education, and politics have
had seminal influences on the Hispanization of the guitar.
The chronology of the Spanish preference for plucked-
stringed instruments shaped in the figure of eight is visually
documented in the pages of this dissertation by iconography: the
Portico de la gloria, the Cantiaas de Santa Maria, the ceiling
paintings of plucked-stringed instruments at the monastery of
Santo Domingo de Silos, and the prints of vihuelas and quitarras
in the collections of music and method books published in Spain
in the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the names of instruments
197
have changed through time, discrepancies have periodically
arisen between a name and a shape. Such a conflict may be the
case for the 13th-century quitarra morisca. which according to
its shapewas not a guitar, ut a lute. Accordingly, in this
study classification by shape has often taken precedence over
classification by name. After the 15th century, it appears that
the oval and almond shapes of lute type chordophones played a
lesser role in the music making of courtly Castile, as in Fray
Juan Bermudo's identification of the lute in 1555 as "la vihuela
de flandes, the lute of Flanders." Bermudo relegates the lute
to Flanders, which while it formed a part of the Spanish empire,
was not at its center. Regardless of the sporadic conflict
between names and shapes, history shows the Spanish preference
for the incurved sides.
It appears that the figure of eight-shaped chordophone,
which originally was known in medieval Spain as the quitarra
latina, was first given preference in the iconography of the
Alfonsine court, over the oval shape of the quitarra morisca
which ultimately became forever associated in the Spanish mind
with a Moorish and therefore a foreign heritage. The depiction
of the Alfonso X and the quitarra latina in the Cantiqas de
Santa Maria. with its emblem of Castile and Leon inlaid on its
borders has a socio-political significance. In the first
instance, the emblem furthered the identification of the
198
medieval quitarra latina. the incipient "Castilian" musical
instrument with a "Castilian" people. Moreover, it is argued in
chapter two that this linkage of king and musical instrument
bearing the royal emblem is representative of the Christian
belief in the primacy of Latin culture symbolized by the
quitarra latina over its cousin the almond-shaped quitarra
morisca. the Moorish guitar.189 The iconography, literary
references, instrument morphology and indications of performance
practice presented in this dissertation consistently point
toward a case for the Spanish preference for a plucked stringed
instrument of the quitarra latina typology. It is my contention
that the quitarra latina. the 13th-century precursor of the
17th-century quitarra espanola. was yet another of the cultural
legacies of Alfonso to Spain.190 Like some of Alfonso's
initiatives in legal matters or science, which were not
perceived to the full extent of their importance within his own
lifetime, his favor for the medieval quitarrra latina was later
borne out in the 17th century with the appearance of the
quitarra espanola. which combined the sound and the structure of
the instrument which, to this day, is symbolic of Spain.
189 Thomas Glick, Islamic and Christian Spain in the Middle

Ages. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979.
Regarding the competing norms of Medieval Spain, Glick states:
"Acculturation is a two way process. Contacting groups tend to
grow like one another, and elements are exchanged in both
directions, although one pole may be stronger than the other."
190 Madriguera, "Guitarras Moriscas and Latinas in the

Cantiqas de Santa Maria." o p . cit. p 138.
199
Another of the signature traits of the Hispanic legacy of
the guitar was the evolution of a Spanish style of playing. The
chronology of performance practice for the guitar in Spain,
shows that performance practice was a process of selection and
adaptation which sometimes presented competing norms and which
necessitated a musical and technical form of identification. As
Thomas Glick points out in his study of Muslims and Christians
in Medieval Spain, norms among competing cultures may be used
interchangeably during a given period in which selection of
criteria occurs.191 A unique facet of the dissertation, which
shows this selection process of instrumental technique for
Medieval music in an applied setting, is the discussion of the
criteria for the performance of the Cantigas de Santa Maria for
guitar. Chapter five discusses the performance practice of the
cantigas and presents a variety of options for their performance
on the guitar: some cantigas are recommended for performance
with a plectrum, others with the soft fleshy pad of the fingers.
This distinction is in agreement with the iconography of the
cantigas which shows minstrels performing on plucked-stringed
instruments both with quill, in the Arab style, and with the
191 Thomas Glick Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early

Middle A ges. Princeton: Princeton University Press, p.289, 1979,
states: "Acculturation is a two way process. Contacting groups
tend to grow like one another, and elements are exchanged in
both directions, although one pole may be stronger than the
other."
200
fingertips, in the Latin (Christian) style. Further, this
diversity of execution agrees with the writers of the day such
as Juan Ruiz who distinguished between instruments, and hence
sounds, sounds which were considered suitable for Arab music and
instruments, and sounds which were considered suitable for
Christian music.
Taking into account the subjective nature of performance
practice, this dissertation has offered the theory that
plucking-action is a key component in relation to the character
of a given cantiga, thus leading a guitarist to perform said
cantiga in accordance with its character. A more rhythmic
cantiga which would arguably call for a strident, percussive
attack, thus necessitates the use of the plectrum, while a
sweeter tone, and a finger-style approach, accordingly, may be
more appropriate for a tranquil cantiga. These conjectures
which are presented in chapter five are offered as a likely
explanation of how the cantigas may have been performed at the
Alfonsine court. The principal evidence for this suggestion has
been gleaned through the iconography present in the cantigas. as
no written records are extant to confirm this technical approach
to the performance of the cantigas.
201
The remodeling of Spanish culture which occurred after the
reconquest and unification gave Renaissance Spain a cultural
profile which was parallel to that of Northern Europe. The
repertory of the vihuela required a mastery of contrapuntal
texture for the effective articulation of the fantasias and
tientos which were the staples of the vihuela repertory. In
general, the performance technique for Spain's vihuela was
comparable to the technique on the lute as used in other
European countries, Italy for example. The dissertation thus
views the development of the vihuela of the 16th century, which
was a relatively short-lived instrument, more as a cultural tilt
of Spanish music away from the powerful musical vestiges of an
Arab past, in favor of Renaissance neo-classical ideals, rather
than the outright rejection of the guitar as Spain's musical
symbol. For the Hispanization of the guitar, the Renaissance
was a time for slower growth, tantamount perhaps to a gestation
period for the guitar.
The masters of the vihuela Milan, NarvSez, and Mudarra
evoked the elements from Classical Antiquity and attached them
to the vihuela, as was in a general sense, customary in 16th-
century Europe. The practice of mythologizing the instrument -
such as the case of Milan's El maestro with its image of Orpheus
playing upon a vihuela rather than the customary lyre - shows
the extent to which the Italian and Franco-Flemish Renaissance
traditions had taken hold in Spain. His contemporary Alonso
202
Mudarra, who in addition to his outstanding secular repertory
for the vihuela. set masses to the vihuela by, among others, the
great French composer Josquin des Prez. The setting of sections
of the mass by Josquin and other Franco/Flemish composers shows
the extent to which the Spanish vihuelists considered themselves
to be the heirs of a European and not an Arab musical legacy,
yet another reflection of the musical ethos of post-reconquest
Spain.
In chapter six, one finds in the counter-reformation Spain
of the 17th century that the musical style which gained
ascendancy with the quitarra espanola was a return to Spain's
musical roots. This repertoire was more rustic in character
than the more abstract repertoire of the Renaissance vihuelists.
References in 16th- and 17th-century texts to a Spanish
technique or style of playing provide evidence for, and are
among the most cogent arguments for the Hispanization of the
guitar. Bermudo's references to mflsica qolpeada. "struck
music", and later, the Sanz references to musica ruidosa. "noisy
music" have, to the present author, the ring of authenticity.
The greater brilliance of the strummed style, employing the
fingernail, was no doubt a performance trait which developed in
courtly music but which was culled from the dance music of the
people. Not only were musicians and theoreticians consciously
developing a Spanish or in some cases regional styles of
203
playing, the Catalan one of Carles y Amat, or a Castilian style,
but also, there was care to distinguish this style from that of
other lands. It appears that this nationalistic style of
performance is the basis for the spirit which serves as the
philosophical underpinning for Venegas de Henestrosa, who
describes in his text Libro de cifra nueva (1557) fiqueta
castellana Castilian figuration, and fiqueta estraniera foreign
figuration, which are terms that he used to describe differences
of the plucking posture and subsequently of the action of the
fingers on the strings for the right hand. The "modern"
technique which evolved in the 16th and 17th centuries may even
be seen as a synthesis of opposing elements, as the soft pad of
the flesh is combined with the harder surface of the nail. It
also constitutes a combination of technical elements of the
guitar which apparently were distinct from one another in
earlier epochs. The search and identification of technical
elements which were uniquely Spanish culminated in the quitarra
espanola: an instrument which, due to its performative
characteristics, i.e. dance-like strumming combined with
counterpoint, was uniquely suited to the Baroque style. The
appellation quitarra espanola was first used in print in the
method published in 1596 by Joan Carles y Amat, who claimed that
the guitar was known to be Spanish as it was: "llamada Espanola,
por ser mas recibida en esta tierra que en las otras....called
204
Spanish, as it is more well received in this land than in
others... "192
Its survival and emblematic status thus accomplished, the
quitarrra espanola nevertheless continued to develop in the 18th
and 19th centuries. The successor to the quitarra espanola was
the larger six-stringed classic guitar. The late 18th-century
classic guitar retained only the chordal nature of the Baroque
instrument and suppressed the strumming which was more
indicative of a folk-style (and of Spain) than the "homogenized"
classic style which emphasized balance and restraint. Spain was
thus not alone in its contributions to the development of the
modern guitar. It is argued by musicologist Thomas Heck, in the
dissertation entitled The Birth of the Classic Guitar, that the
classic, internationalized guitar developed more on the axis of
Italy/Austria - the land of the opera and the classic composers
- than its predescesor, the quitarra espanola whose "birth"
(authors and guitarists alike seem to anthropomorphise the
instrument) occurred in Spain, its colonies in Italy, and France
during the 16th and 17th centuries.193 The classic guitar was
singly-strung as opposed to its doubly-strung Baroque
predecessor. The change of accordatura combined with a
192 Carles y Amat, op. cit.
193 Heck, Thomas Fitzsimmon.The Birth of the Classic Guitar

and Its Cultivation in Vienna. Reflected in the Career and
Compositions of Mauro Guiliani (d. 1829). unpub. dissertation,
Yale Univ., 1970. p. 58.
205
lengthening of the string provided the 18th-century guitar with
a profile that well suited the textures of Classic period music,
which was more chordal than contrapuntal.
The diverse personages who are central to the Hispanization
of the guitar offer a humanistic chronology for this thesis,
from the 7th through the 17th centuries: the encyclopedist -
Isidore of Seville, the king - Alfonso X of Castile and Leon,
the chamberlain - Juan Gil de Zamora, the poet - Juan Ruiz, the
theoretician - Fray Juan Bermudo, the composer and canon -
Alonso Mudarra, the writer/guitarist - Vicente Espinel, the
playwright - Lope de Vega, the novelist - Miguel Saavedra de
Cervantes, and the guitarist/publicist Gaspar Sanz. These
historical figures created the cultural context for the
Hispanization of the guitar. They are cited repeatedly in this
dissertation just as they were in their own day, and then later
are referred to again as authorities by generations of
successors. St. Isidore offered a linguistic base for
considering the Iberian plucked stringed instruments.6 St.
Isidore was studied and cited as an active authority on Hispanic
culture for over a thousand years. A proof of his authority in
the Hispanization process of the guitar lies in the language
which is used in the second Aprobacion in 1674 by Licenciado
Sebastian Alfonso of the Gaspar Sanz book. The licenciado pairs
the early-medieval Isidorian with the contemporary, for he uses
206
the Medieval term cltara in conjunction with, and as a synonym
for the early modern quitarra espanola. In my opinion, the
licenciado/s use of the term citara displays both the late 17th-
century cleric's connection to Isidore as well as a recognition
of the spiritual link between the Hispanic peoples and the
guitar. The plural for a people is used here, for the guitar is
not only the national instrument of Spain, but of the countries
of Hispanic America, or las espanas as they were then known.
Alfonso X, in addition to his importance to the
Hispanization process of the guitar, was also a precedent-
setting figure in his ordering the social hierarchy of the
creative artist, educator, and instrumentalist. For example,
the first university chair of music in Europe was founded at
Salamanca by his order.194 In similar fashion, Alfonso
formulated an early doctrine which created a hierarchy for verse
technicians, minstrels and performance artists where previously
none had existed. Alfonso's Declaratio preceded the creation of
the system of guilds in Europe.
The European concept of the "Renaissance man" was not lost
upon the Spanish: for example, Luys Milan the author of El
maestro for vihuela. the first "method" book to be published for
a plucked-stringed instrument in Europe, was also the author of
a book entitled El cortesano. which was meant for the Valencian
194 Carpenter, op. cit. . Grove Dictionary. 5, p. 6.
207
courtier. Again, the Italian influence was present as Milan's
text was modeled after Castiglione's II Cortegiano. Mil&n also
composed a book of games entitled Dados y tablas/ Dice and
Boards.
In 17th-century Spain the quitarra espanola and its
distinctive performance style was principally promoted by Gaspar
Sanz. Sanz's text, Instruccion de mdsica para quitarra
espanola. was considered the most comprehensive guitar text of
its time.195 In his text, Sanz is philosophic about the virtues
of the instrument and sanguine about its potential:
Otros han tratado de la perfeccion de este

instrumento, diziendo algunos, que la guitarra es
Instrumento perfecto, otros que no; yo doy por un
medio, y digo, que ni es perfecta, ni imperfecta, sino
como tu la hizieres, pues la falta, o perfeccion esta
en quien la tane, y no en ella, pues yo he visto en
una cuerda sola, y sin trastes hazer muchas
habilidades, que en otros eran menester los registros
de un Organo; por lo qual, cada uno ha de hazer a la
Guitarra buena, o mala... 196
Some have spoken of the perfection of this instrument,

saying that the guitar is the perfect instrument,
while others disagree; I follow the mean, and say,
that the guitar in neither perfect, or imperfect, but
what you make of it, as the fault or the perfection is
in the player and not in the instrument; as I have
seen feats performed on a single string, and without
frets, that were comparable to the registers of an
organ; meaning, for better or for worse that each
should do one's own thing on the guitar....
195 Robert Strizich, "Gaspar Sanz", The New Grove Dictionary

of Music and Musicians. vol.16, p.486.
196 Sanz, op.cit. p.LXI.
208
Sanz' wisdom lies in his acceptance of the instrument's
essential nature, and in doing so, he finds the greatest
strength of the guitar, in that this instrument gives its player
the possibility to shape its sound, and to color the sound in an
individual way.
Spain celebrated the guitar more than other lands. In
chapters three and four the ubiquitous guitar displays its
capacity to inspire literature and to span the layers of social
strata of Hispanic civilization, strata which includes the
bellatores/kings. such as Alfonso X; through the oratores/
artist- teachers, such as Luys Milan; to the
servitores/minstrels. such as Rodrigo de la guitarra. The
record of printed citations discussed within the pages of this
dissertation celebrate the guitar in Hispanic culture for over
a millennium: from the eloquent metaphor by St. Isidore, who
compares the pulsing of the strings of the human heart to the
plucking of the strings of the cvthara. to a later and more
direct, even raucous, description of the Spanish style of guitar
playing as "musica ruidosa/ noisy music, by Gaspar Sanz. The
Hispanization of the guitar, as a cultural history, has shown
how the multiplicity of guitars and of performance styles
provide a musical base for a unique ethno-cultural synthesis
which is emblematic of the greater mosaic of Spanish culture.
The enduring embrace proffered by Hispanic culture to the family
209
of guitars was thus both conscious and intuitive in how it
mirrored the artistic, ethno-cultural, and political events on
the Iberian peninsula. Lastly, the guitar, which is considered
more an instrument of the soloist rather than of the ensemble,
is in concert with the well known Spanish penchant for
individualistic pursuit; for the guitar is - to paraphrase
Gaspar Sanz - just what one makes of it.
210
Afterward
The research undertaken for this dissertation has led me to
make the following hypothesis: that the evolution of the guitar
and its repertoire have occurred in reverse order to the other
musical instruments of the classical family. The guitar was at
first considered exclusively as an instrument of musical
folklore, and only after the mid-16th century deemed an
instrument capable of artistically conceived repertory. The
guitar has as its essential harmonic component the chord; one of
the foundation elements of western folk music. This harmonic
character of the guitar contributes to what I perceive as the
guitar's dual nature: the first as an instrument of folklore and
the second as an instrument of art music. Hence, the guitar is,
perhaps, the only instrument of folklore which, in its classical
configuration, is accepted as well as capable of playing a Bach
fugue or a multi-movement sonata, with its variegated textures
and timbres. The modern guitar, with its six-strings, nineteen
frets, and three and a half octaves has been described as a
small orchestra.
Another element which must be accounted for is the sound of
the guitar, which due to its unique performance technique, was
louder than the lute and vihuela. The essential harmonic
211
characteristics of the guitar coupled with greater capacity for
musical volume to the history of the guitar may be observed in
the popularization of a style called mQsica goloeada (struck
music) by Juan Bermudo, or musica ruidosa by Sanz, prevalent in
Spain and Italy at the time in which the guitar overtook its
contemporaries, the lute and vihuela. Similarly in France the
term baterie was used to describe a type of strumming technique,
as was the term chitarra battente (struck guitar) by 17th-
century Italians.
The history of musical instruments shows that the louder
instruments replaced those of lesser volume. In the woodwinds,
the Medieval and Renaissance recorders were replaced by the
transverse Baroque flute and later the modern flute which is
metal. The keyboard instruments evolved from the clavichord, to
the louder harpsichord, followed by the more powerful
hammerklavier and then to the modern pianoforte, all in the name
of volume, sustaining of pitches and greater control of
dynamics.
The theory of the guitar as an instrument with a dual
nature, combining its folkloric roots with its capabilities as
an instrument of art music, explains on the one hand the
guitar's popularity, as well as the social resistance with
which the instrument was met at the close of the Renaissance.
The shift of musical paradigms - from the contrapuntal to the
212
chordal - meant a corresponding shift in the social order: from
a highly stratified society to one in which the first public
(commercial) concerts represented a new social mobility. The
caution with which this shift from Renaissance vihuela to the
"noisy" Baroque guitar was met was certainly nothing new, to
cite Plato's view of change in music:
.... and when someone says of songs,

What is it people want to hear?
The latest tune that's warbled through the
air! [Odyssey i. 352]
they (the overseers of the city) would be anxious lest
men think perhaps that the poet does not mean new
songs but a new way of singing, and may praise this.
So we must not praise such a thing, or take that to be
the meaning. For to change to a new kind of music is
a thing we must beware of as risking the whole.For
the methods of music cannot be stirred up without
great upheavals of social custom and law; so says
Damon, and I believe it." 197
If we consider the ascendancy of the guitar as tantamount to
what Plato describes as a "new way of singing," then it is
not only a musical but a social paradigm which is shifting.
Hence the uproar which was caused by the decline of the lute and
vihuela in favor of the quitarra espanola are in this light,
better understood. The hostile attitude toward the guitar noted
by 19th-century Spanish musicologist Felipe Pedrell, is recalled
from chapter three:
197 Plato, "The Republic" in Great Dialogues of Plato, trans.

by W.H.D. Rouse, New York: The New American Library, 1956,
p.222.
213
...La guitarra era entonces instrumento pobre y popular,

que se tocaba rasgueado, y la vihuela rico y aristocratico
que se tania punteado.198
The guitarra was in those times, a poor and popular

instrument,that was played by strumming,and the
vihuela. rich and aristocratic, that was played
through plucking.
Pedrell was not alone in his belief, for it is only in the
second half of the 20th century that the guitar is being taught
widely in universities and conservatories. The great Spanish
artist Andres Segovia, for whom we celebrate the centennial of
his birth in 1993, often discussed the opposition with which he
was met by the "musical establishment" at the very start of his
career. The British guitarist Julian Bream recounts that as a
youth he was asked to leave the Royal College of Music in London
for carrying a guitar case through the halls. Now of course,
the guitar is part of the curriculum of that institution. Thus,
it seems reasonable to posit that the guitar is representative
a new social order in music. This musical social order was
perhaps foretold by the elders depicted with their chordophones
on the Portico de la gloria in Santiago de Compostela, recalling
from chapter two the biblical text on which this sculpture is
based is Revelations, 5:9:
And they sang a new song 199
198 Pedrell, op.cit. p.212.
199 The Oxford Annotated Bible. Edited by Herbert G. may and

Bruce M. Metzger, New York: Oxford University Press, 1962,
p.1496. (New Testament)
The Portico de la gloria set a precedent in Europe for the
accuracy of the depiction of musical instruments as well as for
the assertion that these instruments were welcome within the
cathedral. This enduring embrace proffered by Hispanic culture
to the family of guitars, herein presented as the Hispanization
of the guitar, was both conscious and intuitive as it mirrored
the artistic, ethno-cultural, and political events on the
Iberian peninsula. The multiplicity of guitars and of
performance styles are thus well suited to the musical and the
cultural diversity of Spain. In conclusion, perhaps it is
fitting to consider the popular Spanish refrain which describes
Spain as a country of noblemen - every man a king, to which I
venture to add that for each of them there is a guitar, just as
there was in Alfonso's day.
APPENDIX I
ICONOGRAPHY
PLATE I
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IV
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PLATE IX
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fol. 147r
LOS CODICES ALFONSINOS
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th e copyright ow ner. Further
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PLATE XV
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copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without
perm issio n .
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216
APPENIX II
ANALYSIS OF SELECTED CANTIGAS
EX. I. CANTIGA #7 AEOLIAN TRANSPOSED TO THE DORIAN MODE
FORM: AA/bbaa - Simple virelai type in which both the music and
rhyme scheme are repeated at the return of vuelta.
RANGE: Refrain C - C; Mudanza (verse) E - D.
Structurally, the piece can be reduced to two musical units as
both the refrain and the mudanza comprise of two symmtrical
217
phrases, each with an ouvert or inconclusive ending followed by
a second phrase with a clos or final ending. The flatted sixth
degree of the scale on D, B flat, gives this cantiqa a scale
structure which that of the Aeolian mode transposed to D or the
Dorian mode. The fifth degree is A which acts as the reciting
tone, and is used as a pivot for the minor second above and the
major second below which turn around the reciting tone in axis
like fashion.
Cantiqa #7, shows a virelai which is perfectly symmetrical.
Also present in this cantiqa are the classic traits of mode,
which is Dorian, ouvert and clos cadential formulae which are
characteristic of both the cantiqa and the classic French
virelai form, particularly in the descent to the sub-finalis. C
in the clos ending in the second line. This cadential form is
both typical of the cantiqas and Medieval song in general.
218
Ex.II CANTIGA (#353), DORIAN:
Form: virelai type. A A/ b b a

Range: Estribillo (refrain) C - A
Mudanza (verse) C - C
Structural Framework:
Main: D-F-A-C
Secondary: G-B
The chain of melodic thirds characterizes this cantiqa. Again
the first cadence in each section in inconclusive ouvert and the
second conclusive clos. The range of the mudanza/verse is a
full octave. Mixed mode is present in this cantiqa as the mode
of the mudanza shifts to aeolian due to the B flat, to return to
the Dorian mode for the final cadence. The subfinalis. C is
present in each of the conclusive cadences which gives a sense
of finality to the cantiqa.
219
EX.Ill CANTIGA #117 MIXOLYDIAN:
h-h-H- i |
1
|Ht t
i r ' (; 11 i--i/
1=f
FORM: VIRELAI. A A/ b b a a
STRUCTURAL FRAME: MAIN: G-B-D-F

SECONDARY: F-A-C-E
An unusual feature of this cantiqa is the inverted curve which

the melodic outline traces. Also, there is a close alternation
.ofelements of both melodic chains: ex.
a-n-u-f
i i
i) If, Q-
F-A-c-t
The conclusive ending of the refrain presents an embellishment
in that the melody dips to the sixth degree.
There is another embellishment in the clos ending of the mudanza

in which the subfinalis is reached and a melodic flourish is
added before cadence with the finalis is complete.
220
Ex IV CANTIGA #100 - MIXED MODE

DORIAN/MIXOLYDIAN
1-1 -1 )- - )-{ ) i-r- v 4 i - )i M li

J J 1 ' - 1 a } 1
^ 4 - ) i n-j .1| Ji n 01 ..|f

l f ^ =j. Jr-|=f - | p =:. 1
lV ( ' ,
.
f" " I n 'r^f 1. . . .
1 .
\J
p i Lf ' X f 1 f f =14
i)ii
{-]n\ , 1 1 -).- 5-y - =- HLj 111 ) | l t )-l ]),)]
o 0 * 1 'o b
J.A. Westrup has compared the following cantiqa to Gregorian
chant concluding: "the relationship between the idioms of the
church and popular music-making are too subtle to submit to
221
rigid classification." 200 It has a narrow melodic range, a
sixth C-A in the refrain and a seventh C-B 9 (flat) in the
mudanza. The estribillo. refrain- is focused upon the finalis
of the Dorian mode D, while the mudanza, verse- uses the A as a
reciting tone or melodic pivot note. The final cadence presents
a repeated descent to the subf inalis C and a melodic
embellishment by rising to the E before cadencing on D.
200 J.A Westrup, op. cit. p 265.
222
APPENDIX III
TIMELINE FOR THE HISPANIZATION OF THE GUITAR
c.564: Boethius, De Instituzione Musicae, argues for a kithara

with a fingerboard as an option to the classic kithara. Ch.I
c.607: St. Isidore of Seville, Etymologise, categorizes musical

instruments. C h .I .
822: Ziryab an oud player of note and founder of the first

school of music in al Andaluz arrives from Baghdad to
Algeciras.C h .IV
940-950: Gitternes in the Beatus de Liebana- the earliest

depictions of chordophones in Europe. Chap. II
1180: Portico de la Gloria, stone sculpture of citaras as

played by the elders at the Catedral de Santiago de
Compostela.C h .II
1250-1280 Guitarra latina and the guitarra morisca of the court

of Alfonso X, "the Wise" of Castile and Leon. Illuminations.
Chap.II
1250- The first reference to a string player in Spanish prose,

a violera/ female string player named Tarsiana in Libro de
Aoolonio.Ch.IV
1290: Ars MQsica by Johannes Aegidius Zamorensis/Fray Juan Gil

de Zamora, is the first text to use the term guitarra. Chap. I.
1300: De Musica of Johannes de Grocheo, which expresses the

opinion about the superiority of the fingerboard instruments
including the guitarra sarcenica. Chap. I.
223
1330: The first use of the term guitarra in Spanish verse in

El libro de buen amor by the Archpriest of Hita. Chap. I & III.
1350: Ceiling paintings at Santo Domingo de Silos. depicting

chordophones in Castilian daily life. Ch II.
1430: Rodrigo de la Guitarra: guitarist of the court of

Alfonso Magnanimo (1416-1458) of Aragon. Ch.IV.
1450: Castilian "School of Guitarists" Ch IV.
1487: In the text Inventione et su usu musicae. Flemish theorist

Johannes Tinctoris declares and instrument which as described
resembles the vihuela which he calls the viola, as he declares
Siguidem Hispanorum Inventio// Indeed the invention of the
Spanish. Ch.I.
1536: El maestro by Luys Milan, (Spain) the first text for

vihuela
1546: Tres libros by Alonso Mudarra, (Spain) the first text to

have pieces for the four course guitarra.Ch.IV. VI
1550: Declaracion de instrumentos musicales by Fray Juan Bermudo

discusses the characteristics of the guitarra. various kinds of
vihuela and the vihuela de flandes/the vihuela of Flanders
(lute).
Ch.I, III, IV.
1552: Premier livre: Guillaume Morlaye, (France) depicting of

the title page a four-course Renaissance guitar.Ch.II
1596: Joan Carles y Amat: Metodo de guitarra espahola y vandola.

castellana y catalana de cinco ordenes. Barcelona.Ch.III.
1620: In his play La Dorotea. Cervantes declares Vicente Espinel

as the inventor of the fifth string to the guitar. Ch.III.
1627: Luis Briceno: Metodo facillisimo de guitarra espahola.

Paris.
Ch. III.
224
1629: Foscarini: II Ouatri Libri della Chitarra Spaqnola.

Bologna.
Ch. III.
1674: Sanz: Metodo de guitarra esoanola. Zaragoza. Ch. Ill, IV,

VI.
225
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V ITA E
Enric F. Madriguera, the son of Enric Madriguera and Patricia Gilmore

Madriguera, was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, April 7, 1950. He
attended primary and secondary schools in Connecticut, graduating from
Immaculate High School in Danbury in 1969. In 1969 Madriguera attended
the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid, majoring in guitar studies.
In 1973 he graduated with honors from the Oscar EsplS Conservatory in
Alicante, Spain. From 1970 to 1972 Madriguera was awarded scholarships
by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to attend annual master
classes given by Andres Segovia in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. In
1973, Enric Madriguera was awarded first prize in an international
competition in guitar sponsored by the University of Valencia.
From 1973 to 1976, Enric Madriguera held the position of Artist-in-

Residence for the North Carolina Arts Council and Department of
Community Colleges. In 1976, Madriguera accepted his current position
of Head of Guitar studies at Eastfield College of the Dallas Community
College District. In 1978, he was named lecturer in guitar and
Renaissance lute at the University of Texas at Dallas, a position which
he held concurrently with Eastfield College until 1985.
Madriguera was awarded a Master Degree in Humanities from the

University of Texas at Dallas in 1983 and is currently a doctoral
candidate at the same institution. Professor Robert X. Rodriguez has
chaired his graduate committees for both degrees.
Recent honors and professional distinctions which have been awarded
to Enric Madriguera include: Fulbright Scholar to Colombia, South
America in 1987 and 1989; in 1990, a grant from the National Endowment
for the Humanities, to attend an NEH summer institute held at the
University of Kentucky, entitled "King Alfonso the Wise and the 13th-
Century Spanish Renaissance."; an Academic Specialist grant from the
United States Information Agency in 1991 to promote curriculum
development in classic guitar programs at conservatories in Ecuador and
Bolivia, South America; and in July of 1992, Madriguera performed at the
15th Annual International Festival of Classical Guitar held in Volos,
Greece. He was sponsored for Greece by a grant from Arts International,
in cooperation with the NEA, Pew Memorial Trust and the Rockefeller
Foundation. In November of 1992, Madriguera was selected as an NEA
panelist for the USIA Arts America program, in the classical-jazz
performance category. In the summer of 1993 Enric Madriguera has been
invited to lecture and perform in Madrid and in Brno, Czech Republic, at
the Janacek Institute. In the fall of 1993, Enric Madriguera has been
invited by the American Embassy in Caracas for a performance/lecture
tour of Venezuela.

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INFORMATION TO USERS

The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the

Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by

Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced

University M icrofilms International

The H ispanization of the guitar: From the guitarra latina to the

Madriguera, Enric Felix, Ph.D.

Copyright 1993 by M adriguera, Enric Felix. All rights reserved.

ENRIC F. MADRIGUERA, M.A.

Presented to the Faculty of

The University of Texas at Dallas

for the Degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HUMANITIES

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS

APPROVED BY SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE:

Dr. Robert X. Rodriguez

All Rights Reserved

The inspiration for this project came about as a result

of my attempts to find any substantial writing on the early

history of the European guitar, while formulating my masters

thesis at the University of Texas at Dallas. Due to lacunae

in scholarship from which to analyze the development of the

guitar prior to the Renaissance, my thesis was limited in

scope to the social history, and the development of technique

and repertoire of the guitar and lute in Europe, from the

Renaissance to the present day. It is the hope that this work

will be of assistance to those who have wondered about the

pre-Renaissance culture of the guitar in the Iberian

peninsula, and the subsequent influence of Medieval Spanish

convivencia upon the development of the guitar.

Several grants enabled me to research and collect the

photographs for this project. A grant from the Dallas County

Community College District enabled me to underwrite the time

and expense that three months of extensive travel throughout

Spain entailed. A fellowship from the National Endowment of

the Humanities provided me with a stipend and visiting faculty

status at the University of Kentucky at Lexington for six

weeks. There, I attended a seminar entitled "Alfonso X 'the

Wise' and the 13th-century Spanish Renaissance", directed by

the distinguished Spanish Medievalist, John Esten Keller. The

sessions there presented me with a wealth of ideas from more

culture of the Iberian peninsula.

For the writing of this thesis, I undertook research in

Spain at the following centers: Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid

(Salon de manuscritos y libros raros) ; the Archivo de la

Corona de Aragon. Barcelona (Salon Monsenor Hiainio Angles) ;

the Museo y biblioteca Provincial. Pontevedra, Galicia, and

the Salon de investigacion. Biblioteca del Monasterio Real de

San Lorenzo del Escorial.

In the United States, libraries in which I have received

valuable assistance include: the library of the Hispanic

for Medieval Studies ltd., of the University of Wisconsin,

Madison; the University of Kentucky at Lexington, the Fondren

Theological Library on the campus of Southern Methodist

University; the Fine Arts and Humanities sections of Dallas

Public Library; the University of Texas at Dallas, and other

major research libraries in the North Texas area. I would

like to thank the librarians at those institutions cited as

well as those of my home institution, Eastfield College, who

were all so helpful and generous of their time.

At the University of Texas at Dallas, I would like to

express my gratitude to Robert X. Rodriguez for his help

throughout the creative process involved in the production of

this text. He has freely offered his thought, advice,

Guitar Etymology & Morphology

Guitar Etymology & Morphology