Vihuela - Repertoire

Repertoire

The first person to publish a collection of music for the vihuela was the Spanish composer Luis de Milán, with his volume titled Libro de música de vihuela de mano intitulado El maestro of 1536. The notational device used throughout this and other vihuela music books is a numeric tablature (otherwise called "lute tablature"), which is also the model from which modern "guitar tab" was fashioned. The music is easily performed on a modern guitar using either standard guitar tuning (44434), sometimes called "new lute tuning", or by retuning slightly to Classic lute and vihuela tuning (44344). The tablature system used in all these texts is the "Italian" tablature, wherein the stopped frets are indicated by numbers and the lowest line of the staff represents the highest-pitch course (or string), as if the performer were looking "through" the neck of the instrument; Milán's book also uses numbers to indicate the stopping of the courses but exceptionally it is the top line of the staff that represents the highest-pitch course, as in "French" tablature.

The printed books of music for the Vihuela which have survived are, in chronological order:

• El Maestro by Luis de Milán (1536)
• Los seys libros del Delphin by Luis de Narváez (1538)
• Tres Libros de Música by Alonso Mudarra (1546)
• Silva de sirenas by Enríquez de Valderrábano (1547)
• Libro de música de Vihuela by Diego Pisador (1552)
• Orphénica Lyra by Miguel de Fuenllana (1554)
• El Parnasso by Estevan Daça (1576).