The Cipher for Viola da Gamba and Lute   Page 1   Page 2   Page 3   Page 4   Page 5   Page 6          . . . and still more shapes (returning to viola da gamba) . . .     Below; early consort of viols, transitional hybrid with earlier Renaissance body style fiddles, Francesco Francia, 1500, Italy       below; another Francesco Francia, 1500, Italy       below; viol with so-called violin-corners before 4 string violins probably even existed, Zacchia, 1540, Italy       below; viol, Hans Baldung, Dutch, 1529       below; viols woodcut, Sylvestro Ganassi’s Regola Rubertina, Italy, 1542             below; viol, Apollo and the Muse,  Gaspar ab Avibus (Osella) or Giorgio Ghisi, 1557       Below; Viol player, from organ-case doors at Parma Cathedral, Italy. Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli, 1562.       below; viol in Saint Cecilia painting by Lelio Orsi, 1511-1587, Italian.       Below; surviving tenor viol, believed to be by Gasparo Da Salo, 16th century, Italian.       Below; one would think that the above instrument, with it’s unusual and extreme carved top, would be a one-off, but see the painting below. Viol with Gasparo Da Salo shape (line for line) by painter Giovanna Serodine, Coronation of the Virgin, 1625, Italian (fresco in Parish Church at Ascona).       Below; and another, viol in Gasparo Da Salo shape, in  a fresco by the Spanish painter El Greco, The Annunciation, 1597-1600.       Below; Desecration! Sacrilege! Gasparo da Salo shaped viol chopped into a cello! Actually made by Dominico Russo, mid-16th century, probably in Brescia, Italy.       below; viol, Dutch, anon       Below; Benvenuto Tisi (aka Garofalo) 1533, Vision of St.Augustine, Italy.       Below; detail of Viol, Benvenuto Tisi (aka Garofalo) 1533, Vision of St.Augustine, Italy.       below; viol, Garofalo, Italy, 1500-25       below; viol, Pordenone, Italy, 1535       Below; same as the above.       Iconography showing viols played kneeling on one knee (next half dozen or so)     Below; tenor viol, played kneeling, Itallian, mid 1500s, Bonifacio Veronese.       French, Nicolas Houel, 1583       Below; anan, 16th, Italy       Below: Paolo Veronese, Italian, another detail from Wedding (or marriage) Feast at Cana, c.1560. Large bass viol played kneeling.       Below; Bartolomo Cesi, Italy, 1571       below; viol, “cello”-shape (but we know better), Conques, Dutch, mid-1600       below; viol, Freyse, German, mid-1600       Below; Portrait of Nicolas Hautman, German born viol virtuoso living in France, c.1650       below; viol common standard shape, Dutch, mid-1600       Below; two standard types and shapes of viols, Christopher Simpson, English, plate from his book  and discussion  of the Division Viol, two editions, 1659 and 1667. He prefers the one on the left (see caption at bottom of figure).       Below: viol, Jacob Duck, Dutch, early-mid 1600’s       Below; pardessus de viole or treble viol, c1730-40, France. Portrait thought to be of Louis de Caix d'Hervelois (famous French viol player and composer) and his wife? Marie-Anne.       Below; tenor or alto viol, Nicolas Mignard (Mignard dAvignon), St. Cecilia, c.1650, French.       Below; violone, Eustache Le Sueur, Muses, French, 1652-55.       Below; viol, Jacob Toorenvliet, Musical Company, c.1670-80.       Below, two Gambe (bass and treble) and a Guitar (in the background, you can see it’s body depth if you look closely). Detail of painting by Jean Garnier, French, portrait (and still life) of King Louis XIV Protector Of the Arts, 1672. Louis XIV was a lover of both viols and guitars (in real life)       Below; viol by Jan Vermeer, Lady Seated at a Virginal, Dutch, 1673.       Below; viol, Jan Verkolje, Dutch, c.1674       Below; viol (far left front) and guitar, Francois Puget, Reunion of Musicians, Louis XIVths court musicians, composer Jean-Baptiste Lully playing lute, 1687.       Below: Baryton Viol, 7 fretted strings plus additional sympathetic or thumb plucked strings (running under the widened neck). Look up Hayden’s Baryton Trios,  composed between 1765 and 1775, probably the last major works by a Major composer for viols.       Below, unidentified, tenor viol. I’d guess c.1700 or later.       Below, seven string viol, Constantin Netscher (painter), Portrait of Viol Player, 1668-1723.       Below; viol with highly decorated inlayed neck and tail, Salzburg, c1696. The other smaller instrument is a viola d’amore.       Below; five strings and C-holes, probably a large viol, probably late 1600’s to early 1700s? Subject-matter Is suppsedly Pope Benedetto III’s visit to San Zaccaria monastary?       Below; French: portrait of Marin Marais (famous French composer and viol player) with seven string viol, 1704. Note; before I collected all of the 16th century viol iconography, most people thought this picture was a fluke, i.e. someone holding or playing their viol like a guitar, across the lap, with neck out to the left. Now we know better. This hold and posture was in fact common-place,  the norm, for tenor and alto viols in the 16th century.             Below; title page form Marin Marais’ Pieces de Viole. _Book II, 1701. Viole is the French word for viol.       Below, detail of viol, by Jacques de Boyer (fake signature of Jean Baptiste Oudry), French, 1693       Below; viol, Silvestre, Portrait of Prince Emanuel Franz Joseph, Bayern, 1707.       Below; treble viol, Johann Kupetzky, c.1720       Below; viol, Francois Le Moyne, Allegoryof Music, French, c.1730       Below; 7 string Viola da Gamba Painting: by Jean-Martial Fredou, of J.B. Forqueray, 1740?       Below; small seven string iol, Joseph Marie Vien I, Personification of Music, French, c.1740-50.       Below; detail from a French painting c.1750 showing cello and viol performing side by side. Paul Joseph Delcloche (artist), Concert at the Court of Prince Eveque de Liegeat, Chateau De Seraing, France.       Below; viol by Jean Marc Nattier, portait of Madame Henriette, French, 1754.       Below; tenor viol, still going strong in 1755, Franz Georg Hermann, Alegorie of music.       Below; viol, Etienne Jeaurat,  Musical Soiree, French, c.1740-60.       Below; treble or Pardessus viol, French, 18th century.       Below; viol by Louis Carrogis (Louis de Carmontelle), Monsieur Piton and Daughter, French, 1760.       Below; portrait of Carl Friedrich Abel with his viola da gambal, also by Thomas Gainsborough, c.1765.       Below; another portrait of Carl Friedrich Abel with his viol, by Thomas Gainsborough, 1777.             Arpeggione (Bowed Guitar) The 19th century bowed-guitar revival that never took off, it came too soon after the viola da gamba (the first bowed guitars) bit the dust       Below, Arpeggione Bowed Guitar with embedded metal frets, fully fretted fretboard, guitar tuned, EADGBE, or 44434, gut strung. First built in 1823 by J. G. Staufer [who worked for the famous 19th century guitar builder C.F. Martin]. Pictured is a reproduction instrument.  The composer Franz Schubert wrote a Sonata for this instrument, a 19th century bowed guitar. Arpeggiones, modern bowed guitars (19th century modeled), are yet another instrument that the cello players now assume belong to them ! --  just another one of their toys, a curriosity, for their weekend entertainment or moonlighting gig, a little known secret to be kept largely to themselves. I hope you can get your head around that, because I sure can’t -- 6 strings, modern guitar tuned, EADGBE, fully fretted fretboards, fixed embedded metal frets, is an instrument guitarists don’t need, don’t need to know about, have no rights too, it belongs to cellists, because it’s bowed?  Some even mater-of-factly, casually, arrogantly, classify the Arpeggione as a varient or relative of cello -- hello?! I’ve also seen no less than two current violin-cello string quartets who’ve had the nerve to appropriate the name Arpeggione and use it as the moniker for their violin bands ! -- how creative. I guess appropriating our first name, viola, wasn’t good enough for them, let’s go for broke, after all, noone’s looking, noone will ever notice, least of all the guitarists, hell, they never counted anyway, viola da what?  ;-)       Below; 1824 illustration of an Arpeggione bowed guitar       Below; another 19th century illustration of an Arpeggione bowed guitar       Below; another 19th century illustration of an Arpeggione bowed guitar       Below; surviving 19th century Arpeggione bowed guitar, attributed to Anton Mitteis, Leitmeritz, 1st quarter of the 1800’s.       Below; another surviving 19th century Arpeggione bowed guitar, Salzburg museum.       Below; fully fretted neck, metal frets, detail of surviving 19th century Arpeggione bowed guitar, Salzburg museum.       Below; peg box and first 3 frets detail -- surviving 19th century Arpeggione bowed guitar, Salzburg museum.       Below; portrait of Viennese (Austria) composer Franz Schubert. Schubert wrote his Arpeggione Sonata in 1824 (he died in 1828).       Below; Schubert Arpeggione Sonata, score cover (showing another unique instrument)           Lastly, the third parties in the game I believe have gotten it wrong are the music historians at large, the ones who would have you believe that chords and chording, polyphony or homophony, are the invention of the Renaissance. Perhaps it just depends on how broadly one defines the term and associated timeline dates. Play the darn open position, 4 course, all-4ths chords: p1 p2 the ones in use and documented as such in the mid 1300’s [in a treatise known as Berkeley Music Theory MS 744, because it’s housed at UC Berkeley, Ca, USA], or these all-4ths root-position triads, or the 4 course “4th 3rd 4th” chords (triads only sample), or the  4 course “4th 3rd 4th” open position chords , 5 course Vihuela chords, or even the 6 course open position Lute chords (which instrument, according to Alfonso X’s other well known commissioned work, The Book of Games and it’s illuminations, existed in 1250), take your pick it doesn’t matter, it’s all the same stuff — trust me, I’ve been going blind for years drawing all these fretboard charts up and it’s all the same stuff over and over and over, and all the proof anyone should need. But then, you don’t have to trust me, see for yourselves. The material on this entire web site from Ukulele to Viola da Gamba and Lute is testament to it. Look at the patterns generated by all of these instruments, play them, and listen to them. In other words, no one, neither the guitar nor violin archaeologists are going to pay much attention to chords if they assume that chords didn’t even exist! And in my view, if you believe that  chording is unique at all prior to even that, you’re either not a musician or you’re too fixated on monk music ;’). And of course, even if you do place your “when did polyphony arise” marker within the timeline at the Renaissance mark (whatever specific year you like), who and what was most responsible for that blossoming? Might it have been (shhh) the greater lute/guitar family? Or perhaps even more generally the 4ths tuned fretted string family, whether plucked, strummed, or bowed? Though not a history book per say, here’s a current so called definition(?) of what a Viola da Gamba is: American Heritage® Dictionary viola da gamba NOUN: 1. A stringed instrument, the bass of the viol family, with approximately the range of the cello. Also called bass viol, gamba, viol. 2. An organ stop of eight-foot pitch yielding tones similar to those of the viola da gamba. ETYMOLOGY: Italian : viola, viol + da, of, for + gamba, leg. Notice, there’s no mention of it being related to lute, meaning related by tuning and intentional synchronization among the two, viols were tuned exactly the same way as lutes, same 4ths tuning with mid 3rd, had the same same number of strings, same chromatic frets, etc. And of course there’s no mention that Viols share a common ancestor of the modern guitar, the vihuelas and violas (vihuela d’arco, viola cum arculo), i.e. that viols are in and of the guitar family, tuned almost exactly like guitar, 4ths tuning with (near) mid 3rd, same frets, same chord voicings, same inherent music but bumped over one string, just like lute, etc. Elsewhere, the typical and most common context you’ll hear the name Viola da Gamba mentioned is in relation to Violin and Cello, i.e. the history of those instruments, or the relationships and evolutions among the Viols and Violins. My copy of the Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd Ed, 1972, contains a two page line drawing chart of the “Violin family”. Among the violin family members shown are all of the Viola da Gambas (and then only one of them is shown with frets)! Viols are Guitars. They are not in the violin family. [If you want to have some fun, start searching the web for Viola da Gamba information and see how many of our educators, including Early Music Societies, Viola da Gamba Societies, Lute Societies, history purveyors of Renaissance and Baroque music, let alone history of Guitar sites!, mention the fact that viols are guitars. And those that do utter the word guitar-like once somewhere in one throw-away sentence don’t really know the story, nor tell it (unless they got a good part of it from me) they’re just parroting a suspicion without knowing nor showing the real connections. And further, even if the did know, they really weren’t in the business of sharing it with you, getting on to your radar, you guitarists, so what good or difference would it have made? None. They exist primarily to serve themselves (a tiny little circle of playmates and pretenders, a small orbit, patting themselves on the back for God knows what, (refereing here to the early music revivalists and viola da gamba societies who treat viols as if they were thier personal private property and discovery, little pet toys, or the right and proper domain of cellists (!?!) wanting to play early music. A guitarist is not going to go searching for the history and origin of viola da gamba if he or she has never in their life even heard of a Viola da What ?!   [Was that a rant? ;’)]  In other words, the focus and focal points, and the true relationships are way off, and perceptions have been twisted for a long time. I guess it’s just presenting something in the light you want or need to have it seen in, light of high faluting late Classical music and violins, or/and high falutin formal early music and the history of same, rather than the guitars , the lutes, and the people who play them, now and then, that culture, those people, that 800 year unbroken lute/guitar tradition and training ground. Well, I think we can finally put another spin on things ;-) It’s a guitar! Our long lost, long miscatalogued, and misfiled, Bowed Guitar. If you think about it, that’s really the classical music world’s biggest claim to fame, the violins and violin driven symphonies and symphony orchestras. We, the “guitar culture”, can’t compete, aren’t in the same class, because we haven’t got violins. Well I’ve got news for you; we did have violins, they were called Viola da Gambas, we can compete, and we have done all along. And the guitarists aren’t at all confined to the folk traditions and folk tradition training grounds either. Putting it all together Perhaps the largest point I’m trying to make here within these pages and within this writing is that once you can firmly and unmistakably make the connection from guitar back to viola da gamba and lute (make that short hundred year history-of-guitar-family link from 1850 back to 1750) then everything falls into place. The viola da gamba and lute players that make up a large part of so called Classical European Music and a large part of the training ground that produced our Late Classical music were guitar players and their guitars. And that instrument (the music, harmony, and melody potential embedded within it and it’s tuning(s) is perhaps the true Classical instrument (not pianos, and not violins). It was us, they were us, we are them, we (the players of fretted fourths string instruments) are the classical music, of almost all forms and fashions formal and folk. A guitarist (of any kind) in 2003 can look all the way back to 1200 and beyond and see all that he or she and their line have done, and take pride in it. We had a big hand in all of that music, it is us, and ours. A great majority of it was the lute-guitar family directly, and another large share was the lute-guitar family to the extent that it helped shape the forms, set the stage, and provided the training ground, both for individual musicians and the larger forms as a whole. We and our instrument are more than respectable. We lute/viol/vihuela/viola/guitar/theorbo players were a primary engine all along. And our instruments were a primary engine of polyphony and composition all along, AND a primary source of the West’s routine awareness of, exposure to, and use of, the CHROMATIC SCALE. Think about that for a minute. Lutes, Vihuelas, Viols, Guitars, have been chromatically fretted for at least 800 years or more. Major scale my foot, and piano keyboards my behind ;’) It looks to me like it was the fourths tuned chromatically fretted lute/guitars, the potential embedded therein, the chromatic scale, and the lute/guitar players all along, so many things were. It’s amazing to me what a mere couple hundred years of ignorance, and the absence of one key player, viola da gamba, can do to culture. In this case, it functionally obliterated a key link, depriving many generations all knowledge of their real heritage and contributions. And if I could add a few more items to the list of lute player laurels and legacies, guitar heritage, guitar potential, and the continuity of guitar as a primary source of musicianship training down through the centuries; . . . it was a guitarist, using his fretted, fourths-tuned guitar, and it’s chromatic scale, who developed The Cipher. That same guitarist has just reintroduced the Viola da Gamba to  guitarists (reclaiming  it in fact), and consequently reunited an entire family of musical instruments and players (via 7 string Viola da Gamba as reverse gene pool and largest sample tuning pattern), hunting down the apparently already publicly held suspicions (but little more) that a guitar, a vihuela d’arco of some kind somewhere, might have beget viola da gamba, and finally, being the one who did successfully track down, recognize, assemble, and connect, publicly exhibit and share, the necessary essential key iconography (viols AND vihuela/viola/lute/guitar), in one place and at one time, which  would prove, once and for all, to all comers, that viola da gambas are guitars, thereby reclaiming and returning the whole of that long shared heritage and history to it’s rightful owners, yourselves. . . . The circle is now unbroken . . . developed 11-20-2003 to 12-2-2003 Roger Edward Blumberg I hope you understand that although I've sounded very narrowly focused in the above writing, as if nothing ever existed but the guitar line, it’s really just so that we could take a close look and perhaps reassess what’s been going on, where we came from, and make the argument and case for “another side”. At the very least, I believe that the guitar line now has to be elevated to the top of the list, equal footing and partners, with any other root sources and wombs of our music’s. Whether the other key-most players are  Heart and Soul, Church music, or piano keyboards, or the Major scale, physics, or whatever, then we need a solid new multiplicity of sources and causes, equal trunks of the greater tree, with the guitar line as one of those recognized trunks. The guitar family should, I think, be written back into the history books and in no small way, a large part of  book in fact, and given their due respect and credits. I do personally have a more middle ground perspective regarding the larger picture, but if we’re going to write our history we need to know, establish, and examine what the playing field really was, and what the real and largest influences really were. In other words, I’m just interpreting it as I see it, in light of the connections made apparent by these drawings and more. There’s just a little too much coincidence, a simple elegance, and common sense undeniability to it, which I at least find hard to dismiss easily. And finally, a word of explanation about the tones and attitudes I’ve used and expressed here and elsewhere. This is 2004. It is ridiculous, inexcusable, unforgivable, and an embarrassment upon music’s house, that these little details have somehow escaped the attention of our music educators, and that they have not been passed on to you. Time and again I find myself placed in a position  I do not enjoy, that of having to challenge, bad-mouth, and lambaste the greater music education establishment. Everywhere I look I find what can only be described as ineptitude and misaligned priorities, and it makes my blood boil. It makes me angry because I love music, art, learning, and teaching. I am passionate and can’t sit idly by. Regarding viola da gamba, bowed guitars, in particular; I want modern kids to have some greater sense of cultural identity, to know their history and heritage, the legacy that is theirs, to have a piece of the pie, a piece of Western art and music history that they can call their own, a part they can relate to, something to point back to as them and theirs, continuity, validation, pride. Guitars matter, and they always have. Violins and pianos are not the only pillars of Western art-music and culture (with a capital C) — far from it. I, a guitarist, growing up in the 1960’s, never once heard of a viola da gamba, anywhere, ever. For all intents and purposes, no guitarist knew about viols,  let alone knew that they were bowed guitars. We guitarists, and virtually everyone else raised in the 20th century, honestly believed that bowing is and always had been the sole and exclusive domain of the violin family! Noone ever told us that bowing a guitar, fretted fourths, was not only possible but in fact had been done for centuries, on an instrument called a viol da gamba or vihuela d’aro (aka bowed guitar), and was thus a major foundation of European bowed string musics. I and we were cheated! We were deprived of half our family, and half of our music making capacity and potential, our expressive, creative, and emotive outlets. We had to go without, without one of our most important loves and lovers (for those of us who hold music making and love making to be fundamentally similar in nature). I take it personally. I’m pissed off, and can’t allow this state of affairs to continue unnoticed. There is no excuse for this to have happened. Educators and artists both are encharged to pass on culture, the arts, to ensure continuity. I’m doing everything in my power to make sure that you don’t have to go without (your bowed lover, your other half). That’s the best I can do, and it’s my responsibility to do it. So any tones of discontent and dissatisfaction, or even bitterness, expressed by me, are entirely warranted, justified, and long over due. Someone has been asleep at the wheel and for far too long. You (the powers that be, the greater music education establishment) can never repay nor make up for the music lost, the musicians deprived,  the shear sonic beauty rendered absent, by your negligance, your dereliction of duty.  So a few harsh words from any of us to you is the least of what you’re owed. You’re getting off easy. If I were the “education czar”, or one of the Gods, Godesses, or Muses of the Arts, of Music, heads would roll! So there, now  I’ve  made myself clear ;-)       Below; painting detail: Abraham van den Tempel, 1671, Netherlands, Amsterdam. This chap, David Leeuw, playing his viol, apears to be about 10 years old. Hint Hint.       Below; painting by Frederick Kerseboom, portrait of Sir John Langham, playing his viol, at aged 12, 1683. Hint Hint.             Below: Paolo Veronese, Italian, Wedding (or marriage) feast at Cana, c.1560. This pictute had previousely been one of the most famous 16th century images of a viol, and specifically a guitar-come-viol, the one that inspired many of us to wonder what’s up here, that’s a dam bowed guitar if I ever saw one, and prompted us to go looking for the rest of the story.   Done ! ;-)         The Cipher for Viola da Gamba and Lute This Cipher for Viols and Lute section essentially duplicates the all of the fretboard related material in Core Cipher Components — Group Two (fretboard components for guitar) section, with all drawings being appropriate to the 6 and 7 string viola da gamba  and lute fretboard in their standard (shared) tuning. The text here is also nearly identical to the corresponding guitar version (and for now obvious reasons). I’m under no illusions regarding which tuning guitarists will use in any possible rebirth of the bowed gamba-guitars some day. It would most likely be modern guitar tuning, and the instruments may very well be commonly called Bowed Guitars  (as they originally were, vihuela d’arco). It doesn’t matter. What matters is that the line could be made available again to anyone who might benefit from them and that guitar players in particular might realize a larger suite of tools than those  available to them today. The Gamba/Lute tuned tutorials here can of course be used by anyone who wishes to use them. If guitar players only need to see them once, see the fact of the existence of and the similarity between what used to be and what is today now within their current guitars, and then use modern guitar tuning instead, that’s fine. A huge part of the original functionality of that inseparable team, lute and viol, was the fact that they were tuned the same way and played by the very same persons. They were virtually the same instrument. You could put one down and pick the other up, much the same way you might pick up your acoustic guitar today to work something out and then play it on your electric guitar. So that aspect of tuning parity in the line should be maintained. It only makes sense. The only thing that matters is music. If you can use them again, the gambas, a bowed instrument in fretted fourths, make them yours. Remember, bowing and viols are your birthright. We vihuelists-violists-guitarists-lutenists built them in the first place. 500 years ago we decided to add a bowed instrument to our line, expanding our music making potential, and we did so. No modern has the right to tell you that you must use “old tuning” (4-4-3-4-4 beign 16th century lute and guitar tuning) at this stage in the game. We guitarists are the only surviving members of our family, the rightful heirs. We are the ones who carried on the true family tradition, kept our line alive and vibrant, fresh and changing, and a dominant force (as always) during the the 20th century and beyond. Viols, our bowed specie, do not belong to the Early Music community, nor the Classical Music Community, nor even to  the current Viol playing historical re-enactors for that matter (per say). They belong to YOU.       Below; portrait of Nicolas Hautman, c.1640-50, famous figure in the world of 17th century music and viols. The caption (in French) below the portrait translates to . . . “Nicolas Hautman, Excellent player of Viols and Lute”. (as it should be, and very often was the case in fact. Lutes and viols are the same machine, same instrument, same family, and played by the same exact person(s).               A little more inspiration for the future Meet “Mirrie” a classic bass viol retro-fitted with fixed metal frets!       On 10-26-2005 I received a birth announcement that I though I’d share with you. For the last eight months I’ve been in correspondence with Jacqueline Madden, a courageous woman in Tasmania (island state of Australia), about the idea of upgrading her old style bass viol, with it’s tied wrap-around gut frets, and having fixed embedded metal frets installed by her luthier. Well, she did it!  Here’s the results.       Below; BEFORE -- Mirrie (the miracle) viol -- full frontal shot       Below; BEFORE -- Mirrie -- neck and tied frets detail  (15th century technology!)       Below; AFTER-- Mirrie , bass viol -- with fixed metal frets installed             Below; side view of neck, after -- a bowed guitar indeed!       Revival should be about breathing NEW LIFE into the instrument. It should be about the future, not the past! The mindset, focus, and emphasis should be on nurturing new players and new musics. Viols, bowed guitars, will not be seen as viable instruments in today’s world until and unless they are modernized, brought into the 21st century! A successful blend of old and new, classical and modern. THAT is what classical revival is, what it’s really about, and what it’s always been about -- successive generations taking the very best of the past and making it their own. Now all we have to do is educate our educators regarding this matter! They could use a clue, it seems to me. And speaking of success; after a week of playing her, Jacqui and Wayne reassure me that the results are indeed fabulous, a huge improvement in playability, and with no appreciable down-side or negative impact. Nothing was lost, and much was gained. We have a GREEN LIGHT . All systems go! Of course, this really shouldn’t surprise anyone, that it, fixed metal fretting, works fine. The Arpeggione (at least) did it, and did it sucessfully. There is every reason of earth to make modernized viols, modern guitar-tuned metal fretted, gut strung, acoustic bowed guitars, a default trainer instrument in all schools. And there’s every reason to be able to walk into any Guitar Center (music store) and see a wall full of viols, bowed guitars, modernized instruments with fixed fretted necks, fully fretted fretboards, guitar tuned, “gut” strung, acoustic and electric, large and small, and affordable as well. Viols are extremely versitile instruments. One can learn, study, play, teach, perform, illustrate, and enjoy: melody, harmony, chords, theory, lushious long sustained bowed notes and melody lines, bowed intervals, bowed chords, solo or/and ensemble, and play or create ANY and ALL kinds of music, old or new. Being guitars, viols are comparatively easy to learn and to play. They reward your efforts, immediately, and at every step along the way. The joy of learning, and the joy of music-making remain fundamental and intact. There is a greater chance that the instrument can and will become a life-long companion, a soother and nurturer, music as healing agent.  Lutes, plucked and bowed, were one of the primary wombs of Western music. They helped lay the foundation, they made it possible, they facilitatied us. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; fretless 5ths (the violin family) essentially preclude learning, teaching, and understanding the fundamentals of Western music, and this is asside from the difficulty of playing those instruments. Please let that sink in. It is no small detail. I’m invested in viols, emotionally and intelectually, because I care deeply about music, about education and teaching, and about guitars generally. I love music, and I love my instruments. I care about viols because they are my kind, my family, my instrument, my kin, my lovers. Being a guitarist, I know them, I’m familiar (root word family) with them intimately, head to toe, every inch. I want the best for them. I want them to live long and prosper. I want other people to know them. I want guitarists, lute platers, players of fretted fourths, to (again) have a larger suite of tools and expressive and creative outlets available to them. Bowing is our birthright. We should be plucking and bowing, as second nature, taking it for granted, the default assumption about what guitar and guitar playing is.  We have been cheated and deprived of half of our family, and we’ve been left in the dark by our music educators for far too long now, centuries! I want viols to spread, re-populate, and re-influence the world, facilitate the world again, facilitate music makers again. I think they have the right stuff! And I think the time is right. I'm sure you’ve noticed that pop-music has experienced a kind of bankruptcy for the last couple decades. Nothing like a re-infusion of the classics, and the right classics, to get things back on track -- to remember and reclaim the models, the best of the past, remember who brung us, to the dance, in the first place. Hey kids,  ever hear of bowed guitars? . . . Good work Jacqueline! That’s the ticket. No pretender you. You’re the example. Set the stage, plant the seed, facilitate the coming generations. Show um how it’s done! You’re an inspiration Mazel Tov ! Roger         Epilogue Part I -- October 2006 For the last few years I've been trying my damedest to prove (without doubt) the connections between vihuela and viols -- and mostly via iconography. The results of that hunt I've been logging and blogging about here on my website, and also posting about at various newsroups or lists on occasion. Everything I've done so far had been done without having once looked at Ian Woodfield's 1984 book; The Early History of the Viol, Cambridge University Press. The first I heard of his book, a couple years ago, it was already long out of print, it wasn't available at my local library, and used copies were going for no less than $200 at Amazon's used books. Finally, last month, a couple copies came up at Amazon for under a bill so I finally bought one. So what did I learn? I've only read a couple chapters so far, and of course I looked at all the iconography therein, but in nut shell, I found verification that I had been on the right track all along. Viols are indeed and in fact bowed vihuela/viola. Woodfield made all the same connections over 20 years ago! The kicker here is that I would never have had to do all that work, reinventing the wheel and coming to the exact same conclusions as Woodfield, if people had actually _read_ Woodfield's book! By that I mean, if the custodians of viols had read the book and had done their work, all those the viola da gamba societies around the world, early music societies and enthusiasts, and their web sites, those people. When I first learned of viols, only a few years ago in fact (I walked in cold, a complete novice, looked around a bit and said to myself "what the hell's going on here, that's a bowed guitar!), I looked high and low for mention of "bowed guitars" bowed vihuela, etc, on all the viola da gamba web sites and found next to nothing -- as if there was no connection, as if any resemblance to fretted fourths plucked vihuela was purely coincidental, circumstantial, unimportant, not central, not key, irrelevant, etc. I further had numerous verbal battles at rec.music.early with resident "experts", beginning late 2003, who insisted that I was wrong to say that viols were _literally_ bowed guitars (bowed vihuela/viola), wrong to say there's no "kinda-sorta" about it, that they were one-and-the-same machine, and they also assured me I was wrong to say that _all_ viols "look" like guitars (vihuela/viola) whether waist-cut or smooth-curved indented waists, etc. One of those "experts" is actually a viol player and former president of the VdGSA! I had gathered that Woodfield had in fact drawn at least "some" connections between viols and plucked vihuela, but I had to assume that he must not have done a very good or convincing job of it, or perhaps that he was just plain "wrong" too -- else why was I taking so much flack from those supposedly infinitely "more knowledgeable", experienced, and familiar with such things than myself? Why was it apparently only me who was seeing what viols _are_?, and why only me doing a web site claiming and point-blank _declaring_ that viols ARE bowed vihuela, and that they belong to players of fretted-fourths string instruments, that they are of _our_ family, and that they are not some kind of antiquated violin, nor the week-end playtoy for bored cellists interested in Baroque music! And why, conversely, were (most) of those things not being said and shown matter-of-factly on _all_ viola da gamba web sites? Woodfield in fact goes much further than to simply suggest off-handedly or in passing that there "might" be some possible connection between vihuela plucked and bowed. IT IS HIS VERY THESIS! That is the foundation of his book. He gives as much time and coverage to early plucked vihuela, vihuela de mano, as he does to the bowed version (viols). He too knew that you can't know one without knowing the other, the whole family, plucked and bowed, as one, reunited. He already proved it, 20 years ago, but no-one heard him -- least of all the viola da gamba enthusiasts and societies. Woodfield could rightly have called his book: "The Early History of the Vihuela -- Plucked and Bowed". Seeing his book is very much like visiting my web site in fact, i.e. both plucked and bowed vihuela/viola/guitars are shown and compared, juxtaposed, from the start. That's the default mode, the assumption. Fact is, I now know for certain (and I've suspected as much for a while now), that many of the pictures I've collected over time originally came from his (now 22 year old) book. Many of the waist-cut vihuela pictures we've all had for a while now _also_ came originally from Woodfield's 1984 viol book! I'd encourage any of you modern-day vihuelista interested in the history of your instrument to see his book -- the first hundred pages at least. In closing; on one hand I feel like an idiot, having run around like a chicken with his head cut off, and having run myself into the ground practically (healthwise) for the last two years, obsessing over this topic, (the viol/vihuela connections). On the other hand though,I feel entirely vindicated and validated, confirmed, that my instincts were good, and that there _is_ something very wrong with the way viols are typically presented, and even vihuela history for that matter is presented, and general guitar history too. Something is very wrong, that in 2006 there is only one person on the internet, (for all intents and purposes), who's made it a point to re-unify the family, and present/expose the world to it as such. How does this happen? It's not even an error of omission on the part of most others, they just don't get it or they refuse to get it. Again, they told me countless times in the last couple years (at rec.music.early) that I was flat out _wrong_ (about most everything). That's why my viola da gamba web-site section exists in the form it does in the first place! i.e. to both prove I was right (if I could do, little by little) and to get the information out there, where it belongs. And specifically to expose modern players of fretted-fourths string instruments, guitarists, to the other half of their potential tool-set, the other half of they're potential expressive outlets, the other half of their family, the bowed half, which is their birth-right! It _belongs_ to them. If that last part was a rant, please forgive it ;-) Special thanks to RT for his early moral support (and more) over the last couple years. I guess this about wraps up (and successfully) that multi-year side-track and hunt, or at minimum marks a major climax point within it. Now I have to think about editing all the accompanying text across those 6 huge long pages -- which evolved over the course of a few years, each new picture added being a blog-style insertion, with real-time comments etc, then there's that big "arm-viols" side-track too -- jeesh, what a ride! ;-) Pluck and Bow .. y'awl. Roger   Epilogue Part II -- Novermber 2006 The icing on the cake! Most of Novmber 2006 I worked on some articles at Wikipedia. While there we began writing a bio page on Paolo Pandolfo -- viola da gamba player extraordinaire. As big a fan as I am (and he's been my #1 for quite some time) I hadn't known before that Paolo began on Guitar and Double-Bass! (verses the more typical violin-family to viols track pushed during the 20th century or the first couple generations of viol revivalists). Given that he is, in my estimation, the single greatest living master, this goes far in confirming my belief that viols belong to guitarists, players of fretted fourths string instruments that is, the missing half of our family and expressive vehicles, etc. I've spent the better part of the last two years focused on the guitar/viol connections, and this last revelation was the icing on the cake, all the additional inspiration and validation, one could ever have hoped for -- being a guitarist myself, and in love with viols, i.e. bowed guitars. It was just too ironic, this late revelation. The single greatest living viol player, bowed guitarist, on the planet, is a guitarist in fact, after all! he-he ;-)         Page 1   Page 2 Page 3   Page 4   Page 5   Page 6       Painting below: Matthias Grunewald c.1510-15, North German detail: The Isenheim Altarpiece [very early viol consort]               Top     Index of The Cipher for fretted Viola da Gamba: Front page of The Cipher for Viols and Lute 3 Minute Introduction for Viola da Gamba Commonsense String Numbers, Viola da Gamba Five Degree Calculation Line for Viola da Gamba Demonstrations for Viola da Gamba Number formula translation tables: intervals, scales, and chords Pattern of Unisons and Octaves for Viola da Gamba Beginners open position chords for Viola da Gamba Triads on Viola da Gamba fretboard (two pages) Scales, Major and minor, parallel, Viola da Gamba or Lute fretboard, by string set Chord Progressions for Viola da Gamba and Lute (Triads of Major) Notes of Viola da Gamba and Lute fretboard spelled Free PDFs, Blank 6 and 7 string fretboard grid paper