Vihuela

Overview

The word vihuela refers to two related but distinct instruments. The Renaissance vihuela was a six-course plucked string instrument played in sixteenth-century Spain, looking much like an early guitar but tuned like a lute. The modern Mexican vihuela is a smaller, deep-backed five-string instrument central to mariachi music. Both share an ancestry in the broader Iberian guitar family, and both are essential to understanding how the modern guitar came to be.

Origin & History

The Renaissance vihuela rose to prominence in Spain in the late fifteenth century and reached its golden age in the sixteenth, when composers such as Luis de Milán, Luis de Narváez, Alonso Mudarra, and Miguel de Fuenllana published collections of fantasias, variations, and song accompaniments. Several variants existed: the vihuela de mano was plucked with the fingers, the vihuela de péñola with a plectrum, and the vihuela de arco was bowed.

By the seventeenth century the Renaissance vihuela had been displaced in Spanish musical life by the smaller five-course baroque guitar. The Mexican vihuela developed later, growing out of guitar-family instruments brought to colonial Mexico. It took its current standardized form during the twentieth-century professionalization of mariachi music in Jalisco.

How It’s Played

The Renaissance vihuela has six courses, most often paired strings tuned in a pattern very similar to the lute. It is played seated, with the right hand plucking polyphonic music in which several voices move independently. Surviving repertoire is notated in Spanish guitar tablature and ranges from intricate counterpoint to expressive song accompaniment.

The Mexican vihuela is a smaller instrument with five single nylon strings, a deeply convex back, and a higher-pitched, percussive sound. It is strummed rather than plucked, providing the rhythmic harmonic drive of the mariachi ensemble. The right-hand strumming technique, called manico, gives mariachi music its characteristic forward propulsion.

Cultural Significance

The Renaissance vihuela occupies an important place in early-music history because its surviving repertoire is one of the earliest substantial bodies of solo plucked-string art music in Europe. Composers wrote not only dance music and song accompaniments but also some of the first notated fantasias and variation sets in Western music.

The Mexican vihuela is inseparable from mariachi, one of Mexico’s most internationally recognized musical traditions. Together with the guitarrón, it forms the rhythmic and harmonic foundation that supports the violins, trumpets, and singers above.

Related Instruments

• Guitar – the descendant that eventually displaced the Renaissance vihuela
• Lute – the contemporary instrument with similar tuning and repertoire
• Guitarrón – the deep mariachi bass that pairs with the Mexican vihuela
• Charango – an Andean small guitar in a related family
• Baroque Guitar – the five-course instrument that succeeded the vihuela in Spain

Where to Hear It

For the Renaissance vihuela, recordings by Hopkinson Smith, José Miguel Moreno, and Pablo Marquéz are highly regarded. For the Mexican vihuela, listen to recordings by Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, Mariachi Sol de México, and the Linda Ronstadt album Canciones de mi Padre.

• Wikipedia: Vihuela
• Wikimedia Commons: Vihuela

Learning Resources

Renaissance vihuela study typically begins from a classical guitar background, with focused work on tablature reading, courses tuning, and historical right-hand technique. The Lute Society of America publishes useful materials. Mexican vihuela is generally learned within a mariachi context, often beginning with strumming patterns and chord shapes specific to the genre.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the vihuela the same as a guitar?
No. The Renaissance vihuela has six paired courses tuned like a lute. The modern Mexican vihuela has five single strings and a convex back; it is a relative of the guitar but distinct.

Why did the Renaissance vihuela disappear?
It was gradually replaced in Spain by the smaller and simpler five-course baroque guitar in the seventeenth century.

How is the Mexican vihuela tuned?
Its standard tuning is A-D-G-B-E, similar to the top five strings of a guitar but with the lower three strings tuned an octave higher.

Is the vihuela difficult to learn?
The Renaissance vihuela presents tablature-reading and historical-style challenges. The Mexican vihuela is straightforward to begin but requires dedicated work to master traditional mariachi rhythm.