This debut album from the Chambure Vihuela Quartet contains elegant and stately Renaissance music from Spain. Arranged for four vihuelas (Spanish Renaissance guitars), this album contains popular songs and dances of the 16th century.

14 MP3 Songs in this album (38:01) !
Related styles: Classical: Early Music, Latin: Latin Folk, Type: Vocal

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Details:
Canto y Danza is a program of songs and dances from the golden age of the Spanish Renaissance. For the first time since the 16th century a matched set of four vihuelas is heard playing the polyphonic instrumental fantasias and vocal music from Spain. The music for this program has been taken from all of the seven surviving books of vihuela music, with at least one piece from each book being represented. The recording features an exact matching set of âChambureâ vihuelas entirely strung in gut, crafted by Daniel Larson. Program notes: John Griffiths. Arrangements: Tyler Kaiser.

From the program notes
The Spanish vihuela de mano has enjoyed a remarkable revival after close to four hundred years of oblivion. During its heyday it was undoubtedly the most popular instrument played by the Spanish nobility and bourgeoisie, but was eclipsed soon after 1600 by the guitar with a new, lighter style of music that came into fashion as the sun set on the once great Empire. Closely related to the guitar in shape and size, the vihuela developed out of the waisted fiddles of the middle ages. During the fifteenth century âvihuelaâ was a generic term that included all stringed instruments with waisted bodies. The broad family of vihuelas therefore included instruments built in a variety of sizes and that could be played in a variety of ways. Some vihuelas were held on the shoulder and bowed overhand, others were held between the playerâs knees and bowed underhand, while others again were plucked either with a plectrum or the fingers. As multi-purpose instruments, many of these early vihuelas were not highly sophisticated and probably played more of a supporting role, either for accompanying song or other instruments. Of available plucked instruments, it was still the more refined lutes and gitterns that were more adept for virtuosic solo playing. This situation began to change in the last decade of the fifteenth century, however. It is during these last years of the century that the generic vihuela appears to have evolved into two distinct instruments: the bowed vihuela de arco and the plucked vihuela de mano. From this point on, we know of virtuoso vihuelists such as Luis de Guzmán (d. 1528) and poets such as Garci Sánchez de Badajoz (c. 1460â1526) who accompanied themselves on the instrument. These musicians were contemporaries of the Italian Baltasar Castiglione who arrived in Spain as Papal nuncio in 1526, and whose famous "Book of the Courtier" was translated and published in Spanish for the first time in 1534. This book was widely read throughout the land by the literate classes and was one of the first sources that extolled vihuela playing as a worthy pas-time for the educated sectors of society. It is in the afterglow of this book that the first music for the vihuela was published by Valencian courtier Luis Milán in 1536. His "El maestro" was the first of seven books of vihuela music published during the sixteenth century and that reflect a widely practiced musical art.

The revival of the vihuela today has developed at the margin of parallel interests in the lute and other early plucked instruments, all part of contemporary interest in music of the past and historically informed performance practice. Within this context, this particular recording is of immense significance. Even as recently as twenty or thirty years ago it would have been difficult â probably impossible â to find four vihuelas in close enough proximity even to contemplate a recording such as the present one, let alone to find four accomplished musicians to play them. The current recording is thus unique testimony to the vihuelaâs revival. As far as I know, it is the first recording of four vihuelas playing together. The instruments used for the recording were made by Dan Larson based on the âChambureâ vihuela, one of the few surviving instruments now held in the Musée de la Musique in Paris, and once part of the collection of Geneviève Thibault (1902â1975), Countess of Chambure. The vaulted back on this instrument coincides with documentary references from the 1580s to such instruments, and to the vihuela or guitar instrument built in Lisbon by Belchior Dias in 1581, now at the Royal College of Music in London. Each of the vihuelas in the Chambure quartet is a different size and tuning. In ascending order, they are tuned in F (64 cm string length), G (59 cm), Bb (50 cm) and c (45 cm). â John Griffiths


About the Instruments
The instruments used on this recording were made in 2003 as a matched set of instruments to perform Spanish polyphony of the 16th century. There are only a few extant instruments from that period that may have been played as vihuelas and many scholars cannot agree as to which are authentic. The one that was chosen as a model for this project is the anonymous instrument, number e.0748, currently in the Cité de la musique in Paris, France. From lowest to highest the instruments are pitched: F, G, Bb, and C. Complete information about the set can be found on the Gamut Music web site at: http://gamutmusic.com/a-set-of-matching-vihuelas/ â Daniel Larson


About the Arrangements
Several years ago I was performing the Vallet lute quartets and when I realized that everyone in the ensemble had a vihuela, I thought it would be nice to arrange some canciones to add to the program. Much later, Daniel Larson made the matched set of Chambure vihuelas in four different pitches so Phillip and Edward could record all of the Valderrabano duets. I thought it would be great to put these instruments to more use so I set myself the task of rearranging the earlier works I had done as well as arranging as many Spanish renaissance pieces as I could find from the surviving vihuela repertoire and cancioneros. I also used my familiarity with the writings of Bermudo and Ortiz in determining ornamentation, transposition and other factors of arranging these works for the quartet. From the many pieces I arranged favorites were chosen to provide a varied program of songs and dances representing the seven main vihuela composers. â Tyler Kaiser

The Chambure Vihuela Quartet

Edward Martin (soprano vihuela) has studied with lutenists Paul OâDette, Toyohiko Satoh, and Hopkinson Smith. He holds the position of Adjunct Professor of Lute at the College of Saint Scholastica. In 1984, he performed in the First International Lute Competition in Toronto. Having extensively performed throughout the United States, Martin has made recordings for Minnesota Public Radio, and these performances have also been broadcast on the American Public Radio network. He is a member of various ensembles, a duo with tenor William Bastian, a baroque lute duo with lutenist Paul Berget, and Duo Chambure with lutenist Phil Rukavina. In the summer of 1997 and 2001 he was invited to be the Renaissance lute instructor at the SFEMS Renaissance week at the Dominican College, San Rafael, California. He has frequently been guest lecturer, teacher, and performer at annual summer seminar of the Lute Society of America, and serves on its Board of Directors. Martin is widely known for his recordings on the Magnatune label.

Phillip Rukavina (alto vihuela) has performed both nationally and internationally as a lute and vihuela soloist, ensemble performer, and as a continuo lutenist. He studied lute with Hopkinson Smith at the Academie Musical in Villecroze, France and in Basel, Switzerland. Phil is a founding member of the Venere Lute Quartet and Duo Chambure, with fellow vihuelista Edward Martin. Duo Chambure has recorded the entire vihuela duets of Enriquez Valderrabano on the Magnatune label. Phillip is also a regular guest instrumentalist with the early vocal group the Rose Ensemble. He has performed with numerous instrumental ensembles, including the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the New World Symphony, Ars Antiqua, and the Lyra Concert Baroque Orchestra, to name a few. He directed the Lute Society of Americaâs Summer Program at the Amherst Early Music Festival in 2005, 2007, and 2009 and he regularly teaches on the faculty of the Lute Society of Americaâs Summer Seminar at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He directed the LSA Summer Seminar in 2008 and 2010 and will do so again in 2012.

Rockford Mjos (tenor vihuela) performs as a soloist on lute, Baroque guitar and theorbo and contributes to ensemble productions with his performing skills, sensitive accompaniment, and broad repertoire knowledge. In the Netherlands he co-founded The Beggarâs Banquet, an innovative ensemble which often created their own arrangements of Baroque popular music. His exploration of early music sources has resulted in countless performances of little-known compositions and modern editions. Mjos has concertized in northern Europe and the Midwest United States, at early music festivals in Utrecht, Wroclaw, and San Antonio, and has broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio and Dutch National Radio. He studied at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague where he worked principally with Toyohiko Satoh.

Tyler Kaiser (baritone vihuela) was born in Duluth, Minnesota and has composed, performed, taught and lived in this area longer than some would consider prudent. So, most of his credentials are from this area because he likes to serve his community but, he has received numerous grants, commissions and awards from organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Composers Forum, the American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers, the McKnight Foundation and many others. He has had some works published by Wolfhead Music in the U.S.A. and by Edition Corvus in Germany. His catalog of compositions includes two comic operas (working on a third), two symphonies, numerous works for orchestra, concert band, chamber ensembles and numerous arrangements for assorted early instruments. As a performer he has been involved with many of the organizations of the Duluth area including the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra, the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, the Northland Opera Theater Experience, Lyric Opera of the North, the Center for Early Music Orchestra, the Arrowhead Chorale, Colder by the Lake Comedy Troupe, the Northshore Big Band, and numerous faculty recitals at the College of St. Scholastica and the University of Wisconsin, Superiorâ both institutions where he also teaches.

Soprano Carrie henneman Shaw, winner of the 2010-2011 McKnight Artist Fellowships for Performing Musicians administered by MacPhail Center for Music, has made her mark as a singer who brings a sense of adventure and style to the concert stage. Acclaimed as a âmajor musical forceâ (St. Paul Pioneer Press), Shaw collaborates with organizations across the country, such as Boston Early Music Festival, The Newberry Consort, LIBER, dal Niente New Music, The Rose Ensemble and the Bach Society of Minnesota, and is co-artistic director of St. Paul-based Glorious Revolution Baroque. As a soloist, Shaw avidly explores both virtuoso avant-garde chamber music and seventeenth-century vocal works with equal passion. Carrie holds a doctorate of musical arts from the University of Minnesota, undergraduate degrees in music and English from Lawrence University, and has served as an instructor at the national Lute Society of America conference in Cleveland.