Mudéjar’s core repertoire is Spanish music from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century and the instruments we use have to be appropriate to that historical and geographical context. Unfortunately, playing the music on original instruments is an impossibility as barely any have survived, not even in museums, let alone in private hands. So, inevitably, the instruments have to be reproduced. As an investigative luthier, I am fascinated both by the instrument-making process and by the research work which that presupposes. The fruits of my work can be heard in Mudéjar’s performances, live and recorded.

Studies of musical instruments of this period are few and far between, generally superficial and sometimes downright confused. What we do have in abundance, however, is a rich fund of representations of instruments – drawn or painted on parchment or on canvas or carved in wood or stone – which illuminate some important aspects of their lives: at what point in time they emerged, for instance, when was their moment of glory, when did they fall into disuse or whether they disappeared altogether. These images also reveal the great variety of these instruments, to the point where it can become impossible to classify them. The iconography teaches us that, in general, musical instruments do not suddenly emerge fully formed, but rather go through a slow process of formation. Some arrive at a definitive form which lasts for several centuries, only to change suddenly into a more modern form during one human generation. Others suffer a crisis and disappear.

This evolutionary process is somewhat analogous to the evolution of animal species – like them, the instruments have to adapt to their environment, to new forms of music, to new tastes and fashions. New instruments coexist for a time alongside their older forebears, which either become extinct or, with a bit of luck, survive until the present day in isolated areas, kept alive by the continuity of local traditions

'Ud

The ARAB LUTE – or ’UD – was brought to Cordoba from Baghdad by Zyriab in the year 822, subsequently spreading throughout Al-Andalus. After Cordoba and Seville were reconquered in the second half of the XIII century during the reign of Alfonso X ’The Wise’, king of Castille, the ’ud began to be used and represented in the Christian Spain of that time. The Arab instrument of four or five courses (pairs of strings) was gradually transformed, the central rose appeared, the tuning was slightly altered, and now with five or six courses the ’ud crossed the Pyrenees into the rest of Europe, where the number of courses continued to increase through the XIV, XV and XVI centuries. During this period, many Moorish Mudejar musicians remained in Castille, Aragon and Valencia and, alongside the musicians of the Christian courts, livened up many a party with their songs and instruments. It is clear that the Arab lute and the European lute coexisted and were played together in the Spain of that time.

Vihuela de Arco

The VIHUELA DE ARCO emerged in the kingdom of Aragon in the middle of the XV century and appears in paintings and sculptures for the rest of that century in a form very like that of the vihuela de mano, but played with a bow. The construction of both instruments is very similar: they both have a flat soundboard, six strings (single in the case of the bowed instrument) and the same tuning. At the beginning of the XVI century, Italian instrument-makers modified the vihuela de arco, building it with a vaulted soundboard, deeper ribs and a higher bridge, features which give it a more powerful and brilliant sound and make it more suitable for playing as a solo instrument. This they renamed the ’viola da gamba’. Not being a polyphonic instrument, it was built in different sizes (treble, tenor, bass, counterbass – a family of instruments) so as to play Renaissance music in consort.

Vihuela de Mano & Renaissance Guitar

The VIHUELA DE MANO is an instrument rightly identified with the polyphonic music of the Spanish Renaissance. In its standard six course version, the vihuela de mano (plucked) emerges during the mid-XV century, side by side with the renaissance guitar and the vihuela de arco (bowed). These three instruments are members of the same family, born in Spain. The vihuela de mano had a glorious life – used by the finest musicians to play the finest music of the time – but a short one. Towards the end of the XVI century, the vihuela de mano and its music disappeared.

The RENAISSANCE GUITAR of four courses, despite sharing its name with another medieval instrument which has little or nothing in common with it, spent its early days in the shadow of the vihuela, unappreciated and even, on occasion, mocked. As a popular saying of the time put it: ’there isn’t a stableboy who doesn’t know how to play it’. It is an easy instrument to handle and was generally used to supply a strummed accompaniment to a dance tune. Ironically, it was precisely its popular character which proved to be its salvation, and at the beginning of the XVII century – when its classier sister had already been consigned to oblivion – it gathered new energy, gained another course and became and remained famous all over the world as the ’Spanish guitar’.

Rebec

The REBEC is a bowed instrument which derives from the Andalusian ’rebab’, but instead of having the rebab’s thick and heavy strings and its dark sound, it is a shrill, high-pitched instrument. It entered Christian Europe from the Islamic world during the reign of Alfonso X ’The Wise’, and was characterised by having a body carved and hollowed out from one piece of wood, a soundboard of skin, two single strings tuned in fifths and no fingerboard. It was played in a vertical position (in the oriental manner), facing away from the musician and supported on one knee or held between the legs. The rebec is often confused with the medieval viola or vielle, as little by little it began incorporating elements from that instrument, such as the fingerboard and tailpiece, increasing the number of strings and the playing technique changing so that in many cases it was played held horizontally against the chest. It is called many different names, including rabel, rebel, rubeba, giga, geige, lira and gadulka, as it is known and still played today in Bulgaria.

Wing Psaltery

The WING PSALTERY appears in the iconography in the XII century. The lack of detailed descriptions by those writers who mention the instrument make it very difficult to classify it accurately – in most cases, they even fail to mention what material was used for the strings. As a result, the shape of the psaltery’s body is almost the only guide to distinguishing and ordering the numerous variations represented in medieval images. During the XIII century, the wing psaltery is the most frequently depicted version and extended throughout Europe. During the XIV century, the rectangular psaltery having already disappeared and the triangular psaltery and the chrotta being on the point of following it into oblivion, the wing psaltery enjoyed its greatest popularity, which lasted until the middle of the next century. As a diatonic instrument, it began to be sidelined by the development of polyphonic music, which resulted in the introduction of various modifications, such as the chromatic scale and the imposition of a keyboard, tending towards its disappearance as such. It did however manage to survive through the XVI and part of the XVII century as a plucked instrument on which different parts could be played simultaneously.

Qanun

The QANUN is an instrument of the zither and psaltery family. Its Arab name derives from the Greek world and it appears in Baghdad in two of the tales in A Thousand and One Nights (X century) and in Al-Andalus in the XIII century, where Seville was the most important centre for the making and playing of the instrument. In the XIV century, the Archpriest de Hita was the first Castilian to mention the Canon and Meo Canon as two versions of the same instrument, the words being translated also into French, Italian and German, indicating the extent of the instrument. The available iconography is not conclusive but confirms at least the qanun’s presence in Spain, Portugal and Italy at the end of the XIII century. It is widely depicted in XIV century images but the following century sees its decline in Europe. In the Middle East, on the other hand, it is still played today.

Carlos Paniagua