The Vihuela Database is now available. It is on the way to being a complete research tool that can be used for simple searches or complex relational questions. It is conceived as a self contained habitat, complete in itself. It covers the approximate period from 1470 to 1630, and aims to gather together in one place all that is known about:
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INSTRUMENTS — MUSIC — PEOPLE — DOCUMENTS — BIBLIOGRAPHY — RECORDINGS
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Structure and Relationships
The individual databases are linked in the following way to permit integrated searching and verification of materials.
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For further information see:
J. Griffiths, “Musicología, informática y la vihuela en el siglo XXI”. Humanidades Digitales: desafíos, logros y perspectivas de futuro. Ed. Sagrario López Poza and Nieves Pena Suiero. Janus [on-line], Anexo 1 (2014). 21-36.
The data is currently being edited for publication. It is an ongoing process. At 10 October 2019, the number of records you will find here is only a small percentage of the total — 3194 records, just over 40%.
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VIHUELAS - 62 of 606 || MUSIC - 372 of 743 || FANTASIA THEMES - complete ||PEOPLE - 111 of 1256 || DOCUMENTS - 133 of 1215 || BIBLIOGRAPHY - 1517 of 2374 || DISCOGRAPHY - 97 of 186
The material in this database has been compiled from my own research and the work of many others during the last 550 years. I started putting the database together in 1989. In addition to my own work analysing music, sifting through archives in Spain, and devising ways to organise all these materials, the information has been drawn mainly from original source materials, scholarly writings, and personal communication. In all cases, I have sought to acknowledge the sources of all information and ideas when they are not my own.
I am grateful to those who have helped in the development of this database: my research assistants: Olvido Martín and Salvatore Rossano, technical advisors from Salvatore Colangelo (Goya Pty Ltd), Daniel Russo-Batterham, and Peter Plucinski.
I am particularly grateful to the large amount of information that has come my way through Pepe Rey in Madrid, a colleague and friend with boundless knowledge of early Spanish music and culture.
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This project has also benefitted from institutional assistance in its development and implementation, especially research grants from the Australian Research Council and the support from The University of Melbourne, the Universidad de Valladolid and the Centre d'Etudes Superieures de la Renaissance, Université de Tours
