Vigüela are a traditional folk quintet with a commitment to the authentic rural musical traditions of central Spain. Vigüela hail from El Carpio de Tajo, a village in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha, home of one of the greatest books in Spanish literature, ‘The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha’ by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.
Vigüela perform with an integrity to their roots, singing the old language and using traditional singing styles and instruments. Their name comes from the traditional Spanish ‘vihuela’, a Renaissance model of the guitar. Vigüela combine exquisite vocals, melismatic melodies – in which several notes are sung to one syllable – and guitar, lute, mandolin, manchego guitar and the medieval fiddle or rebec. These are augmented by traditional and percussive instruments straight from their Spanish homeland: castanets, spoons and tambourines alongside some surprising country percussion additions including shearing scissors, mortars, stones, anise bottles, pans and wooden half bushels, cowbells, large wire sieves, triangles, split cane clappers, goat-skin frame drums…
"We work on old music that has been part of our everyday world, our tasks, our lives… songs that are part of us and all around us. We interpret them to our style, our way, which we have inherited as we come from El Carpio de Tajo…"
