Antonio de Cabezón was the leading composer
of keyboard music in Spain in the 16th century. He is even considered
the first truly great composer for the instrument in Europe. He had
a lifelong close connection to the royal court, and was the favourite
musician of King Philip II.
Very little is known about his early years, apart from the fact that
he became blind and started his musical education at an early age. It
is likely that he was a pupil of Garcia de Baeza, who was organist at
the cathedral of Palencia, close to the village where Cabezón
was born. In 1526 he entered the service of Isabella of Portugal. In
1525 she had married the Habsburg emperor Charles V, who in 1516 had
become King of Castile and Aragon (called Carlos I). When Isabella died
in 1539 De Cabezón became the music teacher of her children,
one of whom was Felipe, who in 1543 became regent of Spain and who appointed
De Cabezón as his court organist. He accompanied Felipe (Philip
II) on his many trips through Europe, bringing him in Italy, Germany,
the Netherlands and England. As a result of these travels his art became
known outside Spain and influenced composers in other countries.
In his liner-notes Glen Wilson specifically mentions Philip II's visit
to England for his marriage to Mary Tudor. Although there is no documentary
evidence that Cabezón met William Byrd, Wilson thinks it most
unlikely that Byrd would have missed out on such an opportunity. In
the liner-notes to his recording of Byrd's complete fantasias (
review)
he had already suggested De Cabezón's influence on Byrd: "Cabezón
was one of the first to employ the thoroughly balanced four-part texture
in keyboard music which had barely been seen in England before then,
and which suddenly appears there, fully-fledged, with Byrd".
Cabezón's keyboard music has been largely preserved in two
collections. In 1557 Luys Venegas de Henestrosa published his
Libro
de Cifra Nueva para Tecla, Arpa y Vihuela which includes a number
of pieces by Cabezón. After the latter's death his son Hernando
published a large collection under the title
Obras de Música
para Tecla, Arpa e Vihuela (1578). Wilson states that both sources
are damaged by some serious errors, especially in the case of the
Henestrosa collection. For this recording he has done some restoration
work. "Fortunately, the web of thematic entrances is so dense and
the laws of counterpoint so clear that restoration is often feasible,
although it must always be remembered that in such cases nothing can
be definitive". Henestrosa himself admitted the errors in his publication
as he stated that he didn't want to wait another ten years to sort
them out.
In the present recording Wilson focuses on two genres: the
tientos
and the
differencias or variations. The latter category is
the most famous in Cabezón's oeuvre. Various pieces on the
second disc feature regularly in organ or harpsichord recitals and
in CD recordings. Among them are the
Differencias sobre el canto
llano del Cavallero and the
Differencias sobre las Vacas.
These are mostly based on a repeated bass pattern which would frequently
turn up in all kinds of compositions in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Las Vacas refers to a tune called
Guardame las Vacas.
All three pieces in Cabezón's oeuvre are based on a
basso
ostinato known as
romanesca. The
Pavana Italiana
later came to be known as the
Follia and it was used numerous
times in the following centuries. There are also variations on vocal
works by other composers.
Duviensela refers to the chanson
D'òu vient cela by Claudin de Sermisy.
The
tientos are problably less familiar and also less accessible
as they are more abstract.
Tiento is the Spanish word for a
form which is best known as
ricercar and could be described
as the instrumental counterpart to the motet. It was dominated by
imitative polyphony. Through the thematic development in his tientos
De Cabezón greatly contributed to the growing popularity of
this musical form. His tientos were all written in the then common
modes, with an apparent preference for the first. Some of them are
fully independent instrumental compositions, others are transcriptions
or arrangements of vocal models, such as the
Tiento quarto tono
sobre malheur me bat, a chanson attributed to Johannes Martini
and the
Tiento sobre Qui la dira, based on a chanson by Janequin.
Sacred music was also often used for transcriptions of some kind.
This programme includes one specimen: the
Tiento sobre el cum sancto
spiritu, de beata virgine de Iusquin. The original is the 'Cum
Sancto Spiritu' from Josquin's
Missa Beata Virgine. Glen Wilson
suspects that some other pieces which are just called
tiento
could also be transcriptions of vocal items. It needs to be noted
that Wilson omitted the sixth tiento from the twelve in
Obras de
Música as it is considered not authentic and was probably
composed by Giaches Brunel.
The choice of instrument for this repertoire is not obvious. Today
the variations are played either on harpsichord or organ and that
also goes for the tientos. It is also perfectly possible to perform
them on a plucked instrument or on the harp, as the titles of the
two sources mentioned above indicate. Only recently I reviewed a recording
with pieces by De Cabezón played on the harp (
review).
"Recent research by prof. John Koster shows that a northern European
harpsichord or virginal (not an Italian one) is most appropriate for
sixteenth-century Spain", Wilson writes. He therefore has chosen a
reconstruction of such a harpsichord. Temperament is modified 1/6
comma meantone, "based on evidence in Santa Maria (1565)". The latter
guarantees that the dissonances in some of the pieces come off perfectly.
This is a major recording which is to be followed by a disc devoted
to Cabezón's
glosas. With that we will have a large
portion of Cabezón's keyboard music on disc. Only recently
Brilliant Classics released a complete recording of the
Obras de
Música, which will be reviewed here in the near future.
It will be interesting to see how they compare. This set of discs
is in any event a great achievement not least because of Glen Wilson's
research and reconstruction efforts. His engaging interpretations
allow the music to blossom. For those who are not familiar with this
kind of repertoire it may be advisable to start with the second disc.
Johan van Veen
http://www.musica-dei-donum.org
https://twitter.com/johanvanveen
Track listing
CD 1
[Tientos from the Libro de Cifra Nueva, 1557]
Primer tiento del primer tono (16) [3:08]
Segundo tiento (26) [1:16]
Tercero tiento (29) [1:30]
Quarto tiento (30) [4:43]
Quinto tiento (31) [1:50]
Sesto tiento (32) [3:27]
Septimo tiento (33) [2:10]
Siguense otros tientos de Antonio y de otros tañedores de los
ocho tonos:
Primer tiento del primer tono (34) [4:05]
Otro primero (35) [2:31]
Otro primero tono (36) [4:37]
Otro primero tono (37) [2:24]
Quarto tono sobre malheur me bat (43) [2:37]
Otro quarto tono (44) [5:27]
Otro sesto (51) [3:15]
[Tientos from the Obras de Música, 1578]
I. Tiento del segundo tono [3:42]
II. Tiento del quarto tono [4:07]
III. Tiento del primer tono [4:58]
IV. Tiento sobre Qui la dira [3:36]
V. Tiento del segundo tono [2:31]
VII. Tiento del quarto tono [3:22]
VIII. Tiento del quarto tono [3:25]
IX. Tiento del quinto tono [3:42]
CD 2
X. Tiento del primer tono [2:11]
XI. Tiento del sexto tono con segunda parte [7:21]
XII. Tiento sobre el cum sancto spiritu, de beata virgine de Iusquin
[3:04]
[Variations from Obras de Música]
Differencias sobre las Vacas [3:27]
Pavana Italiana [2:11]
Differencias sobre la Gallarda Milanesa [2:20]
Differencias sobre el canto llano del Cavallero [3:13]
Differencias sobre el Pavana Italiana [3:54]
Differencias sobre el canto de la dama le demanda [2:36]
Differencias sobre el Villancico, de quien te me enojo Isabel
[6:10]
Differencias sobre las Vacas [4:40]
Otras differencias de Vacas [4:01]
Duviensela [3:58]
[Variations from Libro de Cifra Nueva]
Differencias sobre el canto llano de alta (5) [2:19]
Differencias para quien crie yo cabellos (119) [2:05]
Rugier Glosado de Antonio (120) [1:52]
Pavana (121) [2:29]
[Fugas from Obras de Música]
Fuga a quatro todas las bozes por una, sexto tono [3:47]
Ad dominum con tribularer, Fuga en quarta con el tiple [4:17]
Julio SEGNI da Modena (1498-1561)
Tiento del sexto tono [3:04]
(The figures between brackets refer to the place in Libro de Cifra
Nueva)
