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Music
for Philip of Spain
Charivari Agréable Susanne Heinrich - Tenor and Bass Viols with Rodrigo del Pozo - Tenor & Guitar
Programme Notes Geography, history and politics have conspired to give the music of Renaissance Spain curiously contradictory qualities. Situated on the edge of Europe, and barricaded from it by the Pyrenees, Spain has produced a distinctive, national style which reflects her mixed cultural traditions, Moorish, Jewish, and Catholic. This heritage colours her music, affecting its forms, its rhythms, its language, even its instrumentation. However, in the 16th century Spain was ruled by the Habsburgs, a dynasty which controlled half of Europe and intermarried ruthlessly to maintain its stranglehold on European politics. The Spanish court's international connections added a cosmopolitan element to its music, which resulted in a unique and intriguing mix with the indigenous traditions. The court of Philip II was deeply influenced by his personal temperament. The archetypal dour, black-clad Habsburg, he himself was heavily involved in the administration of his unwieldy empire: vast quantities of his paperwork survive, copiously annotated in his own handwriting. Philip was also responsible for the construction of the most enduring monument to the Renaissance Spanish court, the great granite edifice which is San Lorenzo el Real de el Escorial. He personally selected its bleak and isolated site, perched on the edge of the Abantos mountains overlooking the Castilian plain. He also supervised its planning and construction, and the resultant complex is on a scale unequalled in Spain. It includes a huge church and its associated monastery, the palace and a vast library. The Escorial was also intended to serve as a shrine to both the Catholic faith and the Habsburg dynasty, and as soon as it was completed Philip began to scour Europe for holy relics, and to transfer family remains to the purpose-built pantheon deep within the bowels of the building. The Escorial became the true hub of his empire, spiritual and administrative, yet Philip's own chambers in the palace are tiny, and monastically stark. Of all the music in the present programme, it is perhaps that of Antonio de Cabezón which is most representative of the age. Cabezón was a court organist from 1526 until his death in 1566, serving Philip's mother and sisters, and eventually the King himself, with whom he was a great favourite. His music vividly captures the austere grandeur of the court, whilst at the same time acknowledging the fashionably popular grounds and melodies such as 'Guardame las vacas'. Both Cabezón and his son Hernando (who succeeded his father as court organist) travelled widely with the court entourage, and it is probable that these trips provided the sources for pieces such as the variations on 'Susane un jur' and 'Doulce memoire'. Both pieces had long been part of the mainstream European musical heritage, and settings survive in countless collections, for most instruments. The Cabezón variations are among the most virtuosic and the most musically imaginative. The intermarriage of dynasties was of course another means by which musical cultures met and, through his four wives, Philip had links with much of Europe. Two of his brides were fellow Habsburgs from Portugal and Austria, in keeping with the ancient Habsburg tradition of marrying within the family, whilst the remaining two, Mary Tudor of England and Elisabeth de Valois of France, came from quite different cultures. These two brief 'foreign' marriages appear to have made little impact on the courtly music of Spain, but there is no doubt that the diplomatic links forged during marriage negotiations and the movements of large courtly entourages accompanying such brides were a factor in the international transmission of music, instruments and musicians. Furthermore the Habsburgs' economic links with diverse areas of Europe spread their nets still wider; an example is provided by the pieces from the lute book of Octavius Fugger, a member of the great merchant and banking dynasty, which served as the Austrian Habsburgs' financiers for generations. Compiled in Bologna by an Augsburger on his travels, the manuscript includes an eclectic mixture of songs and dance pieces. In addition to keyboard players such as the Cabezón dynasty, the Spanish court employed a number of vihuelistas, whose distinguished repertory consists of solos, songs and a few duets, comparable to the lute repertory of the rest of Europe. Only a handful of vihuela sources survive but fortunately several of these are substantial prints; the earliest is 'El Maestro' of Luis Milán (1536). Milán's distinctive style has no parallel in the repertory, and his astonishing songs with their elaborate accompaniments are perhaps the only surviving fragments of a distinctively Spanish tradition. The virtuosic interjections from the vihuela, woven around a static, declamatory vocal line, produce a texture quite alien to the mainstream lutesong style. Several of Milán's songs are in Italian or Portuguese, reflecting the influence of Philip's possessions in Europe. The same is true of the songs of Diego Pisador, whose 'Libro de musica de vihuela' was published in Salamanca in 1552. Pisador clearly had access to considerable quantities of music by Flemish and Italian masters, as his book includes intabulations of motets, mass sections and madrigals by Gombert, Festa, Willaert and Arcadelt. The vihuela is today considered to be an exclusively Iberian instrument in spite of the considerable overlap with the lute, the musical capabilities of the two instruments being virtually identical. The vihuela was the plucked cousin of the viol, another instrument developed in Spain, although its Spanish origins tend to be overlooked today because of the rich repertory of English, French and German viol music from later periods. As the 'viola d'arco', however, it was the result of cross-fertilization between the vihuela and the Moorish rebab. The works of Diego Ortiz, printed in a collection of ornamentation examples in 1553, are rare examples of Spanish solo works for viol, and include some fine ricercars and divisions on chansons. Ortiz served as 'maestro de capilla' to the Spanish viceregal chapel in Naples for many years, and his book was published in Rome, in both Italian and Spanish. The practice of improvising variations or diferencias over a ground was central to most musical traditions in the 16th century and Spain was no exception, though she had her own popular tunes to use as the basis for such pieces. The 'Guardame las vacas' mentioned above was among the most frequently used. The extraordinary 'Descante sobre un punto' of Enríquez de Valderrábano illustrates a much simpler and probably older tradition, of extemporising over a drone, in this case a fifth. At the other end of the scale are the elaborate and beautifully structured variations of Thomas Robinson and Alfonso Ferrabosco upon the ground known in England as the 'Spanish Pavan', although in Spain the same sequence was known as the 'Italian ground'. In spite of the political and religious differences between Spain and England-which led to the Armada-Spanish or Spanish-influenced music is quite often found in English sources. The 'Spanish Pavan' is one of the most frequently found grounds in both lute and keyboard collections. Robinson's variations were published in his 'Schoole of Musicke' in 1603, and in 1610 John Dowland's son Robert included the anonymous Spanish song 'Vuestros ojos' in his 'Musicall Banquet'. By this time the golden age of Spanish instrumental music had largely passed, though the keyboard tradition remained strong. It remains-like El Escorial-as a monument to an extraordinary period in the country's history. Lynda Sayce 1998 [9] O bella O bella sopra tutte l'altre bella. Oh you, fairest of the fair, [12] Con pavor recordó el moro Con pavor recordó el moro The Moor awoke in terror [14] Gracias al cielo doy Gracias al cielo doy que ya del cuello I give thanks unto heaven [16] Sospirastes Baldovinos Sospirastes Baldovinos You sighed Baldovinos [17] Falai, miña amor Falai, miña amor falaime. Speak to me, my Love. [18] Vuestros ojos Vuestros ojos tienen d'amor no se que, Your eyes have I know not what of love. [20] Al amor quiero vencer Al amor quiero vencer I wish to conquer Love [21] Sempre me fingo I never trust that fickle girl [22] Madonna mia fa My lady, [28] Une jeune fillette A young girl of noble heart |
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