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should go to Italian lutenists and Spanish masters of the

vihuela, an instrument somewhat like a guitar set up and
The most beautiful and ambitious of all the
variations (CD 2 0), on a passamezzo moderno tune
elaboration of another work by that vihuelist: a lovely
setting of the opening lines of Ariosto’s immensely
A Frenchman wrote in 1610: “Who can say (if he has
any sense at all) that he has never felt the force and
Antonio de
tuned like a lute. But the handful of sets of differencias in
the Obras marked the beginning of the form for keyboard
instruments. No fewer than three of these (CD 2 4 ! @)
vary a tune called Guardame las Vacas, over a bass that
called Quién te me enojó Isabel, is almost never played
because it comes down to us, in a major failure of proof-
reading, seen through a glass darkly – or rather, in a
fun-house mirror. Many of the bars, through an
popular epic poem, Orlando Furioso, one far superior to
the later Italian Ruggiero bass which was used for
improvised recitation of the endless cantos.
Our last two works from the Obras are not tientos, but
effects of music, hearing some excellent player sing on
his instrument? As for me ... I can say, having sometimes
heard ... the Spaniard Antonio Caveçon playing and
singing on the organ ... that I was so ravished and so
CABEZÓN
was later known as the Romanesca. Its lively triple time idiosyncrasy of the tablature notation first pointed out by they pack a similar contrapuntal wallop. Ad dominum cum deeply moved, that I could nevermore doubt the power, (1510-66)
is stretched out here to a whole bar per beat. The last of Andrés Cea Galán, are doubled in length, and several tribularer (CD 2 () must be a straight transcription of a lost efficacy and influence of music.”
these three sets is a special case; its insistent tolling and
classical structure (grief, denial, resignation) leads me to
think it may have been a lament on the death of a
are missing in the final variation.
The last piece in the Obras, incorrectly included
under the rubric of the differencias, is something of a
five-part setting of Psalm 120 / Latin 119 (“In my distress I
cried unto the Lord”). The two upper voices are in canon at
the fourth, and Antonio contrives for them to run parallel at
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. The
Complete Tientos and Variations
distinguished personage, perhaps Charles V; or it might mystery. Its title, Duviensela (CD 2 #), is a corruption of the climax of this searing piece. It may be coincidence that instrument used on this recording attempts to reconstruct
be by Antonio’s brother or son, for Antonio himself. The
style is certainly unlike that of el ciego.
D’où vient cela, a chanson by Claudin de Sermisy, but this
is not, as one would expect, an ornamented keyboard
William Byrd chose this text for his first eight-part motet, and
the same canonic procedure for his own favourite work.
what such an instrument might have sounded like,
working backwards from later Spanish examples, as I Glen Wilson, Harpsichord
The Pavana Italiana (CD 2 5) is what would later version of that polyphonic original; if it were, it would The Fuga a quatro (CD 2 *) is a four-part canon: have tried to reconstruct the music itself. Temperament is
come to be known as the Folía. The melody attached here belong on an upcoming disc of Glosados. Here, the three voices in strict imitation of the first, a tour de force modified 1/6 comma meantone, based on evidence in
to this most famous of basses seems to have been of melody alone is given a darkly brooding, mostly three- for any composer, let alone a blind one. And by repeating Santa Maria (1565).
Spanish origin, perhaps by Antonio himself; northern voice setting. Then, in one of the most beautiful codas a section before his coda, he shows us the point of return
composers called it the Spanish Pavane. A French source ever composed, the piece rises like a phoenix from its to make it a perpetual canon (go back to bar 51 eight bars Glen Wilson
(Arbeau) tells us it should be played in passamezzo tempo, own ashes. Several gestures found in Hernando’s before the end).
faster than a true pavane. The Folía appears again later on glosados are found in this remarkable piece; I cannot help
this disc (CD 2 &) in its original, complete form, a rare thinking he put it, with modest anonymity, at the end of his
pavane in triple time from northern Italy called La cara father’s Compendio de música as a small monument – Glen Wilson
cossa, transcribed for vihuela by Enríquez de Valderrábano what the French would soon begin calling tombeau.
of Valladolid, and varied once by Cabezón, who also often There are no true variation sets in Venegas’s Libro, Glen Wilson was born in the American Midwest in 1952. He studied at The Juilliard
dwelt in what was then the Spanish capital.  but the four secular works using variation techniques are School before moving to Holland in 1971 as a student of Gustav Leonhardt. He was
The title of the other piece called Pavana Italiana included here to serve as background to the later active in Dutch musical life for twenty years (harpsichordist of the Netherlands
(CD 2 8 ) is a misnomer, forgivable because of the differencias. (CD 2 $) is the most archaic: a setting of Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Opera, Quadro Hotteterre and duo-partner of
similarity of the opening harmonies. It is, in fact, a the venerable basse danse tenor called The King of Leonhardt, Wieland Kuyken, Alice Harnoncourt, Michael Chance, Mieneke van der
French pavane tune, Belle qui tiens ma vie. Confusingly, Spain, La Spagna for short, and usually just La Alta in Velden and many others) before moving to Bavaria as professor at the Music
there is another set (CD 2 9) on the same tune but with Spain – “the loud”, since it was played by festive University of Würzburg. He has since conducted his edition of Monteverdi’s Ritorno
a Spanish title, La dama le demanda. Dance tunes instruments at balls. It was out of fashion by Philip’s day, di Ulisse in patria for the Netherlands Opera over sixty times on three continents
crossed borders with ease in the sixteenth century; this but the conservative Spanish court kept on performing (DVD on BBC Opus Arte). His recordings include seven solo CDs for Teldec/Das Alte
version of the tune, which dispenses with the reprises, this dignified dance, like modern orchestras wearing Werk and a continuing series for Naxos. For more information,
also seems to want the livelier passamezzo tempo. Edwardian evening clothes. Cabezón’s two playful visit www.glenwilson.eu
The popular love song del Cavallero (he is about to voices chase each other around the tenor in long notes.
leave the girl, but promises to return) hosts one of CD 2 % is yet another Folía, used here as bass to
Cabezón’s finest sets (CD 2 7). The Gallarda Milanesa an otherwise unknown poem and melody, lightly varied
(CD 2 6) may be a relic of Antonio’s stay in that city by Antonio, in what looks like an early essay, or one for a
during Prince Philip’s grand tour; it is a single variation pupil. The musical text in Venegas is very corrupt – as is
on an entire galliard, which already varies each of its that for the Pavana (CD 2 &) taken from Valderrábano,
three strains.  discussed above. The Rugier glosado (CD 2 ^) is an Photo: Volker Schneidereit

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CD 1 72:23 CD 2 69:00 Antonio de Cabezón (1510-66) that the devil had plagued him with errors, but that he counterpoint so clear that restoration is often feasible,
Complete Tientos and Variations was unwilling to wait another ten years to sort them out. although it must always be remembered that in such
Tientos from the Libro de Cifra Nueva (1557) Tientos (contd.) from Obras de Música Would that he had. Some of the pieces in the Libro for cases nothing can be definitive. When I first turned my
In the late fifteenth century, as vocal polyphony built foreign journeys. The first was a tour of Philip’s future vihuela exist in their originals by various composers, and attention to these problems, the work of the Spanish
Siete tientos de Antonio 1 X. primer tono 2:11 steadily towards the revolution wrought by Josquin des dominions, lasting almost three years: starting in Genoa, the comparison is catastrophic for their editor, Venegas. musicologist Andrés Cea Galán provided much
1 16. Primer tiento del primer tono 3:08 2 XI. del sexto tono con segunda parte 7:21 Prés, keyboard music lagged behind in a state of nature passing through northern Italy (with a long stay at the Besides countless wrong notes, we see missing enlightenment. I also owe special thanks to Prof. John
2 26. Segundo tiento 1:16 3 XII. sobre el cum sancto spiritu, dictated by the unnaturalness of its mechanical Spanish duchy of Milan, and a chance for young Andrea accidentals or key signatures, voices de-synchronized Koster (National Music Museum, USA) for much patient
3 29. Tercero tiento 1:30 de beata virgine de Iusquin  3:04 apparatus. Then, when organists started transcribing Gabrieli to hear him in Verona), on to the Tyrol and by entire bars or transposed, measures doubled or left and wise counsel. I have gratefully appropriated many of
4 30. Quarto tiento 4:43 (on Cum sanctu spiritu from the Mass Beata Virgine Josquin’s sweetly interwoven lines, something changed. Germany, ending with a visit to all the major cities of the out, even entire sections omitted or bits of different their ideas, but any errors in the final result are my
5 31. Quinto tiento 1:50 by Josquin des Prés)
They rose to the challenge, disciplined their fingers to Spanish Low Countries (Belgium and The Netherlands). pieces patched together. There are only three such responsibility.  
6 32. Sesto tiento 3:27
match the balance of the voices on their instruments until, Then, when Philip travelled to England in 1554 for his concordances for the Cabezón pieces, but they present This disc is devoted to Cabezón’s tientos and
7 33. Septimo tiento 2:10 Variations from Obras de Música
about 1530 in the cultural centres of northern Italy and the marriage to Queen Mary, Cabezón was in his train. a similar picture of desolation. One tiento, actually by variations. The word tiento is the Spanish equivalent of
royal court of Spain, they seized the initiative in During a stay of eighteen months, the Spanish and Julio Segni of Modena, is misattributed to Antonio. We ricercar (meaning “to search out”), a new kind of
Siguense otros tientos de Antonio 4 Differencias sobre las Vacas 3:27
composing independent works for keyboard of substance English court musicians performed together on several include it here (CD 2 )) as an early source of inspiration instrumental polyphony which had recently sprung up in
y de otros tañedores de los ocho tonos 5 Pavana Italiana 2:11
8 34. Primer tiento del primer tono 4:05 6 Differencias sobre la Gallarda Milanesa 2:20 equal to or greater than those for singers. One of the first documented occasions. One of the choirboys was a for Cabezón, in the accurate version originally published Italy. Cabezón was in the forefront of the rapid rise in
9 35. Otro primero 2:31 7 Differencias sobre el canto llano del Cavallero 3:13 to do so was a son of minor Castilian nobility, blind from student of Thomas Tallis named William Byrd. Nothing is in the monumental Musica Nova (Venice, 1540). intensity of the new form through the use of the higher
0 36. Otro primero tono 4:37 8 Differencias sobre la Pavana Italiana 3:54 very early youth. With Antonio de Cabezón, in the early known of any contact between the mature master and the In Hernando’s posthumous publication, the situation artifices of counterpoint and thematic development; but
! 37. Otro primero tono 2:24 9 Differencias sobre el canto morning of the keyboardist’s craft, we have already young genius, and that is enough to convince modern is far better; but here too, in what he calls “mere crumbs in his time he was quite without peer in infusing into it
@ 43. Quarto tono sobre malheur me bat de la dama le demanda 2:36 arrived at a pinnacle of refinement and strength seldom musicology that there was none – but nobody can tell me from the master’s table”, are many traces of the hectic the intangible element of real musical interest, as
(on a chanson by ?Martini) 2:37 0 Differencias sobre el Villancico, again achieved. A witness to his playing describes its that Byrd would not have been drawn to Cabezón like an quality of the lives of both father and son. A tiento (VI) opposed to the mere juggling of dry intervals so often
# 44. Otro quarto tono 5:27 de quien te me enojo Isabel 6:10 “suavidad y extrañeza” – which could be translated as iron filing to an electromagnet. Between these two (CD 1 ( ) published by Hernando is, again, not by seen in such pieces by lesser masters. Even the historic
$ 51. Otro sesto 3:15 ! Differencias sobre las Vacas 4:40 “delicate fluency and otherworldliness”. Add these journeys, a considerable number of Cabezón’s keyboard Antonio, but by a Ferrarese contemporary, Giaches movement away from multiple themes towards a single
@ Otras differencias de Vacas 4:01 qualities to the granitic sobriety of the Spanish character works appeared in a major printed anthology, using a new Brunel. These major errors (and the fact that several subject (and eventually, the fugue), which found its first
Eight tientos from the Obras de Música (1578) # Duviensela 3:58 so soon after the Reconquista from the Moors, and you kind of notation in numbers, the Libro de cifra nueva “tientos” in both books (CD 1 3 4 7 ¡ ) look much climax in the work of Andrea Gabrieli, is well advanced
have a foundation for the tension necessary to all great (1557) published by the Toledo organist Luys Venegas de more like transcriptions of chansons or the like) cast a in Cabezón’s tientos. Two (CD 1 0 #) are especially
% I. segundo tono 3:42 Variations from the Libro de Cifra Nueva art. Henestrosa.  pall of suspicion over everything – but only one tiento modern in their treatment of harmony and dissonance –
^ II. quarto tono 4:07 At Palencia, near the small town where Cabezón was Cabezón died in Madrid in 1566. His brother Juan, a (CD 1 $ ) is so much clumsier than the rest that it “otherworldly” indeed, perhaps precursors of the
& III. primer tono 4:58 $ 5. Sobre el canto llano de la alta 2:19 born in 1510, a relative of his happened to be vicar- major keyboardist in his own right, in all probability arouses my doubts. This could be an early work, or one Stravaganze that appear a little later in Naples (another
* IV. sobre Qui la dira (on a chanson by Jannequin) 3:36 % 119. Para quien crie yo cabellos  2:05 general, and his probable teacher there was kin to the Antonio’s amanuensis and main lifelong support, died mangled by Venegas. And when we think how nearly all Spanish possession), and in subsequent “elevation”
( V. segundo tono ^ 120. Rugier Glosado De Antonio 1:52 king’s treasurer. This will have smoothed the way to his less than two months later – almost as if his reason for of Hernando’s own music (contrary to wishes expressed toccatas. Another pair (CD 1 & , CD 2 1 ) uses the
(VI: by Giaches ?Brunel) 2:31 & 121. Pavana  2:29 first professional position, taken up at the age of fifteen, living had been extinguished. Antonio’s portrait was in his testament) was left unpublished and, eventually, opening notes of the Marian hymn Salve Regina; one
) VII. quarto tono 3:22 as keyboardist to the wife of the emperor Charles V (King destroyed when the Alcázar of Madrid burned, and his lost by his family, we can only be intensely grateful for seems to illustrate the Ecclesia Militans, the other, the
¡ VIII. octavo tono 3:25 Fugas from Obras de Música Carlos I in Spain), Isabella of Portugal. This prodigy was tombstone was discarded when the Franciscan church his efforts on behalf of his revered father. Ecclesia Triumphans.
™ IX: quinto tono 3:42 passed along at her death to her son, crown prince Philip where he was buried was razed. Cabezón’s son and Under such adverse circumstances, it seems to me The three tientos which rework motifs from vocal
* Fuga a quatro todas las bozes por una, sexto tono 3:47 (later King Philip II), with whom Cabezón remained on successor at court, Hernando, edited and published a far more likely that, when ugliness or a broken theme works (CD 1 @ *, CD 2 3) are particularly notable. The
Titles as in the tables of contents. Neither source is numbered. ( Ad dominum con tribularer. terms of personal friendship for the rest of his life. large selection of works posthumously (Obras de Música, crops up in the original text, some error has occurred composer of Malheur me bat is disputed; Cabezón
For the Libro, numbers are given here as in their irregular order of Fuga en quarta con el tiple 4:17
appearance. In the Obras, the tientos form a compact separate As early as 1539, we are told that “el ciego tañedor” 1578). along the line – whether in the original notation from transforms the chanson into a picture of the blows of
group starting on folio 50v, here shown with Roman numerals. (“the blind keyboardist”, as he was referred to in official The profundity and brilliance of Cabezón’s music has Cabezón’s playing, the transfer to number-tablature, or Fortune raining down on her victim. The Josquin Mass
) Julio Segni da Modena (1498-1561): documents) had “penetrated to the core” of composition, been obscured from the outset by the uneven quality of the complex process of printing – than that anything movement closes with a heavenly Amen descending
Tiento in the sixth tone from Musica Nova (1540)  3:04 leaving “nothing more to be expressed”. Besides daily the original editions. The number-tablature used for the inelegant or technically faulty could have sprung from through a long downward sequence like a blessing.
(Libro de Cifra Nueva 52, attr. Cabezón) service at court and constant royal progresses from city to first time by Venegas was extremely compact, but rife such an exquisite musical mind. Fortunately, the web of Cabezón gets most attention in the history books as
city, Cabezón accompanied his prince on two momentous with possibilities for corruption. He says in his forward thematic entrances is so dense and the laws of the “inventor” of variation sets – the credit for which
Titles as in musical texts (slight differences in tables of contents).

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572475-76 bk Cabezon EU_572475-76 bk Cabezon EU 20/03/2012 12:06 Page 2

CD 1 72:23 CD 2 69:00 Antonio de Cabezón (1510-66) that the devil had plagued him with errors, but that he counterpoint so clear that restoration is often feasible,
Complete Tientos and Variations was unwilling to wait another ten years to sort them out. although it must always be remembered that in such
Tientos from the Libro de Cifra Nueva (1557) Tientos (contd.) from Obras de Música Would that he had. Some of the pieces in the Libro for cases nothing can be definitive. When I first turned my
In the late fifteenth century, as vocal polyphony built foreign journeys. The first was a tour of Philip’s future vihuela exist in their originals by various composers, and attention to these problems, the work of the Spanish
Siete tientos de Antonio 1 X. primer tono 2:11 steadily towards the revolution wrought by Josquin des dominions, lasting almost three years: starting in Genoa, the comparison is catastrophic for their editor, Venegas. musicologist Andrés Cea Galán provided much
1 16. Primer tiento del primer tono 3:08 2 XI. del sexto tono con segunda parte 7:21 Prés, keyboard music lagged behind in a state of nature passing through northern Italy (with a long stay at the Besides countless wrong notes, we see missing enlightenment. I also owe special thanks to Prof. John
2 26. Segundo tiento 1:16 3 XII. sobre el cum sancto spiritu, dictated by the unnaturalness of its mechanical Spanish duchy of Milan, and a chance for young Andrea accidentals or key signatures, voices de-synchronized Koster (National Music Museum, USA) for much patient
3 29. Tercero tiento 1:30 de beata virgine de Iusquin  3:04 apparatus. Then, when organists started transcribing Gabrieli to hear him in Verona), on to the Tyrol and by entire bars or transposed, measures doubled or left and wise counsel. I have gratefully appropriated many of
4 30. Quarto tiento 4:43 (on Cum sanctu spiritu from the Mass Beata Virgine Josquin’s sweetly interwoven lines, something changed. Germany, ending with a visit to all the major cities of the out, even entire sections omitted or bits of different their ideas, but any errors in the final result are my
5 31. Quinto tiento 1:50 by Josquin des Prés)
They rose to the challenge, disciplined their fingers to Spanish Low Countries (Belgium and The Netherlands). pieces patched together. There are only three such responsibility.  
6 32. Sesto tiento 3:27
match the balance of the voices on their instruments until, Then, when Philip travelled to England in 1554 for his concordances for the Cabezón pieces, but they present This disc is devoted to Cabezón’s tientos and
7 33. Septimo tiento 2:10 Variations from Obras de Música
about 1530 in the cultural centres of northern Italy and the marriage to Queen Mary, Cabezón was in his train. a similar picture of desolation. One tiento, actually by variations. The word tiento is the Spanish equivalent of
royal court of Spain, they seized the initiative in During a stay of eighteen months, the Spanish and Julio Segni of Modena, is misattributed to Antonio. We ricercar (meaning “to search out”), a new kind of
Siguense otros tientos de Antonio 4 Differencias sobre las Vacas 3:27
composing independent works for keyboard of substance English court musicians performed together on several include it here (CD 2 )) as an early source of inspiration instrumental polyphony which had recently sprung up in
y de otros tañedores de los ocho tonos 5 Pavana Italiana 2:11
8 34. Primer tiento del primer tono 4:05 6 Differencias sobre la Gallarda Milanesa 2:20 equal to or greater than those for singers. One of the first documented occasions. One of the choirboys was a for Cabezón, in the accurate version originally published Italy. Cabezón was in the forefront of the rapid rise in
9 35. Otro primero 2:31 7 Differencias sobre el canto llano del Cavallero 3:13 to do so was a son of minor Castilian nobility, blind from student of Thomas Tallis named William Byrd. Nothing is in the monumental Musica Nova (Venice, 1540). intensity of the new form through the use of the higher
0 36. Otro primero tono 4:37 8 Differencias sobre la Pavana Italiana 3:54 very early youth. With Antonio de Cabezón, in the early known of any contact between the mature master and the In Hernando’s posthumous publication, the situation artifices of counterpoint and thematic development; but
! 37. Otro primero tono 2:24 9 Differencias sobre el canto morning of the keyboardist’s craft, we have already young genius, and that is enough to convince modern is far better; but here too, in what he calls “mere crumbs in his time he was quite without peer in infusing into it
@ 43. Quarto tono sobre malheur me bat de la dama le demanda 2:36 arrived at a pinnacle of refinement and strength seldom musicology that there was none – but nobody can tell me from the master’s table”, are many traces of the hectic the intangible element of real musical interest, as
(on a chanson by ?Martini) 2:37 0 Differencias sobre el Villancico, again achieved. A witness to his playing describes its that Byrd would not have been drawn to Cabezón like an quality of the lives of both father and son. A tiento (VI) opposed to the mere juggling of dry intervals so often
# 44. Otro quarto tono 5:27 de quien te me enojo Isabel 6:10 “suavidad y extrañeza” – which could be translated as iron filing to an electromagnet. Between these two (CD 1 ( ) published by Hernando is, again, not by seen in such pieces by lesser masters. Even the historic
$ 51. Otro sesto 3:15 ! Differencias sobre las Vacas 4:40 “delicate fluency and otherworldliness”. Add these journeys, a considerable number of Cabezón’s keyboard Antonio, but by a Ferrarese contemporary, Giaches movement away from multiple themes towards a single
@ Otras differencias de Vacas 4:01 qualities to the granitic sobriety of the Spanish character works appeared in a major printed anthology, using a new Brunel. These major errors (and the fact that several subject (and eventually, the fugue), which found its first
Eight tientos from the Obras de Música (1578) # Duviensela 3:58 so soon after the Reconquista from the Moors, and you kind of notation in numbers, the Libro de cifra nueva “tientos” in both books (CD 1 3 4 7 ¡ ) look much climax in the work of Andrea Gabrieli, is well advanced
have a foundation for the tension necessary to all great (1557) published by the Toledo organist Luys Venegas de more like transcriptions of chansons or the like) cast a in Cabezón’s tientos. Two (CD 1 0 #) are especially
% I. segundo tono 3:42 Variations from the Libro de Cifra Nueva art. Henestrosa.  pall of suspicion over everything – but only one tiento modern in their treatment of harmony and dissonance –
^ II. quarto tono 4:07 At Palencia, near the small town where Cabezón was Cabezón died in Madrid in 1566. His brother Juan, a (CD 1 $ ) is so much clumsier than the rest that it “otherworldly” indeed, perhaps precursors of the
& III. primer tono 4:58 $ 5. Sobre el canto llano de la alta 2:19 born in 1510, a relative of his happened to be vicar- major keyboardist in his own right, in all probability arouses my doubts. This could be an early work, or one Stravaganze that appear a little later in Naples (another
* IV. sobre Qui la dira (on a chanson by Jannequin) 3:36 % 119. Para quien crie yo cabellos  2:05 general, and his probable teacher there was kin to the Antonio’s amanuensis and main lifelong support, died mangled by Venegas. And when we think how nearly all Spanish possession), and in subsequent “elevation”
( V. segundo tono ^ 120. Rugier Glosado De Antonio 1:52 king’s treasurer. This will have smoothed the way to his less than two months later – almost as if his reason for of Hernando’s own music (contrary to wishes expressed toccatas. Another pair (CD 1 & , CD 2 1 ) uses the
(VI: by Giaches ?Brunel) 2:31 & 121. Pavana  2:29 first professional position, taken up at the age of fifteen, living had been extinguished. Antonio’s portrait was in his testament) was left unpublished and, eventually, opening notes of the Marian hymn Salve Regina; one
) VII. quarto tono 3:22 as keyboardist to the wife of the emperor Charles V (King destroyed when the Alcázar of Madrid burned, and his lost by his family, we can only be intensely grateful for seems to illustrate the Ecclesia Militans, the other, the
¡ VIII. octavo tono 3:25 Fugas from Obras de Música Carlos I in Spain), Isabella of Portugal. This prodigy was tombstone was discarded when the Franciscan church his efforts on behalf of his revered father. Ecclesia Triumphans.
™ IX: quinto tono 3:42 passed along at her death to her son, crown prince Philip where he was buried was razed. Cabezón’s son and Under such adverse circumstances, it seems to me The three tientos which rework motifs from vocal
* Fuga a quatro todas las bozes por una, sexto tono 3:47 (later King Philip II), with whom Cabezón remained on successor at court, Hernando, edited and published a far more likely that, when ugliness or a broken theme works (CD 1 @ *, CD 2 3) are particularly notable. The
Titles as in the tables of contents. Neither source is numbered. ( Ad dominum con tribularer. terms of personal friendship for the rest of his life. large selection of works posthumously (Obras de Música, crops up in the original text, some error has occurred composer of Malheur me bat is disputed; Cabezón
For the Libro, numbers are given here as in their irregular order of Fuga en quarta con el tiple 4:17
appearance. In the Obras, the tientos form a compact separate As early as 1539, we are told that “el ciego tañedor” 1578). along the line – whether in the original notation from transforms the chanson into a picture of the blows of
group starting on folio 50v, here shown with Roman numerals. (“the blind keyboardist”, as he was referred to in official The profundity and brilliance of Cabezón’s music has Cabezón’s playing, the transfer to number-tablature, or Fortune raining down on her victim. The Josquin Mass
) Julio Segni da Modena (1498-1561): documents) had “penetrated to the core” of composition, been obscured from the outset by the uneven quality of the complex process of printing – than that anything movement closes with a heavenly Amen descending
Tiento in the sixth tone from Musica Nova (1540)  3:04 leaving “nothing more to be expressed”. Besides daily the original editions. The number-tablature used for the inelegant or technically faulty could have sprung from through a long downward sequence like a blessing.
(Libro de Cifra Nueva 52, attr. Cabezón) service at court and constant royal progresses from city to first time by Venegas was extremely compact, but rife such an exquisite musical mind. Fortunately, the web of Cabezón gets most attention in the history books as
city, Cabezón accompanied his prince on two momentous with possibilities for corruption. He says in his forward thematic entrances is so dense and the laws of the “inventor” of variation sets – the credit for which
Titles as in musical texts (slight differences in tables of contents).

8.572475-76 2 8.572475-76 3 8.572475-76 4

572475-76 bk Cabezon EU_572475-76 bk Cabezon EU 20/03/2012 12:06 Page 2

CD 1 72:23 CD 2 69:00 Antonio de Cabezón (1510-66) that the devil had plagued him with errors, but that he counterpoint so clear that restoration is often feasible,
Complete Tientos and Variations was unwilling to wait another ten years to sort them out. although it must always be remembered that in such
Tientos from the Libro de Cifra Nueva (1557) Tientos (contd.) from Obras de Música Would that he had. Some of the pieces in the Libro for cases nothing can be definitive. When I first turned my
In the late fifteenth century, as vocal polyphony built foreign journeys. The first was a tour of Philip’s future vihuela exist in their originals by various composers, and attention to these problems, the work of the Spanish
Siete tientos de Antonio 1 X. primer tono 2:11 steadily towards the revolution wrought by Josquin des dominions, lasting almost three years: starting in Genoa, the comparison is catastrophic for their editor, Venegas. musicologist Andrés Cea Galán provided much
1 16. Primer tiento del primer tono 3:08 2 XI. del sexto tono con segunda parte 7:21 Prés, keyboard music lagged behind in a state of nature passing through northern Italy (with a long stay at the Besides countless wrong notes, we see missing enlightenment. I also owe special thanks to Prof. John
2 26. Segundo tiento 1:16 3 XII. sobre el cum sancto spiritu, dictated by the unnaturalness of its mechanical Spanish duchy of Milan, and a chance for young Andrea accidentals or key signatures, voices de-synchronized Koster (National Music Museum, USA) for much patient
3 29. Tercero tiento 1:30 de beata virgine de Iusquin  3:04 apparatus. Then, when organists started transcribing Gabrieli to hear him in Verona), on to the Tyrol and by entire bars or transposed, measures doubled or left and wise counsel. I have gratefully appropriated many of
4 30. Quarto tiento 4:43 (on Cum sanctu spiritu from the Mass Beata Virgine Josquin’s sweetly interwoven lines, something changed. Germany, ending with a visit to all the major cities of the out, even entire sections omitted or bits of different their ideas, but any errors in the final result are my
5 31. Quinto tiento 1:50 by Josquin des Prés)
They rose to the challenge, disciplined their fingers to Spanish Low Countries (Belgium and The Netherlands). pieces patched together. There are only three such responsibility.  
6 32. Sesto tiento 3:27
match the balance of the voices on their instruments until, Then, when Philip travelled to England in 1554 for his concordances for the Cabezón pieces, but they present This disc is devoted to Cabezón’s tientos and
7 33. Septimo tiento 2:10 Variations from Obras de Música
about 1530 in the cultural centres of northern Italy and the marriage to Queen Mary, Cabezón was in his train. a similar picture of desolation. One tiento, actually by variations. The word tiento is the Spanish equivalent of
royal court of Spain, they seized the initiative in During a stay of eighteen months, the Spanish and Julio Segni of Modena, is misattributed to Antonio. We ricercar (meaning “to search out”), a new kind of
Siguense otros tientos de Antonio 4 Differencias sobre las Vacas 3:27
composing independent works for keyboard of substance English court musicians performed together on several include it here (CD 2 )) as an early source of inspiration instrumental polyphony which had recently sprung up in
y de otros tañedores de los ocho tonos 5 Pavana Italiana 2:11
8 34. Primer tiento del primer tono 4:05 6 Differencias sobre la Gallarda Milanesa 2:20 equal to or greater than those for singers. One of the first documented occasions. One of the choirboys was a for Cabezón, in the accurate version originally published Italy. Cabezón was in the forefront of the rapid rise in
9 35. Otro primero 2:31 7 Differencias sobre el canto llano del Cavallero 3:13 to do so was a son of minor Castilian nobility, blind from student of Thomas Tallis named William Byrd. Nothing is in the monumental Musica Nova (Venice, 1540). intensity of the new form through the use of the higher
0 36. Otro primero tono 4:37 8 Differencias sobre la Pavana Italiana 3:54 very early youth. With Antonio de Cabezón, in the early known of any contact between the mature master and the In Hernando’s posthumous publication, the situation artifices of counterpoint and thematic development; but
! 37. Otro primero tono 2:24 9 Differencias sobre el canto morning of the keyboardist’s craft, we have already young genius, and that is enough to convince modern is far better; but here too, in what he calls “mere crumbs in his time he was quite without peer in infusing into it
@ 43. Quarto tono sobre malheur me bat de la dama le demanda 2:36 arrived at a pinnacle of refinement and strength seldom musicology that there was none – but nobody can tell me from the master’s table”, are many traces of the hectic the intangible element of real musical interest, as
(on a chanson by ?Martini) 2:37 0 Differencias sobre el Villancico, again achieved. A witness to his playing describes its that Byrd would not have been drawn to Cabezón like an quality of the lives of both father and son. A tiento (VI) opposed to the mere juggling of dry intervals so often
# 44. Otro quarto tono 5:27 de quien te me enojo Isabel 6:10 “suavidad y extrañeza” – which could be translated as iron filing to an electromagnet. Between these two (CD 1 ( ) published by Hernando is, again, not by seen in such pieces by lesser masters. Even the historic
$ 51. Otro sesto 3:15 ! Differencias sobre las Vacas 4:40 “delicate fluency and otherworldliness”. Add these journeys, a considerable number of Cabezón’s keyboard Antonio, but by a Ferrarese contemporary, Giaches movement away from multiple themes towards a single
@ Otras differencias de Vacas 4:01 qualities to the granitic sobriety of the Spanish character works appeared in a major printed anthology, using a new Brunel. These major errors (and the fact that several subject (and eventually, the fugue), which found its first
Eight tientos from the Obras de Música (1578) # Duviensela 3:58 so soon after the Reconquista from the Moors, and you kind of notation in numbers, the Libro de cifra nueva “tientos” in both books (CD 1 3 4 7 ¡ ) look much climax in the work of Andrea Gabrieli, is well advanced
have a foundation for the tension necessary to all great (1557) published by the Toledo organist Luys Venegas de more like transcriptions of chansons or the like) cast a in Cabezón’s tientos. Two (CD 1 0 #) are especially
% I. segundo tono 3:42 Variations from the Libro de Cifra Nueva art. Henestrosa.  pall of suspicion over everything – but only one tiento modern in their treatment of harmony and dissonance –
^ II. quarto tono 4:07 At Palencia, near the small town where Cabezón was Cabezón died in Madrid in 1566. His brother Juan, a (CD 1 $ ) is so much clumsier than the rest that it “otherworldly” indeed, perhaps precursors of the
& III. primer tono 4:58 $ 5. Sobre el canto llano de la alta 2:19 born in 1510, a relative of his happened to be vicar- major keyboardist in his own right, in all probability arouses my doubts. This could be an early work, or one Stravaganze that appear a little later in Naples (another
* IV. sobre Qui la dira (on a chanson by Jannequin) 3:36 % 119. Para quien crie yo cabellos  2:05 general, and his probable teacher there was kin to the Antonio’s amanuensis and main lifelong support, died mangled by Venegas. And when we think how nearly all Spanish possession), and in subsequent “elevation”
( V. segundo tono ^ 120. Rugier Glosado De Antonio 1:52 king’s treasurer. This will have smoothed the way to his less than two months later – almost as if his reason for of Hernando’s own music (contrary to wishes expressed toccatas. Another pair (CD 1 & , CD 2 1 ) uses the
(VI: by Giaches ?Brunel) 2:31 & 121. Pavana  2:29 first professional position, taken up at the age of fifteen, living had been extinguished. Antonio’s portrait was in his testament) was left unpublished and, eventually, opening notes of the Marian hymn Salve Regina; one
) VII. quarto tono 3:22 as keyboardist to the wife of the emperor Charles V (King destroyed when the Alcázar of Madrid burned, and his lost by his family, we can only be intensely grateful for seems to illustrate the Ecclesia Militans, the other, the
¡ VIII. octavo tono 3:25 Fugas from Obras de Música Carlos I in Spain), Isabella of Portugal. This prodigy was tombstone was discarded when the Franciscan church his efforts on behalf of his revered father. Ecclesia Triumphans.
™ IX: quinto tono 3:42 passed along at her death to her son, crown prince Philip where he was buried was razed. Cabezón’s son and Under such adverse circumstances, it seems to me The three tientos which rework motifs from vocal
* Fuga a quatro todas las bozes por una, sexto tono 3:47 (later King Philip II), with whom Cabezón remained on successor at court, Hernando, edited and published a far more likely that, when ugliness or a broken theme works (CD 1 @ *, CD 2 3) are particularly notable. The
Titles as in the tables of contents. Neither source is numbered. ( Ad dominum con tribularer. terms of personal friendship for the rest of his life. large selection of works posthumously (Obras de Música, crops up in the original text, some error has occurred composer of Malheur me bat is disputed; Cabezón
For the Libro, numbers are given here as in their irregular order of Fuga en quarta con el tiple 4:17
appearance. In the Obras, the tientos form a compact separate As early as 1539, we are told that “el ciego tañedor” 1578). along the line – whether in the original notation from transforms the chanson into a picture of the blows of
group starting on folio 50v, here shown with Roman numerals. (“the blind keyboardist”, as he was referred to in official The profundity and brilliance of Cabezón’s music has Cabezón’s playing, the transfer to number-tablature, or Fortune raining down on her victim. The Josquin Mass
) Julio Segni da Modena (1498-1561): documents) had “penetrated to the core” of composition, been obscured from the outset by the uneven quality of the complex process of printing – than that anything movement closes with a heavenly Amen descending
Tiento in the sixth tone from Musica Nova (1540)  3:04 leaving “nothing more to be expressed”. Besides daily the original editions. The number-tablature used for the inelegant or technically faulty could have sprung from through a long downward sequence like a blessing.
(Libro de Cifra Nueva 52, attr. Cabezón) service at court and constant royal progresses from city to first time by Venegas was extremely compact, but rife such an exquisite musical mind. Fortunately, the web of Cabezón gets most attention in the history books as
city, Cabezón accompanied his prince on two momentous with possibilities for corruption. He says in his forward thematic entrances is so dense and the laws of the “inventor” of variation sets – the credit for which
Titles as in musical texts (slight differences in tables of contents).

8.572475-76 2 8.572475-76 3 8.572475-76 4

572475-76 bk Cabezon EU_572475-76 bk Cabezon EU 20/03/2012 12:06 Page 1

should go to Italian lutenists and Spanish masters of the

vihuela, an instrument somewhat like a guitar set up and
The most beautiful and ambitious of all the
variations (CD 2 0), on a passamezzo moderno tune
elaboration of another work by that vihuelist: a lovely
setting of the opening lines of Ariosto’s immensely
A Frenchman wrote in 1610: “Who can say (if he has
any sense at all) that he has never felt the force and
Antonio de
tuned like a lute. But the handful of sets of differencias in
the Obras marked the beginning of the form for keyboard
instruments. No fewer than three of these (CD 2 4 ! @)
vary a tune called Guardame las Vacas, over a bass that
called Quién te me enojó Isabel, is almost never played
because it comes down to us, in a major failure of proof-
reading, seen through a glass darkly – or rather, in a
fun-house mirror. Many of the bars, through an
popular epic poem, Orlando Furioso, one far superior to
the later Italian Ruggiero bass which was used for
improvised recitation of the endless cantos.
Our last two works from the Obras are not tientos, but
effects of music, hearing some excellent player sing on
his instrument? As for me ... I can say, having sometimes
heard ... the Spaniard Antonio Caveçon playing and
singing on the organ ... that I was so ravished and so
CABEZÓN
was later known as the Romanesca. Its lively triple time idiosyncrasy of the tablature notation first pointed out by they pack a similar contrapuntal wallop. Ad dominum cum deeply moved, that I could nevermore doubt the power, (1510-66)
is stretched out here to a whole bar per beat. The last of Andrés Cea Galán, are doubled in length, and several tribularer (CD 2 () must be a straight transcription of a lost efficacy and influence of music.”
these three sets is a special case; its insistent tolling and
classical structure (grief, denial, resignation) leads me to
think it may have been a lament on the death of a
are missing in the final variation.
The last piece in the Obras, incorrectly included
under the rubric of the differencias, is something of a
five-part setting of Psalm 120 / Latin 119 (“In my distress I
cried unto the Lord”). The two upper voices are in canon at
the fourth, and Antonio contrives for them to run parallel at
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. The
Complete Tientos and Variations
distinguished personage, perhaps Charles V; or it might mystery. Its title, Duviensela (CD 2 #), is a corruption of the climax of this searing piece. It may be coincidence that instrument used on this recording attempts to reconstruct
be by Antonio’s brother or son, for Antonio himself. The
style is certainly unlike that of el ciego.
D’où vient cela, a chanson by Claudin de Sermisy, but this
is not, as one would expect, an ornamented keyboard
William Byrd chose this text for his first eight-part motet, and
the same canonic procedure for his own favourite work.
what such an instrument might have sounded like,
working backwards from later Spanish examples, as I Glen Wilson, Harpsichord
The Pavana Italiana (CD 2 5) is what would later version of that polyphonic original; if it were, it would The Fuga a quatro (CD 2 *) is a four-part canon: have tried to reconstruct the music itself. Temperament is
come to be known as the Folía. The melody attached here belong on an upcoming disc of Glosados. Here, the three voices in strict imitation of the first, a tour de force modified 1/6 comma meantone, based on evidence in
to this most famous of basses seems to have been of melody alone is given a darkly brooding, mostly three- for any composer, let alone a blind one. And by repeating Santa Maria (1565).
Spanish origin, perhaps by Antonio himself; northern voice setting. Then, in one of the most beautiful codas a section before his coda, he shows us the point of return
composers called it the Spanish Pavane. A French source ever composed, the piece rises like a phoenix from its to make it a perpetual canon (go back to bar 51 eight bars Glen Wilson
(Arbeau) tells us it should be played in passamezzo tempo, own ashes. Several gestures found in Hernando’s before the end).
faster than a true pavane. The Folía appears again later on glosados are found in this remarkable piece; I cannot help
this disc (CD 2 &) in its original, complete form, a rare thinking he put it, with modest anonymity, at the end of his
pavane in triple time from northern Italy called La cara father’s Compendio de música as a small monument – Glen Wilson
cossa, transcribed for vihuela by Enríquez de Valderrábano what the French would soon begin calling tombeau.
of Valladolid, and varied once by Cabezón, who also often There are no true variation sets in Venegas’s Libro, Glen Wilson was born in the American Midwest in 1952. He studied at The Juilliard
dwelt in what was then the Spanish capital.  but the four secular works using variation techniques are School before moving to Holland in 1971 as a student of Gustav Leonhardt. He was
The title of the other piece called Pavana Italiana included here to serve as background to the later active in Dutch musical life for twenty years (harpsichordist of the Netherlands
(CD 2 8 ) is a misnomer, forgivable because of the differencias. (CD 2 $) is the most archaic: a setting of Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Opera, Quadro Hotteterre and duo-partner of
similarity of the opening harmonies. It is, in fact, a the venerable basse danse tenor called The King of Leonhardt, Wieland Kuyken, Alice Harnoncourt, Michael Chance, Mieneke van der
French pavane tune, Belle qui tiens ma vie. Confusingly, Spain, La Spagna for short, and usually just La Alta in Velden and many others) before moving to Bavaria as professor at the Music
there is another set (CD 2 9) on the same tune but with Spain – “the loud”, since it was played by festive University of Würzburg. He has since conducted his edition of Monteverdi’s Ritorno
a Spanish title, La dama le demanda. Dance tunes instruments at balls. It was out of fashion by Philip’s day, di Ulisse in patria for the Netherlands Opera over sixty times on three continents
crossed borders with ease in the sixteenth century; this but the conservative Spanish court kept on performing (DVD on BBC Opus Arte). His recordings include seven solo CDs for Teldec/Das Alte
version of the tune, which dispenses with the reprises, this dignified dance, like modern orchestras wearing Werk and a continuing series for Naxos. For more information,
also seems to want the livelier passamezzo tempo. Edwardian evening clothes. Cabezón’s two playful visit www.glenwilson.eu
The popular love song del Cavallero (he is about to voices chase each other around the tenor in long notes.
leave the girl, but promises to return) hosts one of CD 2 % is yet another Folía, used here as bass to
Cabezón’s finest sets (CD 2 7). The Gallarda Milanesa an otherwise unknown poem and melody, lightly varied
(CD 2 6) may be a relic of Antonio’s stay in that city by Antonio, in what looks like an early essay, or one for a
during Prince Philip’s grand tour; it is a single variation pupil. The musical text in Venegas is very corrupt – as is
on an entire galliard, which already varies each of its that for the Pavana (CD 2 &) taken from Valderrábano,
three strains.  discussed above. The Rugier glosado (CD 2 ^) is an Photo: Volker Schneidereit

8.572475-76 5 8.572475-76 6
572475-76 bk Cabezon EU_572475-76 bk Cabezon EU 20/03/2012 12:06 Page 1

should go to Italian lutenists and Spanish masters of the

vihuela, an instrument somewhat like a guitar set up and
The most beautiful and ambitious of all the
variations (CD 2 0), on a passamezzo moderno tune
elaboration of another work by that vihuelist: a lovely
setting of the opening lines of Ariosto’s immensely
A Frenchman wrote in 1610: “Who can say (if he has
any sense at all) that he has never felt the force and
Antonio de
tuned like a lute. But the handful of sets of differencias in
the Obras marked the beginning of the form for keyboard
instruments. No fewer than three of these (CD 2 4 ! @)
vary a tune called Guardame las Vacas, over a bass that
called Quién te me enojó Isabel, is almost never played
because it comes down to us, in a major failure of proof-
reading, seen through a glass darkly – or rather, in a
fun-house mirror. Many of the bars, through an
popular epic poem, Orlando Furioso, one far superior to
the later Italian Ruggiero bass which was used for
improvised recitation of the endless cantos.
Our last two works from the Obras are not tientos, but
effects of music, hearing some excellent player sing on
his instrument? As for me ... I can say, having sometimes
heard ... the Spaniard Antonio Caveçon playing and
singing on the organ ... that I was so ravished and so
CABEZÓN
was later known as the Romanesca. Its lively triple time idiosyncrasy of the tablature notation first pointed out by they pack a similar contrapuntal wallop. Ad dominum cum deeply moved, that I could nevermore doubt the power, (1510-66)
is stretched out here to a whole bar per beat. The last of Andrés Cea Galán, are doubled in length, and several tribularer (CD 2 () must be a straight transcription of a lost efficacy and influence of music.”
these three sets is a special case; its insistent tolling and
classical structure (grief, denial, resignation) leads me to
think it may have been a lament on the death of a
are missing in the final variation.
The last piece in the Obras, incorrectly included
under the rubric of the differencias, is something of a
five-part setting of Psalm 120 / Latin 119 (“In my distress I
cried unto the Lord”). The two upper voices are in canon at
the fourth, and Antonio contrives for them to run parallel at
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. The
Complete Tientos and Variations
distinguished personage, perhaps Charles V; or it might mystery. Its title, Duviensela (CD 2 #), is a corruption of the climax of this searing piece. It may be coincidence that instrument used on this recording attempts to reconstruct
be by Antonio’s brother or son, for Antonio himself. The
style is certainly unlike that of el ciego.
D’où vient cela, a chanson by Claudin de Sermisy, but this
is not, as one would expect, an ornamented keyboard
William Byrd chose this text for his first eight-part motet, and
the same canonic procedure for his own favourite work.
what such an instrument might have sounded like,
working backwards from later Spanish examples, as I Glen Wilson, Harpsichord
The Pavana Italiana (CD 2 5) is what would later version of that polyphonic original; if it were, it would The Fuga a quatro (CD 2 *) is a four-part canon: have tried to reconstruct the music itself. Temperament is
come to be known as the Folía. The melody attached here belong on an upcoming disc of Glosados. Here, the three voices in strict imitation of the first, a tour de force modified 1/6 comma meantone, based on evidence in
to this most famous of basses seems to have been of melody alone is given a darkly brooding, mostly three- for any composer, let alone a blind one. And by repeating Santa Maria (1565).
Spanish origin, perhaps by Antonio himself; northern voice setting. Then, in one of the most beautiful codas a section before his coda, he shows us the point of return
composers called it the Spanish Pavane. A French source ever composed, the piece rises like a phoenix from its to make it a perpetual canon (go back to bar 51 eight bars Glen Wilson
(Arbeau) tells us it should be played in passamezzo tempo, own ashes. Several gestures found in Hernando’s before the end).
faster than a true pavane. The Folía appears again later on glosados are found in this remarkable piece; I cannot help
this disc (CD 2 &) in its original, complete form, a rare thinking he put it, with modest anonymity, at the end of his
pavane in triple time from northern Italy called La cara father’s Compendio de música as a small monument – Glen Wilson
cossa, transcribed for vihuela by Enríquez de Valderrábano what the French would soon begin calling tombeau.
of Valladolid, and varied once by Cabezón, who also often There are no true variation sets in Venegas’s Libro, Glen Wilson was born in the American Midwest in 1952. He studied at The Juilliard
dwelt in what was then the Spanish capital.  but the four secular works using variation techniques are School before moving to Holland in 1971 as a student of Gustav Leonhardt. He was
The title of the other piece called Pavana Italiana included here to serve as background to the later active in Dutch musical life for twenty years (harpsichordist of the Netherlands
(CD 2 8 ) is a misnomer, forgivable because of the differencias. (CD 2 $) is the most archaic: a setting of Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Opera, Quadro Hotteterre and duo-partner of
similarity of the opening harmonies. It is, in fact, a the venerable basse danse tenor called The King of Leonhardt, Wieland Kuyken, Alice Harnoncourt, Michael Chance, Mieneke van der
French pavane tune, Belle qui tiens ma vie. Confusingly, Spain, La Spagna for short, and usually just La Alta in Velden and many others) before moving to Bavaria as professor at the Music
there is another set (CD 2 9) on the same tune but with Spain – “the loud”, since it was played by festive University of Würzburg. He has since conducted his edition of Monteverdi’s Ritorno
a Spanish title, La dama le demanda. Dance tunes instruments at balls. It was out of fashion by Philip’s day, di Ulisse in patria for the Netherlands Opera over sixty times on three continents
crossed borders with ease in the sixteenth century; this but the conservative Spanish court kept on performing (DVD on BBC Opus Arte). His recordings include seven solo CDs for Teldec/Das Alte
version of the tune, which dispenses with the reprises, this dignified dance, like modern orchestras wearing Werk and a continuing series for Naxos. For more information,
also seems to want the livelier passamezzo tempo. Edwardian evening clothes. Cabezón’s two playful visit www.glenwilson.eu
The popular love song del Cavallero (he is about to voices chase each other around the tenor in long notes.
leave the girl, but promises to return) hosts one of CD 2 % is yet another Folía, used here as bass to
Cabezón’s finest sets (CD 2 7). The Gallarda Milanesa an otherwise unknown poem and melody, lightly varied
(CD 2 6) may be a relic of Antonio’s stay in that city by Antonio, in what looks like an early essay, or one for a
during Prince Philip’s grand tour; it is a single variation pupil. The musical text in Venegas is very corrupt – as is
on an entire galliard, which already varies each of its that for the Pavana (CD 2 &) taken from Valderrábano,
three strains.  discussed above. The Rugier glosado (CD 2 ^) is an Photo: Volker Schneidereit

8.572475-76 5 8.572475-76 6
 Also available
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A
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L
Y
8.570025 8.570894

M
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8.572198 8.572433
NAXOS

NAXOS
“El ciego tañedor” or “the blind keyboardist”, Antonio de Cabezón was one of the most inspired
masters of his day and a protégé at the court of King Philip II (whose favourite painting,
reproduced on the cover of the booklet, came into his possession while Cabezón was with him in
Brussels in 1555). Keyboard music was attaining a status equal to vocal polyphony at this time,
and Cabezón’s sophisticated Tientos are at the forefront of a rapid rise in a new intensity of DDD
expression. Where the Tientos relate to vocal styles the Variations can frequently be traced to
CABEZÓN: Complete Tientos and Variations

CABEZÓN: Complete Tientos and Variations

popular songs and dance tunes such as the Folía. 8.572475-76
Antonio de Playing Time

CABEZÓN 2:21:23
(1510-66)

7
Complete Tientos and Variations

47313 24757
CD 1 72:23
1-$ Tientos from the Libro de Cifra Nueva (1557) 43:00
%-™ Eight tientos from the Obras de Música (1578) 29:23
CD 2 69:00

8
1-3 Tientos (contd.) from Obras de Música 12:36

www.naxos.com
Made in Germany
Booklet notes in English
 & 훿 2012 Naxos Rights International Ltd.
4-# Variations from Obras de Música 36:31
$-& Variations from the Libro de Cifra Nueva 8:46
*-( Fugas from Obras de Música 8:03
) Tiento in the sixth tone from Musica Nova (1540) 3:04
Glen Wilson, Harpsichord
A detailed track list can be found on page 2 of the booklet
Recorded at the church of St Mary Hodegetria, Piana degli Albanesi, Sicily,
from 12th to 14th April, 2011 (CD 1), and from 16th to 18th September, 2011 (CD 2)
Engineer and editor: Jürgen Rummel • Booklet Notes: Glen Wilson
8.572475-76

8.572475-76
Harpsichord by Donatella Santoliquido. Modified sixth-comma meantone temperament, a=415 Hz.
Special thanks to Fundação Graça Pidoulx for a generous travel grant.
Cover image: Descent from the Cross (detail) by Rogier van der Weyden (1399/1400-1464)
(Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain)