iTunes 572475-76 bk Cabezon EU_iTunes 572475-76 bk Cabezon EU 17/04/2012 12:01 Page 1

Antonio de 2 CDs CABEZÓN (1510-66) Complete Tientos and Variations Glen Wilson, iTunes 572475-76 bk Cabezon EU_iTunes 572475-76 bk Cabezon EU 17/04/2012 12:01 Page 2

CD 1 72:23 CD 2 69:00 Antonio de Cabezón (1510-66) Tientos from the Libro de Cifra Nueva (1557) Tientos (contd.) from Obras de Música Complete Tientos and Variations In the late fifteenth century, as vocal polyphony built foreign journeys. The first was a tour of Philip’s future 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, 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 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 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 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 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). 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 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. royal court of Spain, they seized the initiative in During a stay of eighteen months, the Spanish and 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 y de otros tañedores de los ocho tonos 5 Pavana Italiana 2:11 equal to or greater than those for singers. One of the first documented occasions. One of the choirboys was a 8 34. Primer tiento del primer tono 4:05 6 Differencias sobre la Gallarda Milanesa 2:20 to do so was a son of minor Castilian nobility, blind from student of Thomas Tallis named William Byrd. Nothing is 9 35. Otro primero 2:31 7 Differencias sobre el canto llano del Cavallero 3:13 very early youth. With Antonio de Cabezón, in the early known of any contact between the mature master and the 0 36. Otro primero tono 4:37 8 Differencias sobre la Pavana Italiana 3:54 morning of the keyboardist’s craft, we have already young genius, and that is enough to convince modern ! 37. Otro primero tono 2:24 9 Differencias sobre el canto arrived at a pinnacle of refinement and strength seldom musicology that there was none – but nobody can tell me @ 43. Quarto tono sobre malheur me bat de la dama le demanda 2:36 again achieved. A witness to his playing describes its that Byrd would not have been drawn to Cabezón like an 0 (on a chanson by ?Martini) 2:37 Differencias sobre el Villancico, “suavidad y extrañeza” – which could be translated as iron filing to an electromagnet. Between these two # 44. Otro quarto tono 5:27 de quien te me enojo Isabel 6:10 “delicate fluency and otherworldliness”. Add these journeys, a considerable number of Cabezón’s keyboard $ 51. Otro sesto 3:15 ! Differencias sobre las Vacas 4:40 qualities to the granitic sobriety of the Spanish character works appeared in a major printed anthology, using a new @ Otras differencias de Vacas 4:01 so soon after the Reconquista from the Moors, and you kind of notation in numbers, the Libro de cifra nueva Eight tientos from the Obras de Música (1578) # Duviensela 3:58 have a foundation for the tension necessary to all great (1557) published by the Toledo organist Luys Venegas de art. Henestrosa. % I. segundo tono 3:42 Variations from the Libro de Cifra Nueva At Palencia, near the small town where Cabezón was Cabezón died in Madrid in 1566. His brother Juan, a ^ II. quarto tono 4:07 & 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 * 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 ( 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 (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 ) 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 ¡ 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 ™ 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 * 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 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, For the Libro, numbers are given here as in their irregular order of Fuga en quarta con el tiple 4:17 As early as 1539, we are told that “el ciego tañedor” 1578). appearance. In the Obras, the tientos form a compact separate (“the blind keyboardist”, as he was referred to in official The profundity and brilliance of Cabezón’s music has group starting on folio 50v, here shown with Roman numerals. ) Julio Segni da Modena (1498-1561): documents) had “penetrated to the core” of composition, been obscured from the outset by the uneven quality of 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 (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 with city, Cabezón accompanied his prince on two momentous possibilities for corruption. He says in his forward that the Titles as in musical texts (slight differences in tables of contents). iTunes 572475-76 bk Cabezon EU_iTunes 572475-76 bk Cabezon EU 17/04/2012 12:01 Page 4

devil had plagued him with errors, but that he was counterpoint so clear that restoration is often feasible, vihuela, an instrument somewhat like a set up and The most beautiful and ambitious of all the variations unwilling to wait another ten years to sort them out. Would although it must always be remembered that in such tuned like a lute. But the handful of sets of differencias in (CD 2 0), on a passamezzo moderno tune called Quién te that he had. Some of the pieces in the Libro for vihuela cases nothing can be definitive. When I first turned my the Obras marked the beginning of the form for keyboard me enojó Isabel, is almost never played because it comes exist in their originals by various composers, and the attention to these problems, the work of the Spanish instruments. No fewer than three of these (CD 2 4! @) down to us, in a major failure of proof-reading, seen through comparison is catastrophic for their editor, Venegas. musicologist Andrés Cea Galán provided much vary a tune called Guardame las Vacas, over a bass that a glass darkly – or rather, in a fun-house mirror. Many of the Besides countless wrong notes, we see missing enlightenment. I also owe special thanks to Prof. John was later known as the Romanesca. Its lively triple time is bars, through an idiosyncrasy of the tablature notation first accidentals or key signatures, voices de-synchronized by Koster (National Music , USA) for much patient stretched out here to a whole bar per beat. The last of pointed out by Andrés Cea Galán, are doubled in length, entire bars or transposed, measures doubled or left out, and wise counsel. I have gratefully appropriated many of these three sets is a special case; its insistent tolling and and several are missing in the final variation. even entire sections omitted or bits of different pieces their ideas, but any errors in the final result are my classical structure (grief, denial, resignation) leads me to The last piece in the Obras, incorrectly included patched together. There are only three such responsibility. think it may have been a lament on the death of a under the rubric of the differencias, is something of a concordances for the Cabezón pieces, but they present a This disc is devoted to Cabezón’s tientos and distinguished personage, perhaps Charles V; or it might mystery. Its title, Duviensela (CD 2 #), is a corruption of similar picture of desolation. One tiento, actually by Julio variations. The word tiento is the Spanish equivalent of be by Antonio’s brother or son, for Antonio himself. The D’où vient cela, a chanson by Claudin de Sermisy, but Segni of Modena, is misattributed to Antonio. We include ricercar (meaning “to search out”), a new kind of style is certainly unlike that of el ciego. this is not, as one would expect, an ornamented keyboard it here (CD 2 )) as an early source of inspiration for instrumental polyphony which had recently sprung up in The Pavana Italiana (CD 2 5) is what would later version of that polyphonic original; if it were, it would Cabezón, in the accurate version originally published in Italy. Cabezón was in the forefront of the rapid rise in come to be known as the Folía. The melody attached belong on an upcoming disc of Glosados. Here, the the monumental Musica Nova (Venice, 1540). intensity of the new form through the use of the higher here to this most famous of basses seems to have been melody alone is given a darkly brooding, mostly three- In Hernando’s posthumous publication, the situation artifices of counterpoint and thematic development; but in of Spanish origin, perhaps by Antonio himself; northern voice setting. Then, in one of the most beautiful codas is far better; but here too, in what he calls “mere crumbs his time he was quite without peer in infusing into it the composers called it the Spanish Pavane. A French ever composed, the piece rises like a phoenix from its from the master’s table”, are many traces of the hectic intangible element of real musical interest, as opposed to source (Arbeau) tells us it should be played in own ashes. Several gestures found in Hernando’s quality of the lives of both father and son. A tiento (VI) the mere juggling of dry intervals so often seen in such passamezzo tempo, faster than a true pavane. The Folía glosados are found in this remarkable piece; I cannot help (CD 1 () published by Hernando is, again, not by pieces by lesser masters. Even the historic movement appears again later on this disc (CD 2 &) in its original, thinking he put it, with modest anonymity, at the end of his Antonio, but by a Ferrarese contemporary, Giaches away from multiple themes towards a single subject (and complete form, a rare pavane in triple time from northern father’s Compendio de música as a small monument – Brunel. These major errors (and the fact that several eventually, the fugue), which found its first climax in the Italy called La cara cossa, transcribed for vihuela by what the French would soon begin calling tombeau. “tientos” in both books (CD 1 3 4 7 ¡) look much more work of Andrea Gabrieli, is well advanced in Cabezón’s Enríquez de Valderrábano of Valladolid, and varied once There are no true variation sets in Venegas’s Libro, like transcriptions of chansons or the like) cast a pall of tientos. Two (CD 1 0 #) are especially modern in their by Cabezón, who also often dwelt in what was then the but the four secular works using variation techniques are suspicion over everything – but only one tiento (CD 1 $) treatment of harmony and dissonance – “otherworldly” Spanish capital. included here to serve as background to the later is so much clumsier than the rest that it arouses my indeed, perhaps precursors of the Stravaganze that The title of the other piece called Pavana Italiana differencias. (CD 2 $) is the most archaic: a setting of the doubts. This could be an early work, or one mangled by appear a little later in Naples (another Spanish (CD 2 8) is a misnomer, forgivable because of the venerable basse danse tenor called The King of Spain, La Venegas. And when we think how nearly all of possession), and in subsequent “elevation” toccatas. similarity of the opening harmonies. It is, in fact, a French Spagna for short, and usually just La Alta in Spain – “the Hernando’s own music (contrary to wishes expressed in Another pair (CD 1 &, CD 2 1) uses the opening notes of pavane tune, Belle qui tiens ma vie. Confusingly, there is loud”, since it was played by festive instruments at balls. It his testament) was left unpublished and, eventually, lost the Marian hymn Salve Regina; one seems to illustrate another set (CD 2 9) on the same tune but with a was out of fashion by Philip’s day, but the conservative by his family, we can only be intensely grateful for his the Ecclesia Militans, the other, the Ecclesia Triumphans. Spanish title, La dama le demanda. Dance tunes crossed Spanish court kept on performing this dignified dance, like efforts on behalf of his revered father. The three tientos which rework motifs from vocal borders with ease in the sixteenth century; this version of modern orchestras wearing Edwardian evening clothes. Under such adverse circumstances, it seems to me works (CD 1 @*, CD 2 3) are particularly notable. The the tune, which dispenses with the reprises, also seems Cabezón’s two playful voices chase each other around far more likely that, when ugliness or a broken theme composer of Malheur me bat is disputed; Cabezón to want the livelier passamezzo tempo. the tenor in long notes. crops up in the original text, some error has occurred transforms the chanson into a picture of the blows of The popular love song del Cavallero (he is about to CD 2 % is yet another Folía, used here as bass to an along the line – whether in the original notation from Fortune raining down on her victim. The Josquin Mass leave the girl, but promises to return) hosts one of otherwise unknown poem and melody, lightly varied by Cabezón’s playing, the transfer to number-tablature, or movement closes with a heavenly Amen descending Cabezón’s finest sets (CD 2 7). The Gallarda Milanesa Antonio, in what looks like an early essay, or one for a the complex process of printing – than that anything through a long downward sequence like a blessing. (CD 2 6) may be a relic of Antonio’s stay in that city pupil. The musical text in Venegas is very corrupt – as is inelegant or technically faulty could have sprung from Cabezón gets most attention in the history books as during Prince Philip’s grand tour; it is a single variation on that for the Pavana (CD 2 &) taken from Valderrábano, such an exquisite musical mind. Fortunately, the web of the “inventor” of variation sets – the credit for which an entire galliard, which already varies each of its three discussed above. The Rugier glosado (CD 2 ^) is an thematic entrances is so dense and the laws of should go to Italian lutenists and Spanish masters of the strains. elaboration of another work by that vihuelist: a lovely iTunes 572475-76 bk Cabezon EU_iTunes 572475-76 bk Cabezon EU 17/04/2012 12:01 Page 6

setting of the opening lines of Ariosto’s immensely A Frenchman wrote in 1610: “Who can say (if he has “El ciego tañedor” or “the blind keyboardist”, Antonio de Cabezón was one of the most inspired popular epic poem, Orlando Furioso, one far superior to any sense at all) that he has never felt the force and masters of his day and a protégé at the court of King Philip II (whose favourite painting, the later Italian Ruggiero bass which was used for effects of music, hearing some excellent player sing on reproduced on the cover of the booklet, came into his possession while Cabezón was with him in improvised recitation of the endless cantos. his instrument? As for me ... I can say, having sometimes Brussels in 1555). Keyboard music was attaining a status equal to vocal polyphony at this time, Our last two works from the Obras are not tientos, but heard ... the Spaniard Antonio Caveçon playing and and Cabezón’s sophisticated Tientos are at the forefront of a rapid rise in a new intensity of they pack a similar contrapuntal wallop. Ad dominum cum singing on the organ ... that I was so ravished and so expression. Where the Tientos relate to vocal styles the Variations can frequently be traced to tribularer (CD 2 () must be a straight transcription of a deeply moved, that I could nevermore doubt the power, lost five-part setting of Psalm 120 / Latin 119 (“In my efficacy and influence of music.” popular songs and dance tunes such as the Folía. distress I cried unto the Lord”). The two upper voices are Recent research by Prof. John Koster shows that a in canon at the fourth, and Antonio contrives for them to northern European harpsichord or virginal (not an Italian Antonio de run parallel at the climax of this searing piece. It may be one) is most appropriate for sixteenth-century Spain. The coincidence that William Byrd chose this text for his first instrument used on this recording attempts to reconstruct CABEZÓN eight-part motet, and the same canonic procedure for his what such an instrument might have sounded like, (1510-66) own favourite work. working backwards from later Spanish examples, as I The Fuga a quatro (CD 2 *) is a four-part canon: have tried to reconstruct the music itself. Temperament is three voices in strict imitation of the first, a tour de force modified 1/6 comma meantone, based on evidence in Complete Tientos and Variations for any composer, let alone a blind one. And by repeating Santa Maria (1565). a section before his coda, he shows us the point of return CD 1 72:23 to make it a perpetual canon (go back to bar 51 eight bars Glen Wilson 1-$ Tientos from the Libro de Cifra Nueva (1557) 43:00 before the end). %-™ Eight tientos from the Obras de Música (1578) 29:23 Glen Wilson CD 2 69:00 Glen Wilson was born in the American Midwest in 1952. He studied at The Juilliard 1-3 Tientos (contd.) from Obras de Música 12:36 School before moving to Holland in 1971 as a student of Gustav Leonhardt. He was active in Dutch musical life for twenty years (harpsichordist of the Netherlands 4-# Variations from Obras de Música 36:31 Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Opera, Quadro Hotteterre and duo-partner of $-& Variations from the Libro de Cifra Nueva 8:46 Leonhardt, Wieland Kuyken, Alice Harnoncourt, Michael Chance, Mieneke van der Velden and many others) before moving to Bavaria as professor at the Music *-( Fugas from Obras de Música 8:03 University of Würzburg. He has since conducted his edition of Monteverdi’s Ritorno di ) Tiento in the sixth tone from Musica Nova (1540) 3:04 Ulisse in patria for the Netherlands Opera over sixty times on three continents (DVD on BBC Opus Arte). His recordings include seven solo CDs for /Das Alte Werk and a continuing series for Naxos. For more information, visit www.glenwilson.eu 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 Engineer and editor: Jürgen Rummel • Booklet Notes: Glen Wilson Harpsichord by Donatella Santoliquido. Modified sixth-comma meantone temperament, a=415 Hz. Special thanks to Fundação Graça Pidoulx for a generous travel grant. Photo: Volker Schneidereit Cover image: Descent from the Cross (detail) by Rogier van der Weyden (1399/1400-1464) (Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain)