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, Harpsichord 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 guitar 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 Museum, 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.