Anthology of Spanish Renaissance Music for Guitar
Seventy three pieces by Milan, Narvaez, Mudarra, Valderrabano, Pisador, Fuenllana, Daca, and Ortiz
Arranged by Paolo Cherici
Ut Orpheus: 77 pages
Reviewed 5th October 2018
After an eighteen-page Preface in Italian and English, which goes into some fascinating detail, this considerable tome covers a significant amount of the very best music originally written for the vihuela and is ideal for the player who hasn’t delved much into this area of our music. The vihuela, tuned like the lute, is immediately playable on guitar, especially when you retune your third string to an F#, which only takes a little while to get used to. Apart from the nine works by Diego Ortiz at the end of the volume, which are all duets, the remainder are solo in their entirety.
Every one of the composers whose music we still have are represented in this volume commencing with ten Fantasia, the six Pavanes and Tentos IV by Luis Milan. The ten pieces by Luys de Narvaez include the well – known Mille Regres de Josquin, often called La Cancion Del Emperador, and the Diferencias de Conde Claros. Another version of this piece is found in Alonso Mudarra’s thirteen pieces along with perhaps his most famous piece, the Fantasia Que Contrahaze La Harpa En La Manera de Ludovico.Nine works by Enriquez de Valderrabano, five by Diego Pisador, eight by Miguel de Fuenllana and two by Estaban Daca complete the solos.
This music is timeless and is clearly placed into notation although there are always places where the part – writing could be written in other ways. That said, this is a real find and worth getting your hands on.
Chris Dumigan