milán, l.- el maestro, libro 1 (escobar)

7/21/2019 MILN, L.- El maestro, Libro 1 (Escobar)

1/8

LuysMILN(c. 1500-c. 1561)

El Maestro,

Libro 1 (1536)


2/8

Fantasas de consonancias 17:251 Fantasia I Tono 1. Compas apresurado 1:442 Fantasia II Tono 1. Compas apresurado 1:383 Fantasia III Tono 1. Compas algo apresurado 1:594 Fantasia IV Tono 2. Compas apresurado 1:195 Fantasia V Tono 2. Compas batido 2:066 Fantasia VI Tonos 1 & 2. No tempo indication 2:187 Fantasia VII Tono 3. Compas apresurado 2:03

8 Fantasia VIII Tono 4. Compas apresurado 2:059 Fantasia IX Tonos 3 & 4. Compas apresurado 2:14

Fantasas de consonancias y redobles 23:53

0 Fantasia X Tonos 1 & 2. Las consonancias a espacio y los redobles apriesa 3:12! Fantasia XI Tonos 1 & 2. Las consonancias a espacio y los redobles apriesa 3:01@ Fantasia XII Tonos 3 & 4. Las consonancias a espacio y los redobles apriesa 2:31# Fantasia XIII Tono 1. Las consonancias a espacio y los redobles apriesa 1:45$

Fantasia XIV Tonos 4 & 3. Las consonancias a espacio y los redobles apriesa 1:23% Fantasia XV Tonos 5 & 6. Las consonancias a espacio y los redobles apriesa 3:24^ Fantasia XVI Tonos 5 & 6. Las consonancias a espacio y los redobles apriesa 2:49& Fantasia XVII Tonos 5 & 6. Las consonancias a espacio y los redobles apriesa 2:37* Fantasia XVIII Tonos 7 & 8. Las consonancias a espacio y los redobles apriesa 3:12

Fantasas de consonancias 13:29

( Fantasia XIX Tono 5. [No tempo indication] 3:56) Fantasia XX Tono 6. [No tempo indication] 4:02 Fantasia XXI Tono 7. [No tempo indication] 2:39 Fantasia XXII Tono 8. Ni muy a espacio ni muy apriesa 2:52

6 Pavanas 11:18

El Maestro, Libro 1 (1536)Works for Solo Vihuela


3/8

Published in Valencia in 1536, Luys Milns Libro demsica de vihuela de mano intitulado El Maestro is the

oldest surviving collection of vihuela music. It is remarkablesophisticated music of great beauty that reveals aninstrumental tradition already in full flourish. The namesand reputations of earlier vihuelists, Luys de Guzmn (d.1528) for example, are well known but none of their musichas survived. Only one piece of vihuela music is knownfrom before Milns time, copied anonymously on theflyleaf of a book published in 1510 now in the British Library

in London. It is too brief and elementary to be a usefulindicator of the vihuelas music before Miln.Contradictory evidence still obscures Luys Milns

exact identity. He was probably born in the first decade ofthe sixteenth century into a Valencian noble family who hadbeen the lords of Massalavs since the Middle Ages. Mostof the biographical information about Miln comes fromboth his vihuela book and two other books written by him.The most illuminating is El Cortesano, a book written in theshadow of Castigliones book of the same name, and notpublished until 1561 even though it describes Milns life inValencia at the court of Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria, andGermaine de Foix in the 1530s. From the autobiographicaldescriptions in El Cortesano, a portrait emerges of Milnnot as an employee, but a noble member of the courtentrusted with the entertainment of the ladies who residedin it. From Milns own testimony we learn that this included

story telling, singing songs to the accompaniment of thevihuela, and playing court games, perhaps of the kind thatare depicted in another little book that he authored for thepurpose and that was printed under the title of Libro de

a cousin. Given these uncertainties, it is impossible toaffirm beyond doubt that the vihuelists mother was Violant

Eixarch, niece of the Borgia pope Alexander VI, or that ourLuys Miln was a priest who died in 1559 after severalyears of marriage to Anna Mercader by whom he had adaughter named Violant Anna.

Extrovert, charming and of strong character, Milnsmusic is immediate and irresistible. It also demonstrates amaturity that suggests that it might represent an older,well-established tradition. In style and sound, it is readily

distinguishable from the works of any other knowncomposer of music for the vihuela or lute. This couldpossibly be simply a mark of the composers individualityor, alternatively, due to the fact that it represents an earlysixteenth-century style that is otherwise undocumented.Perhaps Milns music is of a style that was knownthroughout all of Spain, although it might equally representa more regional style particular to Aragonese Valencia,and in some way linked to the performance traditions ofthe Italian improvisatori active during the precedingdecades at the Aragonese court in Naples. It bears notraces of the style of the Italian virtuoso Francesco daMilano who left his mark on nearly all subsequent vihuelamusic. This new Italian influence was first recognised byLuys de Narvez who, in his 1538 publication Los seyslibros del delphin, declared that the music included in it,inspired by Francesco da Milano whom he probably had

met in Rome, was a new style never previously heard inSpain. American musicologist John Ward in his 1953thesis on the vihuela aptly described Milns music as abridge between the improvisatory style of the Petrucci and

Luys Miln (c. 1500-c. 1561)

El Maestro, Libro 1 (1536)


4/8

played, in real time. In the prefatory text of El Maestro,Miln explains that the compositions in the bookoriginated in improvisation, that they were composeddirectly on the vihuela and then written down.

The solo instrumental works in El Maestrocomprise

forty fantasias, four tentosand six pavanas. The fantasiasare freely constructed works built as an assemblage ofshort episodes. They are analogous to works of prose:short narrative stories that divide into chapters, smallerparagraphs and individual sentences. They are madecoherent simply by their narrative continuity rather thanany thematic or structural principle. The small units orepisodes are drawn from a repository of improvisatory

formulae that Miln probably accumulated over a longtime. Unlike later vihuela music that is built heavily uponthe principles of imitative counterpoint derived from vocalpolyphony, Milns great skill was to create a musicalfabric that outwardly appears to be based on theseprinciples, but using simpler constructs that give theimpression of being much more complex than they reallyare. There are very few composers in all of Westernmusic who have had this extraordinary ability. Theformula used by Miln in the majority of his fantasias is toconstruct an initial episode with longer themes that recallsthe opening gestures of polyphonic madrigals andmotets. This initial section is customarily followed by asuccession of shorter episodes based on multiplerepetitions of short motives. These, in particular, are thesections that give the impression of being imitativecounterpoint, but they are really idiomatic texturesdesigned to fit easily under the players fingers andemulate the sound of more complex writing. Miln usuallysignifies the approaching conclusion of his fantasias byrepeating the music of his final episode This sends a

these works as Fantasas de consonancias y redobles,or festive fantasias in the taer de galastyle. The fourtentos in the second libroof El Maestro are nothingmore than extended fantasias in the taer de gala style.

The present recording by Jos Antonio Escobar

presents all the works for solo vihuela from the first libroof El Maestro in the order in which they appear in thebook. In this book, it is clear from the outset that themusic is, in fact, of considerably greater difficulty thanmost teachers would use with beginners. Even the veryfirst fantasia is quite sophisticated in many ways. Wecatch a glimpse of Miln the teacher in hisrecommendation for this piece that it should be played

quickly: the faster you play it, the better it will sound.These are clearly words of encouragement for abeginner battling to master the piece rather a literalinstruction to play at a very fast tempo.

The first libro is organised in the following way:Fantasias Nos. 1-9are of increasing difficulty and arecomposed moving through the modal cycle using modes1-4. The following nine fantasias, Nos. 10-18, arefantasas de consonancias y redobles that progressivelyexplore the full spectrum of modes 1-8. The next groupof fantasias, Nos. 19-22, pick up where the first groupfinished and are composed in modes 5-8. These arefollowed by the pavanas, works composed by Miln inthe style of Italian dances of which he says These sixfantasias that follow, as I said earlier, appear in theirstyle and texture to be like the very pavanes that areplayed in Italy, and because they resemble them inevery way, let us speak of them as pavanes (Estasseys fantasas que se siguen como arriba hos dixeparescen en su ayre y compostura alas mesmaspauanas que en Ytalia se taen: y pues en todo


5/8

Jos Antonio Escobar

Jos Antonio Escobar is one of the mostdistinguished and versatile classicalguitar soloists of his generation. He is

especially known for the perfect balancehe achieves between intense musicalexpression and a vast knowledge ofvarious musical styles and periods. Hewas born in Santiago, Chile, where hegraduated with top honours after studyingat the Conservatory of Music, Universityof Chile. Immediately after graduating he

continued his studies at the Hochschulefr Musik in Augsburg, Germany. Underthe influence of his first master, thelutenist Ernesto Quezada, he becamedeeply interested in early instruments ofthe guitar family. This motivated him tocomplete his studies by attending Early

Music courses and master-classes with renowned specialists such as Hopkinson Smith, Eduardo Egez, and JuanCarlos Rivera. He combines his interest in early music with the contemporary, with particular attention to Chileancomposers. He has been awarded some fifteen prizes in leading international guitar competitions, including theFrancisco Trrega (Spain), Alessandria (Italy), Alhambra (Spain), Guitar Foundation of America (USA), Julin Arcas(Spain), and Karl Scheit (Austria). He has appeared widely as a soloist with orchestra and in recital and has anumber of successful recordings to his credit.

Photo: JosAntonio de Pablo


6/8


7/8

Also available

EA

RL

Y

M

US

I

C

8.570284

Also available

8.572178

8.572863-64 8.573392-93


8/8

Although biographical details of his life remain sketchy, Luys MilnsLibro de msica de vihuelade mano intitulado El Maestro is certainly the oldest surviving printed collection of vihuela music.Tuned like the contemporary Renaissance lute, the Spanish vihuela is a guitar-shaped instrumentand for it Miln wrote a series of compelling works including fantasias and pavans that maturelyfused improvisatory and polyphonic elements. This recording presents all the solo vihuela piecesfrom the first book ofEl Maestro in the order in which they appear.

DDD

8.573305

7

4

7

3

1

3

3

3

05

7

7

&

2015NaxosRightsUS,Inc

.

BookletnotesinEnglish

MadeinGerm

any

www.naxos.com

LuysMILN(c. 1500-c. 1561)

El Maestro, Libro 1 (1536)Works for Solo Vihuela

Jos Antonio Escobar, Vihuela de mano

1-9 Fantasas de consonancias 17:25

0-* Fantasas de consonancias y redobles 23:53

(- Fantasas de consonancias 13:29

- 6 Pavanas 11:18

A detailed track list can be found inside the booklet.

Recorded at The Green Room, Offord Hall, Aurora, Ontario, Canada, from 1st to 4th May, 2014

Producers: Norbert Kraft and Bonnie Silver Engineer: Norbert Kraft Editor: Bonnie SilverVihuela made by Julio Castaos (Mlaga, 2013)

Booklet notes: John Griffiths

Playing Time66:05

LUYSMILN:ElM

aestro,Libro1

NAXOS

LUYSMILN:ElM

aestro,Libro1

NAXOS

8

.573305

8

.573305

milán, l.- el maestro, libro 1 (escobar)

Documents