Luys de Narváez – Los seys libros del Delphin (1538)
Work, source, and Urtext edition
Los seys libros del Delphin, published in Valladolid in 1538, occupies a singular place in the history of Renaissance instrumental music. The title itself refers to a humanistic programme, rather than a simple descriptive designation. The reference to the Delphin (dolphin) evokes the ancient myth of Arion, poet and musician whose song drew dolphins to his rescue, a symbol widely associated, in Renaissance thought, with the moral and transformative power of music. Through this choice, Luys de Narváez situates his work within a learned tradition linking instrumental practice, rhetoric, and ethical reflection.
Far from constituting a simple anthology, Los seys libros del Delphin presents a rigorously structured musical project, conceived by a composer trained in vocal polyphony and active at the Spanish royal court. The six books articulate a progression of genres and techniques—fantasias, intabulations, variations, romances, and basses harmoniques—through which Narváez explores the expressive and structural capacities of the vihuela, while formulating explicit rules of performance relating to compás, proportion, tempo, and the relationship between voice and instrument.
L’édition moderne
The publication of Los seys libros del Delphin by Le Luth Doré offers a scholarly transcription of the 1538 edition, the first instrumental tablature book printed in Castile. Prepared by John Griffiths, musicologist and vihuelist, this edition is grounded in a rigorous Urtext approach, based on an explicit editorial methodology attentive both to the demands of historical preservation and to the needs of contemporary performance.
By presenting the music both in its original Italian tablature and in a parallel French tablature, the edition offers direct access to the only surviving instrumental corpus of a composer occupying a central position at the Spanish royal court.
Editorial methodology
The original edition of Los seys libros del Delphin was printed in Valladolid in 1538 by Diego Fernández de Córdoba. While the quality of this print is high and the surviving copies are generally well preserved, the editorial work undertaken for the modern edition rests on a fundamental distinction between historical preservation and instrumental legibility.
John Griffiths applies an Urtext methodology aimed at restoring the composer’s intentions as they appear in the primary source, while identifying a limited number of manifestly erroneous figures. These interventions are never silent: they are documented in the footnotes of the tablature pages, allowing the reader to assess precisely the editorial logic applied to the musical text.
The verbal texts—prologue and dedicatory poems—preserve their original orthography, with any modernization strictly limited to accents and capitalization, in accordance with standard Castilian usage. This editorial decision reflects a sustained commitment to textual transparency, ensuring that the edition remains a reliable analytical tool, rather than an interpretative reconstruction.
The editor : John Griffiths
John Griffiths is an internationally recognized scholar, performer, and editor, specializing in Renaissance music for plucked string instruments, with a particular focus on the vihuela, the lute, and early instrumental polyphony. Professor Emeritus of Musicology at the University of Melbourne, he has played a central role for several decades in the study of Iberian instrumental repertoires.
His work has contributed decisively to the modern understanding of sixteenth-century Spanish music, notably through his research on vihuela sources, notation systems, and the relationship between voice and instrument. Alongside his academic activity, John Griffiths is also an active performer, a dual expertise that informs his editorial approach and underpins the balance between philological rigor and practical musical intelligence that characterizes this edition.
His long-standing engagement with Los seys libros del Delphin enables the edition to render intelligible the internal logic of the six books, the function of compás, and the practice of chanter et jouer (singing while playing), without superimposing interpretative layers foreign to the source.
Instrumental legibility and layout
The justification for a new edition lies not in any supposed shortcomings of the 1538 print, but in the distinction between historical fidelity and instrumental legibility for the contemporary performer. The engraving of the tablature, carried out by Jean-Daniel Forget using the Fandango software, was conceived with sustained instrumental reading in mind.
Parameters such as spacing of the figures, alignment of the voices, and the overall visual organization are treated as elements that directly influence musical execution. For held instruments—vihuela or lute—page layout and the anticipation of page turns become decisive musical factors. The layout of the edition thus aims to reduce interruptions and to promote the continuity of phrasing.
Internal structure and musical logic
The organization of the six books reflects Narváez’s polyphonic training and his humanist commitment, already expressed in the title Delphin. In the prologue, Narváez defines compás (tactus) as the distance or space separating one note from the next, establishing a conceptual framework governing the performance of the entire volume.
The edition preserves Narváez’s tempo indications, notated by means of two circles: one signaling a faster pace, the other a more restrained speed, required for passages involving complex consonances or diminutions.
The repertoire is organized by genre:
• Fantasias (Books I & II): fourteen imitative works, largely polythematic, articulated according to a logic of exposition, development, and conclusion.
• Intabulations (Book III): adaptations of vocal polyphony by Josquin des Prez, Nicolas Gombert, and Jean Richafort, illustrating Narváez’s contrapuntal mastery.
• Variations (Books IV, V & VI): works based on hymns, romances, villancicos, and harmonic grounds such as Guárdame las vacas, representing some of the earliest techniques of contrapuntal variation in Western music.
Vocal integration and supplement
Book V addresses the practice of singing while playing (chanter et jouer), a central element of Narváez’s conception of the interaction between voice and instrument. In the vihuela tablature, Narváez identifies the vocal line by means of red figures, indicating the notes intended for singing rather than for instrumental performance.
The Supplement to the edition clarifies this practice by providing the vocal lines in staff notation, accompanied by the complete texts of the romances, often omitted in 1538 because they were known by heart. In the third variation of Si tantos halcones, Narváez explicitly states that the vocal part should not be doubled by the instrument, on pain of producing technically impracticable consonances—an indication of great value for understanding sixteenth-century performance conventions.
The strategy of dual notation
La musique est ici présentée selon le système de tablature italienne tel qu’il apparaît dans Los seys libros del Delphin (Valladolid, 1538), conformément aux usages de la vihuela espagnole du XVIᵉ siècle. Cette notation numérique, propre au contexte ibérique, constitue la forme première et autoritative sous laquelle Luys de Narváez a conçu et transmis son œuvre.
La conservation intégrale de ce système répond à une exigence philologique fondamentale : restituer la musique dans son langage notationnel originel, sans normalisation ni adaptation implicite. Elle permet d’accéder directement aux choix graphiques, structurels et conceptuels du compositeur, notamment dans le traitement du compás, des proportions rythmiques et des relations entre voix et instrument.
Cette tablature originale n’est donc pas envisagée comme un simple document historique, mais comme une source musicale active, indispensable à la compréhension du projet esthétique et intellectuel de Narváez, et à toute lecture informée de son œuvre dans le cadre de la Renaissance espagnole.
The introduction of a French tablature responds to the documented historical dissemination of Narváez’s music beyond Spain from the mid-sixteenth century onward. From 1546, printers in the Southern Low Countries, foremost among them Pierre Phalèse in Louvain, published works by the composer in alphabetic notation, intended for musicians familiar with the continental lute tradition.
The presence of this French tablature therefore constitutes neither a modernization nor a concession to contemporary practice, but a historically attested notational translation, consistent with the modes of circulation of the repertoire during the Renaissance. It reflects the ways in which this music was read, performed, and transmitted in distinct cultural contexts, without alteration of its musical content.
By presenting both systems on separate yet strictly equivalent pages, the edition removes barriers to reading for modern lutenists and guitarists trained in French tablature, while maintaining a direct relationship to the source. This strategy of dual notation thus seeks to reconcile historical fidelity with instrumental legibility, without hierarchy or added interpretation.
In addition to being a major anthology of the vihuela repertoire, this publication possesses a strong pedagogical dimension. It includes clear explanations of how to read the tablature and interpretative guidance, originally intended for sixteenth-century musicians and now translated into modern English.
The layout also deserves special mention: the number of page turns has been reduced to a minimum in order to facilitate performance. Finally, a particularly noteworthy feature of this edition devoted to the vihuela repertoire is the presentation of complete pieces in two different notational systems, printed on separate pages.
I strongly recommend this edition to anyone hesitant to explore this repertoire because of numeric tablature notation.
Editions conceived as instruments of knowledge
This volume is now available for purchase. It is addressed to lutenists, scholars, and research institutions seeking a reliable Urtext edition, conceived as a durable working tool, combining philological rigor, instrumental legibility, and material quality, in full respect of the sources and historical performance practices.
Los Seys Libros del Delphin
Luys de Narváez (c.1505–1552)
103,95 €
The Le Luth Doré Urtext editions are not conceived as mere reading materials, but as true working instruments, intended to accompany musical practice and research over the long term.
Each volume is based on a rigorous philological study of the sources, conducted from a strictly documentary perspective. Editorial choices aim neither at modernization nor simplification, but at the faithful restitution of notational systems, musical structures, and theoretical frameworks specific to each work. The edition thus seeks to make musical thought legible without ever substituting itself for it.
This requirement extends into musical engraving and instrumental layout, conceived for fluent reading at the instrument. The organization of systems, management of page turns, visual hierarchy, and continuity of phrasing are treated as integral components of the editorial discourse, serving both the performer and the analyst.
The attention given to content finds its natural extension in the material production of the volumes. Le Luth Doré editions are distinguished by high-end finishes, chosen not as ornamentation but as markers of durability and coherence with the editorial project: hard covers, thick and opaque paper, embossing, hot-foil stamping, and selective varnishstructure the book as an object, enhance visual legibility, and affirm its status as a reference work.
These technical and aesthetic choices participate in a single guiding principle: to make each volume a long-term edition, designed to withstand intensive use and to inscribe the works within a material form commensurate with their historical and musical significance.
Between source and living interpretation
The Urtext edition presented here is not a reproduction of the 1538 print, but a scholarly restitution that respects the notation, typography, and theoretical framework of Los seys libros del Delphin. Through the editorial work of John Griffiths and the careful engraving by Jean-Daniel Forget, this edition reconciles a rigorous and minimalist Urtext methodology with a layout conceived for fluent reading at the instrument.
It thus renders the musical and structural complexity of the work accessible both to musicological analysis and to interpretative practice, without ever compromising the integrity of the source or altering the principles that govern its musical language.
