Los seys libros del Delphin, Valladolid 1538

Luys de Narváez (c.1505-1552) • Vihuela • Italian & French tablature

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• Author(s): Luys de Narváez (c.1505-1552)
• Title: Los seys libros del Delphin, Valladolid 1538
• Year of edition: 1538
• Source: Ms. E-Mn R/9741

Los seys libros del Delphin, Valladolid 1538

Los seys libros del Delphín is one of the most renowned books of vihuela music of the sixteenth century. It is the only surviving vihuela music by Luis de Narváez. Also a composer of vocal polyphonic music, Narváez enjoyed considerable fame in his own time and was associated both with Spanish royalty as well as the leading noble houses of the Spanish kingdom. His fame is attested by the fact that eighteen of the works in Los seys libros del Delphin were reprinted in Spain and the Low Countries, or copied into manuscripts in England. Since the modern revival of the vihuela, Narváez’s music has become well known both on original instruments and in transcriptions for classical guitar, especially his sets of variations on “Guárdame las vacas” and his haunting version of Josquin’s “Mille regretz”, that he presents as the “Canción del Emperador.”

Published in Valladolid in 1538, Los seys libros del Delphin was the first book of instrumental tablature to be printed in Castile. Its title reflects similar beliefs in the power of music demonstrated in Luis Milán’s El Maestro (Valencia, 1536), the only vihuela music published prior to Narváez’s book. Whereas Milán’s book recalls the figure of Orpheus, Narváez draws on another mythological figure, the lyre player Arion. Kidnapped by pirates on his return from Sicily, Arion’s singing attracted the attention of a school of dolphins. To avoid being murdered by the pirates, he jumped into the sea and was miraculously rescued by one of the dolphins who brought him safely to shore, once again showing the power of music to defeat adversity. Despite this humanistic connection, Narváez’s book is very different to Milán’s El Maestro in nearly all other respects. The two books represent quite distinct currents of instrumental practice from the 1530s. In purely physical terms, the two books are very different in size, and the fundamental differences in their tablature notation indicate that they belong to different practices. More than anything, however, it is the musical difference that is the greatest point of demarcation.

Narváez was a trained polyphonist and was schooled in the composition of imitative counterpoint. In his petition to Charles V for licence to publish Los seys libros del Delphin he tells, moreover, that he had collected music by other instrumentalists, especially Luis de Guzmán, and Francesco da Milano which Narváez claims was unknown in Spain at the time. No music by Guzmán survives, but there are evident stylistic affinities between Narváez’s music and that of the divine Francesco in the fluidity of their counterpoint and the spaciousness of their musical textures.

The six books that make up the Delphin are devoted to different repertory genres, as if individual chapters of a book. The first two contain fourteen fantasias, the following one is a collection of intabulations of works by Josquin, Gombert and Richafort, and the last three deal respectively with variations on hymn tunes, villancico melodies and harmonic formulas, together with some songs for vihuela and voice and a basse dance. These are the oldest known variation writing in Western music history. The first book, the libro primero, comprises a cycle of eight extended fantasias presented in order of mode. The smaller fantasias of the second book show Narváez’s remarkable ability as a creator of elegant idiomatic compositions combining a clear musical rhetoric as well as contrapuntal craft. The majority of the fantasias from both books are polythematic imitative works, and show an affinity with the Italianate style of Francesco and his contemporaries. Two of the fantasias (6 and 7) are monothematic, based on the themes fa ut mi re and ut re mi fa mi,respectively. Another fantasia is essentially chordal, “de consonancias”. Most of the fantasias can be seen to be based on a tripartite model: exposition — extension — conclusion. Most commence with an imitative theme in a gradually expanding texture. Internal episodes that make up the “extension” develop the initial musical motion using a variety of resources, especially imitation of shorter melodic motives, free counterpoint, or the sequences that are a very strong feature of his personal style. Conclusions are characterised by repeated material, followed by brief codas. The fantasia that opens the volume is a parody that draws from Josquin’s chanson Adieu mes amours and Tu per ton temps by Gombert.

The libro tercero or third book contains intabulations of mass sections by Josquin, Gombert and Richafort. The libro quarto is dedicated to two extended sets of variations on the hymn tunes O gloriosa Domina and De sacris solemnis,contrapuntal variations on Gregorian melodies with varied configurations of voices and meters. Narváez describes the works of the quinto libro as “romances y villancicos” to sing and play, and with counterpoints to some of them. These are the three variations on Si tantos halcones and the six on La mi cinta dorada and five more as accompanied songs. The sexto libro comprises variations on grounds such as the twenty-two on Conde claros, four on Guárdame las vacas, three on a variant of the passamezzo antico, plus a closing basse dance. The only surviving pieces of vocal polyphony by Narváez are his motets De profundis clamavi published in the Quartus Liber cum Quatuor vocibus: Motteti Del Fiore(Lyon: Jacques Moderne, 1539) and the five-voice O salutaris hostia in the Quintus Liber Mottetorum ad Quinque, et Sex, et Septem Vocem (Lyon: Jaques Moderne, 1542).

The original edition of Los seys libros del Delphin was the first venture into tablature printing by Diego Fernández de Córdoba, a respected printer in Valladolid. In deciding how to go about printing a book of tablature, he probably would have examined some other tablature prints in order to come to understand the nature of the project and the way that other printers had approached the task. I would venture that Narváez might well have shown him a copy of the tablature book by Giovanni Antonio Casteliono, Intabolatura de leuto de diversi autori (Milan, 1536) for there are many similarities in the format and printing process, especially the page size, page layout and the use of multiple impressions in the printing. Fernández de Córdoba executed the print with a high level of precision and with excellent results.

Five copies of Los seys libros del Delphin are known to survive. Two are in the Biblioteca Nacional de España in Madrid. One previously was part of the Biblioteca Real (call number R/9741) while the second copy (R/14708) came from the collection of Francisco Asenjo Barbieri. The other copies are in the British Library in London (K.2.h.11), the Biblioteka Jagiellonska in Krakow (Mus. ant. pract. N70) formerly from the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, and the Library of Congress in Washington (M140.N3). A whereabouts of a further copy reported by Rubio Piqueras as being in the Biblioteca Provincial de Toledo (now the Biblioteca de Castilla-La Mancha) in 1922 is unknown. Not all the exemplars are identical. There is evidence of minor corrections being made during the printing process, presumably as the author came to the workshop to check the proofs, as was generally specified in Spanish printing contracts.

Given the high quality and accuracy of the original print, the task of making this new edition nearly five hundred years later has not presented great difficulties. The original text contains only a small number of errors. Changes to the musical text are indicated in the edition itself by footnotes on the tablature pages, so that players can review them easily and decide whether or not to observe them. We have limited the changes to ciphers that are obviously erroneous. There are others that are possibly incorrect, but that do not disturb the musical logic. These have been left unaltered. All verbal text is presented using the original orthography, modernised only in accordance with standard Castilian practice, by the addition of accents and the capitalisation of proper nouns.

© 2021 John Griffiths | Le Luth Doré ®

ITALIAN TABLATURE (URTEXT)
 
Libro primero. Fantasias
[1] Primer tono por gesolreut
[2] El segundo tono
[3] Tercer tono
[4] El quarto tono
[5] Quinto tono de Consonancia
[6] Sesto tono sobre fa vt mi re
[7] Septimo tono sobre vt re mi fa mi
[8] El octauo tono
 
El segundo libro
[9] Fantasía del primer tono
[10] Esta fantasia es del quarto tono
[11] Esta fantasía es del quinto tono
[12] Otra fantasía del quinto tono
[13] del primero tono por gesolreut
[14] Fantasía
 
El tercero libro
[15a] Sanctus [de Josquin] de la misa [Ercules Dux ferarie]
[15b] Ossanna de la misma missa
[16a] Sanctus de Josquin de la misa faissan regres
[16b] Ossanna de ma misma missa
[17] Este cum sancto spiritu es de la Missa sine nomine de Josquin
[18] La canción del Emperador… de Josquin
[19] [Jamais je n’euz tant de soulas] Cancion de Nicolas Gombert
[20] Canción [Si par soufrir]
[21] Ricaforte. Je veulx layser melancolie
 
El quarto libro
[22] Seys diferencias de contrapunto sobre el igno... O gloriosa domina.
Segunda diferencia de dos tiples sobre el tenor
Tercera diferencia a duo
Quarta differencia de proporcion
Quinta diferencia el canto llano por tiple Dupla.
Sesta diferencia es canto llano por tenor
[23] Otras seys diferencias de Sacris solemnis
Segunda diferencia
Tercera diferencia de proporcion Quarto contrapunto
Quinta diferencia es a duo
Otro contrapunto de Sacris solemniis
 
El quinto libro. Romances y villancicos
[24] Ya se asienta el rey Ramiro
[25] Paseábase el rey moro
[26] Tres diferencias sobre vn villancico que dize 
si tantos halcones la garça combaten
Segunda diferencia
Tercera diferencia
[La buelta]
[27] Seys diferencias de contrapunto sobre vn villancico... 
y la mi cinta dorada por que me la toma quien no me la dio.
Segunda diferencia
[Tercera diferencia]
Quarta diferencia
Quinta diferencia
Sesta diferencia
[28] La bella mal maridada
La buelta
[29] Contra punto sobre el villancico que dize: 
con que la lauare la tez de la mi cara.
La buelta
[30] Arde coraçon arde
 
El sesto libro
[31] Conde Claros del sexto tono
[32] Quatro diferencias sobre Guardame las vacas. Son del primer tono
[33] Otras tres diferencias hechas por otra parte
[34] Baxa de contrapunto el canto llano lleua el tiple. Es octauo tono. 
 

FRENCH TABLATURE
 
Libro primero. Fantasias
[1] Primer tono por gesolreut
[2] El segundo tono
[3] Tercer tono
[4] El quarto tono
[5] Quinto tono de Consonancia
[6] Sesto tono sobre fa vt mi re
[7] Septimo tono sobre vt re mi fa mi
[8] El octauo tono
 
El segundo libro
[9] Fantasía del primer tono
[10] Esta fantasia es del quarto tono
[11] Esta fantasía es del quinto tono
[12] Otra fantasía del quinto tono
[13] del primero tono por gesolreut
[14] Fantasía
 
El tercero libro
[15a] Sanctus [de Josquin] de la misa [Ercules Dux ferarie]
[15b] Ossanna de la misma missa
[16a] Sanctus de Josquin de la misa faissan regres
[16b] Ossanna de ma misma missa
[17] Este cum sancto spiritu es de la Missa sine nomine de Josquin
[18] La canción del Emperador… de Josquin
[19] [Jamais je n’euz tant de soulas] Cancion de Nicolas Gombert
[20] Canción [Si par soufrir]
[21] Ricaforte. Je veulx layser melancolie
 
El quarto libro
[22] Seys diferencias de contrapunto sobre el igno... O gloriosa domina.
Segunda diferencia de dos tiples sobre el tenor
Tercera diferencia a duo
Quarta differencia de proporcion
Quinta diferencia el canto llano por tiple Dupla.
Sesta diferencia es canto llano por tenor
[23] Otras seys diferencias de Sacris solemnis
Segunda diferencia
Tercera diferencia de proporcion Quarto contrapunto
Quinta diferencia es a duo
Otro contrapunto de Sacris solemniis
 
El quinto libro. Romances y villancicos
[24] Ya se asienta el rey Ramiro
[25] Paseábase el rey moro
[26] Tres diferencias sobre vn villancico que dize 
si tantos halcones la garça combaten
Segunda diferencia
Tercera diferencia
[La buelta]
[27] Seys diferencias de contrapunto sobre vn villancico... 
y la mi cinta dorada por que me la toma quien no me la dio.
Segunda diferencia
[Tercera diferencia]
Quarta diferencia
Quinta diferencia
Sesta diferencia
[28] La bella mal maridada
La buelta
[29] Contra punto sobre el villancico que dize: 
con que la lauare la tez de la mi cara.
La buelta
[30] Arde coraçon arde
 
El sesto libro
[31] Conde Claros del sexto tono
[32] Quatro diferencias sobre Guardame las vacas. Son del primer tono
[33] Otras tres diferencias hechas por otra parte
[34] Baxa de contrapunto el canto llano lleua el tiple. Es octauo tono.

• Editor(s): John Griffiths
• Tablature typography: Jean-Daniel Forget
• Music period: Renaissance
• Instrument(s): 6c Vihuela
• Instrumentation: Vihuela solo
• Notation: Italian & French tablature
• Modern edition: Urtext
• Publisher: Le Luth Doré Urtext Editions
• Year of publication: 2021
• Collection: Guitar and Vihuela Music Collection

• Pages: pp. 260
• Dimensions: 230x310 mm
• Weight: 0,810g
• Binding: Section sewn glue binding
• ISMN: 377-0-0017-8852-4

John Griffiths
Vihuelist and Musicologist

John Griffiths is a prominent vihuelist and lutenist, but more particularly a researcher of Renaissance music and culture, specialising in solo instrumental music. His research encompasses broad music and historical studies that include pedagogy, organology, music printing, and urban music, as well as more traditional areas of musical style analysis and criticism.

He is best known for his work on the vihuela and its music, about which he has written extensively in books, articles and reference works. He is an honorary Professor at The University of Melbourne, and a Chercheur Associé at the Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance in Tours. John Griffiths is also a Director of the International Musicological Society, former President of the Sociedad de la Vihuela in Spain, Editor of the Journal of the Lute Society of America, a Corresponding Member of the American Musicological Society, an Officer of the Orden de Isabel la Católica and a Member of the Order of Australia.

Jean-Daniel Forget
Computer Scientist, Lutenist

Passionate about the baroque era, Jean-Daniel Forget is a self-taught lutenist. In order to play the forgotten (lute) works of the 17th and 18th centuries, he has copied (and studied) their manuscripts for almost 20 years.

A long career as a computer scientist, having made him expert in programming, allowed him to utilize the normal logic of writing music, especially that which transcribes tablature for instruments with fretted strings.

In collaboration with Guy Grangereau. he has posted his tablatures on a public internet site that is frequented by many lutenists and guitarists.

Forget was enlisted by Miguel Serdoura to help prepare the musical examples for his fine Method of the Baroque Lute. Further on, he continues to assist Serdoura in the preparation of his (lute) editions.

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