Alonso Mudarra

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Alonso Mudarra or Alonso de Mudarra (* around 1508 , † April 1, 1580 in Seville ) was a Spanish composer , vihuela player and guitarist of the Renaissance .

Live and act

His place of birth is not known, nor is his exact date of birth or early years known. In the introduction to his Tres libros he reports that he grew up in Guadalajara in the house of the third and fourth Duke of Infantado , namely Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (1461–1531) and Iñigo López de Mendoza (1493–1566). He probably received his musical training there in the service of these dukes. He probably went to Italy in 1529 in the wake of the fourth Duke of Infantado for Charles V to be crowned imperial . On his return to Spain, he was ordained a priest , possibly in Palencia , and later, on October 18, 1546, became a canon at the Cathedral of Seville . In this city he had a significant influence on musical life and stayed there for 34 years until the end of his life.

His duties at the cathedral included directing all musical activities; there are many reports of it in Seville. This included the commissioning of instrumentalists, the purchase and management of the construction of a new organ and the close collaboration with the composer Francisco Guerrero (1528–1599) for the various festive occasions. He died in Seville and, according to his last will, his considerable fortune was distributed to the poor in the city.

Works and meaning

Title page of the Tres libros de música en cifra para vihuela (Seville, 1546)

Mudarra belongs to the group of seven Spanish vihuelists of the 16th century, together with Luis de Milán (1500–1561), Enríquez de Valderrábano (1500–1557), Esteban Daza (1537–1591), Diego Pisador (1510–1557), Miguel de Fuenllana (1500–1579) and Luis de Narváez (1500–1555), whose innovations in instrumental and vocal music were so significant that their work has been noticed up to the present day.

Mudarra's pieces for the vihuela and the four-course guitar were published in the three-volume collection Tres libros de música en cifra para vihuela (“Three books of music in tablature for Vihuela”) and published in Seville on December 7, 1546. The work was written by Juan de Léon was printed in Seville and is dedicated to Luis Zapata (1526–1594), a member of the Council of Catholic Kings and Charles V. The work consists of 44 pieces for vihuela alone, 26 pieces for vihuela and voice, six pieces for solo guitar and a piece for guitar and organ or harp .

Mudarra's repertoire consists of his own compositions and transcriptions of works by other Renaissance composers such as Josquin des Prez (1452–1521), Nicolas Gombert (1495–1560), Adrian Willaert (1490–1562), Antoine de Févin (1470–1512) and Pedro de Escobar (1468-1535). The genres and forms contained in this publication are Fantasies , Variations (including a series on La Folia and the four-part Diferencias sobre el Conde Claros ), Tientos , Pavans , Galliards and Songs . The songs are in Latin, Spanish and Italian and include romances , canzons , villancicos and sonnets . The lyrics of the songs go back to Spanish authors such as Jorge Manrique ( Recuerde el alma dormida ), Juan Boscán ( Claros y frescos ríos ), Garcilaso de la Vega (1503–1536) and other anonymous poets ( Si por amar, el hombre ser amado; Isabel, perdiste la tu faxa; ¿Qué llantos son aquestos? and others), in Italian such as Francesco Petrarca ( La vita fugge ) and Jacopo Sannazaro ( O gelosia d'amanti ) and in Latin authors such as Ovid ( Hanc tua Penelope ) , Horace ( Beatus seine ) and Vergil ( Dulces exuviae ). Among the romances of anonymous poets, the text Triste estaba el Rey David y Durmiendo yva el Señor should be mentioned . In Mudarra's songs, the Italian influence on his music is evident. They are among the oldest solo songs with independent instrumental accompaniment.

The six pieces for guitar are the oldest surviving pieces for the four-course guitar. The inclusion of the guitar, which, with its small number of string choirs, was considered a less demanding instrument compared to the vihuela, in a work with predominantly contrapuntal music, can be seen as an innovation. A notation-based innovation introduced by Mudarra were separate symbols for different tempo levels, slow, moderate and fast, which, together with the verbal tempo indications in Luis Milán, represent early evidence of the gradual development of the modern time concept with variable tempo levels.

The second book of the collection is noteworthy in that there are eight groups each having a Tiento and a Fantasia includes that corresponding to the eight Kirchentonarten , the tonos are arranged and on which the respective mode are demonstrated in compressed form characteristic phrases and clauses. Each of these smaller compositions is followed by another, more extensive work in the same mode, mostly a Fantasia or Glosa about music by Josquín at a fair.

Today's listeners are particularly familiar with his Fantasia X , which is one of the few compositions by Mudarra that has been adopted into the concert guitar repertoire. The Fantasía que contrahaze la harpa en la manera de Ludovico ("Fantasy, imitating the harp in the manner of Ludovico") is composed in the style of the Folia Variations and imitates the harp play of a Ludovico who was possibly active at the court of Ferdinand the Catholic and one of his special abilities apparently included being able to play polyphonic passages on his instrument, the technically demanding chromatics of which resulted in daring transverse dissonances ( falsas ).

literature

  • JM Ward: "The vihuela de mano" and Its Music 1536–1576. Dissertation at New York University 1953 (unpublished, microfiche).
  • M. Schneider: Un villancico de Alonso de Mudarra procedente de la musica popular granadina. In: Anuario Musical. 10, 1955, pp. 79-83.
  • R. Stevenson: La música en la Catedral de Sevilla 1478–1606: documentos para su estudio. Madrid 1985.
  • G. Braun: The Spanish Vihuela songs in the 16th century. Dissertation at Heidelberg University in 1993 (unpublished, microfiche).
  • T. Binkley, M. Frenk: Spanish Romances of the Sixteenth Century. Bloomington 1995.
  • John Griffiths: The Vihuela: Performance, Practice, Style and Context. In: V. Coelho (Ed.): Lute, Guitar, and Vihuela: Historical Performance and Modern Interpretation. Cambridge 1997, pp. 158-179.
  • O. Schöner: The Vihuela de mano in Spain in the 16th century. Frankfurt am Main 1999.
  • John Griffiths: Improvisation and Composition in the Vihuela Songs of Luis Milán and Alonso Mudarra. In: Troy. 2, 2003, pp. 111-131.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marc Honegger, Günther Massenkeil (ed.): The great lexicon of music. Volume 5: Köth - Mystical Chord. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau a. a. 1981, ISBN 3-451-18055-3 .
  2. ^ The music in past and present (MGG), Volume 12, Bärenreiter Verlag, Kassel / Basel 2004, ISBN 3-7618-1122-5 .
  3. ↑ Tres libros de música en cifra para vihuela. Critical edition and transmission by Emilio Pujol , Barcelona 1949.
  4. ↑ Frederick Noad: The Renaissance Guitar. (= The Frederick Noad Guitar Anthology. Part 1) Ariel Publications, New York 1974; Reprint: Amsco Publications, New York / London / Sydney, UK ISBN 0-7119-0958-X , US ISBN 0-8256-9950-9 , p. 108 f.
  5. ↑ researchgate.net John Griffiths: La "Fantasía (...) de Alonso Mudarra. Estudio histórico-analítico (PDF file, Spanish, accessed August 4, 2020)
personal data
SURNAME Mudarra, Alonso
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mudarra, Alonzo de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish vihuelist and composer of the Renaissance
DATE OF BIRTH around 1508
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 1580
Place of death Seville