SPANISH RENAISSANCE SUITE
The flowering of 16th century Spanish music can be traced directly to Charles V’s coming to the throne in 1516. This brought Spain and the Netherlands under one crown for the first time, and Flemish influence on Spanish composers naturally increased. The reigns of Charles V and later his son Philip II (1516 - 1598) coincided precisely with the period of Spain’s greatest musical glory. The composers represented this evening are only a few of the countless talents active in Spain during the 16th century.
For centuries the most popular Spanish instrument was the vihuelo (a sort of lute with some features of the guitar). It was the aristocratic instrument and every gentleman played it! Practically all of the instrumental music preserved from the Spanish Renaissance appears in notation appropriate for the keyboard or stringed instruments, but there is ample evidence that a fairly large community of wind players was also active at the time. These wind players, or ministriles shared the keyboard and vihuelo repertoire, either lending harmonic support or embellishing melodic lines in the manner most fitting to their instruments.
[Above Note Source: BCMSA Artists Series April 28, 1985 Program Note]
The flowering of 16th century Spanish music can be traced directly to Charles V’s coming to the throne in 1516. This brought Spain and the Netherlands under one crown for the first time, and Flemish influence on Spanish composers naturally increased. The reigns of Charles V and later his son Philip II (1516 - 1598) coincided precisely with the period of Spain’s greatest musical glory. The composers represented this evening are only a few of the countless talents active in Spain during the 16th century.
For centuries the most popular Spanish instrument was the vihuelo (a sort of lute with some features of the guitar). It was the aristocratic instrument and every gentleman played it! Practically all of the instrumental music preserved from the Spanish Renaissance appears in notation appropriate for the keyboard or stringed instruments, but there is ample evidence that a fairly large community of wind players was also active at the time. These wind players, or ministriles shared the keyboard and vihuelo repertoire, either lending harmonic support or embellishing melodic lines in the manner most fitting to their instruments.
[Above Note Source: BCMSA Artists Series April 28, 1985 Program Note]