Griffiths 1989 Mudarra

8/12/2019 Griffiths 1989 Mudarra

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Mudarra I

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It is the Fantasiaquecontrahaze la harpaen a manerade Ludovicv [Fantasia that imitata the harp in the styleof Ludovico] that has secured the vihuelist AlonsoMudarra a place among those renaissancemusicianswhose music is frequently performed today. Firstpublished in his Tres Libros de Musica en Cfrus paraVzhuela (Seville: ]uan de Leon, 1546), both the noveltyof sormd and the ngenuity of conceptionhave guaran-teed Mudarras fantasia a lasting attraction amongvihuelists, lutenists and guitarists. Many guitartranscriptions have beenpublished and, apart from in-dividuality of fingering, most agreewith the modifica-tions to the original tablature that appear in EmilioPujols standard critical edition of Mudarras Tres bros. A facsimile of the original edition is also currentlyavailable The purpose of this article is todemonstrate the uniqueness of the Fantusx

aque con-trahaze Ia harpaamong fantasias or the vihuela: it is theearliest known set of variations on the I- oliu,written byMudarra to emulate a renowned harpist of a previousgeneration.The work thus contains a second layer ofinformation based on Mudarras perceptions of soloinstrumental improvisation of an earlier age. My inten-

tion here, however, is not principally to provide anhistorical discourse, but rather to expose a set of his-torical and analytical facts that might stimulate per-formers towards a style of interpretation based on anew vision of the work, one which challenges variousacceptednotions.The fame that this fantasia enjoys are due aboveall to its novel harplike sound effects. Of the 219fantasias that survive for the vihuela, it is the only onethat makes use of special idiomatic effects, mitatingon one stringed instrument sounds belonging toanother. Instead of relying on imitative counterpoint,

the usual staple ingredient of the fantasia, here we findarpeggios, embellished and syncopated passages,aswell as various kinds of chromaticism and dissonance.Theseare the ngredients from which the harp effect screated. Mudarra was also obviously aware of thenovelty of his work. This must have been his reasonfor adding at the beginning of the work the commentthat it esdifu:Hhasta erentendhia [it is difficult until it isunderstood] and, from bar 125 of the original tabla-ture, that Desde aqui fastaacerca delfinal ay Algunas al-sas aniendose bien no parecen mal [from here almost tothe end are several dissonances which, when playedwell, do not sound bad]. These effects are well knownto all that have played or heard the work.What has been overshadowed by the special harpeffectsof the work is its relationship to the melodic-

JBy john Griffiths

harmonic scheme that a few decades later came to beknown as the folia. As the following analysis reveals,the fantasia comprises three variations on the folia.Consistent with the general characteristics of vihuelafantasias, Mudarras work reveals a rational scheme ofbalanced formal architecture, the typical symmetry ofall renaissanceart. At the same time it possesses

an ex-traordinarily dynamic forward motion that enables tto develop with fluidity and brilliance. It epitomizesthe union of static architectural design and dynamicmovement through time.The discovery of this hitherto undisclosed formalcontruction invites an historical explanation, and leadsto questions concerning performance and interpreta-tion. That in 1546 Mudarra published a solo in-strumental work based on the folza is in itself ofsignificance It must not be mere coincidence thatMudarra chose to use the fclia in a fantasia that wasconceived as a tribute to a famous musician of the pre-vious century. He must have had some notion of howplayers of an older generation improvised, and used

this as the basis of his composition.The identity of the Ludovico to whom the "HarpFantasia" s dedicated cannot be established with ab-solute certainty, although all evidence points to aminstrel employed by Ferdinand the Catholic whoreigned jointly with Isabel of Castille from 1469 to1502. According to documents gathered by thenineteenthcentury music historian Barbieri and citedby Pujol in his study on Mudarra, a musician named"Ludovico el del Arpa" was employed at that court. Itappears hat this harpist was of extraordinary skill andrepute, and that he becamesomething of a legendaryfigure. He is probably the same harpist that thetheorist ]uan Bermudo mentions in his Declaracicm dede nstrumentosmusicales, Ossuna, 1555).According toBermudo, "Dizen queel nombrado udovicoquarzdo veniaa clausular,pemiendo el dedodebaxo de Ia cuerda, a semi-tonaua, hazia clausulade sust1entad0". [lt is said thatthe renowned Ludovico, when he came to make acadence,put tris finger beneath he string to [raise it] asernitone, thus making a leadingtone cadence. lt isprecisely the imitation of these cadences that givesMudarras fantasia it character and individuality. Wemay suppose, on this basis, that Mudarra wrote hisfantasia as a homage o this already legendary harpist,using the devices for which Ludovico was famous as

the basis of his sound effects.He must have chosen ocast the piece in variation form knowing it to havebeen the musical style that, to musicians of the last


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third of the fifteenth century, enjoyed a high statusequivalent to the imitative fantasia of his own time.Mudarra thus transmits to us information of great his-torical significance. Not only does he mitate the soundof Ludovicos sharpened cadences,but he also trans-rnits a knowledge of the style and structure of piecescreated by late sixteenth-century solo instrumentalistsabout whose irnprovisatory practices scarcely anyother documentation remains.

Even though the earliest piece named folia datesfrom 1593, t is evident that the harmonic progressionthat it defines had already evolved by 15()0, and thatduring the sixteenth century, it was widely used/ forvariation writing under various names. 'I'lreevidence suggested by Mudarras fantasia is that atradition of improvising on set harmonic schemes n-cluding the jblra had already evolved during the fif-teenth century. This is significantly earlier than theFrench and Italian dances ound in early sixteenth-cen-tury printed lute books, and more so than the earliestdiferencias [variations] published in Narvaezs vihuelabook of 1538.

ANALYSISTheFantasiaqueamtrahaze la harpa s composed asthree continuous fvlia variations, both in its melodyand harmony. The first variation takes up 95 of the 157bars of tablature that comprise the work.The remaining 62 bars divide into two variationsof almost equal length. The opening of the original

tablature s shown in Example 1.Example 1. Mudarra, Tres libros de musica, fcls13,130.Example 1.

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x TATA.; sx, A-L3 .Z1 . ; "* -:g]g-z=3Zs`iZ%sami T- i**@m`;..c;T:e...J:.. #XCR~"=_.T-T1 _.Li.n_____.1 T _&_;;1_.,_T - .... #1 .4: _None of the three variations presents the folia for-mula identically, nor does any conform to the folra for-mula that becarne stabilized in the seventeenthcentury. The fvlia formula in its evolved form is com-pared with the three variants used by Mudarra in Ex-

ample 2. Instead of the E minor chord that begins heevolved folia, Mudarra substitutes an A major chord,lowering the bass a fifth and the melodic note a third. This is not surprising as the first chord of the foliawas the last to stabilize during its gradual historicaldevelopment. The versions of Valderrabano andPisador, for example, use the typical sixteenth-centuryprocedure of commencing on the second chord of the Aprogression, omitting the opening E minor altogether.In Mudarras work however, the use of the A majorchord permits the variations to proceedcontinuouslywith no cadential interruption. The work is thus ableto develop not only with fluidity, but also with an in-sistent forward thrust. The melodic alteration of thescheme also gives it a more regular linear curve, rising rn` I Y,

Example 2. Melodic-harmonic formulaeAa LL- 4 ..t AL:- -.a.;..I.. I ......-A - 1..-..:- AJ..-At the end or tms 31tlCl, 1 present a transcriptionof the Fantasiaque contrahaze la harpa hat shows thestructure of the composition more clearly than thoseintended primarily for performance. By reducing therhytlunic values of the original tablature to onequarter their length, both formal structure and rhyth-mic subtlety are shown with rnaximurn clarity. Thus,one crotchet of the transcription representsone bar ofthe original tablature. Barlines appear n the transcrip-tion only to mark important musical divisions; they donot denote metre. Double bars divide the variations.The bar numbering accords with the number of

crotchets in the transcription, that is, with the bars ofthe original tablature.In the original tablature, errors occur in two placesand both concern rhythmic notation. Firstly, the bar-line Sevaratinz bars 58 and 59 was omitted together

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wr me- Y-: Z with the minima that should be above the first figure ofbar 59. Secondly, in the penultimate bar, there is a [= crotchet] figure hat should bea usa [=quaver]. These errors are not substantial, and aretranscribed correctly in all editions I have seen.


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AG] Mudarra

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j AG] nr Iat this point with the melody having risen by stepfrom the initial c# up to g. To arrive at his first climax,the upper voice skips a third to arrive at b at bar 48, aforeshortening that gives strong impetus to the worksforward momentum. For the descent n the secondhalfof the variation, Mudarra maintains the hamronicprogression of the folia scheme, but elaborates themelodic skeleton with the pair of descending thirdsabove the D major and E minor chords between bars55 and 71. (Refer to Example 2.) In this way the im-petus acquired in the first half of the variation is dis-sipated gradually but without losing the worllsrhythmic momentum. /

Within the first variation, the melodic skeleton iselaboratedby three figures. The first is the three-notegure that opens the work, the filled falling third thatterminates on the main note of the melodic skeleton.Example

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sonority of the harp. Many guitar transcriptions carrythe same idea even further through the use of moreelaborate eft-hand fingerings. In these edobles, groupsof three notes are used within duple metre, adding afurther dimension to the effect.Whether theseare per-formed according to their melodic pattern or with ac-cents o maintain strict metre is a matter for individualchoice, and neither interpretation can be preferredonhistorical grounds. The assymmetrical option deservesonsideration as the resultant 3+3+2 pattern attainsconsiduable structural significance in the later varia-tions.Example 4 shows how the first variation iselaborated through the use of the three elementsdescribed. Repetitlionsare omitted.Example 4. Variation 1, schematic reduction

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This cell emphasizes the folia melody. lt also providesthe germ for further melodic development within thework, introducing interplay between the notes of themelodic skeleton and those a third higher. Example 4shows the use of this cell in the first variation. Theother two figures are those which imitate the harp: thearpeggios whose notes are marked in the tablaturewith a circumflex to show that they should be sus-tained, and the extended redobles [figurations] thatparody Ludovicos talent for chromatic alteration ofcadences.The purposeof these redoble passages s todirect the music to each subsequent note of the foliaformula, while the arpeggios reinforce the harmonicscheme and maintain rhythmic continuity. In theredobles, Mudarra places the note d# on the secondstring with e being the open first so that both soundconcurrently in order to reproduce something of the

l ne rrrst varrauon rs exploratory rn nature. rt rsut-tle more than the folia sequence et out in somewhatr-regularly over a ninety-five bar period. Each melodicnote is reinforced by a short melodic cell and by har-monic arpeggiation, and short connecting phrases acethese ogether.This is in keeping with the work's origin as im-provised music. Rather than the usual modem inter-pretation of this fantasia with dance-like rhythmicstrictnss, there is considerable scope o treat the open-ing with more freedom as if it were, in fact, being im-provised. Eachnew chord can be treated as f it were agoal, and thus suitably stressed, but the joumey be-

tween each"goal" can be treated more flexibly in orderto create the irnprovisatory effect. Later in the fantasia,hythmic insistence s more crucial. I

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AG] MudarraThe second variation possesses the same sym-metry as he first. Its first part, bars 95 to 110, eiteratesa new melodic phrase four tima as an ascending se-quence hat follows the stepwise ascent of the foliamelody. This figure elaborates on the interplay ofthirds that occurs in the first variation. lt at thelowest ebb of the work's inner drama, following the

forty-sevenbar descent rom the first climax point, butrises quickly to a second peak at bar 111. The secondhalf of this variation, bars 111 to 124, sustains the forceof the climax. It presents the folia melody and bass inskeletal form, modified only in the penultimate chordwhere he nomral bass note of e s replaced by a c. Thestrength and dynamism of the passage s created bythe rhythm of the inner voice whose semiquavers aregrouped 3+3+2 against the strict duple metre of theother parts. As this climax is achieved more rapidly, itappears o have greater force than the preceding one.However, n view of this climax occurring in the mid-dle of a variation, there seems o be no justification forthe change n tempo made at this point by many per-formers. The need to slow down from bar 111 can beobviated by an interpretation of the first variation ac-cording to the criteria set out above. Slowing thetempo at this point obscures the listener' s perceptionof the work's form: it does nothing to enhance themusic.

Even though words are frequently an inadequatemeans of describing musical phenomena, MudarrasFantasiaquecontrahaze la harpacan readily be describedand understood due to the great clarity of its construc-tion. It is a famous and mttraordinary work that, inde-pendent of its artistry, reveals various importantaspects of the early history of instrumental music. Asthe oldest conserved folia, it combines variation formwith the typical structural balance of the fantasiagenre, as well as informing us of the nature of solo in-strumental improvisation some half century earlierthan its own publication date. In addition, it is a mar-vellous work to play, and one which provides the lis-tener with ample reward.

Footnotes: This study is based on my article La 'Fantasiaque contrahaze a harpa de Alonso Mudarra; estudiohistorico-analitico published in RevistadeMusicologia,X (1986),2940, but substantially modified here. Alonso Mudarra, Tres Iibros de musicaen cifraspara vihuela, ed. Emilio Pujol, Monurnentos de la

Musica Espanola, VH, (Barcelona: Instituto Espanol deMusicologia, 1949, rpt. 1984). Monaco: Editions Chanterelle, 1980.

The syncopated figure introduced in the secondvariation, reminiscent of the opening harp cadence(bars 913), is transferred into the upper voice for thethird variation, and continues the work's dynamism.In this variation, the folia scheme is treated withgreater reedom. The ascending half of the formula isreduced to two chords: A major from bars 125 o 134,and B minor in bars 135 -142. While the treble partreiterates the 3+3+2 rhythmic figure, using the inter-play of thirds for its melodic substance, he bass ises afifth by step from a to e, and this is then repeated nsyncopatedand diminished form. The sameprocess srepeated a tone higher on the B minor chord, althoughthe syncopation of the shorter bass repetition issmoothedout. It is this passage hat provoked Mudar-ra to add the cautionary remark about dissonances.The conflict between d# in the upper part and dnatural in the bass, as well as the accented fourths,sevenths and ninths, does more than add dissonance,it createsa temporary senseof bitonality. This passageis the most dramatic representation of the legendarycadences or which Ludovico was famed, and creates awonderful effecton the vihuela or guitar.

Preparation or the final cadence s achieved bythe addition of two chords in the second half of thevariation. As well as retarding the work's accumulatedimpetus, heseextra chords balance the simplificationof thechordal pattern n the first half. This last sectionbeginsat bar 143with further reiterations of the 3+3+2syncopationaccompaniedby the regular harmonies ofthe folia,which are converted into redobles from bar$I.'r6tr aaem.

Mudarra also used the opening progression ofthe olia as the harmonic basis for the secondpart of hisFantasiadel quurto tono for guitar (No. 12), albeit in amore abstract form. See lohn Griffiths I`he VihuelaFantasia: a Comparative Study of Fomrs and Styles(Diss., Monash, 1983), pp. 200204. Mudarra, Tres libros de musica, op. cit. pp. 64-66. Pujol does not give the exact source of hisreference, and I have not been able to locate it amongthe archive of Barbieri documents in the BibliotecaNacional in Madrid.

Fol. 110. The earliest use of the term occurs in the Ramil-lete deflares manuscript, Madrid Bibl. Nac. MS 6(X)1.oncerning other early folias, several songs from thefifteenth-century Cancionerodel Palacio are derived

from it, as are several instrumental pieces of the six-teenth century published in the vihuela books ofValderrabano (1547) and Pisador (1552) under thenne of Pavana. Luis de Narvaez, Los seys libros del Delphin, (Val-ladolid, 1538). The transcription and analytical commentaryuse E-tuning to make it conform with modern guitarpitch tuning. G-tuning renders the most satisfactorytranscription in terms of renaissance onality.


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