Fantasia No. 16 - Luys Milán Luis Milán was one of the most important figures of the Spanish vihuela tradition and the author of El Maestro (1536), the first known printed collection of instrumental music in Spain. Conceived as a didactic work, El Maestro presents its pieces in a carefully graded order of difficulty and preserves music that Milán tells us originated as improvisation on the vihuela. Fantasia 16 belongs to a later group of works that Milán describes as consonancias y redobles. These pieces alternate between chordal passages (consonancias) and rapid scalar or figural runs (redobles), a style associated with dedillo technique. Milán gives unusually explicit performance instructions: the chordal sections should be played with a slow compás, while the running passages should be fast, with slight pauses at fermatas (coronado). This approach prioritizes expressive contrast and gallant delivery (tañer de gala) over mechanical regularity. Like the earlier fantasias, Fantasia 16 moves freely through modal ambitus rather than adhering to a fixed tonal center, and its rhythmic flexibility can result in frequent changes of perceived meter when transcribed into modern notation. Played on a Michael Gee guitar.

Fantasia 1 is written in the first mode (primer tono) and is placed by Milán at the very beginning of El Maestro (1536) as an exemplar of how this mode functions. Milán instructs that it should be played with a somewhat hurried compás, emphasizing fluency and continuity rather than strict metric regularity. He urges the performer to observe carefully how the fantasia cadences, where it travels on the fingerboard and how it concludes. Stylistically, the piece reflects Milán’s improvisatory origins. Its texture frequently suggests imitation, but rather than sustained contrapuntal lines, it is built from short melodic units that are restated at different pitch levels, creating the illusion of polyphony. The rhythm is flexible and multimetric, with phrases unfolding freely rather than conforming to modern bar structures. Understanding the fantasia as a form of sung narrative—Milán himself was a singer of romances—helps illuminate its expressive pacing.

Excited to share a couple works by Enríquez de Valderrábano. ‘Soneto Lombardo a Manera de Danza’, from Valderrábano’s ‘Silva de Sirenas’ (1547), is a stylized dance derived from an Italian pavana. Versions of the same melody appear in German and French lute and organ sources. Valderrábano’s setting transforms this dance melody into a refined vihuela idiom, combining graceful rhythmic motion with elegant harmonic writing. ‘Fantasia 19’ is one of a number of works Valderrábano based on pre-existing vocal models. This fantasia is explicitly identified as a parody of the post-Kyrie from Josquin des Prez’s ‘Missa De Beata Virgine’. Rather than a literal transcription, Valderrábano reshapes the polyphonic source into a richly idiomatic solo work. The result is a fantasia that balances studied counterpoint with expressive freedom, illustrating both the vihuelist’s deep engagement with the most innovative Franco-Flemish repertory of his time and the Renaissance ideal of parody as a form of respectful transformation. Played on a Michael Gee guitar.

We had the pleasure of visiting Scottish luthier Pete Beer at his workshop last month. We chat about various topics and try three of his guitars. Hope you enjoy !

A couple pieces, originally for vihuela, from the Spanish Renaissance by Miguel de Fuenllana. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GXfFxmrFWOM