Luys de Narváez

Luis de Narváez (c. 1500 – 1555/1560) was a Spanish composer, primarily of polyphonic vocal music, and only secondarily of music for the vihuela, for which he is far better remembered today. The vihuela was a plucked instrument that flourished primarily in Spain in the 15th through 17th centuries; it was somewhat larger than a present-day guitar, was tuned like a lute and, in Spain, largely took the place of the lute.

Life

Luis de Narváez was born in Granada. His name first appears as a member of the household of the secretary to Carlos I and the comendadoratipo of the province of León, one Francisco de los Cobos, to whom his publication, Los seys libros del Delphin de música de cifra para tañer vihuela, was dedicated. In 1548 Narváez was in the service of Philip II, taught the choirboys in Phillip's chapel and went with him on trips to Italy and Northern Europe.

Works

Luis de Narváez's Los seys libros del Delphin de música de cifra para tañer vihuela were volumes of tablatures published at Valladolid in 1538. Tablature is musical notation based on symbols other than those used in conventional staff notation, usually tailored to a specific instrument, in this case to the vihuela. The volumes of Los seys libros del Delphin de música de cifra para tañer vihuela contained a collection of music for the vihuela. The collection includes a large number of instrumental fantasias on the Italian model, which were highly influential in the following decades; of romances, villancicos, and sets of diferencias, or variations, on songs already familiar to his hearers, such as Diferencias sobre Guárdame las vacas as well as the first published transcriptions for vihuela of polyphonic songs.

His most familiar pieces are his transcription of Josquin des Pres' work for four voices Mille regretz, also known as La Canción del Emperador (being a favourite song of Charles V), which maintains remarkable fidelity to the original; and for the song Paseavase el rey Moro, with its vihuela accompaniment. Two of his motets were published in 1539 and 1543 in Lyon, France.

Example

O gloriosa domina

By Luis de Narvaez, lute by Jan van Outryve, viol by Liam Fennelly (Capilla Flamenca)

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Recordings

• 2003 - Canticum Canticorum. In Praise of Love: The Song of Songs in the Renaissance. Capilla Flamenca. Eufoda 1359. Contains a recording of O gloriosa domina by Luis de Narváez.

Further reading

• With the resurrection of the lost arts of vihuela-making and -playing in the twentieth century, Emilio Pujol edited the volume on Narváez (1945) for the authoritative series Monumentos de la música española (Monuments of Spanish Music).

References & sources

• Thompson, Wendy; Rees, O. (2002). "Narváez, Luis de". The Oxford Companion to Music. Ed. Alison Latham. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198662122. OCLC 59376677. 
• Baines, Anthony; Montagu, J. (2002). "Vihuela". The Oxford Companion to Music. Ed. Alison Latham. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198662122. OCLC 59376677. 
• Dobbins, Frank; Pryer, A. (2002). "Tablature". The Oxford Companion to Music. Ed. Alison Latham. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198662122. OCLC 59376677. 
• Goldberg Magazine Essay on the Vihuela and the role of Narváez in the 20th-century revival of the vihuela.
• Juan Ruiz Jiménez, “Luis de Narváez and Music Publishing in Sixteenth-Century Spain” and Walter Aaron Clark, “Luis de Narváez and the Intabulation Tradition of Josquin’s Mille Regretz” in Journal of the Lute Society of America, XXVI/XXVII (1993/94)