For a musician of Antonio de Cabezón's eminence and influence, it remains disappointing to have relatively little of his music surviving, and most of that published a dozen years posthumously by his son. This publication, though entitled Obras, may only contain a dim reflection of Cabezón's nearly 40 years' experience providing virtuoso keyboard music for the court of Prince (later King) Felipe II of Spain. Nonetheless, Cabezón's surviving music gives to posterity some idea of the dazzling invention of his musical mind, especially in terms of ornamentation, as well as the flow of his lyric gift in the midst of such complexity. His Diferencias (variations) on the popular song "El Canto llano del Cabellero" strongly display both characteristics.

The popular song itself upon which Cabezón based this extended variation set clips along at a suitably simple pace through a clear and audible binary phrase structure; in his first iteration through the song, the composer offers a relatively straightforward contrapuntal reading in four voices, with some use of melodic parallelism and harmonic shadings, both of which presage music to come. Yet immediately following the song's powerful cadence, the bass voice begins an explosive upward run, and the pace never lets up. The first variation encrusts both melody and accompaniment with fertile ornamentations, bristling with irregular rhythms and occasional harmonic surprises. Thankfully, the listener can reorient his ears by means of the return of the song's final cadence. In the third variation, however, Cabezón migrates the song's melody into an inner voice and completely refigures its harmonic cast; once again, only a strong cadence allows aural relief and orientation. The melody next migrates to the middle of the three upper voices for a variation somewhat thinner in texture, possessing a more mellow harmonic cast (with numerous E flats), and gradually expanding downward through musical space; the bass voice re-enters halfway through. For the final ride of the "Cabellero," the composer places the melody boldly in the lowest voice, placing contrapuntal accompaniments above it that echo all previous variations. History should be thankful that Cabezón's son chose to save this particular set of variations.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.