The graceful, stylized works of Antonio de Cabezón were key contributors to the first true flowering of keyboard music in Spain during the early sixteenth century. Not be confused with his brother or his sons, some of whom were also prominent musicians of the day, Cabezón may be considered the first great champion in the noble line of Renaissance/Baroque Spanish organists—a lineage that culminated in (and, for some, ended with) Juan Bautista Jose Cabanilles at the turn of the eighteenth century.

Cabezón, who was blind from infancy, composed music for both organ and clavichord. His tientos (highly sectional pieces that sometimes paraphrase preexisting music) are among his most significant works. Building on the long-established practice of Spanish vihuela players, Cabezón also made many arrangements (also called glosses or glosas) of other composers' music—including motets by Josquin and other Flemish composers—for his own instruments. There are also many sets of diferencias (variations) that take up pre-existing cantus firmi. Cabezón's music must be considered modal rather than tonal, but, at the same time, he was fluent in a rich harmonic language whose connections with music of the future are, from our modern vantage point, sometimes startlingly evident.

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