500th Anniversary of the Sailing of Columbus

Program: #92-08   Air Date: Feb 24, 1992

Preservation of this program is made possible by a generous grant from Wendall Wilson.

I. Mateo Flecha el Viejo: Las Ensaladas (Huelgas Ensemble/Paul van Nevel). Sony Vivarte CD SK 46699.

(This is the sixth of the now 70 recordings made by the Huelgas Ensemble).

From MusicaAntigua.com (translated from the Spanish): Despite the title, this post is not about culinary work, not even vegetables or garden products.

The salad to which I refer is a sixteenth-century musical genre that had its greatest exponent in the musician Mateo Flecha Tarragona, "el Viejo", whose nickname seeks to distinguish in the annals of his nephew homonym, also composer, to which the story remember as Mateo Flecha, "the Younger".

The salad, like the dish of the same name, combines different ingredients of various kinds in the same piece of music.

On the one hand, it mixes varied languages such as Latin, Castilian, Catalan, French, Italian and Portuguese.

Additionally, it introduces both profane and religious elements. Finally, it deals with both serious and comedic themes.

This range of trends has its equivalent in the musical treatment, since it presents frequent changes of rhythm and an alternation of the different voices that come into play: dialogues between two pairs of voices, parts played solo ...

In the curriculum of Mateo Flecha, he has been a teacher of the Cathedral of Lérida since 1523, and according to his nephew, he has held the title of chapel master of the Serenissimo Infantas de Castilla, Doña María and Doña Juana, around 1547 .

Practically his known work is reduced to salads, although he has also reached some carols of his, whose persistence in time we have to thank the other Mateo Flecha, "the Younger", who published them in Prague (I do not know why precisely in said city) in 1581.

In fact, the good nephew emphasizes "which (the salads) although they are old, none before him he composed them, nor later (with all of them prized) nobody has collected them or made them print" . Come on, if it does not become for him, we would never have enjoyed the work of "the Elder".

However, of the eleven salads known for their titles, they have survived only to our six days: Jubilate, Fire, Bomb, The Bold, War and The Just .

The expert Higinio Anglés, editor of the modern edition of the salads of 1954, shows the relationship of these with the Christmas themes, such as "in The war describes with a stunning reality the courage of the Great Captain, the newborn Redeemer , that comes to fight against Lucifer " .

Anglés adds a general judgment about the work of Flecha: "in these pieces of the salads, Flecha is presented as the most powerful and genius polyphonist among the sixteenth-century Spanish composers who cultivated secular music."

II.  Luys de Narvaez, Music for Vihuela from Los seis libros del delphin de musica (Lex Eisenhardt). Etcetera CD ETC 1114.

III.  ¡Ay de Mi!: Music for Vihuela and Voice (Frank Wallace). Centaur CD CRC 2112.

From American Record Guide: Frank Wallace’s skill at performing self-accompanied songs is unusual and unsurpassed in the classical world. The Spanish repertoire he presents on this recording ranges from earthy to suave and sophisticated…one of the best vihuelists working today…Wallace also sings…no mean feat when one considers the polyphonic nature of the vihuela accompaniments…His renditions of fantasías by Narváez, other instrumental works, and song accompaniments are exemplary, bringing the kind of polish to the music that must have been prized in the Spanish noble houses.

IV Càrceres: Villancicos & Ensaladas (Hesperion XX/Jordi Savall). Originally, Astrée CD E 8723.

Composer Info

Mateo Flecha el Viejo, Luys de Narvaez, Giacomo Fogliano, Alonso de Mudarra, Francesco Canova da Milano, Luis de Milán, Enriquez de Valderrabano, Diego Pisador, Miguel de Fuenllana, Ramos de Pareja, Luys Milán, Bartomeu Càrceres

CD Info

Sony Vivarte CD SK 46699, Etcetera CD ETC 1114, Centaur CD CRC 2112, Astrée CD E 8723