Epic Nostalgia: The Ballads of the Cancionero musical de palacio and the Vihuela Songbooks
M. Bernetta Quinn
Seven vihuela books, containing more than two hundred secular songs in five different languages, provide the only surviving examples of what was a widespread and extraordinarily popular practice playing music sixteenth century. The vihuelists, their songbooks, dates cities publication comprise diverse group that spanned century: Luis Milan, El maestro (Valencia, 1536); de Narvaez, Los seys libros del delphin (Valladolid, 1538); Alonso Mudarra, Tres musica (Sevilla, 1546); Enriquez Valderrabano, Silva sirenas 1547); Diego Pisador, Libro (Salamanca, 1552); Miguel Fuenllana, Orphenica lyra 1554); Esteban Daza, Parnasso 1576). Of one forty Spanish these there are numerous villancicos, few ensaladas, some sonnets, and, focus this chapter, just over dozen ballads.1 If repertoire were to reflect ballad corpus as whole, it would be logical expect ballads consist typical mix Carolingian Arthurian epics, frontier (which tell news Reconquest), chronicles, courtly love poems. And indeed, such traditional represented, well with innovative themes taken from Bible Classical antiquity.