📜 Overview
The work “Libro de Música de Vihuela de mano intitulado El Maestro” (1536) by Luis de Milán (also spelled Luys Milán) is a monumental milestone in European music history. It stands as the oldest surviving printed collection of music for the vihuela de mano, the Spanish courtly ancestor of the modern guitar.
🏛️ Historical Context & Royal Circles
- Publication: The book was published in 1536 in Valencia by the printer Francisco Díaz Romano.
- Royal Dedication: Milán dedicated his masterpiece to King John III of Portugal, showcasing the strong cultural ties between the Iberian courts.
- The Aristocratic Composer: Unlike many musicians of his time who were employed servants, Milán was a nobleman and courtier at the brilliant, humanist court of Germaine de Foix in Valencia.
🎼 Musical Style & Groundbreaking Innovations
- World’s First Tempo Indications: Milán was a true pioneer. This book contains the earliest known printed verbal instructions for tempo in instrumental music history (e.g., algo apriessa meaning “somewhat fast”, and compás a espacio meaning “slow measure”).
- A Graded Method: True to its title “El Maestro” (The Teacher), the book is organized pedagogically. It starts with simple pieces for beginners and progressively advances to highly complex works for masters.
- Purely Original Music: While most Renaissance lute and vihuela books consisted of arrangements of popular vocal hits, Milán’s book contains strictly original compositions.
- The Fantasías: The core of the book features 40 brilliant fantasías. They blend strict vocal-style polyphony with sudden, improvisational bursts of fast scale passages (redobles) and chordal sections (consonancias).
- Vocal Repertoire: It also includes 22 songs for voice and vihuela, featuring Spanish and Portuguese villancicos, epic Spanish romances, and settings of Italian sonnets.
🌍 Legacy & The Vihuela Today
- The Instrument: The vihuela looked like a small, narrow-waisted guitar but was tuned exactly like a Renaissance lute (usually with six courses of double strings).
- Modern Guitarists: Today, classical guitarists love playing music from El Maestro. To do so correctly, they simply tune the third string (G) down a half step to F-sharp to mimic the original vihuela tuning.
- Digital Access: You can view full scans of the original 1536 tablature on the International Music Score Library Project.