“Musical transmission of Garcilaso de la Vega’s poems in Cervantes’ texts”. Music’s Intellectual History: Founders, Followers and Fads. Ed. Zdravko Blažeković and Barbara Dobbs Mackenzie. New York: Répertoire International de la Littérature Musicale, 2009. 17-32.
Previous Next| Publication type | Year | ISBN/ISSN | Bibliog code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Article: book | 2009 | 9781932765052 | pastor2009 |
Cervantes includes many ballads in Don Quijote sung often by the knight himself accompanied on the vihuela, rebec or harp. Among them is “Conde Claros” i.e. “Media noche por filo” (Don Quijote II, IX, 695). Cervantes borrowed themes from Garcilaso’s texts for his characters to sing. Three specific examples are discussed: songs based on (1) En tanto que de rosa y de azucena, (2) O más duro que mármol, (3) Por ásperos caminos. They are not simple quotations of Garcilaso, but new songs derived through the transformation of Garcilaso’s texts.
(1) “En tanto que en sí vuelve Altisidora” (Don Quijote, II, LXIX, 1186-1187) sung by a youth in Roman costume accompanying himself on the harp. The text sung is a parody on the sonnet “En tanto que de rosa y de azucena” The harp is used by young aristocratic men and women to accompany song in Don Quijote. The original Garcilaso sonnet survives in a 5 voice setting by Francisco Guerrero (Canciones y villanescas espirituales).
(2) Based on Garcilaso’s Eclogue I, (from verse 57) “O más duro que mármol a mis quejas” (musical setting by P. Guerrero survives in Cancionero de Medinaceli). Three more versions are known to have existed by Julio Severino, another preserved in Portugal, and a version in Fuenllana’s Orphenica Lyra. Cervantes quotes it in La Galatea (1585), book VI. Lenio sings, accompanied by a rebec, a lament that uses the first line of the Garcilaso poem as a refrain. In Don Quijote he uses it in the Second Book, in The Wedding of Camacho epsiode. (Don Quijote, II, XXI) “la persuadían que diese la mano al pobre Basilio, y ella, más dura que un mármol y más sesga que una estatua, mostraba que ni sabía ni podía ni quería responder palabra”. The second citation comes later in the same book “Dos días ha que con la consideración del rigor con que me has tratado, Oh más duro que mármol a mis quejas, empedernido caballero, he estado muerta o a lo menos juzgada por tal de los que me han visto (Don Quijote, II, LXX).
(3) In La Galatea (Libro VI), Lenio sings a sonnet based on Garcilaso Sonnet 6, “Por ásperos caminos voy siguiendo” It starts by quoting Garcilaso’s opening line, but then continue with new verse. A musical setting of this exists by Mudarra for vihuela and voice. The Cervantes version begins “Por ásperos caminos soy llevado / a parte que de miedo no me muevo”. In the Second part of Don Quijote there is another reference to the same sonnet (Don Quijote, II, VI) “Por estas asperezas se camina / de la inmortalidad al alto asiento”.
Composer NARVAEZ, VALDERRABANO, FUENLLANA
Instrument VIHUELA, RABEL, HARP
Century 16CENT
Region SPAIN
Medium
Music genre INTABULATIONS, SONGS
Research field HISTORY, LITERARY HISTORY
| Vega, Garcilaso de la |