Diego Pisador
Conde claros con treinta y siete diferencias
Libro de música para vihuela (1552), fol. 1
pi001
| Source title | Conde claros con ciertas diferencias para los principiantes y para los que más saben |
|---|---|
| Title in contents | Conde claros, co[n] treynta y siete differencias. |
| Text incipit |
Music
Category variations
Genre conde claros
Fantasia type
Mode 6
Voices 3
Length (compases) 235
Vihuela
Tuning G
Courses 6
Final IV/3
Highest I/7
Lowest VI/0
Difficulty not specified
Tempo not specified
Song Text
Language
Vocal notation
Commentary
Rubric: “Conde claros with certain variations for beginners and for those who know more”
Pisador opens his vihuela book with a set of 39 variations on the harmonic/rhythmic formula asssociated with the famous Conde Claros romance.
Pisador’s setting uses the customary vihuela habit of making it a piece in F (assuming a vihuela in G) with the I-IV-V harmonic formula rooted on the open fourth course (IV/0). It has a good deal of monotony and the occasional error of harmony.
The text of the romance on which it is based is in Binkley Spanish Romances (with English translation), 120-3. “Conde Claros” (Don Claros de Montalbán) was the protagonist of a popular Carolingian romance. See diaz1978
Literature
Recordings
Song Text
Media noche era por filo,
los gallos querían cantar,
Conde Claros, con amores
no podía reposar.
(1st stanza. from Trend, The Music of Spanish History to 1600, p 104)