The first of the series of five villancicos in Mudarra’s collection. Despite the villancico structure (ABCC a’b’a’b’a’ BC as characterised by Roa2015, 403), Mudarra’s settting is through composed, but with melodic repetition, for example, of the opening estribillo from c. 61. The melody is thought to be of popular origin, or in the style of popular music, but there is no evidence for this other than an article by Marius Schneider points to the similarity of text and music between this song and a song he collected in three different versions from shepherds in the area of Granada in 1945 (Schneider1955). “¡Ay! tontería, darles voces/ al pastor que esté dormido/ si no llegáis a decirle:/ el ganado se te ha ido.”
The modality of this piece is difficult to establish: it can be interpreted as mode 1 in D, closing on the dominant (A) especially in light of the several cadences on A with a melodic C#. Alternatively, based on the final, it could be considered as mode 1 transposed to A.
Earlier settings of the same text are in the Cancionero de Palacio (angles1941, nº291 and 292).