Rubric: “This fantasia should be played according to the tempo which is slow; it goes recalling in some passages the [motet] Aspice Domine by Gombert. Second level [of diffuculty]”. A parody fantasia, based on Gombert’s four-voice motet.

Ward has charted the use of the model in the parody, which amounts to over half the total of 198 compases. (ward1953, 231). Valderrábano begins and ends his parody with original music with a large parody section in the middle, plus a quotation from Gombert, a repetition of 113 ff, as a Coda. The music from “Aspice Domine” b.8ff is used by Valderrabano starting in c. 29. The original music and parodied music is virtually indistinguishable, but Valderrábano makes a gesture that suggests the introduction of new material in the coda (c. 54-60) including his atypical use of semibreve chords in c. 54 and 60. There are two types of parody: virtual literal quotation (for example, c 60-119) and reworking Gombert’s material (for example, c 119-153. This suggests in this work something more akin to Mudarra’s glosas. The simplification of Gombert’s textures in the more literal quotes eliminates some of the voice-leading and imitations and shows Valderrábano’s preference for sonority, mood, and harmonic progression rather than imitation. Gombert’s piece in any case, proceeds in voice pairs, not as 4-voice canon, thus reducing the overt reliance on imitation. Valderrábano’s harmonies, particularly cadential resolutions in the opening section are arresting.

The two most noteworthy themes that can be extracted from the texture are 1) the incipit of the tenor; 2) a recurring theme from Gombert which forms the coda and which was ndeveloped by Valderrábano. The work is sombre, and impressive. Given the extensive borrowing, note the understatement of the title which merely suggests “en algunos pasos”.

For further details on the parody, see Ward “Parody Technique” (ward1966, 216). and Schöner (1999) 125-126 inc music ex. the parody