Trazos de los ministriles
Juan García de Salazar (1639-1710)
Regina coeli
Anónimo (ca. 1510, Catedral de Burgos, sillería del coro)
Entrada
Francisco Soto (fl. 1526-1563)
Tiento del sesto tono
Francisco de Peñalosa (ca. 1470-1528)
Sancta Mater istud agas
Luis Milán (a. 1500-d. 1561)
Pavana y gallarda
Mateo Flecha (1481-1553)
Jerigonza
Adrian Willaert (c. 1490-1552)
Vecchie letrose
Antonio de Cabezón (1510-1566)
Tiento (organ solo)
Diferencias sobre el canto de Madama le demanda
Diferencias sobre las Vacas
Canto del cavallero (organ solo)
Juan García de Salazar
Da pacem Domine
Francisco Correa de Arauxo (1584-1654)
Tiento 3º de 6º tono sobre la batalla de Morales
A. Martín y Coll (1671-1734)
Tamborilero (organ solo)
Francisco Tejada (Libro de clavicímbano, 1721)
Gitanilla
Zambomba
Marizápalos
Folias de España (organ solo)
Fabritio Caroso (c.1527-c.1605)
Canarios con sus glosas
Ministriles are, according to the Diccionario de Autoridades (the first edition of the dictionary of the Real Academia Española de la Lengua), at the late date of 1732, wind instruments, the most significant examples being reed instruments, shawms and dulcians. The ensemble of ministriles is completed by instruments with mouthpieces, the cornetto and the sackbut. Occasionally the ministriles would play recorders in order to obtain variety of timbre.
The ensemble of ministriles, thus composed, was not exclusive to Hispanic lands. However, its deep and intense sound is, together with the Iberian organ, one of the most characteristic in Spanish music. The cultural importance of the ministriles arises from their long existence in Spain, of the multitude of functions attributed to them, of the impact they had (transforming themselves into other ensembles of great popularity), their sonic peculiarity and their obstinate vocation to imitate the human voice and their permanent relationship with the voice in churches and cathedrals.
Marsyas is an old satyr from Greek mythology, who plays a wind instrument and who challenges Apollo, who plays a stringed instrument, to a musical competition, which he loses. Apollo then flays him. It seemed to us appropriate and in character, as the Ministriles of Marsyas, to deal in some detail with what we may call the competition between Apollo and Marsyas, which appears in many texts from the period, written by vihuelists and organists, from sympathetic literature and even by Monteverdi, in which the ministriles are “flayed”. These texts are the fruit of the discussion amongst instrumentalists of the imitation of the human voice, and are part of a wider debate, part of Western culture, concerning nature and culture. Such arguments, Apollonian, proper, amongst us, to the must cultivated of musicians, vihuelists and organists, are of the kind that in Italy led to the seconda prattica. On the other hand, the ministriles went to the heart of musical practice in demonstrating what the imitation of the human voice is: quality of sound, dynamics, good pronunciation, the ability to play in all modes and, as music was considered discourse, ornamentation and glosas.
In their affectionate attachment to nature (Marsyas, unlike Apollo, lives in contact with nature), that is, to the human voice, the minstriles take on wonderfully the risk of imperfection, being replaced, before the middle of the 17th century, by technically and culturally more advanced instruments, though in Spain, a country of late harvests, the continued until the 19th century!
In this programme, which demonstrates no more and no less than two and a half centuries of Spanish music for ministriles, both sacred and profane, we reclaim, with the curiosity of the ministriles mentioned by Hernando de Cabezón, the heritage of this firm, humble and very Spanish sound.
Paco Rubio
Ministriles de Marsias |