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MUSICAL TRANSMISSION OF GARCILASO DE LA VEGA’S POEMS IN

CERVANTES’ TEXTS.
Juan José Pastor Comín (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha)

Every musical adaptation allows us to understand and explain how the literary
work has been recreated and transformed in each epoch1. Cervantes’s works have
provided composers with excellent material for their compositions and this has to
be taken into account in understanding the reception of his work2. However, at the
same time, there cannot be any doubt that Cervantes’s works faithfully reflect the
Spanish musical world of the 16th and 17th centuries: musical instruments, dances
and bailes, romances and songs are often mentioned and performed in his books
depicting not only the unique and picturesque environment in which his characters
evolve but they also add a particular semantic value to each musical element.

Among the participants in this galaxy of musical performance are

representatives of all walks of life, from the highest noble to the lowliest peasant.
Cervantes’s interest in romances and other forms of vocal music often led him to
discourse not only on the manner of their interpretation, but also the aesthetics of
the vocal art and on the role of music in society. He saw reflected in music the
expression of all man’s hopes, longing, travails and achievements. The power of
music, more specifically that of the human voice, to stir the sense and emotions,
and to enrich poetic meaning to a higher state of emotional catharsis, was fully
recognized by Cervantes. His writings are replete with numerous examples of
accurate descriptions of singing and its effect upon him, and he even suggests ways
to take care of the voice. He delighted in listening to “a voice of great beauty”, “a
mellow voice”, a “harmonious voice”, “a sweet and dainty voice”, “a gentle and
tuneful voice, sweet and low” as well as to “a loud and resounding voice”3.

When dramatic or lyric situations demanded, Cervantes composed an

appropriate romance in the traditional style to be sung; many times he borrowed
from another poet a text that had been set to music previously and was
consequently, widely known and easy recognised by his readers. His writings,
particularly Don Quixote, are studded with these lovely ballads which the various
characters sing, accompanying themselves on the appropriate instrument: a vihuela
–the courtly version of a Spanish guitar4-, a rebec or a harp. Ballad-lines appear in
the text many times with Don Quijote himself reciting them, especially those of
ballads of the Carolingean cycle, an excellent source of material used by musicians
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in their courtly compositions. It is interesting how three chapters of the First Part of
Don Quixote begin with a sung poem. Many chapters of both parts begin with one,
two or several “accidental verse-lines” ´-prose lines that may be read and –
consequently, sung- as endecasyllables, octosyllables, heptasyllables: there are
also so many indeed that we must assume they are not there by chance but
deliberately. One of the most striking examples can be found in Chapter Nine of The
Second Part of Don Quixote which begins with a ballad-line determining a precise
moment in time: “Media noche era por filo [It was on the stroke of midnight]”
(695). This is the first line of Count Claros’s ballad, whose extremely popular
melody was known to all and frequently used by vihuela performers in their
compositions (I could mention here the popular variations or diferencias written by
Spanish composers such as Narváez, Milán or Valderrábano)5. It shouldn’t be
overlooked that chapter one of the First Part of Don Quixote also begins with a
ballad-line to identify the place where Don Quijote lived: “En un lugar de la
Mancha” [In a place in La Mancha]. Although in this last case we haven’t got any
evidence or proof of its musical performance, it’s easy to imagine that Cervantes
might have conceived the beginning of his novel like an epic poem composed to be
sung6.

These musical quotations add an additional meaning to the understanding of

the work. One of the most striking examples comes from the musical and literary
relationship between Garcilaso de la Vega and Cervantes. This paper will explain
how Don Quixote’s author borrowed lyrical and pastoral texts from Garcilaso’s
works and made his characters sing them in different literary contexts (specially in
Don Quijote and La Galatea). This process of literary writing will be illustrated by
the examples that I’ll try to explain. Understanding Cervantes’s works as a source
of music history we can also consider the structure and the influence of the original
Garcilaso poems; their transformation to musical compositions; and, finally, their
adaptations by Cervantes using the literary techniques of irony and parody.

Garcilaso was one of the most important Spanish Renaissance poets to have
their music set in the 16th century by composers of polyphony, such as Pedro and
Francisco Guerrero, or even by composers of vihuela music –like Alonso de
Mudarra. Considered a major poet, his work is important for introducing the so-
called ‘Italian’ style into Spain, using in particular the courtly conventions dealt with
by Petrarch. Extant compositions by Garcilaso comprise two elegies, an epistle to
Boscán in free verse; five songs; 38 sonnets and three eclogues. In his own and
succeeding generations Garcilaso has represented the Renaissance ideal of the
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courtly poet-soldier: a man of arms and learning, quick to love yet wise enough to
resign himself to love's loss7.

It must be said that Garcilaso de la Vega demonstrated too his musical skills as
a harp performer and vihuela player. Fernando de Herrera, in his Prologue to
Garcilaso’s works, describes the poet as a gifted and skilful musician, who played
extremely well the harp and the vihuela: “fue muy diestro en la música, y en la
vihuela y harpa con mucha ventaja”8. His regard for music directed in composing a
poem conceived to be sung, could have been the principal reason for his success
with the courtly musicians of the 16th century.

Obras de Garcilaso de la Vega con Anotaciones de Fernando de Herrera (Sevilla: Alonso de la

Barrera, 1580)

If we study Cervantes’s works closely, we will see Garcilaso’s lyrical texts

quoted throughout. One example is enough to show the admiration felt by
Cervantes for the poet: in The Second Part of Don Quixote alone Garcilaso’s verses
appear at least unless fifteen times and, in the rest of his works, over a hundred
times9. It would be reasonable to believe that our novelist knew Garcilaso’s poems
by heart and I would like to emphasize how one of the most striking features is how
many of these quotations are made not in uniform manner but always in a musical
context. I’m going to show –through three particular examples- the way that
Cervantes chose to introduce them in his works, searching out their roots in the
Garcilaso texts previously set to music, and not least importantly, I would like to
invite you to listen to their musical versions that in connection with our project on
the music in Cervantes, I have recently recorded on a CD published by Castilla-La
Mancha University (UCLM, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha)10.
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The first instance in which the author introduces a fitting poem borrowed
Garcilaso with an appropriate musical setting occurs near the end of Don Quixote
de la Mancha’s adventures. He and Sancho find themselves again at the Duke’s
palace, and once more poor Sancho must undergo penance for the mockery about
Altisidora’s death:
Comenzó en esto a salir al parecer debajo del túmulo un son sumiso y agradable de
flautas, que por no ser impedido de alguna humana voz, porque en aquel sitio el mesmo
silencio guardaba silencio a sí mismo, se mostraba blando y amoroso. Luego hizo de sí
improvisa muestra, junto a la almohada del al parecer cadáver, un hermoso mancebo
vestido a lo romano, que al son de una harpa que él mismo tocaba cantó con suavísima y
clara voz estas dos estancias:

-En tanto que en sí vuelve Altisidora,

muerta por la crueldad de don Quijote,
y en tanto que en la corte encantadora
se vistieren las damas de picote,

y en tanto que a sus dueñas mi señora

vistiere de bayeta y de anascote,
cantaré su belleza y su desgracia,
con mejor plectro que el cantor de Tracia.

[Don Quijote, op. cit, II, LXIX,1186-1187]

[And now, from underneath the catafalque, so it seemed, there rose a low sweet sound
of flutes, which, coming unbroken by human voice (for there silence itself kept silence),
had a soft and languishing effect. Then, beside the pillow of what seemed to be the dead
body, suddenly appeared a fair youth in a Roman habit, who, to the accompaniment of a
harp which he himself played, sang in a sweet and clear voice these two stanzas:

While fair Altisidora, who the sport

Of cold Don Quixote’es cruelty hath been,
Returns to life, and this magic court
The dames in sables come to grace the scene,

And while her matrons all in seemly sort

My lady robes in baize and bombazine,
Her beauty and her sorrows will I sing
With defter quill than touched the Thracian string11]

Immediately, Don Quixote recognizes the verses sung by the “fair youth” and
reveals that they have come from Garcilaso’s poetry:

- Por cierto -replicó don Quijote-, que vuestra merced tiene estremada voz, pero lo que
cantó no me parece que fue muy a propósito; porque, ¿qué tienen que ver las estancias
de Garcilaso con la muerte desta señora?

- No se maraville vuestra merced deso respondió el músico, que ya entre los intonsos
poetas de nuestra edad se usa que cada uno escriba como quisiere, y hurte de quien
quisiere, venga o no venga a pelo de su intento, y ya no hay necedad que canten o
escriban que no se atribuya a licencia poética.

["Of a truth," said Don Quixote, "your worship has a most excellent voice; but what you
sang did not seem to me very much to the purpose; for what have Garcilasso's stanzas to
do with the death of this lady?"
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"Don't be surprised at that," returned the musician; "for with the callow poets of our
day the way is for every one to write as he pleases and pilfer where he chooses, whether
it be germane to the matter or not, and now-a-days there is no piece of silliness they can
sing or write that is not set down to poetic licence]

The original Garcilaso sonnet was set to music by Francisco Guerrero in his
Canciones y Villanescas espirituales, published in Venice, in 1589.

En tanto que de rosa y d’azucena
se muestra la color en vuestro gesto,
y que vuestro mirar ardiente, honesto,
con clara luz la tempestad serena;
y en tanto que’l cabello, que’n la vena
del oro s’escogió, con vuelo presto
por el hermoso cuello blanco, enhiesto,
el viento mueve, esparce y desordena:
coged de vuestra alegre primavera
el dulce fruto antes que’l tiempo airado
cubra de nieve la hermosa cumbre.
Marchitará la rosa el viento helado,
todo lo mudará la edad ligera
por no hacer mudanza en su costumbre.
While rose's charming blush and lily's white
Are still the colours radiant on your face,
And while your fiery gaze with candid grace
Still checks the burning flame it set alight,
And while your flaxen hair, still gleaming bright,
Mined from some vein of gold, falls out of place
(Your neck - that marble pillar! - to embrace)
By wayward breezes spread and set in flight,
The ripening harvest of your happy spring
Now gather in, before destructive Time
Lays waste with snow the summit of your head.
Cold winds will blast the rose now in its prime,
And fickle Age will alter everything,
So not to change his own old ways instead

Poem translated by Alan Croiser © 1985

[http://colecizj.easyvserver.com/psvegso2.htm].12.

The central theme of the poem, the carpe diem the fleeting nature of life, is
used by Cervantes as a lyrical and musical echo that provides us with a satirical
context. In this way, we are alerted by the author, from the first verse of this re-
written poem, of the mockering of don Quixote13. We discover too in this example
that the harp was used mainly as an instrument of accompaniment by youths and
females and then only those belonging to the aristocracy. At the same time, in this
burlesque scene, the song that announces Altisodora’s Death is accompanied
(shown in the woodcut taken from Tonson edition, below) by the same instrument
that the young woman had previously chosen to entice and bewitch the gallant
knight-errant. She is urged on by her friend and accomplice, Emerencia –“Sing, my
poor grieving creature, sing and join the melting music of your harp to the soft
accents of your voice”. When she finally consented to sing her amorous serenade to
the great Knight of La Mancha, “she touched her harp so sweetly, that Don Quixote
was ravished”. Consequently, we see that Cervantes linked the two scenes by the
same instrument in order to stress the satiric meaning of the second. At the same
time, borrowing one of Garcilaso’s well-known lyrical poems, setting it to music by
a great composer like Francisco Guerrero, and transforming its poetic sense into a
parody, the novelist allows the reader to enjoy Altisidora’s trick and to participate in
a new context created by all these elements connected together by music in its new
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role14. Let’s listen to this sonnet used by Don Quixote’s author in Jordi Savall’s
version15.

Don Quixote, op. cit. II, LXIX

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Garcilaso de la Vega, Soneto XXIII

Obras de Garcilaso de la Vega con anotaciones de Fernando de Herrera, (Sevilla: Alonso de la

Barrera, 1580).
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Don Quixote, London, J. and R. Tonson, 1738

Texas A&M (Proyecto Cervantes)
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Francisco Guerrero, Canciones y Villanescas espirituales (Venice:1589)

Another instance of the musical transmission of Garcilaso de la Vega’s poems

will be taken from two Cervantes’s texts Galatea and Don Quixote. In his Eclogue I
(from verse 57) Garcilaso wrote a long lament which the shepherd Salicio moans
about the cruelty and harshness of his beloved Galatea. The poem begins with the
verse “O harder thou than marble to my plaint” and it was set to music by several
composers. We have a polyphonic version of the poem preserved in the Cancionero
de Medinaceli -which we’re going to listen to in a moment-, written by Pedro
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Guerrero, Francisco Guerrero’s brother, who lived between 1517 and 158616. This
song became well-known and we can confirm the existence of three more musical
settings of this poem: One composed by Julio Severino17; another preserved in
Portugal and composed by an unknown chapel master from Juan the II’s Court18;
the last is a musical adaptation from Guerrero’s song, composed for vihuela and
voice by Miguel de Fuenllana and published in his book Orphénica Lyra, (1554)19.
We must remember that the fashion for polyphonic songs spread from one country
to another and from centres of music further afield by using adaptations for lute or,
in Spain, for vihuela and voice or for vihuela alone. Vihuela players looked for a
more independent means of musical expression, working towards technical
virtuosity; they created new forms, and in fantasies and preludes reached new
levels of musical creation. At the same time these kinds of musical adaptations
allowed people to enjoy polyphonic compositions in their homes during the latter
XVIth century: It’s no surprise to find evidence for this kind of musical practice
within Cervantes’s circle of family and close friends.

So let us present the Garcilaso’s poem:

¡Oh, más dura que mármol a mis quexas, [O harder thou than marble to my plaint]
y al ençendido fuego en que me quemo,
más helada que la nieve, Galatea!
Estoy muriendo, y aún la vida temo;
témola con razón, pues tú me dexas,
que no hay, sin ti, el vivir para qué sea.
Vergüenza he que me vea
ninguno en tal estado
de ti desamparado
y de mí mismo yo me corro agora.
¿De un alma te desdeñas ser señora,
donde siempre moraste, no pudiendo
salir d’ella una hora?
Salid sin duelo, lágrimas corriendo.

Obras de Garcilaso de la Vega con Anotaciones de Fernando de Herrera (Sevilla:

Alonso de la Barrera, 1580

Where is this text quoted by Cervantes? The most striking example that we
have found comes from La Galatea (written thirty years before the publication of
The Second Part of Don Quixote). The shepherds and shepherdesses of Cervantes’s
Galatea sing their songs, sonnets, ecloges and madrigals accompanied by rebecs,
flutes, and pipes. In Book VI, Lenio sings, accompanied on a rebec, a desperate
chant uttering Garcilaso’s verse like a refrain: “O harder thou than marble to my
plaint”:
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Y, puesto que Lenio los vio subir, no hizo otro movimiento alguno si no fue sacar de su zurrón su
rabel, y con un nuevo y estraño reposo se tornó asentar; y, vuelto el rostro hacia donde su pastora
huía, con voz suave y de lágrimas acompañada, comenzó a cantar desta suerte:

¿Quién te impele, crüel? ¿Quién te desvía?

¿Quién te retira del amado intento?
¿Quién en tus pies veloces alas cría,
con que corres ligera más qu'el viento?
¿Por qué tienes en poco la fe mía,
y desprecias el alto pensamiento?
¿Por qué huyes de mí ¿Por qué me dejas?
¡Oh, más dura que mármol a mis quejas! [ O harder thou than marble to my plaint]

¿Soy, por ventura, de tan bajo estado

que no merezca ver tus ojos bellos?
¿Soy pobre? ¿Soy avaro? ¿Hasme hallado
en falsedad desde que supe vellos?
La condición primera no he mudado.
¿No pende del menor de tus cabellos
mi alma? ¿Pues, por qué de mí te alejas?
¡Oh, más dura que mármol a mis quejas! [ O harder thou than marble to my plaint]

La Galatea, (Alcalá: Juan Gracián, 1585)

The first time this poem will appear in Don Quixote will be in the Second Part, in
The Wedding of Camacho episode –an pseudo-pastoral episode in which we
encounter a lot of popular musical instruments, even Moorish instruments, that play
in the marriage ceremony-, when the narrator tries to describe how Quiteria reacts
and responds to Basilio’s tricks (he pretends to be mortally):

Luego acudieron todos a Quiteria, y unos con ruegos, y otros con lágrimas, y otros con
eficaces razones, 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: ni la respondiera si el cura no la dijera que se determinase presto en
lo que había de hacer, porque tenía Basilio ya el alma en los dientes, y no daba lugar a
esperar inresolutas determinaciones. [Don Quijote, op. cit. II, XXI]

[At once all assailed Quiteria and pressed her, some with prayers, and others with tears,
and others with persuasive arguments, to give her hand to poor Basilio; but she, harder
than marble and more unmoved than any statue, seemed unable or unwilling to utter
a word, nor would she have given any reply had not the priest bade her decide quickly
what she meant to do, as Basilio now had his soul at his teeth, and there was no time for
hesitation].
Then, Cervantes makes a reference to this verse when Altisidora tries to
seduce Don Quixote:

Yo, señor don Quijote de la Mancha, soy una destas, apretada, vencida y enamorada,
pero, con todo esto, sufrida y honesta: tanto, que por serlo tanto, reventó mi alma por mi
silencio y perdí la vida. 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; y si no fuera porque el amor, condoliéndose de mí, depositó mi remedio en
los martirios deste buen escudero, allá me quedara en el otro mundo. [Don Quijote, op.
cit. II, LXX]
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[Such a one am I, Señor Don Quixote of la Mancha, crushed, conquered, love-smitten,

but yet patient under suffering and virtuous, and so much so that my heart broke with
grief and I lost my life. For the last two days I have been dead, slain, by the thought of
the cruelty with which thou hast treated me, obdurate knight,
O harder thou than marble to my plaint
Or at least believed to be dead by all who saw me; and had it not been that love, taking
pity on me, let my recovery rest upon the sufferings of this good squire, there I should
have remained in the other world].

It is worth stating at this point that these three texts are all connected by
the same musical reference. It is essential to realise that sixteenth century readers
understood Cervantes’s intention and saw this musical and literary intertextuality as
a hightening the parody, so adding a pastoral meaning to some of the scenes from
Cervantes’s novel Don Quixote. It’s time to listen to Guerrero’s composition,
probably known by Cervantes (they lived in the same city, Seville, for a time) which
introduces Garcilaso’s poem in a specific musical context. The beginning of this
composition, set in a homophonic style, allows the listener to understand easily the
sense of the words; then it develops in a highly contrapuntual way20.

Garcilaso, Égloga I; Fernando de Herrera (Obras de Garcilaso de la Vega con anotaciones de...,
Seville, 1580).
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Pedro Guerrero, “Oh, más dura que mármol a mis quejas”, Cancionero Musical de la Casa
Medinaceli (S. XVI), edited by Querol Gavaldá, M., (Barcelona: C.S.I.C. 1949)
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Miguel de Fuenllana, “Oh, más dura que mármol a mis quejas”, Libro de Música para vihuela intitulado
ORPHÉNICA LYRA en el qual se contienen muchas y diversas obras, (Sevilla: Martín de Montesdoca,
1554).
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Cervantes, La Galatea, Libro VI

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Cervantes, Don Quijote, II, XXI

Cervantes, Don Quijote, II, LXX

To illustrate the pastoral conception of the novel, let us examine the last
instance. In La Galatea, the same shepherd, Lenio, sings this time a sonnet whose
first line and topics are borrowed from Garcilaso’s sonnet VI:
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Y con esto se querían despedir de Damón y de Elicio, si ellos no porfiaran a querer ir con ellas; y
ya que se encaminaban al aldea, a su mano derecha sintieron la zampoña de Erastro, que luego
de todos fue conoscida, el cual venía en siguimiento de su amigo Elicio. Paráronse a escucharlo,
y oyeron que, con muestras de tierno dolor, esto venía cantando:

Por ásperos caminos voy siguiendo [It’s by rugged paths like these I go]
el fin dudoso de mi fantasía,
siempre en cerrada noche escura y fría
las fuerzas de la vida consumiendo.
Y, aunque morir me veo, no pretendo
salir un paso de la estrecha vía;
que en fe de la alta fe sin igual mía,
mayores miedos contrastar entiendo.
Mi fe es la luz que me señala el puerto
seguro a mi tormenta, y sola es ella
quien promete buen fin a mi viaje,
por más que el medio se me muestre incierto,
por más que el claro rayo de mi estrella
me encubra amor, y el cielo más me ultraje. (La Galatea, V)

Garcilaso’s sonnet had been published in 1543 and three years later was set to
music by Alonso de Mudarra in Tres libros de música en cifras para vihuela (Seville,
1546)21:

Por ásperos caminos soy llevado
a parte que de miedo no me muevo,
y si a mudarme a dar un passo pruebo,
allí por los cabellos soy tornado;
mas tal estoy, que con la muerte al lado
busco de mi vivir consejo nuevo,
conozco el mejor y el peor apruebo,
o por costumbre mala o por mi hado.
De la otra parte, el breve tiempo mío
y el errado proceso de mis años,
y el errado proceso de mis años,
mi inclinación, con quien ya no porfío,
la ciertamente fin de tantos daños
me hacen descuidar de mi remedio.
It’s by rugged paths like these I’m taken
Moreover, I am kept still by fear;
And if I try to take one step,
I’m taken back to where I was.
With death beside me
I would be no worse;
I seek new guidance for my life;
I know what is best but I do what is worst,
Owing to bad habits or my fate.
Besides this, the short time I have left,
And the mistaken course of my years,
My desire for the one I no longer trust,
And the certain death that ends
So much suffering Make me neglect myself, and
my remedy.

Alonso Mudarra was educated in Guadalajara (near Alcalá de Henares, the city
where Cervantes was born), at the Ducal Palace of the Infantado, one of the most
important and illustrious Castilian courts. As Canon in Seville, he was in a close
contact with Francisco Guerrero and other writers connected to Cervantes’s circle,
like Gutierre de Cetina. Once more, Cervantes quotes and develops in a musical
context a poem that had been previously set to music. Thirty years later, in The
Second Part of Don Quixote, the knight-errant assumes his condition like a pilgrim
of love and says:

Pues con saber, como sé, los innumerables trabajos que son anejos al andante caballería, sé también
los infinitos bienes que se alcanzan con ella; y sé que la senda de la virtud es muy estrecha, y el
camino del vicio, ancho y espacioso; y sé que sus fines y paraderos son diferentes, porque el del
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vicio, dilatado y espacioso, acaba en muerte, y el de la virtud, angosto y trabajoso, acaba en vida, y
no en vida que se acaba, sino en la que no tendrá fin; y sé, como dice el gran poeta castellano nuestro,
que
Por estas asperezas se camina
de la inmortalidad al alto asiento,
do nunca arriba quien de allí declina. (Don Quijote, II, VI, Cervantes quotes Garcilaso
de la Vega)

[I know that the path of virtue is very narrow, and the road of vice broad and spacious; I know their
ends and goals are different, for the broad and easy road of vice ends in death, and the narrow and
toilsome one of virtue in life, and not transitory life, but in that which has no end; I know, as our
great Castilian poet says, that

It is by rugged paths like these they go

That scale the heights of immortality,
Unreached by those that falter here below] (Don Quijote, II, VI)

Maybe it’s time to listen to this last example. The treatment that Mudarra gives
the sonnets, both Italian and Spanish, is very similar: in this case an elegant and
simple melody is supported by a discreet polyphonic accompaniment. Mudarra
offers a carefully constructed melody, set in the framework of a continually
developing instrumental polyphony, evident from the initial bars. The composer
doesn’t care to astound with virtuoso displays, but aims rather for expressiveness
and eloquence with an aristocratic simplicity22.

Garcilaso, Soneto VI, Obras de Garcilaso de la Vega con Anotaciones de Fernando de Herrera
(Sevilla: Alonso de la Barrera, 1580)
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Alonso de Mudarra, Tres libros de música en cifra para vihuela (Sevilla: 1546),

Cervantes, La Galatea, op. cit. (Libro VI)

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Cervantes, Don Quijote, II, VI

In conclusion, everything that has been said illustrates how, through these
three musical references taken from Garcilaso –En tanto que de rosa / Oh más dura
que mármol a mis quejas / Por ásperos caminos-, Cervantes incorporates decidedly
pastoral element in both of the Don Quixotes, suggesting at least a superficial link
between them and his first book, Galatea. Some episodes and characters of La
Galatea seem to be repeated in episodes of both Quixotes (Marcela, Grisóstomo
and Ambrosio mirror Gelasia, Galercio and Lenio of the pastoral novel, as do
Basilio, Quiteria and Camacho). It seems pertinent to consider the pastoral in
Cervantes –the textual tradition borrowed from Garcilaso- as an integral aspect of a
personal, holistic world view intimately linked to the music. In this way the pastoral
with its musical expression becomes the unifying element of the author’s corpus.
His novels, then, can be shown to progress along what I would call a pastoral
continuum successfully created by Cervantes through careful adaptations of musical
and lyrical poems borrowed from Garcilaso. We will finally remember that at the
end of the Second Part of Don Quixote, Alonso Quixano attempts the literary
pastoral as a Quijotiz, and he imagines himself playing pastoral instruments –“By
god, what a life we shall lead, my dear friend, Sancho. What a melody of
churumbelas (oboes), will resound in our ears; what a mixture of gaitas zamoranas
(Zamora bagpipes), tambourines, morrice bells and rebec will fill the air!”- and
singing, as we have seen, Garcilaso’s texts of everlasting yearnings and sad
laments of unrequited love.
 Music’s Intellectual History: Founders, Followers & Fads
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Minkoff Reprint, 1981).

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GRIFFITHS, John “La Fantasía que contrahaze la harpa de Alonso Mudarra; estudio histórico-analítico”,
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des XVIe et XVIIe siècles (CRES) (París: Publication de la Sorbonne, 195-196).

LUIS IGLESIAS, Alejandro, “Andanzas y fortunas de algunos impresos musicales españoles del siglo XVI:
Fuenllana y Pedro GuerreroEl libro antiguo español. Coleccionismo y Bibliotecas (Siglos XV-XVIII),
Edited by López Vidriero, Mª Luisa y Pedro M. Cátedra y Hernández González, Mª Isabel (Salamanca:
Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, Patrimonio Nacional. Sociedad Española de Historia del Libro,
1998) 461-503.

MORAIS, Manuel, Vilancetes, cantigas e romances do Séc. XVI, Trasncriçao e estudo, Portugaliae
Musica, vol. XLVI (Lisboa: Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian, 1986).

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(Barcelona: Instituto Español de Musicología, ed. 1949).

NARVÁEZ, Luis de, Los seys libros del Delphin de música de cifra para tañer vihuela (Valladolid: Diego
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PASTOR, Juan José, Música y Literatura: la senda retórica. Hacia una nueva consideración de la música
en Cervantes. Vol. I. Nuevos materiales para el análisis de la música en Cervantes y, para el estudio de
la recepción musical de su obra, (Ciudad Real: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2004).
 Music’s Intellectual History: Founders, Followers & Fads
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PASTOR, Juan José & BARCELLONA, Sergio, Por ásperos caminos. Nueva música cervantina (Ciudad
Real, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2005).

PISADOR, Diego, Libro de Música de Vihuela (Salamanca: 1552). Facsimilar Edition in Genève: Minkoff
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RIVERS, Elías“Cervantes y Garcilaso”, Homenaje a José Manuel Blecua, (Madrid: Gredos, 1983), 565-
570.

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SANJUÁN ASTIGARRAGA, José Ignacio, “Música y poesía: el mito de Orfeo en Garcilaso” Humanismo y
pervivencia del mundo clásico. Homenaje al profesor Luis Gil. Edited by José María Maestre Maestre,
Joaquín Pascual Barea y Luis Charlo Brea (Alcañiz, Cádiz: Ayuntamiento y Universidad de Cádiz, 1997).
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Obras completas, edited by Elías Rivers (Madrid: Castalia, 1981)

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VENEGAS DE HENESTROSA, Luis, Libro de Cifra Nueva. Para tecla, harpa y vihuela, (Alcalá, Iona de
Brocar, 1557; edited by Higinio Anglés, Barcelona: CSIC, Monumentos de la Música Española, Vol. II,
1944 and 1984).

YNDURÁIN, Domingo “La poesía de Cervantes” Edad de Oro, IV, (1985) 165-177.

1
See Silvia Alonso, Música, literatura y semiosis (Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 2001); Jean Louis Backès,
Musique et littérature: essais de poetique comparée (París: Presses Universitaires de France, 1994), A.
von Gier, A. & Gruber, G. W., Musik und Literatur. Komparatistische Studien zur trukturverwandtschaft
(Frankfurt am Main, Bern, Paris: Peter Lang, 1995) and W. Bernhnart, Scher, S. P., y Wolf, W. (eds.):
Word and Music Studies. Defining the Field (Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, 1999)
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2
See Juan José Pastor, Música y Literatura: la senda retórica. Hacia una nueva consideración de la
música en Cervantes. Vol. I. Nuevos materiales para el análisis de la música en Cervantes y, para el
estudio de la recepción musical de su obra, (Ciudad Real: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2004); Mª
Rosa Calvo-Manzano, El arpa en la obra de Cervantes. Don Quijote y la música española (Valladolid:
Consejería de Educación y Cultura, 1999); S. J. Flynn, The Presence of Don Quixote in Music, Tenessee:
University of Tennessee, 1984), Kurt Pahlen “Don Quijote in der Musik”. Europaische Mythen der
Neuzeit: Faust und Don Juan. Gesammelte Vortrage des Salzburger Symposium, (Anif: Muller Speisser,
Austria, 1992), 689-698; Miguel Querol Gavalda, La música en las obras de Cervantes (Barcelona:
Comitalia, 1949).
3
We can see the following examples: «alzaron las voces con alegres acentos» Persiles y
Sigismunda.(Madrid: José Antonio de Castro y Ediciones Turner, 1993), I, VI, 442; «una voz blanda y
suave» (Persiles y Sigismunda, op. cit. I, IX, 453); «estorbólo otra voz o voces que llegaron a nuestros
oídos, bien diferentes que las pasadas, porque eran más suaves y regaladas» (Persiles y Sigismunda, op.
cit. II, XV, 604); «buena voz» Los baños de Argel, en Cervantes. Teatro completo (Barcelona: Planeta,
1987), vv. 1360; «erguida voz» (Pedro de Urdemalas, Teatro Completo, op. cit. v. 992); «clara voz» (La
Numancia, Teatro completo, op. cit. v. 2408); «voz sutil y quebradiza» Rinconete y Cortadillo, en
Novelas Ejemplares (Barcelona: Crítica, 2001) 205; «única y estremada voz» La española inglesa,
Novelas ejemplares, op. cit. 252); «voz trocada» (La fuerza de la sangre, Novelas ejemplares, op. cit.
311); «voz atiplada» (El celoso extremeño, Novelas ejemplares, op. cit. 338); «voz entre ronca y baja»
(El celoso extremeño, Novelas ejemplares, op. cit. 358); «tal es la suavidad de la voz» Don Quijote,
Barcelona: Crítica / Instituto Cervantes, 1998), I, VI, 86); «tan estremado en la voz como doloroso en los
gemidos» Don Quijote, op. cit. I, XXVII, 302); «voz grave y sonora» (Don Quijote, op. cit. II, XXXVI,
934); «suavísima y clara voz» (Don Quijote, op. cit. II, LXIX, 1187).
4
«During the period in which Spanish tablatures were printed (1536-76), vihuela performance practice is
more attentive documented, after which our knowledge again becomes hazier. Although manuscript
sources exist after 1580 that document a continued practice, it is nevertheless the period which taste and
musical styles began to change radically in Spain and vihuela playing declined in favour of the guitar. In
the early seventeenth century its waning fortunes are aptly portrayed in Sebastian de Covarrubias’s
Tesoro de la Lengua Castellana o Española (1611), in a definition more heavy-hearted than customary
in lexicography: “his instrument has been highly steemed in our time, and ther have been most excellent
players, but since the invention of the guitar, there are only few who devote themselves to the study of the
vihulea. It has been a great loss, because on it could be played all kinds of notated music, and now the
guitar is no more than a cowbell, so easy to play, especially in the strummed way, that there isn’t a stably
boy who is no isn’t a guitarist”» Quoted by John Griffiths, “The vihuela: performance practice, style, and
context”. Performance on Lute, Guitar and Vihuela, Ed. by Victor Anand Coelho (Cambridge:,
Cambridge University Press, 1997, 158-179), 160-161.
5
This song was quoted and remade by the following musical sources: Francisco Salinas De Musica Libri
Septem, (Salamanca. 1577). Edited by Ismael Fernández de la Cuesta (Madrid: Editorial Alpuerto,
Colección Opera Omnia, 1983), 597; Alonso de Mudarra, Tres libros de música en cifra para vihuela
(Sevilla: 1546), edited by Emilio Pujol (Barcelona: Instituto Español de Musicología, ed. 1949)
“Diferencias sobre el Conde Claros”, 19-29; Luis de Narváez, Los seys libros del Delphin de música de
cifra para tañer vihuela (Valladolid: Diego Hernandez de Córdova, 1538) Ed. by Emilio Pujol
(Barcelona: CSIC, MME, vol. III, 1945 “Diferencias sobre el tenor del Conde Claros”), 82-85; Diego
Pisador, Libro de Música de Vihuela (Salamanca: 1552, Facsimilar Edition in Genève: Minkoff Reprint,
1973, “Doce maneras sobre Conde Claros”) 1r-2v, cifra; Enríquez de Valderrábano, Libro de música de
vihuela, intitulado Silva de Sirenas (Valladolid: 1547, Edited by Emilio Pujol, Barcelona: C.S.I.C,
Monumentos de la música española, vol. XXII 1965, 2 vols) “Treinta y siete diferencias sobre Conde
Claros”, I, 54-56; “Diferencias sobre Conde Claros”, II, 75-91; Luis Venegas de Henestrosa, Libro de
Cifra Nueva. Para tecla, harpa y vihuela, (Alcalá, Iona de Brocar, 1557; edited by Higinio Anglés,
Barcelona: CSIC, Monumentos de la Música Española, Vol. II, 1944 and 1984), 186-188; Cancionero
musical de Palacio, edited by Asenjo Barbieri (Madrid: Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando,
1890; facsimilar edition, Málaga, Monte Mar, 1987), nº 329, musical setting by Juan del Encina;
Francisco Salinas, op. cit. “Retraída está la infanta”, 606, with the same music of Conde Claros; James
Trend quotes an old version in Catalonian language established by Agiló y Fuster, “Mitra nit er i
passava”) See James Trend, The Music of Spanish History to 1600 (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1926).
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6
«Estos dos ejemplos nos han de servir para plantear el hecho de que el mismo Cervantes se sirve de
tópicos que, aún aventurando la hipótesis de que él mismo no conociera, indudablemente son musicados
por sus contemporáneos y el desarrollo de idénticos conceptos nos permite ponerlos en relación, de tal
modo que, embebidos en el texto, nos interrogan sobre las fronteras entre prosa y poesía en el Siglo de
Oro» Juan José Pastor, Música y Literatura: La senda retórica, op. cit. 345. See Domingo Ynduráin, “La
poesía de Cervantes” Edad de Oro, IV, (1985) 165-177.
7
See J. Aladro-Font, & Ramos Tremolada, R. “Ausencia y Presencia de Garcilaso en el Quijote” en
Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America, XVI / 2 (1996), 89-106; José Manuel Blecua,
“Garcilaso y Cervantes” La poesía de Garcilaso: ensayos críticos, edited by Elias L. Rivers (Barcelona:
Planeta, 1974), 367-379; Jean Canavaggio, “Garcilaso en Cervantes (‘Oh dulces prendas por mi mal
halladas’)”, Busquemos otros montes y otros ríos. Estudios de literatura española del Siglo de Oro
dedicados a Elías R. Rivers, Edited by B. Dutton y V. Roncero López (Madrid: Castalia, 1992), 67-73; D.
Fernández-Morera, The Lyre and the Oaten Flute: Garcilaso and the Pastoral, (London: Támesis Books,
1981); Antonio Gallego Morell, Garcilaso de la Vega y sus comentaristas (Madrid: Gredos. 1972); Elías
Rivers, “Cervantes y Garcilaso”, Homenaje a José Manuel Blecua, (Madrid: Gredos, 1983), 565-570;
Garcilaso de la Vega, Obras completas, edited by Elías Rivers (Madrid: Castalia, 1981); Garcilaso de la
Vega, Obra poética y textos en prosa, edited by Bienvenido Morros (Barcelona: Crítica, 1995); José
Ignacio Sanjuán Astigarraga, “Música y poesía: el mito de Orfeo en Garcilaso” Humanismo y pervivencia
del mundo clásico. Homenaje al profesor Luis Gil. Edited by José María Maestre Maestre, Joaquín
Pascual Barea y Luis Charlo Brea (Alcañiz, Cádiz: Ayuntamiento y Universidad de Cádiz, 1997). v. I,
363-370.
8
See Obras de Garcilaso de la Vega con Anotaciones de Fernando de Herrera (Sevilla: Alonso de la
Barrera, 1580); Facsimilar edited by Antonio Gallego Morell (Madrid, C,S.I.C, 1973).
9
See Aladro-Font, op. cit., 97.
10
Juan José Pastor & Sergio Barcellona, Por ásperos caminos. Nueva música cervantina (Ciudad Real,
Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2005).
11
Spanish quotations translated into English by myself.
12
Poem translated by Alan Croiser © 1985 [http://colecizj.easyvserver.com/psvegso2.htm]. [This
footnote should have appeared in the article finally published by RILM].
13
«La pormenorizada presentación del túmulo que figura al principio del capítulo 69 culmina, en efecto,
con la intercalación de dos estancias cantadas, otra vez con acompañamiento de arpa, por el “hermoso
mancebo vestido a lo romano” que no tiene empacho en apropiarse una octava completa de Garcilaso
para integrarla en su homenaje fúnebre a Altisidora. Y la conversación que ésta sostiene con don Quijote,
luego de su resurrección milagrosa, se encuentra enmarcada, por un lado, por la ya referida canción
fúnebre y, por otro, por la breve discusión que suscita la descarada aplicación al caso de Altisidora de
unos versos que se compusieron para otras circunstancias. La tesis que a continuación voy a exponer es
que existe una correlación entre el abandono de la poesía burlesca, aprovechada hasta entonces a título de
máscara verbal en las sucesivas apariciones de Altisidora, y las circunstancias conflictivas en que
Garcilaso aparece citado de manera tan llamativa y con más abundancia que en cualquier otro lugar de la
obra cervantina» Monique Joly, Études sur Don Quichotte, Textes et Documents du “Centre de
Recherche sur l’Espagne des XVIe et XVIIe siècles (CRES) (París: Publication de la Sorbonne, 195-196).
14
«Volviendo a mi punto de partida, lo excepcional no es, pues, que Garcilaso aparezca citado en la
canción fúnebre interpretada en honor a Altisidora sino que aparezca citada con una abundancia
totalmente inusitada. Una octava real completa, que según señalan todos los editores corresponde a la
segunda de la Égloga III, ocupa también el segundo y, en este caso, último lugar, en la canción que aquí
me interesa. El fenómeno, además, se complica, en la medida en que la otra octava, con la que se da por
lo tanto comienzo a la actuación del poeta, también se encuentra estructurada en su totalidad en torno a
reminiscencias procedentes de Garcilaso. Del soneto 23 está tomado, en efecto, el empleo recurrente del
“en tanto que”, con el que se inicia de un modo solemne el poema y la alusión al cantor de Tracia con la
que por otra parte se cierra esta primera estrofa remite a la Égloga III, de la que, según ya se ha dicho, la
otra está trasladada sin el menor retoque. Se combinan o se contaminan, de este modo, dos tipos de
parodia: la primera clarísima, apoyada en el empleo recurrente de rimas en /-ote, arrastradas por la
referencia al nombre del protagonistaque encontramos al final del segundo verso y en el tratamiento bufo
dado al tema del luto dueñesco; más elíptica y descarnada la segunda, en la medida en que lo únicoque
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incita a asignar un valor burlesco a la octava tomada a la letra de Garcilaso es la novedad de su

contextualización» Monique, Joly, op. cit. 201.
15
Jordi Savall, Entremeses del Siglo de Oro, Alia Vox, track 10.
16
See Alejandro Luis Iglesias, “Andanzas y fortunas de algunos impresos musicales españoles del siglo
XVI: Fuenllana y Pedro GuerreroEl libro antiguo español. Coleccionismo y Bibliotecas (Siglos XV-
XVIII), Edited by López Vidriero, Mª Luisa y Pedro M. Cátedra y Hernández González, Mª Isabel
(Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, Patrimonio Nacional. Sociedad Española de Historia
del Libro, 1998) 461-503.
16
See Higinio Anglés “El Archivo Musical de la Catedral de Valladolid”, en Anuario Musical, III (1948),
59-108.
18
Manuel, Vilancetes, cantigas e romances do Séc. XVI, Trasncriçao e estudo, Portugaliae Musica, vol.
XLVI (Lisboa: Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian, 1986), 89-91.
19
Miguel de Fuenllana, Libro de Música para vihuela intitulado ORPHÉNICA LYRA en el qual se
contienen muchas y diversas obras, (Sevilla: Martín de Montesdoca, 1554). Modern Edition: (Genève :
Minkoff Reprint, 1981). “Spanish vihuelist and composer, he was born in Navalcarnero, near Madrid, and
died between 1553 and 1578. He was blind from birth. The earliest evidence of him is the printing licence
for Orphenica lyra (Seville, 1554/R1981; ed. C. Jacobs, Oxford, 1978), issued on 11 August 1553 by
crown prince Philip, which affirms his presence at court in Valladolid. On 29 March 1554, now resident
in Seville, Fuenllana contracted with Martín de Montesdoca to print 1000 copies of Orphenica lyra. The
edition was completed on 2 October, though Wagner has shown the surviving copies to represent two
variants of the same impression. In 1555, Fuenllana is described as a citizen of Seville in a legal action
initiated to suppress a fraudulent edition of the book. According to Bermudo (Declaración, 1555),
Fuenllana was in the employ of the Marquesa de Tarifa at this time, but he would have left her service by
1559 after the appointment of her husband, the Duke of Alcalá, as viceroy of Naples. From 1560 until
June 1569 he served Isabel de Valois (d 1568), third wife of Philip II, with an annual salary of 50,000
maravedís. On 15 May 1574 Fuenllana entered the service of Don Sebastián of Portugal in Lisbon, with
an initial contract for three years and an annual salary of 80,000 reales. Contradictory evidence clouds his
life after 1578. Anglés claimed that Fuenllana's descendants received retrospective payment from the
court in 1591 for money owed to their deceased father, while Jacobs cites a petition of 20 August 1621
presented to Philip IV by Doña Catalina de Fuenllana claiming that her father served Philip II and Philip
III for more than 46 years, thus perhaps until 1606. Fuenllana's instrumental mastery was recognized by
Bermudo who had witnessed him perform and cited him as a ‘consummate player’, praise echoed by
Cristóbal Suárez de Figueroa (Plaza universal, 1615)” John Griffiths, “Miguel de Fuenllana”, New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Ed. by Sadie, Stanley & Tyrrell John (Londres: Macmillan, 2001)
20
See Juan José Pastor & Sergio Barcellona, Por ásperos caminos, op. cit, track. 8
21
Alonso de Mudarra, Tres libros de música en cifra para vihuela, op. cit. 101-103. “Spanish vihuelist
and composer (b c1510; d Seville, 1 April 1580). Raised in Guadalajara in the household of the third and
fourth dukes of the Infantado, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (1461–1531) and Iñigo López de Mendoza
(1493–1566), it is likely that Mudarra travelled with the latter in the entourage that accompanied Charles
V to Italy in 1529. He subsequently entered the priesthood, probably in Palencia, becoming a canon at
Seville Cathedral on 18 October 1546, less than two months before the publication of his vihuela book.
During the following 34 years he played an important role in cathedral affairs: arranging the annual
Corpus Christi celebrations, hiring wind players, negotiating the purchase and installation of a new organ,
and consulting in 1572 with Francisco Guerrero at the request of the chapter concerning the music
commissioned from Guerrero for the coming Christmas season. From March 1568 he served as major-
domo of the cathedral, in charge of all disbursements. After his death, the 92,000 maravedís raised from
the sale of his possessions was distributed to the poor according to the provisions of his will. His songs
are without parallel in 16th-century Spanish literature. They include romances, villancicos, canciones, and
sonnets by Garcilaso, Boscán, Petrarch and Sannazaro. Latin settings include two psalms, texts by
Horace, Ovid and Virgil, in addition to intabulated mass sections by Josquin and Févin, and motets by
Gombert, Willaert and Escobar. Vocal parts are notated either on a separate staff, or marked in the
tablature with apostrophes. Three signs, , C and C, are used to indicate fast, medium and slow tempos.
Mudarra's preface also discusses plucking technique, both thumb-index alternation and the plectrum-like
dedillo stroke” John Griffiths, “Alonso de Mudarra” New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Ed.
by Sadie, Stanley & Tyrrell John (Londres: Macmillan, 2001). See too John Griffiths: “La Fantasía que
 Music’s Intellectual History: Founders, Followers & Fads
RILM, Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale

contrahaze la harpa de Alonso Mudarra; estudio histórico-analítico”, Revista de Musicología, IX (1986),

29–40 and “Luis Milán, Alonso Mudarra y la canción acompañada” en Edad de Oro, XXII, (2003), 7-28.
22
Juan José Pastor & Sergio Barcelona, Por ásperos caminos, op. cit. track 2.