Miguel de Fuenllana facts for kids
Miguel de Fuenllana (born around 1500, died 1579) was a Spanish musician and composer. He played the vihuela, a stringed instrument similar to a guitar. He lived during the Renaissance period, a time of great art and music in Europe.
About Miguel's Life
We don't know much about Miguel de Fuenllana's early life. He was likely from a town called Fuenllana in Spain, but he was born in Navalcarnero, near Madrid. Miguel was blind from birth.
He wrote an important music book called Libro de música para vihuela intitulado Orphenica Lyra. This book was published in Seville in 1554. He dedicated it to Philip II of Spain, who was the King of Spain at the time.
When Philip II's third wife, Isabel de Valois, came to Spain, she brought French musicians with her. Fuenllana played music with these foreign artists. Even after the queen died in 1568, he continued to work for the Spanish royal court. Later, in 1574, he moved to Lisbon to serve Don Sebastian of Portugal.
Miguel's Musical Works
Miguel de Fuenllana's famous book, Orphénica Lyra, contains 182 musical pieces. These pieces are organized into six volumes. The first three volumes arrange the music by the number of voices (or parts) in each piece. They start with simpler pieces for 2 or 3 voices and go up to 5 or 6 voices in the third volume's motets (a type of choral music).
The book includes 51 new fantasias that Fuenllana composed himself. It also features music by 17 other composers. His music style is polyphonic, meaning it has several independent melodies playing at the same time. This is similar to the music of Cristobal de Morales.
Orphénica Lyra also has arrangements of vocal pieces by famous musicians like Josquin, Morales, Francisco Guerrero, and Philippe Verdelot. These composers were from Spain and the Low Countries (modern-day Belgium and Netherlands).
Fuenllana often preferred music where a voice sang along with the vihuela, rather than just the vihuela playing by itself. In his book, the notes meant for the singer are written in red. The notes for the vihuela are in black. This helped musicians know which parts to sing and which to play. Sometimes, you could play all the notes on the vihuela, but it was often very challenging!
Other musicians of his time thought highly of Fuenllana's work. They praised his skill in creating beautiful harmonies and counterpoint (combining melodies) for popular songs. He used well-known tunes like De los alamos vengo, madre (which was also used by the writer Lope de Vega), Morenica, dame, and Con que la lavare. He even used the romance of the loss of Antequera, a famous story. By doing this, he showed a new way of combining singing with instruments, which became very popular later on.
