Milan, Luys don (EN)

Milan Luys don, Luis de Milán, *ca. 1500 (?), †ca. 1560, Spanish vihuelist, composer and writer. He probably spent most of his life in Valencia, and at the turn of the 1520s and 1530s he worked there at the court of the viceroy, Hernando [Ferdinando] de Aragón, Duke of Calabria. He also visited the court of John III in Lisbon and for some time (after 1535?) received a pension from the king. He published a description of parlour games, El juego de mandar (Valencia 1535), and a description of the court of the Duke of Calabria, El Cortesano (Valencia 1561), modelled on the work of B. Castiglione. Milan’s most important work is a tablature included in a didactic treatise: Libro de musica de vihuela de mano. Intitulado El maestro…, published in Valencia in 1536 (the colophon dated as 4 December 1536, while the title page dated1535), dedicated to the King of Portugal. The structure of the work is carefully thought out in terms of the gradation of difficulty in mastering the technique of playing the vihuela, the interpretation of pieces and music theory. The whole consists of an introduction (“Declaracion dela obra”) and two symmetrically structured books, within which the author distinguishes sections devoted to various issues. Each book begins with 22 instrumental pieces, called “fantasia,” and each ends with 11 vocal-instrumental pieces. The Book 1 contains also six pavanes between these groups, which the author also calls fantasies, stating that all (instrumental) pieces originating from the composer’s imagination, including those based on well-known melodies, bear this designsation. In his notation, Milan uses a specific variant of Italian lute tablature, which reverses the relationship between the lines and the strings (the highest line corresponds to the highest-pitched string, etc.); the solo vocal part is highlighted in red in the tablature. Each piece is preceded by an explanation specifying the key and usually presenting interpretative problems and sometimes other issues. In grading technical difficulty, Milan limits the works in Book 1 to first-position playing (with a single exception), whereas in Book 2 he employs chord shapes extending up to the 10th fret; here he also introduces a greater density of multiple stops. At the beginning of Book 1, he uses values from semibrevis to semiminima – in the second part (and in the corresponding second part of Book 2), he juxtaposes such sections with passages in fugues (“musica con diversos redobles”), played with two fingers of the right hand, drawing the reader’s attention to these differences in movement. In the field of interpretation, he contrasts pieces composed of fast passages and slower chords (“redobles y consonancias”) but played rhythmically (“con el compass”), with pieces in which one should depart from the regular measure (“tañer de gala”). In the middle of Book 1, Milan introduces more difficult mensuration markings: prolatio perfecta and proportio tripla, but in the field of theory he focuses mainly on determining the modus of a given fantasia, although his view of the problem differs from the views of theorists and composers of vocal music, and is closer to the understanding of Italian lutenists of the early 16th century (Spinacino, Bossinensis, Dalza), which can be inferred from their works. In Book 1, he introduces eight modes in succession and points to fantasies combining the characteristics of the authentic and plagal modes: “tono mixto (…) tercero y quarto,” always without transposition (in the Gamut tuning). In Book 2, all modes are transposed, not only typically down a fifth, but he also uses the Phrygian modus with finalis G, the D and F Mixolydian mode, and with finalis C Milan states that this may be modus 6 or 8, depending on which transposition is adopted. The final group in each book consists uniformly of 3 villancicos “en castellano” and 3 “en portugues,” 2 Spanish “romances” and 3 Italian pieces named (not always correctly) “sonetos.” Each villancico is given in two versions: with simple chord accompaniment and with ornamental accompaniment, in which “redobles” also serve as interludes between verses; in the first versions, Milan recommends that the singer embellish the melody. In his explanations of the fantasias, the composer does not mention imitative structures; in some pieces, however, they play a leading role, and in many others, they are an element on a par with chordal sections and virtuoso passages. Overall, the fantasies, in addition to their didactic value, display high aesthetic and structural qualities. The content of El maestro points to the existence of an exceptionally interesting tradition of Spanish vihuela music, which must have developed over decades; however, this process is impossible to grasp due to the lack of earlier sources.

Literature: A. Paz y Mélia Coplas de Juan Fernández en contra D. Luis de Milán, “Revista de archivos, bibliotecas, y museos” VI 1876; J.B. Trend Luis de Milan and the Vihuelists, Oxford 1925; J. Ward The Vihuela da Mano and Its Music (1536-1576), dissertation, New York University, 1953; F. Almela y Vives El duc de Calàbria i la seua cort, Valencia 1958; J. Moll Roqueta Notas para la historia musical de la corte del Duque de Calabria, “Analecta Musicologica” XVIII, 1963; G. Simpson and B. Mason The Sixteenth-Century Spanish Romance. A Survey of the Spanish Ballad as Found in the Music of the Vihuelistas, “Early Music” V, 1977; M. Lindley Luis Milan and Meantone Temperament, “Journal of the Lute Society of America” XI, 1978; J. Etzion The Spanish Polyphonic Ballad in 16th-Century Vihuela Publications, “Musica Disciplina” XXXV, 1981; R. Chiesa Storia della letteratura del liuto e della chitarra. Il Cinquecento: la vihuela; Luys Milan, El maestro, “Il Fronimo” XXXIX, 1982; J. Griffiths The Vihuela Fantasia. A Comparative Study of Forms and Styles, dissertation, Monash University, 1983; J. Griffiths La evolución de la fantasia en el repertorio vihuelístico and L. Jambou Las formas instrumentales en el siglo XVI, w: España en la Música de Occidente, red. E. Casares Rodicio et al., Madrid 1987; J. Sutton Triple Pavans. Clues to Some Mysteries in 16th-Century Dance oraz C.H. Russell The Eight Modes as Tonal Forces in the Music of Luis Milan, in: De musica hispana et aliis. Miscelánea en honor al Prof. Dr. José López-Calo, S. J., en su 65 cumpleaños, eds. E. Casares Rodicio and C. Villanueva, Santiago de Compostela 1990; A. Corona-Alcalde “You will raise a little your 4th fret.” An Equivocal Instruction by Luis Milan?, “The Galpin Society Journal” XLIV, 1991; M. Gómez Some Precursors of the Spanish Lute School, „Early Music” XX, 1992; F. Sánchez Mascuñano Luys Milán: la convivencia de dos mundos musicales, “Revista de Musicología” XVI, 1993; L. Gasser Luis Milán on Sixteenth-Century Performance Practice, Bloomington 1996; R. Harmon Luys Milán’s Orpheus Woodcut, “The Lute Society Journal” XXXVII, 1997; J. Griffiths Extremities: the Vihuela in Development and Decline, w: Luths et luthistes en Occident, Paris 1999; J. Griffiths Improvisation and Composition in the Vihuela Songs of Luis Milán and Alonso Mudarra, w: Gesang zur Laute, ed. N. Schwindt-Gross, Kassel 2003; G. Arriaga Reflexiones en torno a Luis Milán. Vida, obra, historiografía, “Roseta” 0, 2007; G. Arriaga Las Pavanas de Luis Milán y su primera transcripción moderna, “Roseta” 0, 2007; G. Fiorentio La pavana ternaria de Luis Milán, “Roseta” 0, 2007; J. Griffiths Hidalgo, mercader, sacerdote, o poeta. Vihuelas y vihuelistas en la vida urbana, “Hispanica Lyra” IX, 2009; M. Arriaga La obra instrumental de Luis Milán, “Roseta” IV, 2010; R. Laureys Modality and consonancias in the fantasias in Luys Milán’s Libro de musica de vihuela de mano intitulado el maestro, dissertation, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 2011; A. Colella Juegos de palabras y música en El Cortesano de Luis Milán, “Scripta” V, 2015; A. Colella Music and sprezzatura in El cortesano de Luis Milán, “Revista de Musicología” XXXIX, 2016.