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• 2 'La Spagna' Settings

2 'La Spagna' Settings

for 3 instruments.

These two settings of the basse-danse melody "La Spagna" (also known as "Castille la novele”) are only two of countless settings that have come down to us.' It may have started as a dance melody, but increasingly became the basis of instrumental (or vocal) music of a completely abstract kind.
The setting by Heinrich Isaac (c. 1450-1517) has survived as a separate piece in manuscripts in Leipzig, Wroclaw and Verona. For this reason, it has sometimes been mistaken for an example of written-down dance music (and even performed with a drum rhythm), when in fact it is the Agnus Dei II of Isaac´s Missa La Spagna. Several sections of other Isaac masses have also survived as separate pieces, notably parts of his Missa Wohlauff gut G´sell, von hinnen and his Missa Carminum.
The setting by de la Torre (fl. 1510), taken from the massive Palace Manuscript (Cancionero Musical de Palacio) in Madrid, is closer to the style of dance music, with an attractively improvisatory top part. The term "alta" was used for a comparatively lively dance that followed the bassadanza; it was based on the same tenor, but played at a faster tempo. The tenor in this version is several bars shorter than in most other settings. In terms of partwriting de la Torre´s version is more old-fashioned than Isaac´s, with a fifteenth-century style contratenor that frequently goes above the tenor (the piece is harmonically complete with just the two parts, discantus and tenor).
The original note values have been halved throughout. Editorial accidentals are prin-ted small above the stave, applying to one note only. The Isaac setting appears here after the Apel Codex. The de la Torre version has been transposed up a fourth.
These pieces may be performed on consorts of recorders, or stringed instruments, or cornett and sackbuts.