Arte De Tanger: Gonzalo De Baena's New Keyboard Me

Forst, Bruno

Gonzalo de Baena’s Arte novamente inventada pera aprender a tãger (Newly devised method for learning to play) was the first book of keyboard music ever printed on the Iberian Peninsula. Lost for centuries, it was rediscovered in 1992, and early music keyboardist Bruno Forst has since painstakingly decoded its unique tablature system and edited a modern edition, published in 2012. Baena compiled mostly polyphonic vocal music by various composers, from the old Flemish Masters he himself studied, to contemporaries thriving alongside him in the rich musical environment of Spain under the Catholic Monarchs, along with pieces of his own and several by his son, Antonio. To disseminate this music in arrangements for keyboardists, professional or amateur, Baena transcribed them in an easy to read tablature notation and ordered the pieces in increasing level of difficulty. While his collection, printed in 1540, was pedagogical in intent, Baena nevertheless left a valuable historic document to posterity, creating a faithful depiction of the place and time that gave birth to later masters such as Antonio de Cabezón.

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