Luis de Milan’s instrument was the Spanish vihuela, shaped like a guitar and tuned like a lute, for the existence of which his book El Maestro (1536) is the earliest known evidence, and one by Antonio de Santa Cruz (seventeenth century, undated) the last. When it was born, and when and why it died, remain unclear. El Maestro was both a collection of pieces and a thoughtful tutor book, containing much valuable information on the music of the time and on the manner of its performance; in some fantasias it is indicated which passages are to be played ‘broadly’ and in time, and which are to be delivered more quickly.
Very little consort music from sixteenth-century Iberia is known and the premise here is, that it is a valid exercise to add to it by adaptation, which it is – and especially when it is done so magically. Milan’s book contains 40 contrapuntal fantasias, four tentos (equivalent to fantasias) and six pavans (in both duple and triple time, and both slow and fast); a selection of these, together with three galliardas from elsewhere, are here converted with great skill into consort pieces by Jordi Savall. They are fleshed out by judicious beefing-up of chords and, enhancingly, by the embellishment of individual lines. Seven items are given as solos on either the harp or psaltery, accepted alternatives to the vihuela at the time. The chosen instrumentation gives scope for an alluring variety of tone-colour, showing this wonderfully pure and noble music in a less ‘private’ and understated way than is possible on a solitary vihuela. This record is revelatory and compelling.'