El Parnasso (1576) by Esteban Daza (dates unknown) is the seventh known book of music for the vihuela. The vihuela, which was shaped like a guitar, strung in courses and tuned to the intervals of the lute (4 4 3 4 4) was eventually replaced by the guitar.
Music for the vihuela was notated in Spanish lute tablature (cifras) a visual system utilizing the six lines (representing the six courses) and the numbers 0-9 the frets. In the manner of other vihueiists (for example Luis Milan, El Maestro 1546) Daza included instructions for reading the tablature in the introductory material.
El Parnasso contains three books. The. first book (Libro I) is the subject of this thesis. It includes 22 original polythematic fantasias graded, by Daza, D (difficult) or F (easy). The fantasias, each based on one of the 8 modes, follow two styles. The first 18 are multisectional and composed in a highly imitative style which Daza adapted from Sancta Maria’s Libro llamado arte de taner fantasia (1565). The last four fantasias are comprised of numerous toccata-like passages separated by short polyphonic sections which contain a minimum of imitation.
Estella Mame Pate http://hdl.handle.net/10150/3480
