Paul Wolfe (harpsichord) Spanish keyboard music
Released in 1957 by Experiences Anonymes, EA 0026. Recorded at Stereo Sound Studios, N. Y. C. on Ampex stereophonic equipment by Jerry Newman.
The harpsichord on this record is a Pleyel, aud has two manuals and six pedals. The lower manual has an eight-foot stop, a four-foot stop, and a coupler; the upper, two eight·foot stops-one nasal-and the lute.

Side 1: Antonio de Cabezón
00:00 DIFERENCIAS SOBRE LA GALLARDA MILANESA
02:07 DIFERENCIAS SOBRE EL CANTO DE “LA DAM A LE DEMANDA”
05:32 ROMANCE, “PARA QUIEN CRIE YO CABELLOS”
08:15 DIFERENCIAS SOBRE EL CANTO DEL “CAVALLERO”
12:42 TIENTO DEL PRIMERO TONO
15:59 DIFERENCIAS SOBRE “LA PAVANA ITALIANA”

Side 2:
18:55 TIENTO DEL SESTO TONO (Francisco de Soto?)
22:48 ROMANCE, “PUES NO ME QUEREIS HABLAR” (Anon.)
FANTASIA SOBRE FA MI UT RE (Anon.)
VILLANCICO, “AL REVUELO DE UNA GARZA” (Anon.)
TRES GLOSADO (Luys Alberto)
TIENTO DE FALSAS (Juan Cabanilles)
PASACALLES (Juan Cabanilles)

Band 1 Variations on The Milanese Galliard (Pedrell VIII, p. 1), The sober dance is not followed by a series of variations, it is merely
repeated more fully with the addition of a tiny echo. After the initial section, however each succeeding part is presented in a new light with fresh figuration. Typical of Cabezon variation writing is the continuousness of the piece. the Elizabethans always separated their variations. This dance, incidentally. is not a member of the family of Milanesas which share a common bass line.

Barld 2: Variations on the song, “La Dama Ie Demanda” (Pedrell VIII,
p. 10). This more extended work comprises seven variations on a
pavan-like melody whose bass is closely related to the group of “Folia”
bass tunes.
Band 3: Romance, “Para quien crie yo cabellos” (Angles, p. 189).
TI,is unidentified ballad was sung to the tune and bass which came to
be called “La Folia”. Cabezon sets twO strophes, providing passage work
for the right hand in the first, and dividing the running figures between
the hands in the second. Triplet rhythm in the bass adds zest to the
closing phrase.
Balld 4: Variations on the song “Cavallero” (Pedrell, VIII, p. 3). The
traditional ballad melody is used as a roving cantus firmm in long note
values; it moves from one voice to another throughout the four variations.
A true Renaissance masterwork, serene and war’m with incredibly
smoothly flowing contrapuntal lines.

Band 5: Tiento in the first mode (Angles, p. 29). The term tiento
embraced several types of works–short prelude-like pieces to warm
the fingers or establish the mode before performing a more extended
work, polyphonic pieces in motet style (called ricercari in Italy), and
brilliunt toccata-like compositions. This one is a four-part ricercar on
several themes. It unfolds slowly with a truly Spanish gravity.
Band 6: Variations on “The Italian Pavan” (Pedrell VIII, p. 6). Virtually
identical with “La Dama Ie Demanda” on Band 2, thIS pavan was
known throughout Europe. It appears as the first” pavan in Mudarra’s
vihuela tablature (1546), as Pavaila 1taliana in Iralian and French
dance collections, and as the Spanish Pc/van, an enthusiastic but youthful
set of variations by John Bull. In Cabezon’s fine work, the top
part makes “divisions” on the tune in variation 1. Then the left hand
acquires the passage work for variation 2, while the right plays the
pavan in simple form. Variation 3 features the tune in traditional
“tenor” position, sandwiched between expressive counterpoints. The
melody remains in the tenor for the dignified final variation.

Side 2
Band 1: Tiento in the sixth mode – Francisco de Soto? (Angles,
p. 64). De Soto was a colleague of Cabezon; they were both cited
as “keyboard players to His Majesty” in a contemporary treatise.
Henestrosa printed this as an anonymous piece, but scholars assign it
to De Soto because it is followed by a very similar tiento which bears
his name. The Flemish motet technique of contrasting the voices in
higher and lower pairs is used to good advantage in this far from
austere ricercar.

PAUL WOLFE, born in Waco, Texas, majored in music at the University of Texas, from which he received his Master’s Degree in 1950. Since then, he has studied piano with Webster Aitken, and harpsichord with Denise Restout. He has been on the faculty of the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, and is now studying with Madame Wanda Landowska. Mr. Wolfe has appeared in concerts in many eastern universities and in New York City, and is a member of the New York Chamber Trio. This is his third record for Experiences Anonymes’ series devoted to early keyboard masters. The first two albums, ENGLISH KEYBOARD MUSIC from the Tudor Age to the Restoration (EA-0013) and GIROLAMO FRESCOBALDI-Canzoni, Correnti, Gaillards and Partitas (EA-0022), have brought him wide recognition.

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