Gabriel Mena (1470-1528) was a Spanish poet,

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, musician and singer. He was a servant of the Admiral of Castile, don Fadrique Enríquez and ''cantor'' of the chapel of Fernando el Católico until the king's death in 1516. He is first referenced in royal household accounts in 1496 and continued his work there until at least 1502. It is thought that after the king's death he entered into the service of Enríquez, Fernando's cousin, until he returned to serve the royal family in 1523. Here, he was in the employ of Juana "the Mad", where he remained until his death. A poem in the 1554 ''

Cancionero general The ''Cancionero general'' or ''Cancionero general de Hernando del Castillo'' is a lyric poetry anthology of the late Middle Ages or the early Renaissance. It is mostly devoted to the production in the kingdoms of Castile and León under Enrique IV ...

'' refers to him as a married man living close to

Tordesillas Tordesillas () is a town and municipality in the province of Valladolid, Castile and León, central Spain. It is located southwest of the provincial capital, Valladolid at an elevation of . The population was c. 8,760 . The town is located on ...

Torrelobatón Torrelobatón is a municipality located in the province of Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain. In the 2004 census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating populat ...

. In fact, Mena was married twice with three children.

Music

Mena was a respected poet and composer, with 19 musical works surviving. All but one of his works are preserved in the ''Cancionero Musical de Palacio'', with the other being preserved in the records of the

Biblioteca de Catalunya The Library of Catalonia (, ) is the Catalan national library, located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The primary mission of the Library of Catalonia is to collect, preserve, and spread Catalan bibliographic production and that related to the ...

. Most of his songs are concerned with the hardship of love and contain quotes of other popular refrains. The songs ''Aquel pastorcico, madre'', ''La bella malmarida'', ''Aquella mora garrida,'' and ''Sola me dexastes'' all contain full quotations of the same refrain in the

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

. Mena's music was very distinct, and surviving examples show some characteristics that were unique to him in the Spanish Renaissance era. First, he used rapid scalar passages in all of his voices. Second, while rarely changing meter, he frequently used polyrhythms that changed the felt meter of the passage. His closing chords never rose above E or C and he often used parallel

first inversion The first inversion of a chord is the voicing of a triad, seventh chord, or ninth chord in which the third of the chord is the bass note and the root a sixth above it. Walter Piston, ''Harmony'', fifth edition, revised and expanded by Mar ...

chords. Additionally, his surviving compositions include no romances. Even his setting of the popular romance, ''La bella malmaridada'', is not a romance, but a refrain. And finally, unlike his contemporaries

Juan del Encina Juan del Encina (12 July 1468 – 1529/1530) was a Spanish composer, poet, priest, and playwright, often credited as the joint-father (even "founder" or "patriarch") of Spanish drama, alongside Gil Vicente. His birth name was Juan de Fermoselle. ...

and Luis de Milán, he wrote music to be sung by a woman.

Works

Villancicos

* ''Aquel pastorcico, madre'' * ''Aquella mora garrida'' * ''Andaran siempre mis ojos'', 2vv * ''Andaran siempre mis ojos'', 3vv * ''De la dulce mi enemiga'' * ''La bella malmaridada'' * ''Mi ventura, el caballero'' * ''Sola me dexastes''

References

1528 deaths Year of birth unknown Spanish Renaissance composers Spanish male classical composers 1470 births Cantors

External Links

* Free scores by Gabriel Mena at the

International Music Score Library Project The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based digital library of public-domain music scores. The project uses MediaWiki software, and ...

(IMSLP) * Free scores by Gabriel Mena in the

Choral Public Domain Library The Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL), also known as the ChoralWiki, is an online database for choral and vocal music. Its contents primarily include sheet music in the public domain or otherwise freely available for printing and performing ...

(ChoralWiki) {{Spain-composer-stub