Mille Regretz was a melancholy French love song very popular in the first half of the 16th century. It was reputed to be a particular favourite of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V (1500-58).
The four-part a cappella version has been attributed to Josquin des Prez and the great Granada vihuelist Luis de Narváez made a beautifully ornate version of Josquin's work.
Around 1997 I heard a concert by the magnificent José Miguel Moreno in the Cathedral of Jaén in Spain, where he performed a vihuela version of Josquin's Mille Regretz followed by Narváez's Canción del Emperador. It was like a wonderful revelation. Since then, I have often " asked" my students "to make their own arrangement of Josquin and link the two pieces together. It was only last year 2022 that I decided to take the step of making my own version for guitar with coloured voices so that the correct voice-leading could be recognised. It also occurred to me to attach an ossia staff with the Canción del Emperador, also coloured, to serve as a comparative study between the two arrangements and to give a coherent sense to the polyphonic framework which the vihuela tablature cannot offer in any way.
Mille Regretz was a melancholy French love song very popular in the first half of the 16th century. It was reputed to be a particular favourite of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V (1500-58).
The four-part a cappella version has been attributed to Josquin des Prez and the great Granada vihuelist Luis de Narváez made a beautifully ornate version of Josquin's work.
Around 1997 I heard a concert by the magnificent José Miguel Moreno in the Cathedral of Jaén in Spain, where he performed a vihuela version of Josquin's Mille Regretz followed by Narváez's Canción del Emperador. It was like a wonderful revelation. Since then, I have often " asked" my students "to make their own arrangement of Josquin and link the two pieces together. It was only last year 2022 that I decided to take the step of making my own version for guitar with coloured voices so that the correct voice-leading could be recognised. It also occurred to me to attach an ossia staff with the Canción del Emperador, also coloured, to serve as a comparative study between the two arrangements and to give a coherent sense to the polyphonic framework which the vihuela tablature cannot offer in any way.