The Tiento in Cabezón. Considerations on the Tiento IV of “Antonio” included in the Venegas de Henestrosa’s Libro de cifra nueva

Abstract

After an introduction in which the author reviews the musicological studies published around Cabezón’s anniversary and considers the term “tiento” ant its possible defi nitions, this article focuses on the analysis of the tiento number IV taken from Venegas de Henestrosa’s book. This tiento contains a rest hard to justify from a musical point of view. But thanks to a defi nition of the term “tiento” given in the 19^th century by Parada y Barreto, along with some quotations by Cabezón, the author considers the possibility of an oral transmission of this tiento, which could have incorporated different pieces. The tiento number IV would thus be a composition including both a previous piece and a psalmodic micro-tiento, possibly attributed to Cabezón himself -or to two different composers.