Cancion del Imperador (De Narvaez)

Cancion del Imperador is an arrangement of the chanson Mille Regretz de vous Abandonner by the Burgundian composer Josquin des Prez (ca. 1440-1521), written by the Spanish vihuelist and composer Luys de Narváez.

Mille Regretz is a love song in which the pangs of love are predominant (in old French):

Mille regretz de vous abandonner,
Et d’eslonger vostre fache amoureuse,
Jay si grand dueil et paine douloureuse,
Quon me verra brief mes jours definer.

In his arrangement of Des Prez’ Mille Regretz, De Narváez stays very close to the vocal original. The title Cancion del Imperador is possibly chosen because the song was a favourite of the then emperor Charles V, a ruler who played an important role in Dutch history, to be specific the preamble of the Dutch Uprising which finally resulted in the Dutch Republic of the United Netherlands.

This piece requires tuning of the G string to F#. If you use a capotasto on the second fret, you’ll get an imitation of the sound of a vihuela.

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