Luys de Narváez

It is completely impossible to imagine our present musical landscape without the notion of variation : the repetition of a phrase with slight modifications is put to good use in every possible style. But it all started in the sixteenth century with the Spanish composer Luys de Narvaez. His aptly named diferencias (1538) is a piece for the vihuela and the earliest example of that technique. Five hundred years later we are still using that trick to write exciting music...