arolus Maximus, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, King Charles I of Castile, Aragon, Sicily, Sardinia, Naples and the New World, Duke of Burgundy, Brabant, Limburg and Luxembourg, Earl of Flanders, Artois, Hainaut, Holland, Zealand, Namur and Zupthen, Lord of Frisia, was born in Ghent on 24 February 1500. As grandson of the Catholic Monarchs, Fernando and Isabella, and of Emperor Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy, he was not only a member of the Habsburg dynasty, but also heir to the estates of Austria, Tyrol and Southern Germany. He would become Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece, a chivalry order associated since the XV century with the song L'homme armé. The text of the song refers to the Christian crusade against the Turks. Charles never ceased to defend the Christian faith against the Lutheran and Muslim "heresies", sometimes at a very high price. No wonder then, that this short verse should become one of his favourites. Several composers wrote masses based on this musical theme, among them Busnois, Anchieta, Morales, Obrecht, Josquin, Palestrina and Carissimi. Cristóbal de Morales left no doubt as to the meaning of this music: In the first print of his masses we can see the drawing of a large K, a warrior-like figure and the words Plus Ultra, Further Beyond, Charles's personal theme.

In 1520 the French composer Josquin Desprez presented the newly crowned emperor with a book of songs. Legend has it that the song Mille regretz, a thousand regrets, became Charles's favourite. In his book Delphin de musica, of 1538, the composer Luys de Narváez already referred to it as The emperor's song, and many composers who sought to gain imperial favours set themselves to write music based on it. So did Nicolas Gombert, master of the Flemish Music chapel of the emperor from 1526 to 1540. And so did Morales once more; this time the first edition of the work is decorated with the imperial emblem: a double-headed eagle topped by a cross.

Charles had received a thorough education at the Burgundian court of Margaret of Austria, his aunt, who would later become his regent in the Netherlands. Margaret was a gifted keyboard player and poetess. The court composer Pierre de la Rue set to music one of her poems: Pour un jamais. At the court in Malines, Henry Bredemers taught the young prince and his sisters the art of "the manicordium and other musical instruments". Music was ever present at court. The household included a highly hierarchical music chapel (composers, singers, teachers, instrumentalists). The young princes also had their own tambourin, a professional musician who played the pipe and tabor and served as a dancer and clown as well. In 1506 the Venetian ambassador reported to his government about the Burgundian court: "In this country, three things are of the highest excellence: silk, tapestry and the third is music, which certainly can be said to be perfect". Charles himself is said to have written the short motet Ecce sic benedecetur, although there is no reliable source for this belief. On 19 September 1517 the young prince arrived by sea to the northern coasts of Spain. He had come to take hold of his titles of King of Aragón, after the death of his grandfather, King Ferdinand, and King of Castile, jointly with his mother, Queen Joan, who had retired to the fortress of Tordesillas in 1506 after the death of her husband, Philip the Fair. There, 49 years of mental and physical deterioration awaited her and won her the nickname of Joan the Mad.

When Charles arrived in Spain, he could not speak any Spanish language and was seen by the majority of his subjects as a foreigner. On top of that, he made the mistake of surrounding himself mainly with Flemish advisers. The hostility against him escalated slowly until, in May 1520, a revolt broke out. It would take four years of oppression, diplomacy and a few executions to establish Charles as the new monarch. In Spain he would encounter a culture alien to him, but as rich in its traditions and ways as the one he had left behind in northern Europe. At court, there was indeed a royal chapel of musicians, which provided both the necessary music for the religious offices and enough courtly music to entertain its patrons. Among the finest songs of that time are those written by Juan Vásquez.In January 1519, Charles's other grandfather, the emperor Maximilian died, leaving an open door for the election of his grandson as the new Holy Emperor. Indeed, on 28 June 1519 Charles was elected and was successively crowned as King of Romans in Aachen and, by the Pope himself, as Emperor in Bologna ten years later. Many composers honoured the new Emperor with their music, among them, Morales and Gombert, yet again. The latter wrote a Coronation Mass for the occasion: the Missa Sur tous regretz. The Spanish court was deeply Catholic. Charles had inherited from his grandparents the Holy Inquisition and felt it was his duty to promote it and empower it to help christianize his country. The Royal family was keen to be seen publicly attending the offices, which were always accompanied by music. Charles had taken to Spain the best Flemish musicians and did not disband upon arrival the already existing Castilian chapel, but actually separated the services of both. From now on, the Flemish would sing the polyphony, the Spaniards the chant. Alone in this sometimes-tense situation stood the blind organist Antonio de Cabezón, whose virtuoso music would cause astonishment among his European colleagues wherever he went. He would remain at court for 40 years, even accompanying the King's son, Philip, on his trip to England to marry Queen Mary.

Meanwhile, a few thousand miles away, Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro were discovering and conquering new lands for the Empire. Spain would rely during decades on the silver and gold that arrived from the New World to sustain its costly wars against its enemies in Europe. However, nothing could now stop the blending of cultures that was starting to take place in America and, for better or for worse, a new voice could soon be heard in the architecture, painting, literature and music of those countries. The first musical examples of the crossing of European and American music were written in a mix of indigenous and European languages, and they combine the richness of the Indian rhythms with the Occidental harmonic colours. Hanacpachap cussicuinin, set to a poem written in Quechua, the imperial language of the Incas of Peru, is the first piece of vocal polyphony printed in the New World. Xicochi is a carol written in Nahuatl, the language spoken by the Aztecs of Mexico.

In 1526, Charles made a popular marriage when he wedded his cousin Isabella, sister of the King of Portugal. In 1527, they produced an heir, Philip. On the European front wars never ceased to require the Emperor's attention, whether it was against Francis I, King of France, who saw his country progressively surrounded and threatened by Charles's empire, the Protestant courts or the Turks. These events were continuously reflected in the secular music of the time. Clement Janequin, Mateo Flecha and Joan Brudieu were cultivating a descriptive style of madrigal based on the sounds of nature and daily life. In Spain, these were called ensaladas, salads, and received names such as the battle, the bomb, the birds or, as here, Las Cañas, a description of a joust between Love and Majesty.During the most part of his reign, Charles traveled from one place to another to protect and defend his interests. He had regents almost everywhere, be it his sister, his brother or his viceroys in America. He had spent a fourth of his reigning days traveling: 200 days at sea, 500 on the battle ground, 2 short visits to France, England and North Africa, almost 3 years in Italy, 9 in Germany, 10 in the Netherlands and 17 in Spain. In 1556, after many personal and political hard times (the defeat in Metz in 1553, the religious splicing of Germany in the Pax of Augsburg and the death of his mother, both in 1555) the Emperor abdicated. He bequeathed his kingdoms of Spain, Netherlands, the New World and a few more to his son, Philip, and the Empire to his brother, Ferdinand. Charles was sick and exhausted. He had suffered from severe gout and other ailments for the last couple of decades. He had a villa built, attached to a Monastery in Yuste, in Castile. There he kept a large entourage that included the monks, confessors, servants, valets, a famous Italian clockmaker (Juanelo Turriano), cooks (he often indulged far too much in food, which caused him more than one scare) and, of course, his beloved musicians. He had lost none of his past interest in music. His biographer Prudencio de Sandoval gives us an idea of the emperor's music zeal: "He was very fond of music and of having the services sung in polyphony, for which only friars should be used, for although the musicians were at times fourteen or fifteen, since only the best in the order were taken there, he could tell if there was somebody else singing among them, and if somebody made a mistake, he would say: -so and so was wrong, -so well did he know them, and he did not want any lay singers…And he understood music and felt it and liked it. Many a time the friars would see him keep the beat and sing in consonance with the singers of the choir, and if any of them made a mistake, he would utter to himself: -Oh, son of a …, he sang a wrong note. -A certain chapel master from Seville, named Guerrero, presented him with a book of motets and masses written by him, and the emperor commanded that a mass be sung for him, and once the mass was over, he called his confessor and told him: -O ,that son of a …, what a subtle thief Guerrero is, for he took some music from so-and-so and from so-and-so he stole some too.- All singers were astonished when they looked at the music and realized this.

Charles died on 21 of September 1558. All through his kingdoms, requiem masses were sung in his honour. One of them took place at the Mexico Cathedral in November 1559, at which the Officium Defunctorum by Cristóbal de Morales was sung with such devotion and softness of voices that it lifted the spirits, in the words of Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, local chronicler.

Carlos Fernández Aransay ©