Vermeer’s sacred light travels across the room to illuminate her forehead, her fingers. She looks off to her left where someone listens offstage. Not the ancient lute, but a guitar from Spain. More chic, more modern. Easier to play, too. Catchy melodies, simple accompaniments. I imagine she plays music from Sanz’s Instrucción de música sobre la guitarra español.* His Villanos with its simple, courtly melody. Each note like a pearl in her pearl necklace. (She might add simple ornaments like the ornamental borders on the neck and body of her Spanish guitar.) The listener, charmed, begins to enter the room. He first notices the landscape painting behind her, its tree whose branches seem to echo the curls in her hair. She begins to play Sanz’s Canarios, a lively dance from the Canary islands with its alternating meters between 3/4 and 6/8. Her body marks time. When she plays the wilder strumming (rasgueado) sections, they both seem to dance without dancing. No one knows what happens next.
Click her for performance of Gaspar Sanz’s “Villanos” on classical guitar.
Click here for performance of Gaspar Sanz’s “Canarios” on Baroque guitar by Maria Belova.
Image of Vermeer’s “The Guitar Player” taken from Wikimedia Commons.
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2 replies on “Vermeer’s “The Guitar Player” and the music of Gaspar Sanz”
Wonderful share. The rippling melodies and accompanying body movements reminded me of a stream tumbling down hill, rippling over rocks and splashing up when landing.
Thanks, Pat! Like the stream metaphor!