Romanesca. The Renaissance twelve bar blues.

Beautiful. To be precise, 'guárdame las vacas' literally means 'look after my cows'...

I have been playing these types of compositions for 60 years and have never heard anything this good on this obscure and esoteric subject.  I have built harpsichords and organs as a hobby and love this early period of Western European music history.  Your presentations transport me to a different world. Thanks.

OMG. A YouTube video has no right to be as good as this one is.
Like, don't get me wrong, I've read Gjerdingen and everything. But you still managed to showcase a whole bunch of things that just blew my mind.
(And every time you casually throw around terms like "plagal" or "cantizans", I have to pinch myself to check that I'm not in some kind of wet dream. This must be like the most niche of all the niche music channels I've bumped into so far, and it wears that right on its sleeve with pride and dedication. Fantastic.)

This channel is an absolute gem: I always learn something new and more light is effortlessly cast on some esoteric subject. And then there is the generous humour too. Please never stop casting these pearls in our direction! I have played Romanescas for decades and now I see them anew.

Finally, Spain gets some credit in music history as a “leader” of musical form.

I used to play guitar and recorder with a small early music ensemble (in Mexico) back in the 70's.  We would have a lot of fun playing the romanesca (las vacas) and combining other pieces with it, like playing Greensleeves, Las Vacas and la Folie d' Espagne on top of each other.  Fun piece to improvise upon 😊

All of your videos are amazing!

Elam, your channel and your videos are superb. Having all this information explainead in such an entertainingh way is like a dream come true. Thank you very much!!

Ohhhh, that moment when in the 'cantizans' that F# renders the full harshness-sweetness of the 1/4 comma meantone. 🔥

Pachelbel’s Canon is also very similar to this

Best channel ever.

Your channel is SPECTACULAR!!!!
You really should have 10M subscribers and not 10K!
Looking forward to the next video.

Beautifully made and superbly informing video! Your an education pro :)

Llevaba casi 20 años escuchando el "Guárdame las vacas" y hasta ahora me doy cuenta que era el tema de la famosa Romanesca... XD

So good! Do you teach anywhere? Your videos make me want to study musicology again. Keep up the good work!

So glad I happened upon this channel! Please do a video on Folias as well!

What a wealth of knowledge olin all of his videos. I wish I could just upload it in my head.

Very interesting. Though 'Guardame las vacas' is not 'look out for the cows' in english. It would be more like 'Take care of the cows for me'.

'Look out for the cows' in spanish would be 'Cuidado con las vacas'.  

Unless that is a way of expression im not familiar with. Maybe its an older way of speaking?

J'apprends donc ici que "la romanesca" = air grand public, n'est pas du tout une romanesca. Super intéressant, explications claires et calmes pour les non-anglophones. Mention spéciale pour la déco en arrière-plan  ! 🥃