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The 27th of March, 1566, in a small graveyard in el Monasterio del Señor San Francisco,

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a lifeless body, or so they thought, the famous composer and organist Antonio de Cabezón laid.

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The musician was surrounded by his family, including his wife and his daughters and sons,

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and also by his close friends.

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Behind all of them, a ghostly body appeared, or rather, there I was.

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Yes, I'm dead, well, technically, because my heart doesn't beat.

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But look, at least now I can see.

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for having lived in the 16th century with wars, pandemics, changes.

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Nevertheless, my life has not been that bad. I mean, I could have lived in the Bahamas, but,

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well, my life was full of love, happiness, passion for my music and for my work.

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But now let's go back to 1509, when my parents decided to have a child.

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And guess who that child was? It was my brother Diego.

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My life began in the year 1510, when my parents, Sebastián de Cabenzón and María Gutiérrez, decided to have their third child.

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Juan was the other one.

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I was born in Castillo Mota de Judíos, in Burgos.

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Well, Ilgo has not always been called like that.

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When I was born, it was called Castillo de Judíos, but in 1623, a scribe decided to copy a text where the name of the town appeared and change it to Castillo Mota Judíos.

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I think he didn't really like them, but as everyone in the town lived peacefully and never discriminated against anyone for their religion, in 2015 there was an act to change the name of the town back to its original name.

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Well, continuing with the story, where was I? Oh yes, although my family was Hidalgo.

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Brief explanation, Hidalgo was a Castilian nobility title. They fought in battles as a way of living and they were considered to be part of the low nobility.

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I received a good education that let me compose and learn about music. In spite of, I went blind at 8 years old due to an infection.

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Despite being blind I had a childhood like the rest of the children of my age.

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During it I did a lot of tricks on my parents and they punished me, but as a good son I

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kept doing them.

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When I decided I wanted to be a great composer and organist, or at least a competent one,

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first I went to Castro Jerez to study the organ, and then I was sent to Parencia to

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study at a cathedral.

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There I learned to play the organ and learned about music thanks to García de Baeza, the

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organist.

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He was like a best friend to me, although sometimes he totally flipped and he became

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the devil.

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I didn't say this, if so he would kill me, oh well, I'm already dead.

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Seriously, I didn't say that, he was really religious, I remember when he was teaching

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me, we woke up so early, I think for him only for praying, and we prayed again and again

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until he died.

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I mean, until he stopped being part of my life, because I was presented in 1522, when I was 12 years old, to the Emperor Carlos I.

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Three years later, I moved to Toledo, where I came to the service of the Empress Isabel de Portugal, wife of the king, as its chapel musician.

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I spent many years working there, but one day I met the beautiful love of my life, who I married in 1538, Luisa Núñez.

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We had five children. Furthermore, the same year I began to serve as a chamber musician of Carlos I, in addition to continuing with my work as organist of the Empress Isabel.

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Unfortunately, a year after our wedding, Isabel de Portugal passed away. Poor woman, she was so nice to me.

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Once she gave me a shirt that was cool as a cucumber for my birthday.

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In those times, I lived in Madrid, where my son Hernando got baptized in 1541 in the parish of San Ginés.

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I started working for her children, but especially for Felipe II.

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He was my favorite.

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Shortly after, in 1543, the Infante Don Felipe was appointed regent of Spain by Carlos V,

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and I became the organist of the Chapel of the Prince.

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For my misfortune, Maria, Carlos' wife, died in 1545, when the court had settled in Valladolid.

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However, due to her death, the court moved back to Madrid.

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In typical 1548, I traveled with the future prince and my bro for over three years around Europe.

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Although we had those typical brothers' fights about who was going to sleep on the biggest bed at Inns,

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it was great to forget about my children and spend time with my brother.

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We managed to visit several countries. Luxembourg and the Netherlands are known for making and extending its influence around the continent.

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During one of those trips, I played the organ in Genoa at a potential mass. Not gonna lie, I think I caused admiration.

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Upon my return to Spain, I had permission to go to my home, Ávila. I stayed there from the beginning of June 1552 until December of the same year.

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By the way, you have to meet my besties, Luis de Narváez and Tomás de Santa María.

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I met them at the court in 1526.

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I remember when we spent afternoons together criticizing the king's music taste.

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It's awful.

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For my luck, the emperor abdicated and in 1555 Felipe II was crowned.

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And guess what? He ordered a portrait of a person.

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Do you know who is the portrait of?

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Exactly, me.

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I've always known I'm flawless.

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I'm not saying this to brag or anything like that.

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They complied my music work in a book as an example of perfection.

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Also, they called me the Spanish bug.

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We all know that bug is handsome.

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In 1560, the king installed permanently in Madrid, but unfortunately, I was sick for two years,

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so I asked for a permission and I moved temporarily to the town of Jara, in Cuenca.

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My wife and I made our will in Ávila, the place I really loved, but that wasn't the place where my life ended.

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As you know, I passed away yesterday, the 26th of May, 1566.

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I know all of you are really sad because now your favorite musician is dead, but at least I have a substitute who is obviously my blue-eyed boy Hernando.

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I know he is not like me, but at least our nose has got the same shape.

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in shape. I've talked about how great I was at music but I haven't shown my masterpieces yet.

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Trigger warning, if you are sensitive please be careful to admire so much magnificence, you may

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go deaf. Even though most of my perfect compositions were lost, these are some of my most important and

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favorite works. The book compiling of the above unloads more because he really loves me or he

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should if he wants a good inheritance. I am unique, my artworks have these three

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special characteristics. I use two types of compositional techniques, one more

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instrumental, coming from the vihuela, and the second time, which is almost an

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adaptation of polyphonic vocal music to the organ. Some people call it an

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instrumental motete. I'm a trendsetter. Instead of using a single theme and

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and imitating it throughout the whole composition, as everyone else did, I used different motifs and

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things that brought great unity to the work and developed better harmonic richness.

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I composed 26 tientos, including some that are based on melodies by other composers.

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Others, such as the first-tone tiento and the sixth-tone tiento, in two parts, are works that

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reached a certain scale. I also took special care in the transitions between one variation and the

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other, and I was able not to reduce any procedure, no matter how small. Each variation is novel with

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respect to the previous one, with which, as the piece progresses, the dramatic intensity of the

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work increases. I composed also a vocal work, the Sancta Maria prayer preserved in the Cancionero

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de Medinaceli. I created it for the church. It mixes monophonic and polyphonic melodies.

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As you have seen I was one of the most important artists in the world and I'm sure I'm going to be

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the inspirations of a lot of artists in the future. My life was also really interesting

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But there's one thing I could never do

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Look at myself in the mirror

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But don't worry

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I know I'm the most handsome man in Europe

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It has been a pleasure to talk to you

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But now that I'm a ghost

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I can't wait to scare people

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So I have to go

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Bye