Pavan No. 1 by Luis Milan
In addition to being a composer and vihuelist (the vihuela was a precursor to the modern guitar) in the early Renaissance period, Luis Milan compiled a collection of music that he had written for the vihuela, the first collection of music written specifically for the instrument. This collection, published in 1536 and titled "Libro de música de vihuela de mano intitulado El maestro" includes forty Fantasias, six Pavanas (or Pavans), and four Tentos, providing aspiring and professional vihuelists alike plenty of music to learn and enjoy.
Pavan No. 1 is the first of six Pavans in Milan’s collection of vihuela music. A Pavan is a moderately slow European processional dance, and this Pavan is no exception, featuring a stately and assertive character. It begins with a bold opening phrase (m. 1–8) that is contrasted with a more lyrical and reserved second phrase beginning in the relative major key of C major, before concluding on an A major chord in measure 15. The third phrase builds on the melodic and harmonic content of the second phrase, moving the piece back toward the relative major, where it mostly stays until measure 47, which repeats the cadence to an A major chord. The piece ends with a slight variation on the second phrase, which builds to a robust finish on an A major chord.
There is some ambiguity regarding the key of this piece: the key signature has no accidentals and the opening chord is an A chord with no third, followed by a few alternations between the E and A minor chords, pointing toward the key of A minor. However, there are several points in the piece (such as mm. 15-16, 49-50, and, perhaps most notably, m. 56-57) in which the E chord (functioning as a dominant) resolves not to an A minor chord but to an A major chord. This is known as a Picardy third ('Picardy' referring to a region in France or the old French 'picart,' meaning pointed), which is when a major chord with a tonic root appears in place of the expected tonic minor chord at the end of a piece. This is why it is noteworthy that the piece ends on this chord, further pointing toward the presence of a Picardy third, a relatively frequent addition to the end of a Renaissance or Baroque Period piece, though not necessarily the ending we might expect.
Resources:
Milan, Luis. Libro de Música de Vihuela de mano. IMSLP. Link: https://imslp.org/wiki/Libro_de_M%C3%BAsica_de_Vihuela_de_mano_(Mil%C3%A1n%2C_Luis.
Warner, Bradford. "Six Pavans by Luis de Milán for Guitar." This Is Classical Guitar, 2020. Link: https://www.thisisclassicalguitar.com/six-pavans-luis-de-milan-guitar/.