Original Version

“Que ten o Mozo?” is a musical composition by Prudencio Piñeiro with lyrics by Rosalía de Castro.

Prudencio Piñeiro y Latierro (1838-1919) was a Romantic composer who composed musical pieces for voice with piano accompaniment. Many of his works consist of the musicalization of poems, some of them by the great Galician poet Rosalía de Castro, such as “Que ten o Mozo?” or "“Como chove mihudiño”.

Rosalía de Castro de Murguía (1837-1885) was a Galician writer and poet, considered the most illustrious figure in modern poetry and one of the highest in Spanish poetry, and the main person responsible for the Rexurdimento Galego of the nineteenth century, along with Eduardo Pondal and Manuel Curros Enríquez.

Her figure and her literary creations have been the subject of an abundant bibliography and have received constant critical attention, both in Galicia and abroad. The 17th of May, Día das Letras Galegas (Galician Literature Day), is celebrated for being the date of the first edition of her book Cantares Gallegos in 1863.

In the second edition of Cantares Gallegos, in 1872, the poem “Que ten o Mozo?” was published.
All the poems in this book (except two) are Galician folk songs, classified as:
- customary poems, with a descriptive and narrative character.
- love poems that tell stories of lovers.
- civic-social poetry, with vindictive poems referring to emigration such as "Adios ríos, adios fontes" or "Castellanos de Castilla".
- Intimate poetry, with two poems, "Campanas de Bastavales" and "Como chove miudiño".

“Que ten o Mozo?” classifies as a love poem. The girl narrates the different behavior and contradictions of the boy when he is alone with her and when they are in public.

Prudencio Piñeiro's musicalization of this poem has the following characteristics:
- cheerful, jumpy, fresh melody, with a traditional Galician character and contrasts.
- cheerful tempo and binary rhythm that combines 2/4 with the ternary subdivision of 6/8 (very characteristic of traditional Galician music and dance).
- complex harmonization on the piano, the only accompanying instrument in the piece of music.

Wikipedia e IMSLP extract & translation