spanish secular vocal music of the sixteenth century

7/28/2019 Spanish Secular Vocal Music of the Sixteenth Century

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Spanish Secular Vocal Music of The Sixteenth CenturyAuthor(s): Isabel Pope

Source: Renaissance News, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring, 1949), pp. 1-5Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Renaissance Society of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2857475 .

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RENAISSANCEEW SA quarterly newsletter published by Dartmouth College Libraryfor the American Council of Learned Societies

FREDERICK W. STERNFELD, editor VERNON HALL, JR. RAY NASHAddress all communications to the editor, P.O. Box 832, Hanover, N.H.Annual subscription: domestic $I.oo, Canada and foreign $1.25Committee on Renaissance Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies:

WILLIAM G. CONSTABLE, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, ChairmanWALLACEK. FERGUSON,ew York University OTISH. GREEN,University of Penna.JAMESHUTTON,Cornell University WILLIAMA. JACKSON,Harvard UniversityPAUL 0. KRISTELLER, ColumbiaUniversity GEORGEB. PARKS,QueensCollegeVOL. II SPRING I949 No. I

RENAISSANCEEW SA quarterly newsletter published by Dartmouth College Libraryfor the American Council of Learned Societies

FREDERICK W. STERNFELD, editor VERNON HALL, JR. RAY NASHAddress all communications to the editor, P.O. Box 832, Hanover, N.H.Annual subscription: domestic $I.oo, Canada and foreign $1.25Committee on Renaissance Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies:

WILLIAM G. CONSTABLE, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, ChairmanWALLACEK. FERGUSON,ew York University OTISH. GREEN,University of Penna.JAMESHUTTON,Cornell University WILLIAMA. JACKSON,Harvard UniversityPAUL 0. KRISTELLER, ColumbiaUniversity GEORGEB. PARKS,QueensCollegeVOL. II SPRING I949 No. ISPANISH MUSIC page ICAUSES OF THE RENAISSANCE 5ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE 7

The foregoing are abstractsof papersto be deliveredbeforethe New England Conference on Renaissance Studies atDartmouth College on April 29-30REGIONAL CONFERENCES 9LIBRARIES I IPROJECTS AND EUROPEAN NEWS I 3

Spanish Secular Focal Musicof The Sixteenth CenturyBY ISABEL POPE

T WO typesof secular vocal music were cultivated in Spain duringthe sixteenth century: unaccompaniedpolyphonic songs and solosongs with instrumentalaccompaniment.The compositions or unaccom-paniedvoices have been preservedprincipally n musicalanthologies, theCancioneros.Many remainanonymous,butrecentinvestigationshave dis-closed new names and madepossiblenew and more completeattributions.A number of the composerswere chiefly celebrated for their religious

SPANISH MUSIC page ICAUSES OF THE RENAISSANCE 5ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE 7

The foregoing are abstractsof papersto be deliveredbeforethe New England Conference on Renaissance Studies atDartmouth College on April 29-30REGIONAL CONFERENCES 9LIBRARIES I IPROJECTS AND EUROPEAN NEWS I 3

Spanish Secular Focal Musicof The Sixteenth CenturyBY ISABEL POPE

T WO typesof secular vocal music were cultivated in Spain duringthe sixteenth century: unaccompaniedpolyphonic songs and solosongs with instrumentalaccompaniment.The compositions or unaccom-paniedvoices have been preservedprincipally n musicalanthologies, theCancioneros.Many remainanonymous,butrecentinvestigationshave dis-closed new names and madepossiblenew and more completeattributions.A number of the composerswere chiefly celebrated for their religious[I]I]

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


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Gasajemonosde husiaJ. del Ensinaf. i01Y-102

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works. Usually they were attachedto the Royal Chapelsin the Peninsulaitself or in the Kingdom of Naples. Later in the century Spanishcom-posers ived much abroadholding postsat variousItalian courtsor at theImperial Court in Vienna. The great trio, Morales, Guerrero, Victoriawrote little or no secular music.A considerable iterature of solo songs with instrumental accompani-ment has been preservedin the very numerous collectionsof music forthe vihuela. This instrument, shaped very like the guitar, with narrowwaistand flat back,was designed,however, for the performanceof com-plicated contrapuntalmusic such as was played more generally at thattime on the lute. It had six, sometimes seven strings, some often beingreinforced by a sympatheticallyvibratingstring doubling at the octaveto give more resonance.Of the early Cancionerosthe largest and most important is the cele-bratedCancionero de Palacio.The 460 pieces n thissplendidmanuscript,probablycompiledfor Ferdinand the Catholic after the death of Isabellaof Castile in I504, displayto full advantage the characteristicsof theSpanishstyle over a periodextending roughly from about 1460 to 1510.As regardstechniquethese compositionsare evidence that Spanishcom-posers were thoroughly familiar with the polyphonic practices of theFlemish School of the fifteenth century, and recent investigation hasbroughtnew evidence to show the uninterruptedassociationof Peninsularmusicians with the Flemish masters. These compositionsare, however,settings of traditionalSpanishforms and frequently polyphonic arrange-ments of traditionalairs. To a degree uniquely Spanish,cultivated poetsand musicians of the Court of the Catholic Sovereigns as well as theirgreat successorsof the Golden Age created an art which drew its vitalsubstance from the folk tradition. With a good sense and taste rare at atime when musiciansdelighted in a show of the subtlest contrapuntalcomplexities, the musicians of the early Cancioneros used a simple,straightforwardpolyphonicstyle, not always devoid of a certain awk-wardness and archaic quality.Their interest was to set off rather thanobscurecharacteristic urns of melody and rhythm and to intensify thepoetic meaning of the text whether gay or melancholy, sentimental orsatiric.Gasaj6monos de husia ("Let's make merry with right good will"). This villancico,music and verses by Juan del Encina, was sung and danced as an interlude in oneof his little pastoral plays. It was probably performed in I495. The text waspublished in the first edition of the poet's works in 1496. The plate is reproduced,with the editor's permission, from La Musica en la Corte de las Reys Catolicas, II,Polifonia Profana. Cancionero Musical de Palacio. Transcribed and edited byHiginio Angles. Barcelona, 1947.

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The favorite form was the villancico, a closed form related to themediaeval virelai with a traditionat least as old as the thirteenthcenturyand perhapsmore remotely of Arabic-Andalusianorigin. By the periodof the Cancionerosthis choral dance song had crystallizedin the musicalform: A(refrain); B B (stanza); A (refrain). Beside it flourishedtheSpanishballad, the romance, also of ancient lineage, given new life bythe poets of the Golden Age. Perhapsthe most successful,certainly thebestrepresentedcomposer n these forms (some eighty of his pieces appearin the Cancionerode Palacio alone), was Juan del Encina (1469-1529).Both poet and composer,he was also the first to write secular dramas.With theselittle plays,into which he introduced his villancicosto be sungand danced as interludes and finales, he set the pattern for a nationaldrama always preeminently lyric in character.The villancicos in the Cancionero de Upsala (Venice, 1556) andthose by Juan Vasquez (Osuna, 155i and Seville, 1560) representthefinest examples of the form. The best have a transparent contrapuntaltexture, a phrasing sensitive to the peculiar qualities of Spanish verserhythmsand a remarkable eeling for harmoniccolor and expression.The vocal piecesin the vihuelatablaturebooks which appeared n suchprofusionbeginningwith El Maestro (Valencia, 1535-36) by Luis Milanare not merely transcriptionsof polyphonic compositions,but are oftentrue arrangements exploiting the special capacitiesof the vihuela. Ofparticularinterest are the arrangementsof romances. Their character-isticallymonotonousmelody, repeatedthrough the long seriesof trochaicoctosyllables,is relieved by the introduction of rapid scale passagesandinstrumental nterludes which test the instrumentalist'svirtuosity.A fav-orite procedureis to write two or more versionsof the same song in oneof which the voice decorates the melody with vocal embellishments ofquavers, trills and turns, while in another the voice sings the simplemelody and the theme is varied and elaborated on the instrument. Fromsuch practicesthe purely instrumental variation form was brilliantlyde-velopedby Spanish composersfrom an early date.Recent Publications on Spanish Music of the Sixteenth CenturyLa Mzsica en la Cortede los ReyesCat6licos.Higinio Angles.I. Polifonia Religiosa. Madrid, I94I.II. Polifonia Profana. "Cancionero Musical de Palacio," Barcelona, 1947.0 Cancioneiro Musical e Poetico da Biblioteca Pzblia Hortensia. (sign no.11973) Manuel Joaquim, Coimbra, 1940.Luys de Narvaez. Los seys libros del Delphin de mzsica de cifra para tanervihuela. (Valladolid, 1538). Transcripci6n y estudio, Emilio Pujol, Barcelona,1945.Cancionero de Upsala. Villancicos de diversos autores, etc. (Venice, 1556).

Introducci6n, notas y comentarios de Rafael Mitjana. Transcripci6n musicalen notaci6n moderna de Jesus Bal y Gay. Con un estudio sobre 'El Villancico[4]



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Polif6nico' de Isabel Pope. El Colegio de M6xico, Mexico, 1944.La Musica en la Corte de Carlos V. Con la transcripci6n del Libro de CifraNueva para tecla, harpa y vihuela de Luys Venegas de Henestrosa. (Alcala deHenares, I557). Higinio Angles, Barcelona, 1944.Juan Vasquez. Recopilaci6n de Sonetos y Villancicos a quatro y a cinco. (Sevilla,

I56o). Higinio Angles, Barcelona, 1946.Romances y Villancicos Espanoles del Siglo XVI. Edici6n moderna para canto ypiano. Jes6s Bal y Gay. La Casa de Espafia en M6xico, Mexico, 1939.

On The Causesof theRenaissanceBY JOSEPHINE WATERS BENNETT

HE weakestspot in the attemptto define, describe,and understandthe Renaissanceis our failure to consider causes. This failure islargely due to a failure of definition in time. The beginning has beenplaced anywhere between the Sixteenth and the Fourteenth Centuries.Most of the causeswhich have been suggested (the fall of Constantinople,the invention of printing, the discoveryof America) are Fifteenth Cen-tury phenomena. But it is generally agreed that humanism began withPetrarch. I think we must ask ourselves why the Latin classics,whichhad been lying about in neglected corners of libraries,should suddenlybecome the most valuablethings in the world. It is not enough to attri-bute this new enthusiasm to "fashion." Men turn eagerly to new ideaschiefly when they are dissatisfiedwith the old; and there were goodreasonsfor dissatisfactionn Italy in Petrarch's day. The long strugglebetween Pope and Emperor had eliminated both from Italy, and Romewas a desertedcity where only the ancient ruins retained their grandeur.It was not a passionfor elegant Latin which motivatedthe humanisticmovement, but a searchfor guidancetoward a new way of life. Religionand morality constituted the major field of discontent. The MediaevalChurch was at its lowest ebb. From I305 to I377 the Popes were in"Babylonianexile," and the first fruit of the return to Rome was thirtyyearsof schism.The weaknessof the Church extended through all ranksand orders, and was publicized by the quarrelsof monks, friars, andpriests.This conditionaffected all Europe, but it did not affect any two coun-tries in the same way, and no two countries reacted in the same way.However, if we define the Renaissance as a period in time, and if werecognize religious,politicaland economic conditions as causes, then wemust include all of these various reactions as phenomena of the Renais-sance.The unmistakablefailure of the Church as a politicalinstrument (of

Polif6nico' de Isabel Pope. El Colegio de M6xico, Mexico, 1944.La Musica en la Corte de Carlos V. Con la transcripci6n del Libro de CifraNueva para tecla, harpa y vihuela de Luys Venegas de Henestrosa. (Alcala deHenares, I557). Higinio Angles, Barcelona, 1944.Juan Vasquez. Recopilaci6n de Sonetos y Villancicos a quatro y a cinco. (Sevilla,

I56o). Higinio Angles, Barcelona, 1946.Romances y Villancicos Espanoles del Siglo XVI. Edici6n moderna para canto ypiano. Jes6s Bal y Gay. La Casa de Espafia en M6xico, Mexico, 1939.

On The Causesof theRenaissanceBY JOSEPHINE WATERS BENNETT

HE weakestspot in the attemptto define, describe,and understandthe Renaissanceis our failure to consider causes. This failure islargely due to a failure of definition in time. The beginning has beenplaced anywhere between the Sixteenth and the Fourteenth Centuries.Most of the causeswhich have been suggested (the fall of Constantinople,the invention of printing, the discoveryof America) are Fifteenth Cen-tury phenomena. But it is generally agreed that humanism began withPetrarch. I think we must ask ourselves why the Latin classics,whichhad been lying about in neglected corners of libraries,should suddenlybecome the most valuablethings in the world. It is not enough to attri-bute this new enthusiasm to "fashion." Men turn eagerly to new ideaschiefly when they are dissatisfiedwith the old; and there were goodreasonsfor dissatisfactionn Italy in Petrarch's day. The long strugglebetween Pope and Emperor had eliminated both from Italy, and Romewas a desertedcity where only the ancient ruins retained their grandeur.It was not a passionfor elegant Latin which motivatedthe humanisticmovement, but a searchfor guidancetoward a new way of life. Religionand morality constituted the major field of discontent. The MediaevalChurch was at its lowest ebb. From I305 to I377 the Popes were in"Babylonianexile," and the first fruit of the return to Rome was thirtyyearsof schism.The weaknessof the Church extended through all ranksand orders, and was publicized by the quarrelsof monks, friars, andpriests.This conditionaffected all Europe, but it did not affect any two coun-tries in the same way, and no two countries reacted in the same way.However, if we define the Renaissance as a period in time, and if werecognize religious,politicaland economic conditions as causes, then wemust include all of these various reactions as phenomena of the Renais-sance.The unmistakablefailure of the Church as a politicalinstrument (of

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spanish secular vocal music of the sixteenth century

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