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The ‘Guerra Manuscript’ (c.1680) and the Rise of Solo Song in Spain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Álvaro Torrente
Affiliation:
Royal Holloway, University of London, London
Pablo-L. Rodríguez
Affiliation:
University of Saragossa

Extract

The discovery of a new anthology of secular songs from Madrid fills an important lacuna in our understanding of secular music in seventeenth-century Spain. The Biblioteca Xeral of the University of Santiago de Compostela — near the romanesque cathedral for which the famous Codex Calixtinus was written — preserves a manuscript of 111 folios (E-SCu MS 265) which has hitherto escaped the attention of both musicological and literary scholars. It contains 100 anonymous songs, all but two for solo voice and continuo, and was copied by a certain José Miguel Guerra, scribe of the Spanish Royal Chapel. The manuscript is undated but, as we will argue later, it appears to have been compiled around 1680. If this estimate is correct, it would make this anthology the earliest collection of its kind, a significant missing link between the latest polyphonic cancioneros of the mid-seventeenth century and the numerous anthologies of solo songs and cantatas from the 1690s onwards. This article represents a preliminary investigation of the manuscript, its contents and the circumstances of its compilation, though many of the questions surrounding the collection will have to await further study.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1998

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References

The preparation of this article was possible thanks to a research grant funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Cultura. Further financial assistance was provided by the Research Committee of the Department of Music at Royal Holloway, University of London. We are most grateful to the staff of the Biblioteca Xeral of the University of Santiago de Compostela, and particularly to the subdirectora, Mariví Pardo, for their unfailing courtesy and assistance during the preparation of this article. We also have to thank the staff of the Biblioteca Nacional (Madrid), the Biblioteca de Catalunya (Barcelona), the Biblioteca de la Facultad de Filosofia y Letras (University of Saragossa), the Archivo General del Palacio Real (Madrid), the Archivo Histórico Nacional (Madrid) and the Archivo Histórico de Protocolos (Madrid), as well as the archivists of the cathedrals of Valladolid, Burgos and Segovia. We are also indebted to many colleagues who have read preliminary versions of the article and made important suggestions: Andrea Bombi, Maite Cacho, Antonio Carreira, Juan José Carreras, Tim Carter, Keri Dexter, Bernardo José García García, Elaine Goodman, Bernardo Illari, Tess Knighton, Alberto Montaner, Luis Robledo and Andrea Sommer-Mathis.Google Scholar

1 We are currently preparing a critical edition of this anthology, which will include a more complete study of the source and the circumstances of its compilation.Google Scholar

2 For example, Querol states: ‘Los vihuelistas españoles fueron los primeros en inventar un acompañamiento puramente instrumental para canciones monódicas.’ Canciones a solo y duos del siglo XVII, ed. Miguel Querol Gavaldá, Monumentos de la música española, 47 (Barcelona, 1988), ix. Louise K. Stein has stressed the fact that some solo songs in vihucla collections have newly composed accompaniments of simple sustained chords, as opposed to others with more elaborate polyphonic settings. This is particularly clear in some of the villancicos and romances contained in Luis Milan, Libro de música de vihuela de mano intitulado El Maestro (Valencia, 1536; facs. edn Leipzig, 1927, repr. 1907). Louise K. Stein, ‘Accompaniment and Continuo in Spanish Baroque Music’, Actas del Congreso International ‘España en la Música de Occidente’, ed. Emilio Casares and José López-Calo, i (Madrid, 1987), 357–70 (pp. 363-5). See also José López-Calo, Siglo XVII, Historia de la música cspañol, 3, ed. Pabló López de Osaba (Madrid, 1983), 37-53. The problem can also be identified in the two published anthologies of seventeenth-century solo songs by Querol and Baron. In order to present a continuous line of development, both authors include a few compositions from the first half of the century, most of them taken from publications printed outside Spain, such as Gabriel Bataille, Airs de différents autheurs mis en tablature de luth (Paris, 1607); Pierre Ballard, Airs de cour mis en tablature de luth (Paris, 1614); and Juan Aranies, Libro segundo de tonos y villancicos (Rome, 1624). Moreover, Querol allows himself the editorial licence of transforming Capitán's duo ‘Romerico florido’ into an accompanied solo. See Canciones a solo y duos, ed. Querol Gavaldá; Spanish Art Song in the Seventeenth Century, ed. John H. Baron, Recent Researches in Music of the Baroque Era, 44 (Madison, 1985).Google Scholar

3 Hill, John Walter, Roman Monody, Cantata and Opera from the Circles around Cardinal Montalto, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1997), 119–20.Google Scholar

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5 Carlos José Gonsálvez Lara, La edición musical español hasta 1936 (Madrid, 1994).Google Scholar

6 The only study of secular music in aristocratic circles during the first quarter of the century is Luis Robledo, Juan de Castro (ca. 1561-1631): Vida y obra musical (Saragossa, 1989), which confirms this preference for polyphonic tonos.Google Scholar

7 'Los músicos de cámara son cuatro siempre, porque assí es siempre necessario para tener perfectamente cumplido el número que pide la música para ser buena.’ E-Mn MS 14070/7, quoted from Luis Robledo, Juan Blas de Castro, 51.Google Scholar

8 We are dealing here with the problem discussed by Nino Pirrotta regarding the importance of unwritten traditions, which in the case of Spain has not yet received much attention from scholars. See Pirrotta, Nino, Music and Culture in Italy from the Middle Ages to the Baroque (Cambridge, Mass., 1984); idem, ‘Musica e umanesimo’, Lettere italiane, 37 (1985), 453–70.Google Scholar

9 Guitar cifras represent an abstraction of the harmony whose function is analogous to that of figured bass, and this mode of representation can probably be regarded as the surface of an unwritten practice which was common in early Spain. Early references to these sources can be found in Cesare Acutis, Cancioneros musicali spagnoli in Italia (1585-1635) (Pisa, 1971). A study of some of the most important Italian sources can be found in John H. Baron, ‘Secular Spanish Solo Song in Non-Spanish Sources, 1599-1640’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 30 (1977), 2042. Also relevant is M.June Yakeley, ‘New Sources of Spanish Music for Five-Course Guitar’, Revista de musicología, 19 (1996), 267-86.Google Scholar

10 'El ayre del cantarcillo vulgar, quales son las tonadas que oy usan los musicos de guitarra.’ Sebastián de Covarrubias, Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española (Madrid, 1611; facs. edn Madrid, 1977), 960.Google Scholar

11 On this early attempt to introduce opera in Spain, see Shirley B. Whitaker, ‘Florentine Opera Comes to Spain: Lope de Vega's La selva sin amor’, Journal of Hispanic Philology, 9 (1984), 4366; and Louise K. Stein, Songs of Mortals, Dialogues of the Gods: Music and Theatre in Seventeenth-Century Spain (Oxford, 1993), esp. pp. 191-205. A more global discussion of Italian influence on Spanish theatre of the period, paying special attention to the stage design and machinery of the Italian engineers Cosme Lotti and Baccio del Bianco, can be found in the introduction to Pedro Calderón de la Barca, La fiera, el rayo y la piedra, ed. Aurora Egido (Madrid, 1989).Google Scholar

12 Baron, John H., ‘Spanish Solo Art Song in the Second Half of the Seventeeth Century’, De musica hispana et aliis: Miscelánea en honor al Prof. Dr. José López-Calo, S.J., en su 65a cumpleaños, ed. Emilio Casares and C. Villanueva, i (Santiago de Compostela, 1990), 451–76 (p. 451). It is unlikely that a church which allowed the use of guitars, tambourines and other kinds of popular instruments in certain religious services would have been so concerned about something as innocent as a song for solo voice.Google Scholar

13 The term cancionero is often used by scholars of literature to designate poetic anthologies, as opposed to cancionero musical, which refers to music anthologies. In this article we use cancionero to mean a collection of music.Google Scholar

14 For a survey, bibliography and references to modern editions see Etzion, Judith, ‘The Spanish Polyphonic Cancioneros c.1580-1650’, Revista de musicología, 11 (1988), 65107. A comparative study of copying conventions can be found in Ramón Pelinski, ‘La polifonía vocal española del siglo XVII y sus formas de escribirla’, Anuario musical, 24 (1969), 191-8. See also the catalogue in Stein, Songs of Mortals, 355-6.Google Scholar

15 'He buscado y recogido los mejores tonos que se cantan en esta corte, a dos, tres y quatro.’ D-Mbs Mus. MS E. (200), f. [Iv]. For a modern study and edition which includes relevant bibliography, see The Cancionero de La Sablonara (a Critical Edition), ed. Judith Etzion (London, 1996).Google Scholar

16 E-Mn M 1262. For a description of the contents, see Higinio Anglés and José Subirá, Catálogo musical de la Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, i (Barcelona, 1946), 266–74.Google Scholar

17 For a detailed discussion, see Stein, Songs of Mortals, 274-82.Google Scholar

18 Perhaps the Gayangos-Barbieri and the Novena manuscripts could be regarded as two exceptions. However, neither of these is an anthology. Gayangos-Barbieri (E-Mn MS 13622) is a factitious volume in a nineteenth-century binding containing sheet music from various origins and various stylistic types, including both polyphonic and monodie songs as well as sketches, while Novena (Almagro, Museo del Teatro) is a collection of theatrical music for use by a theatrical company, and includes both polyphonic arid monodie songs. See Caballero, Carmelo, ‘El manuscrite Gayangos-Barbieri’, Revista de musicología, 12 (1989), 199–268; José Subirá, ‘Un manuscrito musical de principios del siglo XVIII’, Anuario musical, 4 (1949), 181-92; Louis K. Stein, ‘El “Manuscrito Novena”: Sus textos, su contenido histórico musical y el músico José Peyró’, Revista de musicología, 3 (1980), 197-234. The Coimbra collections also include both polyphonic and monodie songs with both secular and sacred texts for use in the Mosteiro de Santa Cruz. See Brito, Manuel Carlos, ‘A Little-Known Collection of Portuguese Baroque Villancicos and Romances’, Research Chronicle of the Royal Musical Association, 15 (1979), 17-37.Google Scholar

19 E-Mn M 2478. There is no specific study of the source itself, but a description of its contents can be found in Anglés and Subirá, Catálogo musical de la Biblioteca Nacional, i, 343-5. The Libro de tonos en cifra de arpa contains 75 tonos in harp tablature and a further 266 poetic texts without music. Some poems in the last pages contain references to Felipe V and the War of Succession, and this suggests an early eighteenth-century compilation.Google Scholar

20 GB-Cfm MU 4-1958. There is no agreed name for this manuscript. Acquired by John B. Trend in Madrid, it was donated to the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1958 and is variously referred to as the ‘Cancionero de Cambridge’, the ‘Cancionero de Marín’, the ‘Trend manuscript’, the ‘Fitzwilliam manuscript’ and so on. A description of the contents, mostly focusing on poetic texts, can be found in Rita Goldberg, ‘El cancionero de Cambridge’, Anuario musical, 41 (1986), 171–90.Google Scholar

21 I-Vnm MS Italiani, 4/470. A description of its contents can be found in Taddeo Wiel, I codici musicali Contariniani del secolo XVII nella R. Biblioteca de San Marco in Venezia (Venice, 1888; facs. edn Bologna, 1969). This source is a fascinating example of how the notational conventions of Spanish seventeenth-century music – particularly survivals of mensural notation and conventions for text underlay – were adapted to Italian practice.Google Scholar

22 This is a single partbook for soprano which contains tonos and cantatas for solo voice and continuo, some with violins and oboe, Antonio Literes being the best-represented composer. For a thorough study of its contents and context, see Juan José Carreras, ‘La cantata de cámara española de principios del siglo XVIII; EI manuscrito M 2618 de la Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid y sus concordancias’, Música y literatura en la peninsula ibérica: 1600-1750, ed. María Antonia Virgili Blanquet, German Vega García-Luengos and Carmelo Caballero Fernández-Rufete (Valladolid, 1997), 65126.Google Scholar

23 GB-CDp Mackworth 1.14. This manuscript contains 18 cantatas of the early eighteenth century, mostly by José de Torres, and was probably copied in Italy. The first reference to it was published by Malcolm Boyd in 1979, but it did not catch the attention of Hispanic musicology until Boyd presented a paper at Cardiff in 1993. More recently, Juan José Carreras has undertaken a preliminary study of the source. See Boyd, Malcolm, ‘Music Manuscripts in the Mackworth Collection at Cardiff, Music and Letters, 54 (1973), 133–9; Juan José Carreras, ‘Spanish Cantatas in the Mackworth Collection at Cardiff’, Music in Spain in the Eighteenth Century, ed. Malcolm Boyd and Carreras (Cambridge, 1998), 108-22. We are grateful to Malcolm Boyd for providing us with a copy of the manuscript, and to Juan José Carreras for allowing access to his article before publication.Google Scholar

24 P-Ln Pombalino MS 82. A collection of 16 cantatas by Portuguese and Spanish composers from around 1700, it was first described in 1900 by Vieira, but also escaped the attention of Spanish musicologists until it was recently discussed by Carreras. See Vieira, Ernesto, Diccionario biographico de musicos portuguezes: Historia e bibligraphia da musica em Portugal (Lisbon, 1900), i, 315; Carreras, ‘Spanish Cantatas’, 111.Google Scholar

25 F-Pn MS 8.040. First discussed by Louis Jambou, ‘Cantatas solísticas de Vails y compositores anónimos’, Revista de musicología, 18 (1995), 291–325.Google Scholar

26 US-SFs SMMS M1. This important source containing 13-1 compositions for soprano and continuo was identified by John Koegel, who presented a preliminary study at the International Congress of the IMS in London (1997). It contains a Madrid repertory from around 1700, brought to Mexico City shortly thereafter. It seems to relate to a theatre company, since the two best-represented composers are Juan de Serqueira (with 34 pieces) and Manuel de Villaflor (17), both of whom were connected with the Madrid stage. A preliminary study is included in John Koegel, ‘Nuevas fuentes musicales para danza, teatro y salón de la Nueva España’, Heterofonía, 30/116-17 (1997), 937. We are grateful to the author for giving permission to consult his article before publication as well as for providing us with some sample copies of the manuscript.Google Scholar

27 E-Bc M 3660. This manuscript was acquired by the Biblioteca de Catalunya in 1992 from the Librería Ripoll in Palma de Mallorca, and contains 25 cantatas, mostly Majorcan in origin, although it starts with two cantatas by Juan de Navas and Sebastián Durón. A preliminary description of its contents can be found in Yakeley, ‘New Sources’, 279-80.Google Scholar

28 This problem has already been addressed by Carreras, ‘La cantata de cámara española’, 67-9. It is most likely that a number of similar sources are preserved in the private collections of aristocratic families, as well as in the private libraries of those scholars and bibliophiles who enjoyed the privilege of a time when the acquisition of old manuscripts was within the scope of a modest academic economy. We are convinced that in the next few years a number of similar sources will be uncovered.Google Scholar

29 More details are given below, in the description of the source. See also Figure 3.Google Scholar

30 Further discussion of Guerra's career, with special attention to his activities in the Real Capilla, is included in Pablo-L. Rodriguez, ‘Música, poder y devoción: La Capilla Real de Carlos II (1665-1700)’ (Ph.D. dissertation. University of Saragossa, in preparation).Google Scholar

31 Payrolls were signed by all members of the chapel every quarter, and a complete series of documents until around 1700 is extant. The names of members of the chapel were copied in a list and they had to sign beside their names. The name of Guerra in the record is always written as José Miguel Guerra, and the changes we refer to are in the way he signed the document. See Madrid, Archivo General del Palacio Real (hereafter AGP), Secc. Administrativa, leg. 5657.Google Scholar

32 These changes have often led to his being identified as two different people. The current disposition of his personal record in the archive (AGP) has fed this confusion, since there are separate records under Joseph Miguel Guerra and Joseph Alfonso de Guerra y Villegas. See AGP, Secc. Expedientes personales, cajas 483/15, 481/11, 681/17. The confusion was maintained by Narciso Hergueta, who, in his well-known study of the musicians of the Real Capilla, also makes a distinction between two music scribes, ‘Miguel de Guerra’ and ‘José Guerra y Villegas'. See Hergueta, Narcisco, ‘Profesores músicos de la Real Capilla de S. M. según documentos de su archivo’, unpublished manuscript dated 1898 preserved in Loyola, Archivo y Biblioteca Musicales Padre Otaño, p. 150.Google Scholar

33 Payments are found from 30 March 1667 onwards in AGP, Secc. Administrativa, leg. 1137.Google Scholar

34 His appointment as a member of the royal household (in the Casa de Borgoña) is dated 13 June 1676. See AGP, Secc. Administrativa, leg. 1135; and Secc. Expedientes personales, caja 483/15.Google Scholar

35 'Claudio de la Sablonara fue escritor de la Capilla … y fue reservatio por el año de 1633 y desde entonces no se halla otro asiento como escritor, porque han cuidado de esto los maestros de capilla, pagandoles las obras que han sido menester hacerse.’ AGP, Secc. Registres, Vol. 265, unfoliated document dated 20 November 1678.Google Scholar

36 He was appointed ‘mozo de oficio de la Furriera’ on 6 December. See AGP, Secc. Expedientes personales, caja 484/11.Google Scholar

37 Guerra compiled a diary of this journey, which took two months. The first reference to this chronicle appears in Jenaro Alenda y Mira, Relación de solemnidades y fiestas públicas de España, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1903), i, 412-13. There is also a modern edition: Henri Leonardon, ‘Relation du voyage fait en 1679 au-devant et la suite de la reine Marie-Louise D'Orléans, femme de Charles II’, Bulletin hispanique, 4 (1902), 104–18, 247-55, 342-59.Google Scholar

38 E-Mn MS 8406. For a description of the manuscript, see Inventario general de manuscrites de la Biblioteca Nacional, xii (Madrid, 1988), 326.Google Scholar

39 AGP, Sccc. Real Capilla, caja 119; Secc. Expedientes personales, caja 483/15.Google Scholar

40 In 1685 Manuel de Gordojuela was granted the post of ‘escriptor’ after Guerra's retirement, ‘owing to his service in copying music': ‘Atendiendo a lo que ha servido Manuel de Gordojuela en copiar diferentes obras de música que se le han encargado he resuelto hacer la merced del oficio de Escriptor de mi Real Capilla para cuando vace por Joseph Miguel Guerra.’ See AGP, Secc. Real Capilla, caja 118.Google Scholar

41 Several applications for temporary leave to travel within the country are recorded between 1685 and 1688. See AGP, Secc. Expedientes personales, caja 184/11. In this respect, his absence from the ‘listas de distribución’ in the Real Capilla between 1686 and 1689 appears to be highly significant. See AGP, Secc. Administrativa, leg. 1137. In 1692, Guerra travelled for three months to several cities in north-west Spain, including Santiago de Compostela. Although details of his journey and activities in Santiago are unknown, it is tempting to think that he brought the manuscript with him. This would be one possible explanation of how it reached the Galician capital. See AGP, Secc. Expedientes personales, caja 484/11.Google Scholar

42 Some information on this can be found in Alfonso de Ceballo-Escalera y Gila, marqués de la Floresta, Heraldos y reyes de armas en la corte de España (Madrid, 1933), 222–4. See also the entry ‘Guerra y Villegas, Jose Alfonso de’, Enciclopedia universal ilustrada (= Enciclopedia Espasa-Calpe), xxii (Madrid and Barcelona, 1991), 188.Google Scholar

43 His son published a short pamphlet on the genealogy of his father. See Juan Alfonso de Guerra y Sandoval, Trasumpto del memorial de la calidad y servicios, y de sus Mayores, que dio a la Magestad de el señor Don Carlos Segundo (que esta en Gloria) Don Joseph Alfonso de Guerra y Villegas, Chronista, y Rey de Armas Principal, y mas Antigua, en estos Reynos, Señorios, y Dominios ([Madrid], 1707). A copy of this imprint is bound in the factitious volume E-Mn MS 9149, ff. 183-92.Google Scholar

44 Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional (hereafter AHN), Secc. Órdenes Militares, Santiago, exp. 272. Also discussed in José Pérez Balsera, Biblioteca histórica genealógica: Los caballeros de Santiago (Madrid, 1934), iii, 183-6; and Joseph Antonio Alvarez Baena, Hijos de Madrid, ilustres en santidad, dignidades, armas, ciencias y artes: Diccionario histórico por el orden alfabético de sus nombres (Madrid, 1798), iii, 55.Google Scholar

45 In 1714 Guerra printed a memorandum explaining the duties involved in this post, a copy of which is bound in E-Mn MS 9149, ff. 254-62. A modern survey of this post, together with a short biography of Guerra, can be found in Emilio Cotarelo y Mori, Diccionario biográfico y bibliográfico de caligrafos españoles (Madrid, 1913), i, 265-6 and 326-7.Google Scholar

46 In his will, dated 14 October 1722, Guerra bequeathed all his belongings to his son, which doubtless included his librar)'. Madrid, Archivo Histórico de Protocolos (hereafter AHP), no. 15325, if. 243v–245'. An inventory of the library of Juan Alfonso de Guerra made in 1738 includes a number of items which originally belonged to the father. This library was sold to the Royal Library after Juan Alfonso's death in 1753, and is now part of the Biblioteca Nacional. See Gregorio de Andrés, ‘La biblioteca nobiliaria del cronista Juan Alfonso Guerra, Rcy de Armas de Felipe V, en la Biblioteca Nacional’, Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 187 (1990), 373–401.Google Scholar

47 Joseph Alfonso de Guerra y Villegas, Discurso histórico politico, sobre el origen, y preheminencias de el oficio de heraldos, reyes de armas, feciales y caduceadores (Madrid, 1693). See José Simón Díaz, Bibliografia de la literatura hispánica (Madrid, 1976), xi, 338-9.Google Scholar

48 See notes 44 and 46-7 above.Google Scholar

49 His name is not included in the comprehensive list of choirboys published by Bécker, although this is also the case for his predecessor in the post, Claudio de la Sablonara. See Danièle Bécker, ‘La vie quotidienne au collège des jeunes chanteurs de la chapelle royale à Madrid au XVIIème siècle’, Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez, 21 (1985), 219–54.Google Scholar

50 While this article was at press documentary evidence came to light that Guerra abandoned his scribal duties after 1680. A memorandum by the king's household secretary Juan de Velasco, dated 2 March 1688 and addressed to the Patriarca (the head of the Real Capilla), states that Manuel de Gordojuela had been appointed music scribe owing to the absence of Guerra from his duties: ‘el Rey nuestro Señor, Dios le guarde, por Real decreto de 13 de junio passado de 1685 se sirvió recebir por escriptor de la Real Capilla a Manuel de Gordojuela en las ausencias y enfermedades de Joseph Guerra y con esta ocupación le ha señalado una distribución que le ha de correr desde dos de este mes. Avissolo a Vm. para que en los libros que estan a su cargo se le haga asiento.’ AGP, Secc. Expedientes personales, caja 476/2. See also above, note 40, and now postscript, below, p. 175.Google Scholar

51 One well-known example is the lavish manuscript of Calderón's play Fortunas de Andromeda y Perseo, sent by Felipe IV to his father-in-law, Emperor Ferdinand III, which included, apart from the play, 11 stage designs by Baccio del Bianco and the music score by an unknown composer. The manuscript is now preserved in US-CA MS Typ 258 H. 1994. There is a modern edition of the text which includes facsimiles of both the stage designs and the music score. Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Andromeda y Perseo, ed. Rafael Maestre (Almagro, 1994). A more comprehensive study of this source and its performing circumstances can be found in Stein, Songs of Mortals, 144-69.Google Scholar

52 In an unpublished paper entitled ‘Spanish Festival Culture and the Imperial Court in Vienna in the Seventeenth Century’, presented at ‘Feste feiern wie sie fallen': Festival Culture in Germany and Europe (Regional Conference of the German History Society at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London University, 18-19 April 1997), Andrea Sommer-Mathis made a general survey of the links between the two families with special attention to this period and to the representations of Spanish theatre in Vienna. We are most grateful to Dr Sommer-Mathis for her permission to consult this paper. See also Juan Vélez de Guevara, Los celos hacen estrellas, ed. John E. Varey, Norbert D. Shergold and Jack Sage (London, 1970), cv-cviii.Google Scholar

53 Comparison of the handwriting with our source proves that Guerra did not copy any of the three theatrical manuscripts sent in 1673. We are grateful to Andrea Sommer-Mathis, who undertook the collation of the handwriting on our behalf. An introduction and modern edition of the text and some of the music can be found in Vélez de Guevara, Los celos hacen estrellas, ed. Varey, Shergold and Sage. New musical sources for that play have been identified in Carmelo Caballero, ‘Nuevas fuentes musicales de “Los celos hacen estrellas” de Juan Vélez de Guevara’, Cuadernos de teatro clásico, 3 (1988), 119–55.Google Scholar

54 'A Juan Rodriguez, por auer sacado otra copia de la comedia y ser apuntador sobresaliente. A Marcos Rodriguez, por auer sacado los acompañamientos de la musica por solfa … A don Melchor de Leon, por auer escripto la narratiua de la fiesta para enbiar a Alemania [sic]. A don Joseph Guerra, que la escriuio y enquaderno a su costa'. AGP, Secc. Administración del patrimonio, Retiro, caja 11.744. A transcription of this document can be found in Norbert D. Shergold and John E. Varey, Representaciones palaciegas, 1603-1699: Estudioc y documentos (London, 1982), 112 and 132. This implies that Melchor de León copied the text of the play and Guerra copied the music. The references to León and Guerra are quoted in the introduction to Vélez de Guevara, Los celos hacen estrellas, ed. Varey, Shergold and Sage, p. liv, note 141.Google Scholar

55 Shergold and Varey, Representaciones palaciegas, 137. One copy of the play which seems to be in Guerra's hand is preserved in the Biblioteca Nacional, bound in a factitious volume from the library of Guerra's son, E-Mn MS 9373. See Nacional, Biblioteca, Inventario general de manuscritos, xiii: (8500 a 9500) (Madrid, 1995).Google Scholar

56 D. Joseph Alfonso de Guerra y Villegas … dice que ha mas de cuarenta años que entró a servir la plaza de escriptor mayor de la Real Capilla de S.M. no hayándose persona de su habilidad con la cual continuamente escribió infinitas obras así para la capilla, como para Alemania y Francia de orden real señalándole S.M. (que está en gloria) cuatrocientos ducados de renta para ayuda a su sustento.’ From a memorandum dated 5 December 1708. See AGP, Secc. Expedientes personales, caja 484/11.Google Scholar

57 As discussed by Margaret Murata, ‘Roman Cantata Scores as Traces of Musical Culture and Signs of its Place in Society’, Atti del XIV Congresso della Società Internazionale di Musicologia, ed. Angelo Pompilio, Donatella Restani, Lorenzo Bianconi et al., i (Turin, 1090), 272–84.Google Scholar

58 The symbolism of this loa has been analysed by Danièle Bécker, but the differences in this poem do not allow a direct application of her conclusions. See Daniele Bécker, ‘Hado y Divisa de Carlos Segundo y Maria Luisa en la Real Entrada de la Reina y Fiesta de 1680’, Actas del Congreso Internacional sobre Semiótica e Hispanisme (20-25 de junio de 1983), ed. Miguel Ángel Garrido Gallardo (Madrid, 1984), 611–25.Google Scholar

59 G69 and G92 (see Appendix below). For the date of performance of Contra el amor desengaño, see Stein, Songs of Mortals, 349.Google Scholar

60 This information has been kindly provided by. Mariví Pardo, compiler of the unpublished ‘Catálogo de manuscritos en la Bibloteca Xeral de Santiago de Compostela'.Google Scholar

61 Romances y letras a tres voces (E-Mn M 1371-3) seems to be connected with the Jesuit order, as several songs are dedicated to St Ignatius. The Libres de tonos humanos (E-Mn M 1262) was copied in Madrid in 1654, but was later preserved in the convent of the Carmelite Order in Salamanca, from where it was taken to the Archivo Histórico Nacional and later to the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid. M 2618 includes an inscription with the name of a certain P. Anselmo Lera – its owner and/or compiler – from the Benedictine monastery of San Martín in Madrid. See Anglés and Subirá, Catálogo musical de la Biblioteca Nacional, i, 260-74 and 291-3. There is a modern edition of Romances y letras by Miguel Querol Gavaldá, Monumentas de la música española, 18. For M 2618, see also Carreras, ‘La cantata de cámara’, 87-8.Google Scholar

62 In the description of G61 in the Appendix we have identified a third section, which acts as a refrain (respuesta) for all the coplas, but this is not indicated in the manuscript.Google Scholar

63 For the description of stave rulings we follow Jean K. Wolf and Eugene K. Wolf: ‘Rastrology and its Use in Eighteenth-Century Manuscript Studies’, Studies in Musical Sources and Style: Essays in Honor of Jan LaRue, ed. Eugene K. Wolf and ard H. Rocsncr (Madison, 1990), 237–91.Google Scholar

64 For example, a rastrum was used to trace the staves of the Cancionero de la Sablonara in the 1620s, and also for the manuscripts E-Mn M 3880 and M 3881, which are contemporary with the Guerra manuscript. Description in Angles and Subirá, Catálogo musical de la Biblioteca Nacional, i, 280-90.Google Scholar

65 'Señor. Joseph de Guerra y Villegas escriptor de la Real Capilla de V.M. Dice que quando V.M. le recibió en ella fue con la calidad de escusarle ir a ella los dias ordinarios en que V.M. no sale a ella respecto de no tener que hacer en dicha capilla sino es tan solamente en su casa donde escribe lo que es del Real Servicio lo cual consta de su asiento.’ See AGP, Secc. Real Capilla, caja 119.Google Scholar

66 This occurs sometimes within the same piece. As can be observed in Figures 1-2, an abbreviated form of the name for the two last sections ('Cop.’ and ‘Estr.°') is notated in the continuo part, while they are not indicated in the voice. By contrast, the first section ('Solo') is notated only in the vocal part. Similar inconsistencies are found in a large number of pieces throughout the manuscript.Google Scholar

67 The indication ‘Acompañam.’ is found only on f. 5v, f. 54v and, in more expanded form, on f. 99': ‘Acomp. a las 5.° copias'. Moreover, several pieces in the last part of the manuscript have the indication ‘Vajo’ (f. 74v) or ‘Vajo solo’ (ff. 73’, 79’ and 80).Google Scholar

68 Although little or no figuration is common in contemporary Spanish music, there seems to be no consistency within the manuscript. When figuration is used, it is often found in passages where the harmony above the bass line is not straightforward (for example, in passages with abundant suspensions). Nevertheless, similar passages in other pieces do not include any figuration; ‘De las luces que en el mar’ (G5), for example, docs not have figuration even when there are instances of dissonance in the harmony. On the use of continuo in Spain see Stein, ‘Accompaniment and Continuo'. Different figurations in concordant versions of some pieces can be observed. For example, some figures indicating dissonances appear in ‘Zagala di para que matas’ (G4), while another copy of the same piece in E-Mn M 3880/45 does not have any figuration at all.Google Scholar

69 This type of cifra was common in other contemporary sources, but its use in one single piece of the Guerra manuscript is quite striking. They are found in poetic anthologies (such as E-Bc MS 888) and music collections (Sutro). For a survey of sources with this alphabetic cifra, see Yakeley, ‘New Sources'.Google Scholar

70 This was the convention in Spain during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. One of the best-known examples is the collection of tonos in E-Mn M 3880 and M 3881, which share a number of concordances with our anthology. Each of these class-marks refers to a box containing around 50 tonos in performing parts. Although this collection has been consulted and discussed by a number of scholars for different purposes, it is unfortunate that no systematic study has been undertaken in order to reveal its origin, function and copying circumstances.Google Scholar

71 The study of concordances for this source would have been much more difficult without the excellent catalogue of theatrical songs compiled by Louise K. Stein. It not only provided concordances for 25 pieces, but also pointed to a number of sources and collections where further concordances were found. Further references are also based on Carmelo Caballero Fernández-Rufete, ‘Arded, Corazón, arded': Tonos humanos del Barroco en la peninsula ibérica (Valladolid, 1997).Google Scholar

72 The use of both high and low clefs – chiavette and chiavi naturali – was common in Spain during the seventeenth century and until around 1730. This is also the case in this anthology: pieces in high clefs always use the standard G2 clef for the soprano and C4 for the bass; those in low clefs use C1 for the higher part and F4 for the bass. Further discussion of the use of high and low clefs in Spanish music of the period can be found in Alvaro Torrente, ‘The Sacred Villancico in Early Eighteenth-Century Spain: The Repertory of Salamanca Cathedral’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1997), 135–40.Google Scholar

73 G69, G70, G75 and G76. This might be supported by the fact that although there is no text in the bass line, it could easily be applied without modifying the rhythm of the line in all four pieces except in the estribillo of G75; furthermore, none of these pieces has continuo figuration in the bass line.Google Scholar

74 Stein, ‘Accompaniment and Continuo'. See also Robledo, Juan Blas de Castro, 54-7.Google Scholar

75 G2, G49, G50, G57, G71, G73 and G93-9.Google Scholar

76 E-Mn M 3880/55. A modern transcription can be found in Stein, Songs of Mortals, 481-2.Google Scholar

77 For dates of premieres, we mostly follow Stein, Songs of Mortals, 348-51.Google Scholar

78 Despite the two separate class-marks, these all seem to be part of a single collection.Google Scholar

79 Although there are some differences between the three sources, they appear to be variants of the same piece.Google Scholar

80 A discussion of the mechanics of this exchange can be found in Pablo-L. Rodriguez, ‘“Sólo Madrid es corte”: Villancicos de las capillas reales de Carlos II en la catedral de Segovia’, Artigrama, 12 (1996-7), 237–56 (pp. 248-50). A more thorough discussion of the different process used for the adaptation of secular tonos in the villancicos can be found in Carmelo Caballero Fernández-Rufete, ‘Miscent sacra profanis: Música profana y teatral en los villancicos de la segunda mitad del siglo XVII’, Música y literatura en la peninsula ibérica: 1600-1750, ed. Virgili Blanquet et al., 49-64.Google Scholar

81 With regard to the reception of music from Calderón's plays in Valladolid, see Carmelo Caballero Fernández-Rufete, ‘Nuevas fuentes musicales del teatro calderoniano’, Revista de musicologia, 16 (1993) (= Adas del XV Congreso de la Socicdad Internacional de Musicología), v. 2958-76.Google Scholar

82 Stein, ‘El “Manuscrito Novena” ‘. See also note 18 above.Google Scholar

83 The edition by Varey and Shergold of Los celos hacen estrellas includes the music for 19 of the songs in the play edited by J. Sage, most of them preserved in E-Mn M 3880. More recently, Carmelo Caballero identified and published six songs, two of them previously unknown, found in E-Vc. See Caballero, Carmelo, ‘Nuevas fuentes musicales'. The identification of a new source containing nine songs from the play, one of them previously unknown, confirms the popularity of the play.Google Scholar

84 E-Mn MS 16726, premiered on 6 November 1679. Stein suggests that the attribution to Calderón is doubtful; Songs of Mortals, 249.Google Scholar

85 Agustín Salazar y Torres, Cythara de Apolo, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1681).Google Scholar

86 The most recent survey of these composers can be found in Stein, Songs of Mortals, 298-310. On Navas see also Juan José Carreras, ‘“Conducir a Madrid estos moldcs”: Producción, dramaturgia y recepción de la fiesta teatral Destines vencen finezas (1698/99)’, Revista de musicologia, 18 (1995), 113–43.Google Scholar

87 There is no catalogue of the poetic manuscripts in the Biblioteca de Catalunya, and only a partial catalogue of those in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid (Catálogo de manuscrites poéticos castellanos de los siglos XVI y XVII en la Biblioteca Nacional, ed. Pablo Jauralde Pou and Manuel Sánchez Mariana, 2 vols., Madrid, 1993). The contents of the manuscripts from the collection in the Hispanic Society of America are described in Antonio Rodríguez Moñino and María Brey Marino, Catálogo de los manuscrites poéticos castellanos existentes en la Biblioteca de The Hispanic Society of America, 3 vols. (New York, 1965). Our study of the concordances in the Hispanic Society is based exclusively on the catalogue, since it has not been possible to consult the sources directly.Google Scholar

88 It should be noted that this figure also includes concordances in musical sources which have the same text but different music, as well as parodie versions of the original poems that appear to have been sung to the same music. In some cases the variants are significant, but they cannot be discussed here.Google Scholar

89 Libro de Diuersas Letras del comensal Joseph Fontaner y Martell de Tarragona hecho en Bar, a primera de Menero de 1689. A brief study can be found in Yakeley, ‘New Sources’, 267-86.Google Scholar

90 This source is the only poetic anthology among those discussed here that is available in a modern edition, which includes a detailed discussion of its contents, compilation and concordances. Tonos a lo divino y a lo humano, ed. Rita Goldberg (London, 1981).Google Scholar

91 Salazar y Torres, Cythara de Apolo, ii, 206. The function of the piece within the play and its expressive features are discussed by Stein, Songs of Mortals, 285-8, who also includes a modern edition of the estribillo (p. 518).Google Scholar

92 References to all the poetic concordances and a transcription of the parody can be found in Tonos a lo divino y a lo humano, ed. Goldberg, 167-8.Google Scholar

93 Reference given by Andrea Bombi in his paper ‘From Stage to Church, from Church to Cities: On the Dissemination of the Stile Recitativo in Seventeenth-Century Spain’, presented at the Eighth Biennial Conference on Baroque Music, Birmingham, July 1998. We are grateful to the author for allowing us to draw on this unpublished work.Google Scholar

94 The term tono is used generically throughout the seventeenth century to label all secular vocal pieces with text in Castilian, as opposed to villancico or tono divino, which are used to refer to compositions performed in a sacred context. The term does not make a distinction between polyphonic and monodie pieces, nor docs it imply a cappella or accompanied performance. Further discussion can be found in Robledo, Juan Blas de Castro, 46-8.Google Scholar

95 E-Mn MS 2100, ff. 237v-238. See Carreras, ‘La cantata de cámara española’, 66-7, notes 5 and 6. See also Stein, ‘Accompaniment and Continuo’, 365-9.Google Scholar

96 E-PA 50/2; composition for solo voice, two violins, organ and harp.Google Scholar

97 'Cantada, compuesta de Arias, y otros passos músicos. Es voz nuevamente introducida por los Italianos, que en España se llama Tono, y tonada'; ‘Tono. Se llama también la canción métrica para la Música compuesta de varias copias'. See Real Academia Española, Diccionario de la lengua castellana (= Diccionario de autoridades) (Madrid, 1726-39; facs. edn Madrid, 1963). This is discussed in more detail in Carreras, ‘La cantata de cámara española’, 65-9.Google Scholar

98 François Bertaut, ‘Journal du voyage d'Espagne (1659)’, ed. F. Cassan, Revue hispanique, 47 (1919), 1317 (p. 152).Google Scholar

99 Mina Bacci, ‘Lettere inedite di Baccio del Bianco’, Paragone: Rivista de arte figurativa y letteratura, 14 (1963), 6877. See also Lorenzo Bianconi, Music in the Seventeenth Century, trans. David Bryant (Cambridge, 1987), 260.Google Scholar

100 The lack of serious conceptual definitions of some genres, beyond the peculiarities of national conventions, is reflected, for example, in the entry ‘Cantata’ in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London, 1980), iii, 694-718, which for the Italian repertory takes primarily into account both compositions labelled ‘cantatas’ and those which present specific formal features, while for the German variant it accepts the categories established by nineteenth-century scholars, disregarding contemporary terminology. With regard to the Iberian villancico – which presents notable parallels with the German type of composition we now call ‘cantata’ – the problem is discussed in Alvaro Torrente, ‘The Sacred Villancico’, particularly in the chapter ‘Introduction to the Sacred Villancico’, pp. 4563; and idem, ‘Italianate Sections in the Villancicos of the Royal Chapel (1700-1740)’, Music in Spain during the Eighteenth Century, ed. Boyd and Carreras, 72-9.Google Scholar

Postscript: The fact that Guerra was not copying music for the chapel after 1680 is confirmed by another document unearthed while this article was at press. Cristóbal Galán, who had just been appointed master of the Royal Chapel, complains in a memorandum dated 18 July 1680 that he had been obliged himself to pay a scribe for the chapel music while there was an appointed scribe who did not fulfil his duties (doubtless referring to Guerra): ‘Don Cristobal Galan maestro de la Real Capilla de VM dice … que ha de pagar ducientos de alquiler de casa (habiendose dado a los otros maestros, y aun al teniente para ella) pagando las letras de los vilancicos (que cuestan mucho), sustentando escribiente (dando renta vuestra Magestad a otro que no lo hace).’ AGP, Secc. Real Capilla, caja 119.Google Scholar