This comprehensive volume represents the capstone of a 2016–19 research project hosted by the Center for the Study of the Sociology and Aesthetics of Music at NOVA University Lisbon. Across several conferences and paper sessions, scholars in this field worked to generate new insights into the source materials, musical construction, and dissemination of this repertoire. The result commits into print a wealth of information on manuscripts and composers from this era, both major and more obscure. The concept of anatomy that unifies the volume encouraged close examination of case studies and intricate connection between them, resulting in a highly detailed study of value to scholars of this era and region.
The first section on “Composers and Their Works” foregrounds some lesser-known figures. Kenneth Kreitner asks the important question of who was second in importance to leading composer Francisco de Peñalosa at the Aragonese court, prompting a fascinating discussion of the musical style of Alonso Tordesillas and how chance (non)survivals of repertoire can shape our tastes and opinions. Grayson Wagstaff focuses on compositions by Pedro de Escobar that illustrate his liminal position between older local traditions and the international Franco-Flemish style. Many of the following essays take their starting point from the manuscript Tarzona 2/3, a remarkable anthology preserving Iberian repertoire of the early sixteenth century. While there has already been much scholarship about the music and genesis of this manuscript, the chapters of section 2 revisit some of its core repertoires. Chant-based polyphony from Tarzona 2/3 is used by David J. Burn to produce a typology of strict though flexible models for the use of chant. Juan Carlos Asensio focuses on Alleluias from the manuscript, tracing their part in a longer heritage, while Bernadette Nelson's attention is upon the hymn cycle from Tarzona 2/3, which she traces stylistically back to the earlier international influence of Du Fay. A more granular look at the production of manuscripts is presented in the next section on copying. Intricate archival research by Michael Noone reveals evidence of over thirty manuscripts copied for Toledo Cathedral that are now lost, suggesting a long-running effort to acquire polyphony and hinting at the substantial repertoires that have not survived. Esperanza Rodríguez-García returns to Tarzona 2/3 with a fresh look at one of its Credos, arguing that a contemporary removal of an attribution to Peñalosa supports the theory that he was connected to its copying.
The next set of chapters consider transmission and performance across an array of genres. João Pedro d'Alvarenga focuses on motets, developing a taxonomy and tracking representation across Spanish and Portuguese sources. Comparison between Coimbra mass movements and exemplars in Spanish manuscripts help María Elena Cuenca Rodríguez to discover deliberate scribal variants and local modifications. A broad international network of sources is traced in Rachel Carpentier's study of Johannes Urrede's Nunca fue, prompting a revision of its source taxonomy and new evidence about the original version. Tess Knighton gives a vivid picture of the presence of songs in games and riddles for courtly leisure time. In the last section on music analysis, Owen Rees brings attention to neglected anonymous Portuguese motets, shedding light upon formulaic and perhaps improvisatory methods for generating music, while common languages between sacred and secular genres are probed in Nuno de Mendonça Raimundo's analyses. The last chapter, by Esperanza Rodríguez-García and Cory McKay, presents a timely example of a corpus study employing machine learning, in which the methodologies, potential, and limitations of these tools are discussed with candor.
Specialists in this field will welcome such a comprehensive book on the topic and should find many new details and outlets for subsequent research. Broader narratives such as canonization, center-periphery transmission, liturgical and social purpose, and oral/written discourses can also be traced through the volume, though a more substantial introduction amalgamating wider perspectives would have been a welcome addition. One particular strength of this collection is a wealth of well-presented musical examples and images from manuscripts. The reader looking to continue exploring this repertoire can benefit from the Archive of Iberian Polyphony online repository of scores and supporting materials (https://iberianpolyphony.fcsh.unl.pt), which was produced by the same research project and further represents their mission to promote subsequent scholarship on this topic.
