181- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
On song: early Spanish music
While the peculiarities of regional music were evolving
in medieval Spain, other, less site-specific musical
styles roamed across Iberia.Troubadours, spouting forth
with romantic ballads and the like, could be found in
medievalplaza mayorsthe land over.Thecantares de
gestathey sang were enlivened from the 15thcentury
by thevihuelaplayer, plucking away at 12 gut strings.
Religious music had even older roots. Plainchant was
the earliest form, its simple, easily remembered verse
echoing around monastic halls since the 7thcentury.
There was a Mozarabic version dating back to the
Visigoths, but this lost its voice in theReconquista, drowned out by
Gregorian chant, a form recently reinvigorated by the monks of Santo
Domingo de Silos monastery.They landed a worldwide hit with a CD of
moody chanting in the mid 1990s.The meditativeCantigas de Santa Maria,
compiled by Alfonso X in the 13thcentury, have also wooed the CD buying
public. Eventually Spain got to grips with polyphony (music with more than
one part), setting it up nicely for a brush with the Renaissance.Performance anxiety: music in Renaissance Spain
The Renaissance may have converged with Spain’s so-calledSiglo de Oro
but in musical terms the talent hardly shone through. Only a handful of
composers made a name for themselves. Antonio de Cabezón, a blind
organist, wrote some of the first music for keyboard, much of it still
available today. He was famed fortientos– short, liturgical works that
reflected Spain’s preoccupation with faith. Cristóbal de Morales composed
almost solely for the church in the mid 15thcentury. He wrote masses by
the dozen to become the first Spanish composer known outside his own
country, a fame that contributed to his renowned arrogance. Half a century
later,Tomás Luis de Victoria became the closest thing Spain had to a
virtuoso Renaissance composer. He too kept it holy, writing a number of
motets and masses, particularly requiems. Despite dying in obscurity in
1611, Victoria’s talent for emotive music has kept his work in performance
through to modern times.Isidore misses a beat
Saint Isidore of Seville
haughtily pronounced in
the early 7thcentury that
it was impossible to
write music down. Alas,
he died before musical
notation came along and
we all got the chance to
sneer.4.1.3 Early and classical Spanish music