Historia De La Música En España

1. Early history. The writings of Isidore of Seville (c559–636) are the chief source of information on the music of the early Spanish Church; his Etymologiae and De officiis ecclesiasticis contain descriptions of the Mass and Office that are similar to those found in the later service books of the Spanish Church. The former work also contains a chapter on the discipline of music, based largely onthe work of Cassiodorus, that subsequently became one of the most important and widely disseminated texts on music theory during the early Middle Ages. As Archbishop of Seville, Isidore presided over the Fourth Council of Toledo in 633 which established a single order of prayer and singing throughout the Visigothic kingdom. Although no notation survives from this period, the earliest extantneumes being an Aquitanian source from the 11th century, the body of chant used by the Visigothic Church was no less extensive than that of the Gregorian. At least seven bishops are supposed to have contributed chants to the repertory of the Visigothic Church: Isidore’s elder brother Leander ( d 599) of Seville; Eugenius (d 657), Ildephonsus (d 667) and Julian (d 690) of Toledo; Conantius (d 639) ofPalencia; and Johannes ( d 631) and Braulio (d 651) of Zaragoza, the latter Isidore’s favourite pupil. This rite continued to be observed by Spanish Christians until Toledo was reconquered from the Muslims in the late 11th century; its music is generally known as Mozarabic chant. In 1080 the Council of Burgos imposed the Roman rite on the Spanish Church as a whole (it had been introduced intoCatalonia three centuries earlier), although a few parishes in Toledo continued in their ancient observance. The Muslim invasion of 711 brought a host of new instruments to the peninsula such as the duff (Sp. adufe: a square tambourine), shabb āba(Sp. ajabeba, exabeba: a transverse flute), b ūq (Sp. albogón: a cylindrical instrument made of metal with reed mouthpiece and seven finger-holes), naf īr (Sp.añafil: a straight trumpet 120 cm or more in length), tabl (Sp. atabal: drum), q ān ūn (Sp. canón: a psaltery), bandair (Sp. panderete: tambourine) and sunuj al-sufr (Sp. sonajas de azófar: metal castanets). The naqq āra (nakers, a small kettledrum of wood or metal), ‘ ūd (lute) and r a b āb (rebec) spread throughout Europe. Just as Córdoba was the Spanish seat of Arabic learning, Seville becamethe centre of Moorish instrument making. Zaragoza was another centre of activity, even after the fall of Granada in 1492. In 1502 Mahoma Mofferriz was still supplying exquisite keyboard instruments to high-born Christian clients as far away as Plasencia. The Christian courts of Sancho IV of Castile (ruled 1284–95), Pedro III of Aragon (1276–85) and Alfonso IV (1327–36) occasionally engaged Moorishplayers of the añafil, exabeba, psaltery and rebec, together with dancers. From Xátiva, a centre of Moorish minstrelsy, Pedro IV of Aragon (1336–87) summoned Ali Eziqua and Çahat Mascum, his favourite players of the rebec and exabeba in 1337–8. The Valladolid Council of 1322 forbade further hiring of Moorish musicians to enliven Christian vigils or any more tumult caused by their presence atChristian feasts. This edict is the more interesting because (as Don Quixote well knew when reproving Master Peter for his bells) the mosques did not allow music. The Muslims not only introduced instruments whose names still bear traces of their Arab origin, but also brought with them musical treatises which were translated from Arabic into Latin at Toledo and thence disseminated northwards. A l - Fār āb ī ( 950) in particular d came to be quoted by numerous theorists from Vincent de Beauvais, Hieronymus de Moravia and Magister Lambertus in the 13th century, to Gregor Reisch and Juan Bermudo. Some scholars have seen a relationship between a form of Moorish poetry, the zajal, and the 15th-century Spanish villancico. Literary evidence also suggests that the Moors of Granada (conquered in...