UMS Concert Program, : The Waverly Consort --

THE WAVERLY CONSORT
PROGRAM GUIDE
V 0 L U M E 7 N U M n E R 3
The Waverly Consort Program Guide Volume 7, No. 3
The Year 1492
Spanish Music in the Age of Columbus
CONTENTS
"An Ensign for the Nations": Musical Reflections on Spain's Last Crusade by Andrew Tomasello
The Sephardic Poetic and Musical Legacy from Spain by Israel J. Katz
Texts and Translations
Modern Editions of the Music Sources
Suggestions for Further Reading
15 22 35 36
The Waverly Consort Program Guide is funded fry a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a Federal agency.
The Waverly Consort Program Guide is published by The Waverly Consort, 305 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10025. Edited and designed by Kay Jaffee. O 1992.
COVER: Miniature from the Breviary of Queen Isabella of Castile, presented to her on the occasion of the marriage of her son, the Infante Don Juan, to Marguerite of Austria, daughter of the Emperor Maximilian I. Flemish, c!497. British Li?brary, Ms. Add. 18851.
"An Ensign for the Nations"
Musical Reflections on Spain's Last Crusade
by
Andrew Tomasello
S THE RESULT OF EIGHT centuries of Muslim occupa cion, the history of Iberia often seems markedh different in J.____ML. comparison to the rest of Europe. The slow but steady pro?cess of the reconquest took several centuries. By the fifteenth century, even though all that remained of Moorish territory was the Kingdom of Granada in the southeast corner of the peninsula, the influence of the Islamic conquerers was strong and permanent.
The pivotal point in the reconquhta was the linking through marriage of the two most powerful Hispanic kingdoms in 1469. This event at first created a confederation more than a true union. Each realm retained its distinctive customs and practices: Aragon under Ferdinand favored a more liberal, pluralistic monarchy, whereas the Castile of Isabella adopted a centralized approach to government. Through the estab?lishment of a strong domestic military, the Catholic Kings, as they were called, imposed law and order on towns and fiefdoms and brought an end to private wars, resulting in greater domestic peace, albeit at the expense of diminished local autonomy. This effectively centralized all authority in the crown and helped set the stage for the last episode of the recotiquista.
Spain's new consolidation of power, combined with the internecine strife in the ruling family of Granada, brought about the inevitable capitulation of the already weakened Moorish remnant. One by one the towns fell to the forces of Christianity. Then, on New Year's night, 1492, the splendid palace of the Alhambra was handed over. And on the feast of the Epiphany, Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Kings, entered the city of Granada in triumphant procession. Within three months, in order further to unify the realm, they issued an edict mandating that all Jews accept baptism as Christians or be subject to expulsion. The move spelled economic disaster, since this group comprised many of Spain's
skilled merchants and artisans who could not be replaced. Most chose baptism first, then finally exile. Their Muslim cousins would soon be faced with the same fate.
A few days after the fall of Granada, the Catholic Kings acceded to the requests of a Genoese seaman who had been pestering them on and off for almost six years. It is said that Christopher Columbus "discovered America by prophecy rather than by astronomy." Though it is true that a greater accuracy in mapmaking contributed to his discovery, it is only peripherally related. The Chinese had long imposed a grid scheme over depictions of the earth, and this idea may have reached the Arab geographer Alldrisi, who made such a world map for Roger II, Norman King of Sicily, in 1150. At the time of Marco Polo's return at the end of the thirteenth century, mapmaking became something of a science based on the careful observations of mariners. We know that part of the impetus for Columbus was his reading of the recently published Images of the World of Pierre d'Ailly
Following the Moorish invasion of the Iberian peninsula in 111, armed conflict between Muslim and Christian armies continued throughout the late Middle Ages. Illustration from the Cantigas dc Santa Maria of King Alfonso X, "elSabio" (thirteenth century). Madrid, Escorial Library manu?script T.I.I.
"And it shall come to pass that ... the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the rem?nant of his people ... And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."
Isaiah xi: 1112.
Columbus depicted as he saw himself: as the appointed ensign described in Isaiah; behind him stands St. Christ?opher. Anonymous 16thcentury painting. Madrid, Museo Ldzaro Galdiano.
and Pope Pius II's History of Things, as well as his study of Marco Polo and Seneca, but in providing a stimulus, these authors were secondary to the explorer's use of the Bible. Biblical text helped Columbus understand the world and his divinely selected place in it. The essentially medieval spirit of this son of a Genoese weaver becomes apparent in a communication to the Catholic Kings written in 1502, in which he asserts, "neither reason nor mathematics nor maps were any use to me: fully accomplished were the words of Isaiah [XI: 1012]." In these verses, Columbus sees himself as a divine messenger, raising an
ensign so as to gather the remnant of God's people, a people scattered to the four corners of the earth and to the islands of the sea. This view certainly accorded with the religious philosophy and political history of Spain.
Outfitted with three ships and a crew, on August 3rd Columbus set sail from Palos on the mainland for the Canary Islands. Then after pass
ing twentyeight days there, on September 6th the men sailed west?ward. Ten days out they failed to reach the fabled island of Antilia located on their chart. After a time at sea, all estimations of distance from calculations were off. The mariners could no longer trust the charts but had to rely on their observations of birds flying above and wood floating below.
Perhaps guided more by instinct and experience, Columbus and his men successfully crossed the Atlantic. At two hours after midnight on October 12th land was sighted. At dawn Columbus, his captains and officials took possesion of this land in the name of the Catholic Kings, planted the royal banner on the beach, and named the island for the Holy Savior. During the two weeks following, the explorers planted crosses on every island in their search for the gold of the East. Columbus was convinced that these bodies of land were among "the islands which are set down in the maps at the end of the Orient." It is in part this illconceived search for wealth which is the cause of the tragedy of the Spanish New World, a tragedy exacerbated by Spain's honest religious devotion. Christopher Columbus saw his destiny as the "bearer of Christ" that his name implied. Over the course of the century, however, the Spanish became not the bearers of life and civilization but of suffering and destruction.
So Spain in the Age of Discovery was a land of paradox, a culture both totally medieval in its spirit and thoroughly modern in its designs. By their aggressive support for exploration and exploitation its monarchs set Spain on a modern course and helped "double the world." Yet at the same time, by their very conservative, medieval acts of expulsion and Inquisition, they hastened the decline of Spain as a world power.
Notes on the Program
H I IT IS FITTING THAT OUR PROGRAM begin with the song Ayo visto lo mappamundo. This song, a barzelletta known in the Aragonese Kingdom of the Two Sicilies during the years immediately preceding 1450 begins, "I have seen the map of earth and mariner's chart, but Sicily seems to me the most beautiful of this world." The author tells us that he has gazed upon both the mappamundi, perhaps an allegorical medieval map which places the regions and peoples of the earth around the central point of Jerusalem, and the scientifically objective, if not wholly accurate, secular work of cartographers. The poet has
Columbus's signature -"Christoferens," the Christ Bearer -conveys his sense of mission. The Latin initials above the name are believed to stand for "servant I am of the most high Savior, Christ Son of Maty." Genoa, Palazzo Tutsi.
"El Nuevo Mundo en el aflo 1500" (The New World in the Year 1500). Map drawn by Juan de la Cosa, cartographer on the voyage with Columbus, the first "world map " to show lands in the Americas. Madrid, Mu sco Naval.
seen the islands of the Mediterranean from Cyprus to Sardinia and westward beyond the Pillars of Hercules to the recently conquered Canaries, and he estimates the beauty of Sicily above all. We can only guess whether the author indeed had experience at sea or was merely implying that he was able to envisage the islands from representations drawn on a map. The text was written by someone standing on the brink of a new age, someone whose attitude cuts to the core of the conflict between the world of written information and of experience. In the Middle Ages, the presentation of a living witness for a first person account of an event was more important than a written description of that event, and it is the author's continual return to the first person that marks this as testimony. Yet his study of a mariner's chart does count for something. Particularly on the eve of the Age of Discovery, as both written and printed information became more available and accurate, as more people learned to read, and as the effects of literacy spread, the inherent stugglc between the believability of what one sees on a page versus what one experiences becomes crucial. This fact is particularly important to a mariner like Columbus, who had either to trust his written charts or to rely on his own observations. Although the text of the song states the medieval preoccupation with the Lord's perfect creation, it nonetheless expresses the Renaissance attitude that man's knowledge is the mirror of worldly beauty. Likewise, the words epito
mize the confusion of someone whose authority still comes from firstperson experience, as limited as that experience may have been. On another interpretive level, playing on a pun, we can read this text as a love song neither to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, nor to St. Cecily (crowned with a garland of roses and lilies, whose feast is listed in the calendar), but to a fourth Cecily, a woman whose supreme beauty, we arc told, is out of this world.
After the news of the Spanish victory at Granada reached Rome in April 1492, displays of fireworks were set off and bullfights were staged there in celebration. Around this time the papal chamberlain and secretary Carlo Yerardi wrote the Historica Baetica in which Viva el gran re Don Fernando was performed as a thanksgiving for the deliverance of powerful Granada from the false beliefs of the pagans. This lively work contains a simple imitative section in an Italian style
Vi'ua el gran Re Don Fernando Con I Rcyna Don Ifabella Viua (pena e la Cartel I.i Pica de gloria m'umphando
La do Ivfahomaftana Potoiaffima Granaca Da la falfa fe pagana E diflblta e liberata
which contrasts strongly with what one would consider a more "Spanish" section. No work is more typical of this Spanish sound than the anonymous Pase el agua, ma Julieta, with its chordal texture and lilting syncopations. In this simple villancico the author calls to his beloved to cross over the water to where he is gathering rosebuds. As the poet Marques de Santillana said, the Spanish are the masters of the imagination and of singing poetry to beautiful sounds.
"Viva cl gran Re Don Fer?nando," printed from wood blocks: from Carlo Yerardi's Historia Baetica, Rome, 1493.
Santiago -St. James -the standardbearer of the Span?ish crusades and the "famoso cavallero" described in Juan del Encina's romance, Una safiosa porffa, "flying in front with a red cross and a shining sword, ... leading all the people." Detail, oil on canvas try Juan de Flandes, cl500. ' Madrid, Museo Ldzaro Galdiano.
H II THE NEXT TWO WORKS on the program are drawn from the largest collection of Castilian songs of the day, the Cancionero Musical de Palacio. Both Por los campos de los moros and Pascua d'Espiritu Santo by Francisco de la Torre praise the glory of Spain and the valor of her fighting men. The latter was written to commemorate the fall of the city of Ronda to the forces of Ferdinand in 1485. These songs stand in stark contrast to other romances about the reconquista, among them De Antequera sale el Moro. Here, in a 1554 setting for solo voice and vihuela by Miguel dc Fuenllana, we hear of an event in the reconquest of the peninsula, the taking of Antequrea in 1410 by the brother of Henry III of Castile, Ferdinand, the future king of Aragon and grandfather of his famous namesake. The Spanish author of this text relates in seventeen strophes the most piteous plight of the beseiged Moors who, trapped within their city, have been reduced to eating leather. Identifying with the vanquished, the poet speaks in the voice of an old Muslim emissary who relates his grim message to the poetking Yusuf III of Granada.
Also from the Cancionero are the following four songs: Levatita, Pascual, a villancico of simple, welldefined musical phrases, presents two shepherds discussing the news of the surrender of Granada. In a hortatory tone, derived from New Testament stories about the birth of Jesus, the men agree to go see the marvelous conquered city for themselves. The work is particularly interesting in light of the fact that its author, the playwright Juan del Encina, was himself present at the seige of Granada. Born in Salamanca the son of a shoemaker, Encina became by far the most prolific composer of fifteenthcentury Spain, responsible for 62 of the 485 works in the Cancionero. At age sixteen, sharing in what must have been his family's deep interest in music, he entered the cathedral choir as had a brother before him. And although an older male sibling was professor of music at the university, Juan prepared himself for the more conventional ecclesiastical career by taking minor orders and a baccalaureate in law. In 1492 he began his sixyear tenure in the household of Don Fadrique de Toledo, the second Duke of Alba. Here he entertained the ducal court with poems of noble compliments, songs of love, and plays in which part songs were sung. With practically all of his literary and musical works already composed, he subsequently served in Rome during the pontificates of Alexander VI (Roderigo Borgia of Valencia, father of Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia) and Michelangelo's patron, Julius II. Encina's output of secular songs stands as the nucleus of the great repertory which has come down to us from the time of the Catholic Kings. The second work from the Cancionero, Tres moricas m'enamoran, has been attributed at times to one Diego
Fernandez, a man believed to have worked in the chapel of the Spanish royal court sometime around 1500. This villancico is based on an anonymous work thought by some to be of Arabic origin.
Encina's Una saiiosa porfia is a most beautiful and plaintive song whose sentiments reveal an empathy with the expelled Moorish culture. In this way, it is not dissimilar to the work by Mudarra that we have already heard. Though the defeat of Granada was the crucial event in the development of a unified Catholic Spain, the almost eighthundredyear presence of what was essentially a middleeastern culture on the Iberian peninsula nevertheless left a mark not easily erased. While subtilcly hailing the brave crusaders of Spain whose victories enable the conversion of mosques into churches, Encina creates what is, in fact, a lament. The composer's own ambivalence, or at least his ability to identify with the heathens, is borne out in the striking similarity of this composition to a dirge that Encina would write five years later on the death of Isabella's only son Juan. Encina's gQu'es de ti, desconsolado is likewise a work that betrays strong sympathies with the Muslims. One must bear in mind that Queen Isabella's first reaction to Spanish victories was prayer -prayer for the conversion of the conquered. That is, in her eyes and no doubt in the eyes of many, the reconquista was essentially the latest episode in the Crusades.
The persistent interaction of the two cultures over the centuries led understandably to a musical crosspollination. The classical music of the Moorish society in southern Spain, called Andaluz, is a product of the close connection of Arabic, Spanish, and North African culture. B'tayhi -M'saddar is included on the program to represent a style of music that was originally part of the court music of Muslim Andalusia. This style was carried to North Africa by the intellectuals and musicians who fled to Morocco after the fall of Granada. It is a chamber music, char?acteristically played on soft instruments, principally strings and small percussion, which later became orchestral in character. The principal form is the nawba, a suite that often begins with an improvised prelude and then proceeds through a group of movements which vary in meter, mood, and tempo but which use the same melodic mode or tonal center. The Consort performs a movement in the b'tayhi rhythmic pattern extracted from a nawba in the as'sairfan melodic mode. Each of the original twentyfour Andalusian nawbat is composed in a different mode associated with an hour of the day and with a mystical concept. They were transmitted via the oral tradition, hence our knowledge of them is only approximate, with only eleven remembered in Morocco today. Not all are complete.
Boabdil, the last of the Moslems to rule in Spain, leaves the Alhanibra for exile in Africa after the fall of Granada. Detail, altar relief by Felipe Vigarny, 16th cen?tury. Capilla Real, Granada.
H III PEDRO DE Escobar's MOTET Clamabat autem mulier Cananea,
like several others in our program, has been drawn from the manuscript Seville, Biblioteca Colombina 5520, a music anthology bound with books purchased and owned by Ferdinand Columbus, the explorer's son. This motet is a work of bare simplicity whose text is drawn from Matthew XV. In this setting, the top voice contains all the text of direct speech. The lower parts, written in a very narrow melodic range, serve as support and introduction for this spoken text. The imitation between the voices depicts the pursuing of Jesus by a woman of Canaan. The biblical passage (Matthew XV: 2228) not only reaffirms Jesus's mission to the "lost sheep of Israel" but also extends it to the Gentiles, a mission continued by Spain in the Age of Discovery. This work was held in such high estimation that it was the only motet written during the reign of the Catholic Kings to have been transcribed for vihuela.
The text of Nunca fue pena mayor was written by Don Garcia Alva?rez de Toledo, the first Duke of Alba, and set to music by Johannes Urreda, who served the Duke as chapel master in 147677. llrreda was cited by his contemporaries as one who contributed significantly to the advancement of the musical art. That this song was widely disseminat?ed is evidenced by its presence in several extant manuscripts of the period. It was so highly regarded that it seems to have been intention?ally given a place of honor as the opening work of at least one collection. Moreover, it was among the first musical works to appear in print, and its great popularity extended to its having served as a musical model for several later compositions by others. The song is typical of many Spanish songs of the period in that it is filled with parallel melodicmotion between at least two of the voices. The Phrygian cadence of its refrain, approached in this manner, gives the work a hauntingly antique character, thought to be a remnant of the Arabic melodic modes of Andaluz. The simple Ay, Santa Maria, though quite different in melodic style, is nonethless similar in its use of parallel motion.
The Fantasia en la manera de Ludovico is the most famous piece of its composer Alonso Mudarra, and perhaps the most famous composition for vihuela. It is in imitation of the dissonant style of playing of Ludovico, called "e del harpa" chamber musician of King Ferdinand. One contemporary Spanish composer and music theorist wrote that "Ludovico, with extraordinary ability, succeeded in chro?matically creating the sound of each string, not only in the natural tones, but also those accidental ones." Mudarra himself writes that this fantasia must be understood "not only in terms of the imitation of the harp, but in the way it is played by Ludovico." One can only remark that some of this taste for melodic and rhythmic eccentricity must be reflective of the Spanish acculturation to Moorish style.
Franciso de la Torre, a native of Seville, served in the Aragonese royal chapel for seventeen years as a singer and sometime master of the
choirboys. Of his relatively small number of compositions, the best known today is his instrumental dance based on the "La Spagna" tune. This Alta, or saltarello, from the Cancionero displays varied melodic ornamentation played over the "Spagna" tune in the bass. Finally, Encina's energetic Oy comamos y bebamos has been extracted from a playlet written for the preLenten Carnival. It is filled with the hemiolas that have come to typify the syncopated sounds of Spanish rhythm.
H IV MARTIN DE RlVAFRECHA, priest and singer, became chapelmaster in Palencia during the early part of the sixteenth century. He also was charged with the education of the choirboys but was deposed due to what is called ineptitude. This event, however, seems not to have deterred his eulogizers from noting that he was most learned, subtle, and wise in both practical and theoretical music. His Salve regina is found in the collection established by Ferdinand Columbus. The text of the Salve seems to have been particularly popular in Spain, where it was sung during the sixteenth century at the conclusion of Mass. Appro?priately, Columbus and his sailors are said to have gathered on the prow of his flagship the night before land was sighted to sing this text appropriate to "Santa Maria," perhaps as part of the prescribed bedtime prayer. Rivafrecha's setting of the Salve alternates the plainchant with newly composed polyphony in what is known as alternatim performance. The original chant provides the basis for the composition and is quoted in the upper voices and in the tenor. Of the five sections, the second and the fourth exhibit a more adventurous contrapuntal style in contrast to the somber, chordal passages that frame them.
Early printed collections for the vthuela typically drew on maritime imagery; the first such collection (1536) by Luys de Milan evoked the "sea of music" in a dedication to the king of Portugal. Left: Woodcut from Luis de Narvdez's Los seys libros del Dclphin dc musica (1538) shows A rion. seated on a dolphin's back and surround?ed by caravels, playing a vihuela.
Francisco Guerrero, perhaps more than any composer represented on the program, epitomizes the Renaissance composer in the Age of Discovery, the juxtaposition of the medieval and modern, the sacred and the secular. This widely traveled priest and chapelmaster embarked during his sixtieth year on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, visiting Jaffa, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Damascus. Throughout his journey, all his spare time was spent in negotiating for the publication of his works and in correcting the printer's proofs. During his return trip he was captured by pirates who extracted a ransom for his life. He wrote the following about his experiences: "But I declare for a matter of sober fact that in all our journey, which took us among Turks, Moors, and Arabs, we never encountered molestation nor harm, except in France." He was a man particularly known for his charity during his lifetime but found himself in debtors' prison. His Latin eulogy claims that his music is "known from the English Channel to faraway Isthmuses." And correct this may be, since repertory lists found at the Cathedral of Mexico City show that his works were being sung there from 157585. Without detracting from his reputation as a composer one must understand that his fame is at least partly the result of his personal, perhaps even egotistical, interest in the publication of his compositions, and partly the product of technical advances made in music printing during the sixteenth century. A book of his music published in 1584 survives today at the Cathedral of Lima, and for more than two centuries after his death his works were sung in the New World. Francisco Pacheco, later to become fatherinlaw to the painter Velazquez, wrote of Guerrero, "He published many motets that by reason of their excellent construction and their beauty of sound will be eternally esteemed; his Ave Virgo sanctissima alone has, wherever performed in Spain, brought any number of musicians fame and approbation." It is the text that places this quintessential Marian motet squarely in a medieval symbolic tradition which sees the Virgin as a flower, as a seedbearer of beauty, as the source of spiritual life. Near the midpoint, the composer interjects the word "salve" set to the opening melodic motive of the plainchant Salve regina and repeated imitativcly throughout the texture, thereby linking this work to the traditions of the Spaniards' favorite Marian antiphon. The music of Ave Virgo, however, truly marks Guerrero as eminent among his generation and as a consummate master of counterpoint. Its most outstanding feature is that the two uppermost voices are written in strict canon throughout -that is, the two highest melodies are identical and are sung in the manner of a round, the second lagging several beats behind the first. This particular feature of the composition has been imitated by two composers who have used this motet as a model. A copy of one of those derived works remains today in Peru, in the library of the Cathedral of Cuzco.
The Virgin of the Navi?gators (1505). Columbus (lower left) and his sailors, kneeling within the protective folds of the Virgin's cloak, are lifted by a cloud over the flagship Santa Maria and a variety of other vessels at safe harbor.
The prolific Tomas Luis de Victoria was without doubt the greatest Spanish composer of his day. During his lifetime, he was said CO have been famous in Italy, beloved at Rome, and his work had recently come to be known in the Indies. He in fact spent much of his career in Italy,
where he held several important musical posts. From at least his thirtyninth year he served as chaplain to King Philip IPs sister, the Dowager Empress Maria, daughter of Charles V and wife of Maximilian II. His responsibilities allowed him to lead a life of affluence at the Monasteria de las Descalzas de Santa Clara at Madrid. As maestro of the convent choir he increased the forces for singing polyphony and employed instrumentalists to play on certain feast days. Like Guerrero, Victoria was a composer actively involved in widening the availability of his own works. Several times he empowered agents to collect money owed him for the distribution of his music: 100 pesos sent from the alcalde in the Peruvian Casa de la Moneda and 900 reales due him from Lima in 1598. A few of his Mass settings were so popular in Mexico City that by 1640 the partbooks had worn out and had to be hand copied. Victoria composed four settings of the Salve regjna in his lifetime; the one performed on this concert is the earliest. The work is in four sections. The first two sections, for six voices, use the opening four notes of the chant version of the antiphon (solfasoldo, or transposed as dotidofa) as a scaffolding for elaborate polyphonic work. This method of composition is called cantusfirmus (fixed song) technique. Not onlydo we find the fragment sung by the second soprano fourteen times to the word "salve" in slow moving notes, but we hear the other voices offer paraphrases of the entire chant in quicker notes. In the third section, Victoria uses the four highest voices to present material not part of the traditional antiphon. The final section returns to the sixvoice texture and uses a free paraphrase of the chant in all the voices.
The Church of Santa Maria la Blanca in Toledo, built as a synagogue in the thirteenth century and converted into a church following the Edict of Expulsion in 1492.
Andrew Tomasello is the author of Music and Ritual at Papal Avignon (13091403), as veil as numerous articles concerning the musical repertoires of the Mediterranean region in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. He is currently studying Spanish collections of polyphonic music from those periods. Professor Tomasello teaches music history and musicology at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of the City ('niversity of New York.
The Sephardic Poetic and Musical Legacy from Spain
by
Israel J. Katz
OR THE SPANISH JEWS, 1492 WAS a tragic year -one that would
never fade from their memory. On March 31st, more than two months after the Moors surrendered at Granada, and six months prior to the discovery of the New World, the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, issued the Edict of Expulsion wherein the Jews were given until August 1st to leave every domain of the newly established hegemony. Five years later, during the reign of Manuel I, "the Fortunate," the same fate befell the Jews of Portugal.
For more than a millennium, the Jews on the Iberian Peninsula had managed to survive the many intermittent religious and politically motivated catastrophes that had interrupted their otherwise peaceful coexistence among the various Peninsular populations, under Greek, Roman, Visigothic, Moslem, and Christian rule. It was not until the tumultuous year of 1391 that the catastrophic riots against the Jews, which began in Seville, precipitated their final expulsion. There, on March 15th and again on June 9th, 1391, the Juderiti (Jewish quarter) suffered four thousand deaths and destruction by raging mobs provoked by the hateful invectives of Ferrand Martinez, Archdeacon of Ecija. Such religious sentiments became increasingly visible in the political realm. The riots spread throughout the Peninsula (Cordoba, Toledo, Aragon, Valencia, Barcelona, and the Balearic Islands). The only way Jews could save their lives was to accept baptism. Such was their dilemma during their last century on Spanish soil.
The exiled Jews and their forebears continued to look upon the Iberian Peninsula as their spiritual homeland. They were extremely proud of their Hispanic heritage, whose cultural legacy they nurtured for countless generations. They were known as Scphardim -taking their
The Sinagoga del Tnnsito in Toledo still stands. After the fall of Granada and the Edict of Expulsion, most mosques and synagogues were converted into churches.
name from the Hebrew Sepharad (Obadiah I: 20), the Biblical designation for Spain, and their expulsion marked the beginning of a new Diaspora, like those brought about by the destruction of the First (586 B.C.E.) and Second (70 C.E.) Temples.
After resettling themselves throughout the Mediterranean region (particularly Italy, the Ottoman Empire, and western North Africa), they established vital communities in such cities as Leghorn, Salonika, Istanbul, Izmir, Edirne, Sofia, Sarajevo, Belgrade, etc., which acted as the nuclear centers for the smaller Scphardic communities. They continued to maintain close ties with one another, forming one of the most prominent Mediterranean subcultures until the Nazi holocaust of the present century.
Among the most cherished relics of Hispanic folk poetry and music that the exiles carried were the traditional ballads (romances), couplets (ropas, var. complas), and villancicos, which retained the rhyme scheme and strophic structure of the older HispanoArabic zajah (Spanish zejeles).
Today, their ballads constitute the vibrant JudeoSpanish branch of the Spanish Romancero. In addition, they brought traditional songs associated with the life cycle: songs accompanying the circumcision ceremony (canricas deparida, addressed to the mother of a newborn male child), together with the festive songs sung on the eve of the circumcision -now known mainly in Eastern Mediterranean communities; lullabies (condones de cuna); children's game songs; love songs; wedding songs (cantos de boda) for the various festive and ritualistic events preceding and following the wedding ceremony, including songs of the bride (novia) and of the groom (novio); and dirges or songs of mourning (endechas), which were also sung during the week preceding Tisha b'Av (the ninth day of the Hebrew month Av) to commemorate the destruction of the Temple. In all, every festive religious occasion and family gathering contained appropriate songs to suit the event. Also included were the paraliturgical songs and expressive Hebrew metrical hymns (piyynrim) and those with refrains (pizmonim), many of whose texts date from the Golden Age of HispanoHebrew poetry (midtenth to midtwelfth centuries), and whose poets included such illustrious figures as Samuel haNagid, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Moses Ibn Ezra, and Judah haLevi.
The Sephardic communities of North Africa, principally those of northern Morocco (Tangier, Tetuan, Alcazarquivir, Larache) and Algiers (Oran), were, due to their close proximity, able to maintain contact with the cultural and literary trends on the Peninsula up through the present century. Yet, communication between the exiled communities of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Iberian Peninsula continued for more than a century after the Expulsion. During this period the most popular ballads from Spain made their way to many of the scattered communities through the circulation of ballad books (romanceros and cancioneros de romances), chapbooks, and broadsides (pliegos suefos), thus firmly establishing the Sephardic, or JudeoSpanish, branch of the Romancero, whose importance rested primarily on its retention of archaic features and its preservation of numerous ballad themes which had long become extinct on the Peninsula. The Sephardim also absorbed many folkloric traditions from the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Hebrew poetry anthologies (divans) of the Eastern Mediter?ranean poet, Israel Najara (15551628), as well as those of contem?poraneous and subsequent poets and compilers, attest not only to the popularity of the Romancero and other Hispanic poetic genres upon which they were modelled, but also to the dissemination of Greek, Turkish, and Arabic tunes, whose titles were preserved in their head
JudeoSpanish, also referred to as Ladino, Spanyol, or Jude.mo, is pre?dominantly presixteenthcentury Castilian in sound, grammar, and vo?cabulary, although it has absorbed Turkish, Hebrew, Greek, and Arabic, among other Mediterranean linguistic elements.
notes. The ballad chapbooks in Hebrew characters, such as those printed in Salonika by Yacob Abraham Yona (18471922), are further proof of the high esteem with which the Sephardim held the Romancero in more recent times.
The following ballad text furnishes an excellent example of an epic ballad theme that alludes to an eleventhcentury episode from the lost Castilian epic poem dealing with the siege of Zamora (Catitar del cerco de Zamora), In the foregoing incident, Princess Urraca (Dona Alda) begs King Sancho II of Castile (King Fernando) to release her brother, Alfonso VI of Leon (Don Alonso):
El rey Fernando en Francia (6) + Sancho y Urraca (6)
Rey Fernando, rey Fernando, de Seviya o Aragdn, a pesar de los franseses, dientro de la Fransta entrd. 1 Hayd la Fransta revuelta,
no hubo (uien I'apazigud.
A su hennano don'Alonso V a su hennano cautivo.
4 Despiies de estar caiitivado, tnandd asoltar mi pregdn: --Todo el (tie par el ha blare, resperto no le quedd.
6 Sea monja o sea fmile, le quitare su religion.--
Ya lo sabe la su herniana, su herman'Alba y antes
8 qu'el sol.
Quitdse ropa de siempre, la de la pascua pusd. Con siento de sus donseyas, dentro de la Francia entrd:
10 --Buenos di'as, mi hennano, mi hennano y mi seiior. --En eyos vegdis, mi hennana, mi hennana. iqual que yo.
1 --Cuando era yo chiquita, me datis tin bofetdn. Yoraba v no me cay aba, me qfresistis vos mi dor.
14
' ahora que a soy grande, quiero que me le deis vos. --gCudl d'eyos quieris, mi lunnana,
16 si es Seviya o Aragdn
King Fernando, King Fernando
of Seville or Aragon,
despite the French,
he invaded France.
He found France in a state of
[turmoil; there was no one who could pacify
[him.
And his brother Don Alonso he imprisoned. After imprisoning him, he issued a proclamation: "Any one who will speak in his favor will lose my respect. Whether nun or friar, heshe would have to leave his
[religion."
His sister learned of this, his sister Lady Alba [pun!].
In place of her usual clothes, she arrayed herself in finery. With a hundred of her maidens, she entered [the King's court]. "Good day to you, my brother, by brother and my lord." "Greetings to you, my sister, my sister and my equal." "When I was a little girl, you slapped me. I cried and would not be silent, and you offered me a present
[city].
And now that I am grown, I want you to give it to me." "Which of them do you want, my
[sister Seville or Aragon"
No quiero o dor ninguno, todos a mi mando son.
18 Lo tjuc quiero es a mi hermano, sano v libre de prision.
-vete anora tti. mi hermana, maHana lo libra yo.
"I don't want any gift [city], all are at my command. What I want is my brother, healthy and free from prison." "Go now, my sister. tomorrow I'll set him free."
[Version from Larache (Morocco), sung by Dora Ayach de Bergel, c 60 years, collected by Samuel G. Armistead, Joseph H. Silverman, and Israel J. Katz in Casablanca (Morocco), August 27, 1962. Printed in S. G. Armistead and J. H. Silverman, JudeoSpanish Ballads from Oral Tradition: I. Epic Ballads, with musical transcriptions and studies by I. J. Katz (Berkeley, 1986). This is the second of a multivolume series on the Kolkliterature of the Sephardic Jews.]
Musically speaking, the Sephardic secular musical heritage represents two -Moroccan and Turkish (or possibly Greek) -musical style traditions, located at opposite ends of the Mediterranean basin. Of the extant traditional Spanish texts, the majority were preserved mainly by the women, who sang them at various social gatherings and at appropriate religious festivities. Such songs also accompanied their daily chores and even were sung to lull their children to sleep. In this manner they were able to pass the tradition on to their children, especially their daughters, who were constantly at their side.
Musical instruments, mainly Arabic -ud, kemanche, etc. -were to be found at important social gatherings, particularly the wedding. Even when such instruments were present, women preferred to sing their traditional songs unaccompanied. Moreover, the women favored the pandero (also called panderico, a small tambourinelike instrument) or adufe (a square frame drum) as their only accompanying instrument, upon which they stressed the basic beat patterns of their metrically rendered tunes. Both instruments are still utilized throughout the Iberian Peninsula.
We are greatly indebted to a number of prominent musicians who, since the turn of the century, displayed their concern with the moribund Sephardic music traditions (both secular and liturgical). Whether they were motivated as composers, arrangers, musicologists, or collectors, they have, nonetheless, provided us with a legacy of notated musical ex
amples, which they gathered firsthand throughout the vast Sephardic Diaspora of the Mediterranean region, and to which performers can turn for material. Among the important early collectors were Manuel Manrique de Lara (18631929), Abraham Zvi Idelsohn (18821938), Leon Algazi (18901971), Edith GersonKiwi (b. 1908), Alberto Hemsi (18961975), Isaac Levy (19191977), and Arcadio de Larrea Palacin (d. 1985). Their work has inspired a number of devotees who have chosen to follow in their footsteps. More recent field work has been undertaken by musicologists in Canada (Judith R. Cohen), Israel (Edwin Seroussi, Susana WeichShahak), Greece (Amnon Shiloah), Yugoslavia (Ankica Petrovic), and Bulgaria (Nickolai Kaufmann).
Studies concerning the history, literature, poetry, folklore, and language of the Sephardim have indeed surpassed those dealing with music. Still, with the data yet to be obtained from numerous untranscribed field tapes and authentic commercial recordings, together with a projected systematic study of pertinent sources containing notations of traditional folk music, we may come closer toward understanding the musical culture of the Sephardic Diaspora and its relationship to the music and musical practices of the Iberian Peninsula during prccxpulsion times.
Ironic as it may seem, Spain was to witness a far greater dis?semination of its traditional ballads -via the Sephardic Jews -than among the conquistadores in the New World.
Notes on the Program
EXAMPLES OF TRADITIONAL BALLADS collected among Sephardic informants from the Eastern Mediterranean are El paso del Mar Rojo (Marmara, Turkey), Las hermanas reinay cautiva (Salonika), Elsueno de la hija (Izmir, Turkey), and En busca del padre (Sarajevo, Yugoslavia). (Ballads are usually cited by their themes rather than their titles.)
Elpaso del Mar Rojo paraphrases the Biblical text from Exodus XI : I Off., wherein Moses, guided by Divine intervention, leads the Israelites across the Red Sea just as the Pharoah and his Egyptian army are about to overtake them. Among the CryptoJewish communities of modern Portugal, it is also known as Oragao de dgua ("Prayer of the water"), a Passover prayer. In Las hermanas reina y cautiva, a particularly widespread romance, presented here in a suite of multiple variants collected from Salonika to Seattle, the captive slave girl turns out to be the sister of the queen. El sueno de la hija can be traced to the traditional Greek song To oneiron tes tores ("The Girl's Dream"), whose earliest JudeoSpanish documentation dates from 1702. This ballad spread from the Eastern Mediterranean to Morocco.
The spirited wedding song, Ah, el novio no quere dinero! (addressed to the groom) is confined to a minor pentachord. Its structure can be compared to the thirteenthcentury cantiga efamigo, wherein parallelism (as in the first strophe: novianovio, dinerobueno) and end refrain are the most striking affinities. Also notice the repeated occurrence of the Hebrew word tnazal (luck). En busca del padre is one of an enormous body of oral literature in many cultures that deals with a son in quest of his father.
The highly popular lyrical song, Morenica me llaman, is known throughout the Eastern Mediterranean communities. The usual formal structure associated with this song comprises the repetition of each pair of textual hemistichs. The song has also been found with a refrain.
Israel J. Katz is a specialist in Spanish and Sephardic traditional folk music. He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and is presently collaborating with Samuel G. Armistead and Joseph H. Si henna n on a multivolume series, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, concerning JudeoSpanish ballads from oral tradition. Among Dr. Katz's other publications are JudcoSpanish Traditional Ballads from Jerusalem: An Ethnomusicological Study; Studies on the Cantigas de Santa Maria: Art, Poetry and Music (coedited with John E. Keller); and most recently, the critical introduction to the facsmile edition of Kurt Schindler's Folk Music and Poetry of Spain and Portugal. Katz is a past editor of the scholarly journals Ethnomusicology, Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council, and Musica Judaica.
Wedding scene from the Arba'ah Thurim, a treatise on the niles of life by Jacob ben Asher (Mantua, 1436). The text below begins a quotation from Genesis II: 18, "It is not good that man should be alone: I will make him an help meet for him." Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica I aticana.
Texts and Translations
Part One -Circa 1492
Globe of the earth, cl510.
I Eve of Discovery: Three Anonymous Songs
Ayo visto lo mappamundo (Vicinity of Naples, 1450s)
Ayo visto lo mappamundo E la carta de naviguare, Mas Xixiia me pare La piii bella de questo mundo,
Tres Xixiia son, no piii; Toa tri son coronati: Re Alfonso.n te la duy, Citrafarum et (Itrafamm; La terf' a.n lo ralandari; Non xe parla de la quarta, Que non xe trobar en carta, E venuta de I'otro iniindi.
I have seen the world map And the sailors' charts, But I think Sicily Most beautiful in this world.
There are three Sicilies, no more, And all three are crowned: King Alfonso holds two -Gitrafaro and Ultrafaro -The third is on the calendar. Do not speak of the fourth, Which is on no map. You get there in another world.
Translator's note: The lyric works on a pun between the dialect pronunciation of "Sicily" and "Cecilia", simultaneously naming the island, the saint, and the speaker's beloved.
Vidi Corcega e Serdenya E la isola de Medeya; No si a n ii Ho qui m'ensenya Cipra, Candid, la Money a; .1 )? xercato con la galeya La nov'isola de Castella; Mas Xixilia e tan to be I la, (Jiie pensando me confundi.
Ayo visto lo niappaniiiiido ..
I have seen Corsica and Sardinia
And Medea's island;
I've experienced them all --
Cyprus, Candia, and Morea;
In the galleys I have searched out
The new islands of Castile;
But Sicily is so beautiful
That my mind is a blank.
I have seen the world map ....
Viva el gran Re Don Fernando (On the Fall of Granada, 1492)
Viva el gran Re Don Fernando Con la Reyna Don Isabella Viva Spagna et la Castela. Pien de gloria triumphando.
La cita mahomectana Potentissima Granata
Da la fa ha fe pagan a E dissolta e Hberata. Per virtu et maun anna fa Del Fernando et Isabella 1 "rea Spagna et la Castela Pien de gloria triumphando.
Viva el gran Re Don Fernando Historia Baetica, Rome, 1493.
Long live the great King, Don Ferdinand, with the Queen, Lady Isabella! Long live Spain and Castile, triumphant, filled with glory!
The Mohammedan city, most mighty Granada, is free, released from the false pagan faith. Armed with the power and virtue of Ferdinand and Isabella! Long live Spain and Castile, triumphant, filled with glory!
Long live the great King, Don Ferdinand .
Pase el agoa, ma Julieta (Spanish villancico, 15th century)
Pase el agoa, ma Julieta dama, pase I agoa. I 'enite vous a moy.
.In me'n a nay en tin verge, tres roselas fui roller; ma Julioleta, dama, pase el agua. 'enite vous a moy.
Gross over the water, my lady Julieta, cross over the water. Gome to me.
I went to the garden
to gather three rosebuds.
My Julieta,
lady, cross over the water.
Come to me.
Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, 215: Cancionero Musical de Palacio.
II Evocations of Moorish Spain
The Conflict FRANCISCO DE LA TORRE (fl 14831504): Por los campos de los moros
Par los catnpos de los moros el rey don Fernando yva, Sns batallas ordenadas. jO qudn bien que panda!
Cancionero Musical de Palario.
Don Fernando went through the Moorish countryside, his battalions arrayed. O how fine he looked!
Francisco de la Torre: Pascua d'Espfritu Santo
(Romance on the conquest of Ronda by King Ferdinand the Catholic, 1485)
Pascua d'F.spiritu Santo, domingo, primero dia, a las cinco de la tarde cavalgd como soli'a.
Fue a mirar a Rronda como sola conbatia; A poco pieca de rrato mi mensajero veni'a,
como los moros de Rronda se le daban con pleytesia....
Cancionero Musical de Palado.
On the feast of the Holy Spirit,
Sunday, the first day,
at five in the afternoon --
as was his custom -he harnassed his horse.
He went to look at Ronda, still fighting alone. In a little while a messenger came,
[telling] how the Moors of Ronda presented their terms of surrender ....
MIGUEL DE FUENLLANA (d after 1568), after Cristobal de Morales: De Antequera sale el Moro (Romance on the fall of Antequera in 1410)
De Antequera sale el moro, de Antequera se so I (a, rartas llrcava en sn mano, cartas de mensageria;
esrritas iban con sangre mas no por falta de tint a. 1:1 moro que las llevaba ciento v veinte aiios habia.
El rex, que venir lo vido, a recibirlo sala ron trescientos de caballo la flor de la moreria:
-Dime, jqtte nuevas me traes de Antequera, esa mi villa -Yo te las dire, buen rey, si tii otorgas la vida.
The Moor leaves Antequera, from Antequera went the Moor; he carried letters in his hand, letters of petition,
written in blood -but not for want of ink. The Moor who carried them was 120 years old.
The king, who saw him coming, went out to meet him with three hundred horsemen, the flower of the Moorish nation.
"Tell me, what news do you bring me of Antequera, my town" "I will tell you, good king, if you spare my life.
Mas sepa tu real Alteza lo que ya saber debria, que esa villa de Anteguera en grande aprieto se via;
manjar que tus tnoros coman cueros de vaca cocida; bum rey, si no la soccores muy presto se perden'a. --
El rey, ruaiido esto oyera, de pesar se ainorterfa; haciendo gran sentitniento mm has Idgrimas zrrtfa;
rasgaba sus vestiduras con gran dolor que teni'a, ninguno lo consolaba porque no lo perm it fa ....
But know, your royal highness, what you should have already known: that Antequera is in great danger;
for food your Moors eat boiled steer hide;
good king, if you do not send help very soon it will be lost."
The king, when he heard this, swooned in grief; in great pain he shed many tears;
in his deep sorrow he tore his garments; no one consoled him, because he would not allow it ....
Miguel dc Fuenllana, Orpienira Lyra. Seville, 1554.
The Fall of Granada JllAN DEL ENCINA (1486c1530): Levanta, Pascual (Villancico, cl492)
Levanta, fascual, levanta, aballetnos a Granada,
que se suena qu 'es tomada.
Levanta toste, priado, tona tti pent) i (irron, tu gamarra y gamarrdn, tits albogues y cayado. I amos ver el gasajado d'aquella (dad nombrada, que se suena qu 'es tomada.
-Cuenta, cuintatne las nuevas, (pc yo estoy muy gasajoso,
mas no tonare reposo lasta llegar do me llevas. jChapado zagal apruevas! Dios nos de buena Jornada, que se suena qu 'es tomada. --
Por venrer eon tal vtoria los reyes nuesfros senores, demos gracias y loons al eterno Rey de Gloria, que jamas quedri menoia de reyes tan acabada: que se suena qu 'es tomada.
-Levanta, Pascual, levanta ....
"Get up, Pascual, get up, let's go to Granada, which they say is taken.
Get up quickly,
take your dog and your knapsack,
your suit and coat,
your pipes and walking staff.
Let's see what has happened
in that renowned city,
which they say is taken."
"Tell me, tell me the news,
I am anxious to know,
I will not rest
until we arrive.
Let's go!
God grant us a good journey,
they say it is taken."
For the great victory of the kings, our lords, we give thanks, and praise to the eternal King of Glory, who was ever remembered by the kings of long ago: they say it is taken.
"Get up, Pasqual, get up ...."
Music: Cancionero Musical de Palacio. Text: Cancionero de las obras de Juan del Enzina, Salamanca, 1496.
ANONYMOUS DIEGO FERNANDEZ: Tres moricas m'enamoran (Villancico)
Tres moricas m 'enamoran en Jae'i, Axa i Fdtima y Merien.
Di'xeles, -jQuien sois, seioras, De mi vida rrabadoras
-Cristianas qu'iramos moras de Jaen,
Axa i Fdtima y Mcr'u'n.
-Yo vosjuro all Alcoran, en tiiicn, senoras, creeis, que la him i todas tres
m 'aveis puesto en grande afdn; do mis ojos penerdn, pues tal veren
Axa v Fdtima y Merien.
Three Moorish girls have made me fall in love in Jaen: Axa, Fatima, and Merien.
I said to them, "Who are you, ladies, that have robbed me of my life" "We are Christians who were Moors
in Jaen,
Axa, Fatima, and Merien."
"I swear by the Koran in which, ladies, you believe, that one and all three of you have caused me great anxiety; where can my sorrowful eyes see at last
Axa, Fatima, and Merien"
Music: Cancionero Musical de Palacio, No. 24; text: CMP, No. 25.
JUAN DEL ENCINA: Una sanosa porfia (Romance, 1490)
Una saiiosa porffa
sin irntiira va pujando.
Ya nunca tuve alegn'a,
ya mi ma se va ordenando.
Ya fortuna disponia quitar mi prospero mando, qu 'el bravo leon d'Espana mal me viene amenazando.
Su 'spantosa artilleria, los adarves derribando, mis villas i mis castillos, mis alidades va ganando.
La tierra y el mar gentian, que viene senoreando, sus pendones y estandartes V banderas levantaudo.
Su may gran rabalen'a, liela, viene rrelunbrando; sus huestes i peonaje all aire viene turbando.
Correme la moreria, los campos viene talando, mis rompanas i ratidillos viene venfiendo i matando;
las mezquitas de Maioma, en iglesias consagrando; las moras leva rativas, con alaridos llorando.
26
A furious, doomed
conflict grinds on.
Joy I never had,
and now my sad fate is ordained.
Fortune decrees to take away my happy rule, for the brave lion of Spain comes to menace me.
His frightful artillery, demolishing the battlements -my towns and my castles, my cities are taken.
The earth and the sea groan; he comes to rule, his banners and standards and flags held high.
His great cavalry, alas, comes shining, his army and multitude stir up the air.
The Moors flee, the fields are laid waste; my companies and commanders are conquered and slain.
The mosques of Mohammed are converted to churches, the Moorish women taken captive with shouts and crying.
Al fieo dan a pel lido: -jViva'I Rey [Don] Fernando, jviva la muy gran leona, afa reyna prosperandol --
Una generosa Virgen esfiierfo les viene dan do. I 'n fatnoso cavallero delante viene bolando,
con mill cruz Colorado y un'espada mlumbrando, d'un rico ntanto vestido, tod a la gente guiando.
Candonero Musical de Palacio.
To heaven they call his name: "Long live King Ferdinand! Long live the great lioness, royal exalted Queen [Isabella]."
A noble Virgin gives them strength; a famous knight [St. James] comes flying in front
with a red cross and a shining sword, dressed in a rich mantle, leading all the people.
JUAN DEL ENCINA: iQu'es de ti, desconsolado
fi (Ju 'es de ti, desconsolado
jQu 'es de ti, rey de Granada jQu'es de tu tierra
i tiis moms jDdide tienes tu morada
Cancionero Musical de Paario.
What has hefallen you, sorrowful one What has befallen you, king of Granada What has become of your land
and your Moors Where is your home
ArabAndalusian Music B'tayhi -M'saddar (Mode: Az'zaidan)
III Music & Musicians at the Courts of Ferdinand and Isabella
PEDRO DE ESCOBAR (cl465after 1535): Glamabat autem mulier Gananea (Motet)
Clamabat autem mulier Cananea ad Dominum Jesum, dicens: Domine Jesu Christe, fili David, adjuvants;
fili a mea male a daetnonio vexatur. Respotidens ei, Domiius dish: Non sum missus nisi ad oves (juae perierunt damns Israel. At ilia venit et adoravit eum, dicens: Domine, adjuvame. Respondens Jesus, ait ilia: Mulier, magna est fides tua; fiat tibi sicut vis.
Text after Matthew XV: 2228.
Seville, Biblioteca Colombina, Ms. 5520.
And there cried out then a woman of Canaan to the Lord Jesus, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, thou son of David,
have mercy on me;
My daughter is sore beset with a demon. Answering her, the Lord said: I am not sent but unto the sheep who have strayed from the house of Israel. Then she came and worshipped him, saying: Lord, have mercy on me. Answering, Jesus said to her: O woman, great is thy faith; be it done unto thee as thou wilt.
JOHANNES URREDA ifl late 15th century): Nunca fue pena mayor (Villancico)
Nunca fui pena mayor nin tormento tan estrano, iiic iguale con el dolor que rescibo del engano.
Y este conodtniento haze mis dias tan tristes, en pensar el pensatniento que par mores me distes; me haze aver par tnejor la muerte, y por menor dano, Qu 'el tormento y el dolor Que rescibo del engano.
Nunca fui pena mayor ....
Never was there greater pain nor stranger torment than the pain that I receive from this deceit.
And knowing this
makes my days so sad,
thinking of the
love you gave me.
Death would be better for me,
and less hurt,
than the pain that
I receive from this deceit.
Never was there greater pain .
Don Garcfa Alvarez of Toledo, the first Duke of Alba.
Seville, Biblioteca Colombina, Ms. 7128; Cancionero Musical de Paado; Ottaviano Petrucci, Hannonke musices odhecaton A. Venice, 1501.
ANONYMOUS: Ay santa Maria (Villancico)
jAy santa Maria, j aledme, Seflora, esperanto, mia!
Vos sois la que amo, vos sois la que quiero, vos sois la que llamo, vos sois la qu 'espero, vos soys el luzero rtya luz nos gui'a. jEsperanga mia!
Ay santa Maria .... Cancionero . Musical de Palacio.
Ay, Santa Maria, protect me, Senora, my hope!
You are the one I love,
you are the one I cherish.
You are the one I call;
you are the one for whom I wait,
you are the star
whose light guides us,
my hope!
Ay, Santa Maria ....
ALONSO MUDARRA (c15101580): Fantasia en la manera de Ludovico Alonso Mudarra, Ires libros de tnusica en cifraspara vihuela. Seville, 1546.
Francisco de la Torre: La Alta ("La Spagna")
Caiicionero Musical de Palac'w.
JUAN DEL ENCINA: Oy comamos y bebamos (Villancico for Mardi Gras)
Oy comamos y bebamos y cantemos y hoguemos,
que manana ayunaremos. --
-Por onrra de sant Antruejo partmonos oy bien anchos, enbutamos estos panchos, rrecalquetnos el pelejo,
que costumbr'es de congejo que todos oy nos hartemos, que manana ayunaremos.
-Beve, Bras; mas n't, Beneyto; beva Pidruelo y Llorente.
-Beve tu primeratnente,
quitamos has deste preito.
-En beber bien me deleyto; Data. data, beberemos,
Que manana ayunaremos.
-Oy comamos y bebamos .... Cancionero Musical de Palacio.
"Today let's eat and drink, let's sing and sport, for tomorrow we fast!"
"In honor of St. Carnival let's feel proud, let's stuff our stomachs until our skin stretches. Wise custom decrees that we gorge ourselves, for tomorrow we fast!"
"Drink up, Bras; and you, Beneyto! Drink, Pidruelo, and you, Sadface!" "Drink now, quickly, let's get rid of this gloom." "Drinking is my delight, here now we swill, for tomorrow we fast!"
"Today let's eat and drink ...."
Intermission
Part Two -Legacies
IV Spanish Church Music in the Old and New Worlds
MARTfN DE RiVAFRECHA {d 1528): Salve regina (Antiphon)
Salve regitia, mater misericordiae: 1 ita dulcedo et spes nostra, salve. Ad re clamamus, exsuks,
filii Hevae.
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in har lacrimarum valle. Eia ergo, advocata nostra, illos tnos misericordes oculos ad nos convene.
Et Jesum, benediction fnictum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende. 0 clemens: 0 pia: 0 diiIds Virgo semper Maria.
Seville, Biblioteca Colombina, Ms. 5520.
Hail thee, Queen, O mother of mercy: our life, our sweetness, our hope, oh hail. To thee do we cry, we banished
children of Eve.
To thee do we sigh, moaning and weeping in this valley of tears. Therefore, thou our counsel, those thine eyes of mercy upon us turn.
And Jesus, blessed fruit of thy womb, to us at exile's end reveal. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
FRANCISCO GUERRERO (15281599): Ave virgo sanctissima (Motet)
Ave virgo sanctissima, Dei mater piissima, marts stella clarissima; salve semper gloriosa, margarita pretiosa, sicut Mliit m formosa, nitens olens velut rosa.
Hail, O Virgin, holy maid,
God his mother mild thee made,
star of sea, fair bright arrayed;
glory ever magnifies
thee, pearl of greatest prize;
thou where lily beauty lies
dost like the rose all fragrant rise.
Liber primus missarum Francisco Guerrero. Paris, 1566.
TOMAS LUIS DE VICTORIA (15481611): Salve regina
Tomas Luis de Victoria, Motecta. Venice, 1572. For text, see Rivafrccha, Salve regina, above.
V Exodus and Diaspora: JudeoSpanish Songs
El paso del Mar Rojo ("Crossing the Red Sea")
Cuando el puevlo de Yisrael d yifio salieron cantando, con hijos y ion mujeres, sir si rim ivan cantando.
Uiios llevavan la lena , otros llevavan el amasado; los hombres a la criaturns, de los brazos y de las manos.
Las mujeres llevavan el oro, qiie es la cosa mas liviano. Voltd la cara Most', por ver cudnto ivan pasado.
Vido veiiir a Paro
con un pendon Colorado.
-jAnde mos truxites, Mose, a morir en estos campos;
d morir sin suboltura
0 en la mar ahogados
-No vos espantex, judios, ni seas despazenciados.
Haze oracion a El, yo hare por el otro ado. Tantas fueron las oraciones, que subieron al el Dio de alto.
1 'a kol solid de los cielos
a Mose lo ivan llamando.
-Ven aquitii, mi hi jo Mose, liazme este emandado.
Tom a esta vara, Mose, toma esta vard en tu mono. Parte la mar por doje caminos.
y qiiita a tu puevlo a sdlvo.
Los judios iban pasando, los misrim se iban ahogando. ,'o quedd ma's que Paro, de la garanta encolgado.
Que miremos sus maravilas, que mos haze el Dio de ato. El es uno v no sigundo; el es Patron de todo el miindo.
When the people of Israel fled from Egypt singing, the women and the children left singing the Song of Songs.
Some carried wood for cooking, others carried dough for bread, the men carried the tiny children and led the youngsters by the hand.
The women carried the gold, which is the lightest load. Moses turned around to see how many were crossing.
He saw Pharoah pursuing them, waving a red flag.
"Where have you brought us, Moses, to die in these sands,
to die with no graves or to be drowned in the sea" "Do not be afraid, my people, do not despair.
Pray to the Lord, our God, and I will do the same." Such were the prayers they sent the Lord on high
that the voice of God called out to Moses: "Come here, Moses, my son, follow this command.
Take this rod, Moses, take this rod in your hand. Divide the waters in two paths and lead your people to safety."
The Jews crossed over and the Egyptians drowned, no one but Pharoah was left, engulfed up to his neck.
Let us remember the miracles of God on high. He is One, there is no other, he is Master of all the world.
Traditional ballad from the region of Marmara, Turkey.
Las hermanas reina y cautiva ("The Sisters, Queen and Captive")
Moricos, los mis mo tiros, los que para Frangia ihan. Ya se llevan una escalva
v a I ney se la traian ...
Pasa tiempo, viene tempo, la reuia queda prenada, v la esclava mejorada.
La reina pare una liija. v la escalva pare mi hijo. Las cotnadres eran agttdas, trocan las criaturas.
-A la liana y a la buba, se durma esta criatura. jSi tu eras la mi hija, que notnbre yo te mett'a
-Yo te nombrada Marqueta, notnbre de una liermana mi'a, una liermana regalada,
que es reina de Almeiia.
-I en aqui la tu mi escalva torna y canta esta cantiga;
a las seiias que tu dieras tu eres liermana mi'a.
Moors, oh Moors,
on their way to France,
carry a young girl slave
and bring her before the king ...
With the passage of time the queen conceived, as well as the slave girl.
The queen bore a daughter, the slave girl, a son. Both midwifes, being shrewd, exchange the babies.
"Hushaby, baby, hushaby, Let this child go to sleep. If you were my daughter, what name would I give thee"
"I would name you Marqueta, the name of one of my sisters, a dainty sister, who is queen of Almerfa."
"Come here, my dear slave, sing your song once again; by the signs you are giving me you are my lost sister!"
Traditional ballad from the region of Salonika.
El sueno de la hija ("The Daughter's Dream")
El rey de Francia tres hijas tenia. La una lavrava la otra aizfa.
La mas chica de ellas bastidor hazia. Lavrando, lavrando
siieiio le caia.
Su madre que la via aharvar la queria.
-No m 'aiave'x mi madre m m 'aharvariax.
('n sueno me sonava bien y alegria.
-Sueno vos sonavax yo vo lo soltarta.
The King of France had three daughters. One was embroidering, the other was sewing.
The youngest among them was embroidering on a frame. While embroidering she fell asleep.
When her mother saw her she wanted to slap her. "Don't slap me nor try to slap me.
I dreamt a good and happy dream." "Since you dreamt a dream, I will interpret it."
M'apart a la puerta vide la lima enter a.
M 'apart a la ventana, vide a la estrella Diana.
. 1 'apart al pozo, vide nh pilar de oro, con tres paxaricos picando el oro.
-La Imiii entera es la hi suegra. La estrella Diana es la tu Canada.
Los tres paxaricos son tus cunadicos
y el pilar de oro
el hijo del rey tu novio.
"I stood beside the door and saw the full moon. I stood beside the window and saw the morning star.
I stood beside the well and saw a pillar of gold, with three birds pecking at the gold."
"The full moon is your motherinlaw. The morning star is your sisterinlaw.
The three birds
are your brothersinlaw,
and the pillar of gold
the king's son, your bridegroom."
Traditional ballad (romance), region of Izmir, Turkey.
Ah, el novio no quere dinero
I Ah, el novio no quere dinero! Quere a la novia de mazal bueno.
Yo vengo a ver
que gozen v logren
v teigan muncho bien.
jAJi, el novio no quere durados! Quere a la novia de mazal alto. Yo ven go a ver...
jAi, el novio no quere manfIas! Quere a la novia cara de alegn'a. Yo ven go a ver...
Ay, el novio ya quere dinero! Tainbien a la novia de mazal bueno! Yo ven go a ver...
Ay, el novio ya quere durados! Tainbien a la novia de mazal alto. Yo ven go a ver...
Ay. el novio ya quere manillas! Tainbien a la novia cara de alegn'a. Yo vengo a ver...
Oh, the groom wants no money,
he wants only his bride of good fortune.
I have come to see
that they should be happy and prosper
and have all the best.
The groom wants no ducats, he wants only his bride of good luck. I have come to see ...
The groom wants no bracelets, he wants only his bride to have a happy face. I have come to see ...
The groom already wants money, and again he wants her with her good fortune. I have come to see ...
The groom already wants ducats, and again he wants her with her good luck. I have come to see ...
The groom already wants bracelets, and again he wants her with her happy face. I have come to see ....
Traditional wedding song.
En busca del padre ("The FatherQuest")
Camini por altas torres navigi por las fortunas;
o calif en tierras azenas onde no me conodan.
Onde no cantaban gallon ni menos amanesia, onde no braman leones ni la leona le respondfa.
g buscais, hijo del hombre que buscais por estas vinos -Busco yo al rey mi padre, la corona que el tena.
vez que tu lo bit seas, que senas por el dariasP
-Anos teni'a setenta, la barba blanca teni'a.
-A las senas que vos darias, el rey turco lo mataria.
A las senas que vos darias el rey turco lo mataria.
Esto que sintio su hijo graude lloro lloraria, Arazgose los sus paiios de sayo Itasta camiza.
I have passed high towers, navigated through storms; I landed on foreign shores, where no one knew me.
Where no cocks crow, nor where it ever dawned, where no lions roar, nor lionesses respond.
"What seekest thou, son of man,
what is your quest within these vineyards"
"I seek the king, my father,
and his royal crown."
"Since you are searching for him, how could you describe him" "He was seventy years old and had a white beard."
"By the description you give,
the Turkish king must have killed him.
By the description you give,
the Turkish king must have killed him."
Having heard this, he cried most bitterly. He rent his garments -from his cloak to his shirt.
Traditional romance, region of Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.
Morena me llaman
Moreno me llaman, blanca yo nan. De pasear ganado mi color pen.
Morena me llama el hi jo del rey. Si otra vez me llama, yo ron el me ire.
Popular song.
Morena (brunette) they call me. I was born fair. Looking after the flock, I lost my complexion.
The king's son calls me Morena. If he calls me again, I shall go with him.
Anonymous Italian songs translated by Robert M. Stein. Spanish translations by Michael Jaffee. Translations of the Latin church music by Kenneth C. Ritchie. El paso del Mar Rojo translated by Stella and Rina Benmayor, all other JudeoSpanish songs translated by Israel J. Katz.
Modern Editions of the Music Sources
In the following references, MME refers to Monumentos de la Musica Espahola (various editors). Barcelona, 1941
All selections from the Cannonero Musical de Palacio are edited by H. Angles in MME, vols. v (1947) and x (1952). Modern editions of the other selections are as follows:
I
A)o visto lo mappamundo: Text as given in A. W. Atlas, "Aggio visto lo mappamondo: A New Reconstruction," in Studies in Musical Sources and Style: Essays in Honor of Jan LaRue, ed. E. K. Wolf and E. Roesner. Madison, Wise, 1990, pp. 111112. Music reconstructed from the melody as given at the conclusion of the Gloria of Johannes Cornago's Missa Ayo visto lo mappamundi, ed. by R. L. Gerber in Johannes Cornago, Complete Works. Madison, Wise, 1984.
Viva el gran Re Don Fernando publ. in R. Stevenson, Spanish Music in the Age of Columbus. The Hague, 1960.
II
De Antequera sale el Moro: Miguel de Fuenllana, Orphenica lyra, ed. by C. Jacobs, Oxford, 1978. Full text of the romance in C. Colin Smith, ed., Spanish Ballads. London, 1964.
Ill
Escobar, Clamabat autem mulier Cananea, transcribed and edited for the Waverly Consort by Grayson Wagstaff, University of Texas at Austin.
Fourpart setting of Urreda's Nunca fue pena mayor in Hannonice musices odhecaton A, ed. H. Hewitt. Cambridge, Mass. 1942.
Mudarra, Fantasia en la manera de Ludovico, in MME, vii, ed. E. Pujol (1949).
IV
Rivafrecha, Salve regina, ed. by D. J. B. Elustiza and G. C. Hernandez in Siglo de Oro de la Musica liturgica de Espaiia. Barcelona, 1933.
Guerrero, Ave virgo sanctissima, in Opera Omnia, ii, ed. by J. M. L. Cistero. Barcelona, 1978.
Victoria, Salve regina, in Opera Omnia, ii, ed. F. Pedrell; rev. and augmented by H. Angles. Rome, 1965.
V
El paso del Mar Rojo: R. Benmayor, Romances judeoespanoles de Oriente, Madrid, 1979; and S. J. Armistead and J. H. Silverman, Tres calas en el romancero Sefardi, with musical transcriptions and study by I. J. Katz, Valencia, 1979.
Las hennanas reina y cautiva: S. J. Armistead and J. H. Silverman, En tonw el romancero Sefardi, with an ethnomusicological study by I. J. Katz, Madrid, 1982; and R. Benmayor, Romances judeoespanoles de Oriente, Madrid, 1979.
El sueiio de la hija and jAh, el novio no quere dinero!: I. Levy, Chants judeoespagnols, ii. Jerusalem, 1970.
En busca del padre and Morena me Hainan after the recorded performance sung by E. S. Abinun on Cancionessefardies, Archiv Produktion 198460. Hamburg, 1968.
Suggestions for Further Reading
Armistcad, Samuel G. and Joseph H. Silverman. Tres calas en el Romancero sefardf (Rodas, Jerusaltn, Estados Vnidos). Musical transcriptions and study by Israel J. Katz. Madrid, 1979.
. En torno al Romancero sefardi (Hispanismo y balcanimso de la
tradicidn judeoespaiiola). With an ethnomusicological study by Israel J. Katz. Madrid, 1982.
-, and Israel J. Katz. JudeoSpanish Traditional Ballads from Oral Tradition. I. Epic Ballads. BerkeleyLos Angeles, 1986. (Folk Literature of the Sephardic Jews, II).
Atlas, Allan V. Music at the Aragoncse Court of Naples. Cambridge, 1985.
Benmayor, Rina. Romancesjudeoespafwlesde Oriente: Nueva recoleccion. Musical transcriptions by Judith H. Mauleon. Madrid, 1979.
Chase, Gilbert. The Music of Spain. New York, 1941; rev. 1959.
Jacobs, Charles. "The Spanish Frontier Ballad: Historical, Literary, and Musical Associations," in The Musical Quarterly, I.Ylll4 (October, 1972), pp. 605621.
Katz, Israel J. JudeoSpanish Traditional Ballads from Jerusalem: An Ethno?musicological Study. 2 vols. Brooklyn, 1972.
Sadie, Stanley, ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London and Washington, D.C., 1980. Vol. 17: article on Spain. Also entries on individual composers, forms, and special topics.
Smith, C. Colin, ed. Spanish Ballads. London, 1964.
Stevenson, Robert. Spanish Cathedral Music in the Golden Age. Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1961.
. Spanish Music in the Age of Columbus. The Hague, I960.
Swain, Christopher, and Jack Sage. "Spain: c. 14501600," in A History of Western Music, vol. 1: Music from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, ed. F. W. Sternfeld. New York and London, 1973, pp. 381409.
We wish to express special thanks to Professor Robert Snow of the University of Texas at Austin for his generous assistance and consultation in the preparation of this program.
Selections from this program are available on an Angel RecordsEMI Classics compact disc.