Yale University Department of Music

Symposium on Seventeenth-Century Music Theory: Spain

Author(s): Almonte Howell
Source: Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 16, No. 1/2 (Spring - Winter, 1972), pp. 62-71
Published by: Duke University Press on behalf of the Yale University Department of
Music
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/843327
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 62

SYMPOSIUM ON

SEVENTEENTH-CENTU RY

There were times during the preparation of the present paper

when I wondered if I had not undertaken an impracticable task.
The difficulties of the assignment were twofold: first, the
problem of distinguishing a seventeenth-century Spanish theo-
ry from that of the preceding and following centuries; and sec-
ond, the scantiness of the documents upon which to base such
a theory. From the outset I was aware that to find a respect-
able amount of material it would be necessary to stretch a bit
the boundaries of the seventeenth century, and widen a bit the
*borders of Spain. I felt justified in beginning with the 1592
publication of Montanos' Arte de mfisica in consideration of
the fact that (in various revised forms) it had had at least five
editions through the seventeenth century, not to mention six
more in the eighteenth. Nor had I any intention of passing up
Cerone's mammoth El melopeo y maestro merely because it

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 b3

MUSIC THEORY:

SPAIN

ALMONTE HOWELL

was written by an Italian and published in Naples. Naples was,

after all, Spanish soil in 1613. More to the point, however,
were several other factors: that the work was written in Cas-
tilian, that it was addressed to Spanish readers, that it con-
tained a great deal of material from Bermudo, Sancta Maria,
and other leading theorists of Spain, and that it remained an
unimpeachable authority on the peninsula for the next two cen-
turies on every subject from the construction of puzzle canons
to the wise use of alcohol. At the opposite end of the time
span, there was justification for including the equally gargan-
tuan Escuela misica published 1723-24 by the blind organist
Nassarre, in view of his own statement that it had been in pro-
gress for 50 years, and the fact that he was already referring
to it in his smaller production of 1683, Fragmentos mdsicos.
There was, as a matter of fact, no need to be troubled that the

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 64
work might be considered more representative of a later era:
quite the contrary, for I am persuaded that Nassarre's attitude
toward the admission of dissonance would have struck Artusi

himself as needlessly niggling. Having stretched the seven-

teenth century down to 1724, I was thus able to take advantage
of the brisk flow of new publications that began in 1702 with
Torres' Reglas generales de acompafiar and marked a renewal
of activity that quite possibly reflected the more hopeful state
of mind experienced by Spain with the death of her last and
most degenerate Hapsburg monarch. But whatever qualms I
may have felt about including Montanos, Cerone, Torres, and
Nassarre in a survey of the theory of Spain in the seventeenth
century, I did set about my study with the assurance that I had
at least one monumental work that was impeccably Spanish and
unquestionably seventeenth century, Lorente's El porqu6 de la
misica of 1672, a work long cited with adulation by Spanish
musicologists as a model of learned yet sensible and down-to-
earth treatment of musical knowledge, and an important coun-
ter-influence to the delirious excesses of Cerone and Nassa-
rre. Well, my urge to abandon the entire subject of seven-
teenth-century Spanish theory came with a closer look at this
work, and the discovery that El porqu6 de la mdsica was to a
startling extent a product of scissors and paste; that much of
its musica speculativa complete with erudite references and
marginal notes, and a good deal of its musica practica as well
were cribbed word for word from the inexhaustible author of

El melopeo y maestro. It makes amusing reading now to re-

view the pages of those Spanish music historians who scoffed
so contemptuously at Cerone's barbarous Castilian yet failed
to recognize that same barbarous Castilian when they encoun-
tered it in the pages of Lorente. Montanos, Bermudo, and
Thomas de Sancta Maria also furnished Lorente with ample
material, but in the case of the latter two it was through a
kind of plagiarism once removed, for it may be doubted if
Lorente was acquainted directly with the works of either; the
Sancta Maria passages he took without acknowledgment from
Cerone (who gave Fray Thomas no credit for them either), and
the Bermudo passages he lifted from that arch plagiarist of all
time, Tapia Numantino, who in 1570 published Bermudo's en-
tire 1549 Declaraci6n de instrumentos under his own name
with a few trifling alterations and a new title.

Nevertheless, we can draw from the Lorente affair some broad

conclusions concerning the condition of seventeenth-century
Spain in general and her musical thought in particular. That

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 b5

virtually her sole large-scale publishing effort in music theo-

ry in the seventeenth century should have been confined to this
one book, hints of her ruinous economic state and the disasters
that beset her at home and abroad; that the author of that book
should have been restricted to a handful of commonplace
sources in his own tongue, and have been unable or unwilling
to frame any significant concepts of his own, tells us of the
degradation of learning and the sciences of his nation, and her
self-imposed insulation from foreign influences and novel
ideas; that descriptions of musical practices written 120 years
earlier were still useful to him, tells us of the petrified state
of the musical practices he was documenting; and that secular
music should have gone virtually unmentioned tells us of a
priest-ridden society, for many of whose citizens the church
was the only stable reality, not to mention the only source of
economic support. These are well-known assumptions about
the Spain of the seventeenth century; Lorente's El porqu6 de la
mdisica only serves to confirm them.

Is there any evidence at all of the recognition of new ideas and

practices, or the creation of new concepts in this body of the -
ory from Montanos to Nassarre? The answer is, very little.
The existence of figured bass is given one page in Lorente,
who contents himself with merely explaining what the numerals
mean. It is, as far as I am aware, entirely ignored in the 1000-
odd pages of Nassarre, which seems inexcusable in 17 24, though
one could perhaps have excused a blind man if he had passed
rather hastily over the methods of extemporizing from a con-
tinuo part. Only Torres in his Reglas de acompafiar addresses
himself to figured bass in any detail, but he confines his dis-
cussion to its application to music that was strictly Spanish
and strictly liturgical. Not until the second edition of 1736 (be -
yond even the generous boundaries we have set ourselves) does
he devote an additional section to Italian practices, succumb-
ing perhaps to the pressure of the Italian musicians by whom
he found himself surrounded at the Capilla Real. Affektenlehre
is represented chiefly through the age-old descriptions of the
affects of *the eight church modes; Nassarre expounds with
particular gusto not only on the moods and ethical tendencies
of the modes, but their relations to the heavenly bodies, the
earthly elements, and the bodily humors, all in a manner so
utterly removed from the musical realities of his time as to
suggest that he suffered from a deficiency of hearing as well
as of sight. Concerning the new forms of the seventeenth cen-
tury - the aria, the opera, the cantata, the sonata, the suite (and

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 66

we know these were being transplanted to Spanish soil), there

is a conspiracy of total silence among the theorists - almost
total, that is, for Nassarre does give voice to an occasional
diatribe against the use of the abominable theatrical style in
the music of divine worship. Equally ignored by the mainline
theorists is the one vital native musical development that ex-
erted influence abroad and inspired considerable publishing
activity at home, the development of the technique and litera-
ture of the guitar. It has not seemed practical to include the
guitar manuals in this study, though I have noted them at the
conclusion of the checklist. They reveal an aspect of music in
seventeenth-century Spain quite apart from that delineated by
the major theorists. Such neglect by the theorists, however, is
not the case where the literature and performance practices of
the Spanish organ are concerned. Here the accounts, especially
in Nassarre, are detailed, realistic, and up-to-date. Nassarre
actually asserts the superiority of the moderns over the ear-
lier practitioners in countering the opinions of others in his
time more conservative even than he. It is my personal feel-
ing, though, that Spanish organ music of the seventeenth cen-
tury was evolving along its own indigenous lines, in relative
isolation, neither affecting nor being affected by foreign prac-
tices; nor do the theorists themselves (other than Cerone)
reveal any awareness of developments abroad. One new im-
portation from abroad that did find its way into Spanish musi-
cal literature, however, is the concept of "supposition," so il-
luminatingly discussed by Dr. Albert Cohen in the Spring, 1971
issue of the Journal of the American Musicological Society.
First briefly mentioned by Lorente, it is eagerly welcomed by
Nassarre for its value in the rationalization of many sorts of
dissonance - for Nassarre shared with many of his Iberian
contemporaries an almost fanatical determination that no dis -
sonant combination could be admitted unless it could be fully
justified. That Nassarre should readily embrace the concept
of supposition is not surprising, for he can and does trace it
straight to the writings, in Latin translation, of el Fil6sofo
(Aristotle), his supreme authority on every topic from acous-
tics to music therapy. Some of the new time signatures are
beginning to receive notice by the theorists of the early eigh-
teenth century, despite the continuing dominance of the tradi-
tional Spanish proportional signatures. We find a brief section
in Nassarre recognizing the existence of such flighty and bi-
zarre tiempos as 2 and , though he insists on their propor
tional interpretation relative to the traditional tactus or "com-
pas." 8, he tells us, should be referred to as "proporci6n dupla

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 b7

superbiparciens tercia." One may see also a gradual shift in

the manner of classifying chords: Cerone and Lorente still
borrow Sancta Maria's beautifully worked out chord classifi-
cation (along with his text and examples), wherein chords are
primarily classed according to the intervals between their
outer notes, and secondarily according to their internal inter-
vals; Nassarre and his contemporaries, on the other hand, re-
veal a growing tendency to deal with all intervals in terms of
the bass. And finally, we are startled to note, amid the com-
plex mathematical jargon of Ulloa's Misica universal of 1717,
a work written by a professor of mathematics and rigidly di-
vorced from the world of musical practice, an unobtrusive
suggestion that all the modes might be reducible to major and
minor.

But far more striking than these occasional recognitions of

new practices, or shifts in terminology, or subtle alterations
of viewpoint - far more striking to the overviewer of Spanish
theory, I believe, will be its changelessness, the overwhelming
preponderance of features in which it remains unswervingly
attached to its past traditions. It appears, indeed, that one can
hardly speak of a seventeenth-century theory at all, but only of
seventeenth-century representatives of the single, unified body
of theory that extends from the earliest vernacular writings of
the fifteenth century until very nearly the end of the eighteenth,
when it gradually succumbed to more modern viewpoints.When
I first set out to acquaint myself with Spanish theory some
years ago at the Biblioteca nacional, I made the very lucky
choice of beginning with one of the small, concise, and neatly
arranged treatises from the later eighteenth century; and fol-
lowing this fortunate introduction, I found myself well equipped
to cope with most of the concepts and terminology present in
the whole corpus of Castilian musical writings, reaching right
back to Duran's Lux bella of 1492, the first Spanish printed
book on music. Throughout this body of material we find the
same definitions of music, taken from the ancients; the same
classifications (mundana, humana, instrumental; or arm6nica,
ritmica, m~trica); the same esthetic goals toward which music
should aim (the achievement of that armonia that results from
a variedad de consonancias); the same organization into canto
llano (plainsong), canto de 6rgano (mensural music), contra-
punto (cantus firmus counterpoint), composici6n (harmonic
combinations), and proporciones; the same hexachordal termi-
nology for naming the notes (A la mi re grave, etc.); the same
six-syllable solmization requiring mutations among the three

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propriedades (a little flurry of activity for a seven-syllable
system during the first half of the seventeenth century seems
to have expired by the time of Lorente); the same system of
eight modes transposable only within the limits of the three
sharps and two flats available in mean-tone tuning (only Cerone
and the sometimes venturesome organist Correa de Arauxo
deal with twelve modes; and nobody before Soler ventures to
suggest tuning systems in which, say, an E' could be used as
a D#); the same tactus (compds), with its variant forms of tw
equal hand motions for binary and two unequal hand motions
for ternary; the same classifications of consonance and disso-
nance, and the same rules for treating the latter; the same ca-
dence forms - the clusula remissa (that approached by the
whole step below) and sostenida (that approached by the half
step below). Even some of the same traditional controversies
recur through the course of these writings, and individual the -
orists dutifully record the previous arguments, and range
themselves on one side or the other, as, for example, the
never-ending battle over whether BP to B?, the semitonio i
cantable, was the greater or lesser semitone; or whether the
5th and 6th modes should be sung in the propriedad de bemol
or bequadrado (i.e., with B? or B0).

Yet there is a kind of majesty about this great body of change-

less material with its sonorous Castilian terminology and its
pious fidelity to age-old traditions. One begins to feel a cer-
tain real affection for it. It is a kind of vast, panoramic sym-
phony, unified by a few score Leitmotivs that reappear again
and again, undergoing some variation, elaboration, expansion,
or contraction, but never losing their identity. Yet all senti-
mentality aside, one is forced to confess that the later stages,
after the vitality of Bermudo and Sancta Maria and Salinas -
and perhaps Cerone too - represent mostly atrophy and stag-
nation. If they have been neglected in the Age of Scholarship,
one must remember that even musicologists like to "be where
the action is." Can one indeed justify on any other ground than
fond antiquarianism the study of most of the works we have
here assigned to the seventeenth century? Perhaps within lim-
its one can. In closing, I should like to suggest five areas in
which they offer us some measure of usefulness: (1) they faith-
fully reflect the condition of Spanish thought in the seventeenth
century; (2) they give us much vivid detail concerning the mu-
sico-liturgical practices of the church of their time; (3) they
afford reliable means for the study of Spanish baroque church
music, as this becomes available through modern editions; (4)

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 b9

they constitute detailed and realistic guides to the literature

and performance practices of the Spanish organ; (5) not least
among their values, and one that should not be overlooked by
students of Spanish Renaissance music, they afford much in-
valuable insight concerning the terminology, theory, and prac-
tice of that earlier and more vital era of Spain as a musical
nation, its siglo de oro.

A CHECKLIST OF SOURCES

A. General Theory Works, 1592-1724

Arellano, Joan Salvador de. El psalterio de David: exortaci6n, y virtudes de la

misica, y canto. Xerez de la Frontera: Fernando Rey, 1632.

Artufel, Fray Ddmaso. Arte de canto llano. Valladolid: Juan Godinez de Millis,
1614. (Last part of Modo de rezar las horas can6nicas conforme al rezo de
los frayles predicadores.)

Cerone, Pedro. El melopeo y maestro. Ndpoles: Juan Bautista Gargano y Lucrecio

Nucci, 1613.

Cervera, Juan Bautista. Arte y suma de canto llano. Valencia: Pedro Patricio Mey,
1595.

Correa de Arauxo, Francisco. Libro de tientos y discursos de mdsica pr4ctica, y

the6rica de 6rgano, intitulado Facultad orgAnica. Alcald de Henares: Antonio
Arnau, 1626.

Cruz Brocarte, Antonio de la. Medula de la mdsica the6rica. Salamanca: Eugenio

Antonio Garcia, 1707.

Guzmin, Jorge de. Curiosidades de cantollano, sacadas de las obras del Reverendo
Don Pedro Cerone de Bergamo, y de otros autores. Madrid: Imprenta de md-
sica, 1709.

Lorente, Andrds. El porqud de la mdsica. Alcald de Henares: Nicolds de Xamar

1672. (Reprinted 1699.)

Martin y Coll, Antonio. Arte de canto llano, y breve resumen de sus principales
reglas. Madrid: Viuda de Juan Garcia Infan4on, 1714. (Second edition en-
larged, 1719, reprinted 1729.)

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 70

Monserrate, Andrds de. Arte breve y compendiosa de las dificultades que se ofre-
cen en la mdsica prdctica del canto llano. Valencia: Pedro Patricio Mey,
1614.

Montanos, Francisco de. Arte de canto llano con entonaciones comunes de coro y
altar. Salamanca: Francisco de Cea Tdfa, 1610. (Reprinted 1625. In revision
by SebastiAn L6pez de Velasco reprinted 1648, 1670, 1693, 1756.)

Montanos, Francisco de. Arte de mdsica the6rica y prictica. Valladolid: Diego

Fernandez de C6rdova y Obiedo, 1592.

Montanos, Francisco de, and Joseph de Torres. Arte de canto llano . .. y . . . Arte
pr4ctico de canto de 6rgano. Madrid: Imprenta de mdsica, 1705. (Reprinted
1712, 1728, 1734, 1784 with various additions.)

Nassarre, Pablo. Escuela mdsica segin la prdctica moderna. 2 vols. Vol. I: Zara-
goza: Herederos de Diego de Larumbe, 1724. Vol. II: Zaragoza: Herederos de
Manuel RomAn, 1723.

Nassarre, Pablo. Fragmentos mdsicos. Zaragoza: Tomds Gaspar Martinez, 1683.

(Second edition enlarged, Madrid: Imprenta de mdsica, 1700.)

Ruiz de Robledo, Juan. Laura de mdsica eclesiastica: nobleza y antiquedad de esta

sciencia. Manuscript, Madrid, 1644. (Original in Escorial, copy in Biblioteca
nacional de Madrid, M. 1287.)

Torres, Joseph de. Reglas generales de acompafiar, en 6rgano, clavicordio y harpa.

Madrid: Imprenta de misica, 1702. (Second edition enlarged, 1736.)

Ulloa, Pedro de. Mdsica universal, 8 principios universales de la mdsica. Madrid:

Imprenta de mdsica por Bernardo Peralta, 1717.

Villegas, Sebastidn Vicente. Suma de todo lo que contiene el arte de canto llano.
Sevilla, 1604.

Anonymous:

Arte de cantollano. Alcald de Henares: Viuda de Ramirez, 1598.

Arte de cantollano, 6rgano, y cifra. Madrid: Imprenta real, 1649.

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 71

B. Guitar, harp, and dance manuals, 1597-1714

Amat, Juan Carlos. Guitarra y vandola en dos maneras de guitarra castellana, y

cathalana de cinco ordenes. Barcelona, ?1597. (Numerous editions in various
cities down to about 1800. Earliest extant edition: L&rida: Mauricio Anglada,
1626.)

Bricefio (or Brizefio), Luis de. MWtodo mui facilissimo aprender a tafier la guitarra
a lo espafiol. Paris: Ballard, 1626.

Doizi de Velasco, Nicolao. Nuevo modo de cifra para tafier la guitarra. Ndpoles:
Egidio Longo, 1640.

Esquival Navarro, Juan de. Discursos sobre el arte del danqado. Sevilla: Juan
G6mezde Blas, 1642.

FernAndez de Huete, Diego. Compendio numeroso de zifras arm6nicas, con the6-

rica, y prictica, para harpa de una orden, de dos ordenes, y de 6rgano. Two
vols. Madrid: Imprenta de mdisica, 1702 (I), 1704 (II).

Guerau, Francisco. Poema harm6nico, compuesto de varias cifras por el temple

de la guitarra espafiola. Madrid: Manuel Ruiz de Murga, 1694.

Guerrero, Joseph. Arte de la guitarra. Manuscript, 17th century, no date or place.

(Biblioteca nacional de Madrid, Mss 5917.)

Jaque, Juan Antonio. El libro de danzar. Manuscript, late 17th century, no date or
place. (Biblioteca nacional de Madrid, Mss 14059/15 and Mss 18580/5. Printed
by Subirg in Anuario musical, V (1950), 190 -198.)

Murcia, Santiago de. Resumen de acompafiar la parte con la guitarra. 1714, place
and publisher not given.

Ruiz de Ribayaz, Lucas. Lup y norte musical para caminar por las cifras de la
guitarra espafiola, y arpa. Madrid: Melchor Alvarez, 1677.

Sanz, Gaspar. Instrucci6n de midsica sobre la guitarra espaiiola. Zaragoza: Here-

deros de Diego Dormer, 1674. (Later editions 1697, 1777.)

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