1
Lars C. Rosager
Music 751 Ellison
May 21, 2013
«Identifying Humanism in Spanish Sacred Music from between 1450 and 1550»
Among diverse interpretations of humanism as one of Western Europe’s most
transformative cultural revolutions, it is generally agreed that all of the movement’s
aspirations for a secularization of philosophy were focused on the practicality of
knowledge and skills based on critical thinking. New educational systems were meant to
prepare people for service to their communities and to make their world a better place,
particularly through the use of language. Texts in classical or foreign languages, as well
as more recent vernacular writing, were fundamental in forming humanist consciousness,
which applied to most any field associated with the civil sphere. In Spain, the question of
humanism is somewhat different than in Italy, humanism’s country of origin; the German
speaking lands, where the revolutionary modes of thinking found much support; or
France, where critiques of Vatican authority were influential in the formation of new
moral systems. There is much debate about exactly when a Spanish humanist movement
took hold; what is more, music is mentioned infrequently in studies of humanism in
Spain. This paper will show that, though often related to music most directly by Italian
secular composition, humanism was well established in Spanish sacred music at the dawn
of the sixteenth century.
Humanists did not much concern themselves with the contemplative detachment
associated with scholastic philosophies of the late Middle Ages, such as St. Thomas
Aquinas’s elaboration on ancient writings, whose purpose was to prove the existence of
God through pure reason. He emphasized the perfection of eternity over the imperfection
2
of life on earth.1 That Spain held onto scholasticism and other less than revolutionary
philosophy for a relatively long time is common knowledge. How then could
conservative Spanish Catholic rulers and clerics during the Spanish Inquisition—one of
history’s cruelest periods of religious oppression—possibly have been involved in the
liberation of the individual intellect? Ferrán Martínez2, an extremist Spanish archdeacon,
incited a campaign against Judaism in the early fifteenth century with evil rhetoric in
blatant disregard for his superiors’ orders to be less hostile. Nicholas of Cusa3, an Italian
contemporary of Martínez, wrote beautiful prose on peace among different religions. To
consider the cultures these two men represented polar opposites is no controversy.
Though many clung to seemingly demoded ideas, progressive thought was not
completely absent in Spain during the Inquisition. Education, particularly in royal court
circles, embraced Italian methods, and literature was renewed. In search of supporting
evidence of a significant change in Spanish culture from what could be deemed Medieval
to Renaissance, scholars tend toward the study of languages and grammar. Productivity
and innovation in the arts and sciences are commonly recognized as great Renaissance
accomplishments, yet the art (and science) of music tends to be excluded by historians
who do cite or delve into other disciplines. The effects of liberal intellectual currents on
Ralph McInerny and John O’Callaghan, “Saint Thomas Aquinas,” The Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2010 Edition), Edward N. Zalta ed., accessed
February 10, 2013 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/#God.
1
2
Cecil Roth, The Spanish Inquisition (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996), 1721.
Jasper Hopkins, ed., Nicholas of Cusa’s De Pace Fidei and Cribratio Alleorami:
Translation and Analysis (Minneapolis, Minnesota: The Arthur J. Banning Press, 1994),
33-71.
3
3
church composers deserve further examination to support the idea of cultural rebirth in
Spain.
With resurging interest in classical texts at the close of the Middle Ages, a great
deal of work was done to reassess the precision with which modern Latin reproduced
older accentuation patterns. Pronunciation and metrics were revised, a project reinforced
by composition in both prose and verse. Language was not valued for its own sake, but
rather for the pragmatic application of learning. Though humanism, by nature a diverse
interweaving of disciplines and emphases encompassed by the studia humanitatis, should
not be gauged with terms too broad, the art of eloquence usually applies to all divisions
of the movement.4 Eloquence, along with rhetoric, was intended for the persuasion of the
public to act ethically and rationally, quite the opposite of abstract scholarship and
seclusion from civil life. In music, humanist traits are often inseparable from the
representation of literary meaning. Justifiably, improved audibility of text through
simplified musical textures and word painting receives much attention from modern
scholars. Though textual issues are not the only manifestations of humanism in music,
the present study would be incomplete without their being explored.
“Albrecht actually believes it is only for the period after 1450, and preferably for
the first half of the sixteenth century, that one may attempt to verify the influence of
humanistic thought upon music.”5 William Elders quotes Hans Albrecht, and continues
in support of the word as music’s primary link to humanism. Musical accents began to
Hanna H. Gray, “Renaissance Humanism: The Pursuit of Eloquence,” Journal of the
History of Ideas, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Oct. – Dec., 1963), 500.
4
Willem Elders, “Humanism and Early-Renaissance Music: The Ceremonial Music of
Ciconia and Dufay,” Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis
27, no. 2 (1977), 67.
5
4
follow spoken syllabification, and semantics were increasingly important in order to
convey texts clearly. Of course, to refer to Albrecht’s views on humanism in music
supports this essay in a chronological sense. However, there is evidence of humanistic
philosophy’s musical side dated before 1450.
On a less detailed level, and excluding actual musical notation, the future is
foreshadowed in a letter written in 1429 to Leonardo Giustinian, a statesman and poet
living in Venice. Ambrogio Traversari, an influential monk and theologian studied
nowadays in the context of Christian-humanist exchange6, writes to Giustinian on some
class issues of learning:
I have known for a long time that your agile and certainly golden mind has
succeeded also in those matters that, contrary to ancient [that is, more recent]
custom, are better known to common people than to scholars, such as the ability
to sing very sweet arias, [accompanying them] with sound.7
That musical ability was respected outside of the Church and the royal court is
relevant to the development of compositional practice involving components of rhetoric
and discourse, a style with which many aimed to communicate specific moods and
messages. Occasional music, or commissions for specific events, had much to do to with
humanism in music. No matter the proof one finds in notation, rest assured that ideas and
culture played into the development of music’s role away from artifice and toward
matters more commonplace.
Georgia Clarke, “Ambrogio Traversari: artistic adviser in early fifteenth-century
Florence?”, Renaissance Studies, 11: 161-178. doi: 10.1111/j.1477-4658.1997.tb00018.x.
6
7
Allan W. Atlas, Renaissance Studies (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998), 24.
5
Johannes Ciconia (ca. 1370-1412),8 recognized in his day as one of the most
talented musicians alive, was a composer of both sacred and secular works. Though he
was of Franco-Flemish origin, most of his success was had in Italy, where his portrayals
of drama through music brought him fame and recognition as a first rate artist.9 O rosa
bella is a famous example of Ciconia’s pictorial, text oriented style. At various points,
important words are emphasized by incipient imitation (see Appendix A numbers).
Repeated notes are effective in stressing the importance of certain passages (Appendix A
letters). O rosa bella also connects text and music by effective use of the rhythmic
modes and melismatic accentuations. The rhythmic modes, an older set of devices used
to align spoken accent with appropriate note values, are not dissimilar to the treatment of
accentuation issues in the more liberated Renaissance style. Although, whereas before
pieces would employ one main rhythmic figure for entire stanzas or even entire poems
according to the rhythmic modes, the new era embraced more variety and contrast.
On the word anima, the adherence to spoken accent is not as strict as it could be
(Appendix A measures twelve, fourteen, and sixteen). According to modern
pronunciation, the first syllable of anima should receive a slight stress, but the
accentuation rules may have been different at the time of this piece’s composition. What
appears to be a conflict of spoken and musical accent could be a poor editorial decision or
a scribe’s mistake. The Huelgas Ensemble with Paul van Nevel, on their album “Ciconia:
Giuliano Di Bacco, et al, “Ciconia, Johannes,” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music
Online. Oxford University Press, accessed May 20, 2013
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.opac.sfsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/40689.
8
9
Atlas, Renaissance … , 36-39.
6
the Complete Works,”10 do not replicate the accentuation found in Allan Atlas’s score
(featured in Appendix A). This recording seems to follow classical accentuation better
than Atlas’s edition.11
The correspondence of word-accent and long or short syllables has never been
simple. There is scholarly evidence to support Latin’s evolution from musical (agogic)
accent to word-accent (aspiratoric) during the post-Classical period:
Apart from this metric poetry, attempts had been made in the Middle Ages, from
time to time, to practice Latin quantitative poetry. In this poetry, not the wordaccent but the original long syllable, or syllables, of the word coincide with the
verse-ictus. (In Classical Latin, therefore, the word-accent does not have to be on
the long syllables.) From the technical point of view, this Medieval quantitative
poetry is but a weak reflection of Classical poetry. Not until after the rise of
humanism, which brought about a renewed interest in Classical Latin poetry, did
Italian poets again acquire the art of writing quantitative verse according to the
Classical model.12
Assigning accented syllables to long notes was not the only way to show semantic
concord between text and music. Greek poetic meter and scansion certainly relies
heavily on the actual length of time it takes to pronounce a syllable. Latin, though the
language experienced huge amounts of variation according to local dialects and the
revival of Classical linguistics, also counted on long and short vowels, but this practice
was in a state of flux. With renowned composers’ acceptance of more vernacular texts
and secular culture into their music, methods by which words were set to music
multiplied. No longer were the rhythmic modes the only accepted approach. Inclusion of
Johannes Ciconia, O rosa bella, “Ciconia: the Complete Works,” Huelgas Ensemble
and Paul van Nevel (World Premiere, 1997), track 5.
10
11
Allan W. Atlas, ed., Anthology of Renaissance Music (New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, 1998), 19.
12
Elders, “Humanism …”, 9.
7
symbolism and dramatic affect into music was characteristic of humanism’s emphasis on
the individual. Unlike dogmatic Medieval auctoritas, many Renaissance humanists
supported personal opinions and worldviews.13 Musical, literary, and even visual artwork
began to include more references to human forms, first of patrons and later of the artists
themselves.14 Instead of being satisfied with the status of servants, artists were ready to
test social boundaries. The most daring ones forged their own identities, and the
independently creative personality began to take shape.
No other composer of the period symbolizes individuality and expression better
than Josquin des Prez (ca 1450-1521).15 It is often said that Josquin would compose
when he felt like composing. He had many great contemporaries, but Josquin’s
personality and renown put him on a level all his own:
But the theorist who gave Josquin the greatest prominence was Glarean
(Dodecachordon, 1547), who referred to his music and that of “other superior
composers” of his generation as an “ars perfecta.” He praised Josquin’s music
above all, saying, “In this class of composers and great crowd of talented men, he
stands out most particularly in talent, conscientiousness, and industry,” and he
also noted that Josquin expressed more effectively than others the complete gamut
of human emotion, so that he could be compared to Virgil.16
Josquin is known for his frequent use of canon, among other polyphonic devices
established by previous generations of Franco-Flemish composers. Unlike many other
13
J. Peter Burkholder, Donald J. Grout, and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western
Music Seventh Edition (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006), 153.
Robert Ter Horst, “Ut pictura poesis: Self-Portrayal in the Plays of Juan del Enzina,”
Brave New Words: Studies in Spanish Golden Age Literature, Edward H. Friedman and
Catherine Larson, 1-18 (New Orleans: University Press of the South).
14
Patrick Macey, et al, “Josquin Des Prez,” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online.
Oxford University Press, accessed April 19, 2013 http://0www.oxfordmusiconline.com.opac.sfsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/14497.
16
8
composers of sacred polyphony though, Josquin was influenced by simple popular styles.
The frottola, a homophonic song form from Italy, had a strong effect on Josquin’s music.
This syllabic, chordally oriented music offered another outlet for catering to nuances of
text.
Josquin’s music circulated in regions of the Iberian Peninsula, but the question of
its presence there before 1550 remains a point of contention among researchers. Some
attributions have come under scrutiny, and matters related to Spanish composers’
techniques in comparison with those of Josquin lead one to believe that before 1550,
Josquin was not incredibly important.17 However true this may be, and the proposition is
indeed pertinent to tracking down of manuscripts and correcting of misattributions, the
link from Spain to Italy can be found well before 1500. The Franco-Flemish polyphonic
school, back to the first organa at Notre Dame, was central to the formation of a distinctly
Spanish sacred style, but Italian cultural influence was augmenting from the thirteenth
century on through the Renaissance.
Charles Verlinden explains the economic and political influences from Italian
territories:
In Castile the importance of the Genoese continually increases from the middle of
the century onwards. When Seville is taken by the Christians, in 1248, Genoa
immediately is granted far-reaching privileges. In 1251, King Ferdinand III
bestows on it a whole quarter with fondaco, chapel, oven, and bath.18
Kenneth Kreitner, “‘Ave festiva ferculis’ and Josquin’s Spanish Reputation,” Journal
of the Royal Music Association, Vol. 128, No. 1 (2003), 1-29, accessed February 26,
2013 http://www.jstor.org/stable/3557463.
17
Charles Verlinden, “Italian Influence in Iberian Colonization,” The Hispanic American
Historical Review, Vol. 33, No. 2 (May, 1953), 199-211 (Duke University Press),
accessed May 19, 2013 http://0-www.jstor.org.opac.sfsu.edu/stable/2509656.
18
9
In his article on conquest and imperialism, Verlinden unravels a complex
intertwining of Italian/Spanish/Portuguese/New World relations. Setting the stage for the
long-term exchange between Italy and Spain is a very intricate process with many
different paths to follow. For example, the similarities between vernacular modes of
speech and writing both east and west of the Mediterranean indicate linguistic
interactions well before the sixteenth century. Castilian dialects at the time contained
patterns that have disappeared from modern Spanish, but remain part of the Italian
tongue. The soldiers and poets Juan Boscán and Garcilaso de la Vega brought the Italian
sonnet to Spain during the first half of the sixteenth century.19 Sources point to a vibrant
interaction between Spain and Italy before the sixteenth century, though the lack of
manuscripts and documentation of musicians’ activity makes learning about earlier
events difficult. As the Spanish empire grew during the reign of the Catholic Kings,
Spain’s control over Naples facilitated the import of Italian humanist culture.
If Josquin was not hugely popular on the Iberian Peninsula until posthumous
fame, what was the Spanish style like at its inception? What were the pre-existent
musical traditions that gave rise to Spanish church music? It is generally agreed that
Spain (that is, the territories on the Iberian Peninsula known as “Las Españas”) counted
on popular melodies and folk music to provide a base for more learned styles. In this
respect, the Spanish were similar to the Italians. Also like Italian composers, Spaniards
adapted the Franco-Flemish contrapuntal tradition for theoretical guidelines and general
aspects of style. Donald J. Grout begins a definition of the nascent Spanish sacred style:
José Ruiz Mantilla, “Garcilaso de la Vega y Juan Boscán,” El País Online, April 10,
2005, accessed May 20, 2013
http://elpais.com/diario/2005/04/10/cultura/1113084007_850215.html.
19
10
“The principal genre in Spanish secular polyphony toward the end of the fifteenth century
was the villancico, which may be regarded as the Spanish analogue of the Italian
frottola.”20
Now, frottole were also composed to religious texts, in which case they were
called laude. As was mentioned before, frottole were usually set syllabically with an
emphasis on chordal style and rhythms that would emphasize spoken word-accents. So
the question remains: why was secular song in both the Italian and Spanish quatrocenti so
similar? Religious music in both regions drew liberally from these national idioms.
Also, both popular forms embody the traits that scholars usually identify as pertinent to a
musical application of humanism. But, as Vassiliki Koutsobina states in her doctoral
dissertation on Josquin and musical rhetoric, the point here is not that secular song was
syllabic as a result of humanists’ literary revival. However, newfound interests in
depicting textual meaning could have been united with a sociologically convenient source
in syllabic song. The music itself brought secular and sacred tradition together, but
humanist appreciation for individual perspective and value to the community narrowed
the gap as well. New teachings encountered support in popular idioms. Koutsobina
writes,
20
Donald J. Grout, A History of Western Music Third Edition (New York: W.W. Norton
& Company, 1980), 217.
11
… Scholars have already attributed the change from melismatic to predominantly
syllabic writing at the end of the fifteenth century to the humanistic concern with
the text, to which the music had to fit accordingly. In order for the meaning of the
text to be properly understood, melodies had to follow the rhythmic pace of the
poetic verse, in a note-to-syllable general framework. At the same time, the rise of
vernacular song, with its inherently syllabic melodies, may have equally
contributed to the shift towards syllabic declamation. The rise of the vernacular
lyric and the syllabic treatment of the melodies may thus be viewed as interrelated
phenomena, commonly traced to humanistic ideas.21
My suspicion is that, prior to heightened publishing activity in the fifteenth
century and Petrucci’s prints from 1501 onward, Italian and Spanish musicians shared
oral traditions. Researching and solving such mysteries would deserve years of work and
at least one reasonably thick book, but based on the conclusions drawn up to this point,
the case for assuming a significant humanist-style exchange prior to Petrucci’s
publications of Josquin’s music can be hypothesized with reasonable confidence.
Spanish sacred composers active at the end of the fifteenth century include
Francisco de Peñalosa, Juan de Anchieta, Alonso de Alba, Pedro de Escobar, and Martín
de Rivaflecha. Rivaflecha (d. 1528), though well respected during his lifetime, is not
often studied as closely as other composers of his generation. Rivaflecha’s style though,
as would be expected, is quintessentially Spanish, showing learned Northern traits as well
as more popular ones. Appendix B contains some defining attributes:
1. The movement begins with mostly syllabic homophony. Word-accent is paid
close attention to, much like in villancicos. Agogic accent is used, mostly
because aspiratoric accent would require a better defined tactus. The rhythm
of the opening section is quite free.
Vassiliki Koutsobina, “Musical Rhetoric in the Multi-Voiced Chansons of Josquin des
Prez and his Contemporaries (c. 1500 – c. 1520),” doctoral dissertation, University of
Cincinnati, 2008, 4-5, accessed May 01, 2013
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1211819570.
21
12
2. As in the Ciconia, there seems to be a possible exception to accentuation
rules. The second syllable of locutus receives the spoken accent, but, as was
mentioned previously, it is possible that agogic accent occurs on a different
syllable than the aspiratoric accent. In Rivaflecha’s defense, the cantus
emphasizes cu by assigning it to two different pitches. The bassus, tenor, and
altus answer the cantus, creating a repetitive effect. I noticed a discrepancy in
the considerably longer note value on tus.
3. The texture is reduced to a duet setting. Quaesivi, “I sought” and vocavi, “I
called” are set in imitation. The effect is that of somebody searching or
calling, the sound of following an echo. Here one sees an emotional treatment
of texts, an artistic quality for which Rivaflecha has been widely recognized.22
4. Though imitation is realized in all four voices, that which really gets
highlighted (after the duet passages) is the rhythm. Dancelike and with a
steady pulse, this more chordal and persistently consonant polyphony recalls
popular styles and foretells humanistic clarity of text.
5. Amore, “love,” is brought out with a lowered subfinalis. There is a Picardy
third effect in that the florid writing on “languishing” returns to the tenor, but
with an Ionian subfinalis. D, F§, and A wind about in syncopation and
staggered syllables to a cadence on the tenor of the mode (Ionian), a fitting
close for the last phrase, “I am languishing for love.”23
The text, an excerpt from the Songs of Solomon, possesses a more worldly
aesthetic than that of many other texts used in the Roman Catholic service. It is
this intimate, passionate tone that is intriguing when one considers mystic and
humanist cultures in Spain. The love of which the narrator tells sounds mundane,
but it must be a reference to God in some form. The fact that the lovers are
separated and suffering through being apart instills an interesting sense of sadness
in the listener. Anima mea might seem penitential, but it is different than texts
Martín de Rivaflecha, “Anima Mea,” The Spanish School for Four Voices, Anthony G.
Petti ed. (London: Chester Music, 1977), Editor’s Notes 44.
22
23
Rivaflecha, “Anima …”, 26.
13
about repentance or punishment for sins. Instead of feeling God’s wrath, the
narrator is actually removed from God, in exile from that which he or she loves
wholeheartedly, even lustfully. The text’s history is volatile, as Paula Higgins
explains in the context of Antoine Busnoys’s setting:
It is almost unthinkable that a composer like Busnoys, who manifests
virtually unrivaled sensitivity to the ludic aspects of medieval textuality,
would have turned a blind eye to the powerfully sensual texts of the Song
that made it the most controversial and most heavily glossed book of the
Bible in the Middle Ages; …24
Much later, Palestrina set the Songs of Solomon in a motet cycle. This
passionate music was a fearful reminder that tawdry madrigals could ruin a
church composer’s career forever. Douglas Dickson remarks,
He [Palestrina] makes clear, in his dedication to Pope Gregory XIII, that
even though the text may have a sacred significance, it demands, in his
view, treatment in a more passionate style than other texts of a sacred
character.25
Is Rivaflecha’s setting a stylistic anomaly? Would he have treated less
heart-wrenchingly intimate texts differently? Judging from his setting of Salve
Regina (Appendix C), homophony prevailed, word-accent was respected, and text
expression was plentiful. Composers, often educated people with interests in
various areas of learning, would likely have been exposed to the ideas put forth by
Italian humanists before a distinctly Spanish humanism flourished in artistic
Paula Higgins, “Love and Death in the Fifteenth Century Motet: A Reading of
Busnoys’s Anima mea liquefacta est/Stirps Jesse,” Hearing the motet: Essays on the
Motet of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Dolores Pesces ed. (Oxford University Press,
1998), 145-146.
24
Douglas Dickson, “Palestrina’s ‘Song of Solomon’,” Music and Letters, Vol. 18, No. 2
(April 1937), 150, accessed March 11, 2013 http://www.jstor.org/stable/728380.
25
14
disciplines other than music. For proponents of a later arrival of humanism in
Spain, the argument presented in this study may be audacious. Possible counterarguments to mine: much of Juan Boscán and Garcilaso de la Vega’s poetic work
was carried to fruition later in the sixteenth century. It is generally agreed that
humanism did not last in Spain; it was quelled by the Spanish Inquisition at the
beginning of the seventeenth century.
Oppositions to my reasoning, citing a less than humanistic treatment of
text in Spanish sacred music of the period in question, need not look any further
than Juan del Encina, known as the first Spanish playwright. He was a
multifaceted artist, and, on top of that, a daring promoter of his own work. Like
Diego de Velázquez shortly before him, Encina made his intentions clear: he
wanted to be recognized and fairly compensated for his work by the nobility.
Such aspirations led both of these men to include themselves in their art, a
practice begun by Italian visual artists not long before. Encina was the principal
composer of the Spanish villancico, a form that would influence national sacred
style well into the Baroque period. As shown before, Italy’s counterpart was the
frottola, which is known for its strong influence on the proliferation of humanist
philosophy in music. Once again, the Italian/Spanish dialogue can be speculated,
a recurring phenomenon tied to the gradual secularization of culture in both
regions.
Prior to 1500, an innovative Spanish theorist by the name of Bartolomé
Ramos de Pareja (fl. 1482) made many advances in tuning, pedagogy, and
concepts of ethos. He left the Guidonian hexachord system behind in favor of a
15
method he deemed more suitable to less experienced students, hence the humanist
emphasis on service and community development. His monochord experiments
paved the way for not only equal temperament, but also a more chromatic toneset
stemming in all likelihood from the Andalusian tradition of singing plainsong
with accidentals. A man with diverse interests, Ramos de Pareja incorporated
astrology and numerology into his theoretical writings, assigning ruling celestial
bodies to each of the eight modes along with a specific set of affectations. Other
Ancient Pagan references, such as those to Orpheus and Apollo in the vihuela
books, were popularized in the second half of the sixteenth century. The Iberian
Peninsula’s cultural diversity during the Middle Ages may have perpetuated a
certain open-mindedness that paved the way for the Italian and Spanish cultures to
complement each other. Ramos de Pareja did not entirely forego older habits.
For his many paradoxes between progress and conservatism, he is generally
remembered as an inquisitive man with a sharp mind and for being critical of
accepted customs.26
The purpose of this study has been first to follow in the footsteps of other
musicologists and music historians who have focused on fitting music to texts.
This union between sound and literature, the stock material in humanistic studies
on music, is not the only answer. After my argument in favor of including
humanism in the cultural life of fifteenth century Iberian musicians, my main goal
is to expand humanism’s identity. More than just a word-accent corresponding
with a melisma, or a syllabic text underlay for rhetorical effects, humanism in
26
Robert Murrell Stevenson, Spanish Music in the Age of Columbus (Westport,
Connecticut: Hyperion Press, 1979), 55-63.
16
music is a multidimensional entity. Subject matter of texts, composers and their
personalities, class boundaries, and the myriad possibilities of artistic
transculturation in the Spanish Renaissance can be masked by conservative
tendencies in the period’s music. Though it may at times be of little interest to
people more captivated by the glory of the Northern composers, the Spanish
Renaissance is historically very fertile and rich. By examining and expanding the
identity of humanism in the context of Spanish sacred music, Early Modern
Europe’s innovative philosophies are more thoroughly appreciated today.
If you are interested in taking a look at my annotations in the appendices,
please email me at lcr@larsrosager.com. Thank you.
Bibliography
1. Atlas, Allan W. Renaissance Music. New York: W.W. Norton & Company,
1998.
2. Burkholder, Peter J., Donald J. Grout, and Claude V. Palisca. A History of
Western Music Seventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006.
3. Ciconia, Johannes. O rosa bella. From “Ciconia: the Complete Works.” Huelgas
Ensemble and Paul van Nevel. World Premiere, 1997, track 5.
4. Clarke, Georgia. “Ambrogio Traversari: artistic advisor in early fifteenth-century
Florence?” In Renaissance Studies, 11: 161-178: Accessed March 15, 2013 doi:
10.1111/j.1477-4658.1997.tb00018.x.
5. Dickson, Douglas. “Palestrina’s Song of Solomon.” In Music and Letters 18, no.
2 (April, 1937): Accessed March 12, 2013 http://www.jstor.org/stable/728380.
6. Elders, Willem. “Humanism and Early-Renaissance Music: A Study of the
Ceremonial Music of Ciconia and Du Fay.” In Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor
17
Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis 27, no. 2 (1977): Accessed February 18, 2013
http://www.jstor.org/stable/938834.
7. Gray, Hanna H. “Renaissance Humanism: The Pursuit of Eloquence.” In Journal
of the History of Ideas, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Oct. – Dec., 1963), pp. 497-514.
University of Pennsylvania Press: Accessed February 6, 2013
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2707980.
8. Grout, Donald J. A History of Western Music Third Edition. New York: W.W.
Norton & Company, 1980.
9. Grout, Donald Jay and Claude Palisca. A History of Western Music (Third
Edition). New York: WW Norton & Company, 1980.
10. Higgins, Paula. “Love and Death in the Fifteenth Century Motet: A Reading of
Busnoys’s Anima mea liquefacta est/Stirps Jesse.” in Hearing the motet: Essays
on the Motet of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Edited by Dolores Pesces.
Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 142-169.
11. Edited by Hopkins, Jasper. Nicholas of Cusa’s De Pace Fidei and Cribratio
Alleorami: Translation and Analysis. Minneapolis, Minessota: The Arthur J.
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