Spain (Sp.

Reino de España)

Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

Robert Stevenson, Louise K. Stein, Albert Recasens, Belen Perez Castillo, Josep i Martí i Perez, Martin Cunningham,
Ramón Pelinski, Jaume Aiats, Sílvia Martínez García, and Arcadio de Larrea Palacín, revised by Maricarmen Gómez

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40115
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001

Country in Europe. Its territory covers an area of 504,750 km², comprising most of the Iberian peninsula,
the Canary and Balearic Islands and the towns of Ceuta and Melilla on the North African coast. It shares
borders with Portugal to the west, and France and Andorra to the north. Its population of approximately
39·8 million (2000 estimate) is distributed among 17 autonomous regions, many of which preserve a
strong sense of regional identity. Although Castilian is the official language of Spain, other languages are
also recognized in some of the regions, for example, Catalan in Catalonia (Catalunya), Valencia and the
Balearic Islands, and Gallego in Galicia. In addition, the Basque language is spoken in the Basque country
(Euskadi) and parts of Navarre. (For a discussion of the musical traditions of the Basque people see Basque
music.)

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Map of the regions of Spain

Christianity was introduced to the Iberian peninsula during the 3rd century and Catholicism officially
accepted by the Visigothic rulers at the end of the 6th (see Mozarabic chant). However, in 711 the invasion
by Muslims from North Africa led to the establishment of Islam throughout almost the entire peninsula.
During the following centuries the Christians gradually reconquered Spain, and the last Muslim territory,
Granada, was finally conquered by the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in
1492. (For further discussion of the music of Muslim Spain see Arab music.) Under Muslim rule, the Jews of
Spain (known as Sephardim) flourished, being relieved of the persecution they suffered under the
Catholics, but when Granada was reconquered they were expelled from the peninsula or forced to convert
to Christianity. (For an account of their distinct musical traditions see Jewish music.)

With the accession in 1516 of Charles I, also Holy Roman Emperor, Spain was ruled by a branch of the
Habsburg family, a dynasty that remained in power throughout the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
Charles's son, Philip II, established the capital at Madrid in 1561. In 1700 the accession of Philip V led to the

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establishment of the Bourbon dynasty, whose descendants reign today. Spain briefly became a republic in
1874–5 and again between 1931 and 1936. The Spanish Civil War (1936–9) led to the regime of General
Franco, which ended with his death in 1975 and the formal restoration of the monarchy.

I. Art music

1. Early history.
The writings of Isidore of Seville (c559–636) are the chief source of information on the music of the early
Spanish Church; his Etymologiae and De officiis ecclesiasticis contain descriptions of the Mass and Office that
are similar to those found in the later service books of the Spanish Church. The former work also contains a
chapter on the discipline of music, based largely on the work of Cassiodorus, that subsequently became one
of the most important and widely disseminated texts on music theory during the early Middle Ages.

As Archbishop of Seville, Isidore presided over the Fourth Council of Toledo in 633 which established a
single order of prayer and singing throughout the Visigothic kingdom. Although no notation survives from
this period, the earliest extant neumes being an Aquitanian source from the 11th century, the body of chant
used by the Visigothic Church was no less extensive than that of the Gregorian. At least seven bishops are
supposed to have contributed chants to the repertory of the Visigothic Church: Isidore’s elder brother
Leander (d 599) of Seville; Eugenius (d 657), Ildephonsus (d 667) and Julian (d 690) of Toledo; Conantius
(d 639) of Palencia; and Johannes (d 631) and Braulio (d 651) of Zaragoza, the latter Isidore’s favourite
pupil. This rite continued to be observed by Spanish Christians until Toledo was reconquered from the
Muslims in the late 11th century; its music is generally known as Mozarabic chant. In 1080 the Council of
Burgos imposed the Roman rite on the Spanish Church as a whole (it had been introduced into Catalonia
three centuries earlier), although a few parishes in Toledo continued in their ancient observance.

The Muslim invasion of 711 brought a host of new instruments to the peninsula such as the duff (Sp. adufe:
a square tambourine), shabbāba (Sp. ajabeba, exabeba: a transverse flute), būq (Sp. albogón: a cylindrical
instrument made of metal with reed mouthpiece and seven finger-holes), nafīr (Sp. añafil: a straight
trumpet 120 cm or more in length), tabl (Sp. atabal: drum), qānūn (Sp. canón: a psaltery), bandair (Sp.
panderete: tambourine) and sunuj al-sufr (Sp. sonajas de azófar: metal castanets). The naqqāra (nakers, a
small kettledrum of wood or metal), ‘ūd (lute) and rabāb (rebec) spread throughout Europe. Just as
Córdoba was the Spanish seat of Arabic learning, Seville became the centre of Moorish instrument making.
Zaragoza was another centre of activity, even after the fall of Granada in 1492. In 1502 Mahoma Mofferriz
was still supplying exquisite keyboard instruments to high-born Christian clients as far away as Plasencia.
(See also Arab music, §I, 4, (ii).)

The Christian courts of Sancho IV of Castile (ruled 1284–95), Pedro III of Aragon (1276–85) and Alfonso IV
(1327–36) occasionally engaged Moorish players of the añafil, exabeba, psaltery and rebec, together with
dancers. From Xátiva, a centre of Moorish minstrelsy, Pedro IV of Aragon (1336–87) summoned Ali Eziqua
and Çahat Mascum, his favourite players of the rebec and exabeba in 1337–8. The Valladolid Council of 1322

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forbade further hiring of Moorish musicians to enliven Christian vigils or any more tumult caused by their
presence at Christian feasts. This edict is the more interesting because (as Don Quixote well knew when
reproving Master Peter for his bells) the mosques did not allow music.

The Muslims not only introduced instruments whose names still bear traces of their Arab origin, but also
brought with them musical treatises which were translated from Arabic into Latin at Toledo and thence
disseminated northwards (see Arab music, §I, 3, (iv)). Al-Fārābī (d 950) in particular came to be quoted by
numerous theorists from Vincent de Beauvais, Hieronymus de Moravia and Magister Lambertus in the 13th
century, to Gregor Reisch and Juan Bermudo. Some scholars have seen a relationship between a form of
Moorish poetry, the zajal, and the 15th-century Spanish villancico. Literary evidence also suggests that the
Moors of Granada (conquered in 1492) were the first to use letters of the alphabet to denote finger-
position on the guitar. Because a sole miniature at El Escorial (E-E B.I.2) depicts a Moorish player in the
train of Alfonso el Sabio (Alfonso X; 1252–84) of Castile and because it was at his court (1252–85) that the
principal surviving collection of medieval Spanish monody was compiled (see Cantiga), it has been
supposed that some of the cantigas of Alfonso echo lost Moorish songs – a highly improbable hypothesis.

Three principal sources of medieval polyphony survive in Spain. The 12th-century Calixtine Manuscript (
E-SC) contains 21 conductus with Latin text; the early 14th-century Las Huelgas Manuscript (in BUlh)
includes 195 compositions, of which 140 are polyphonic. Neither manuscript represents a specifically
Spanish repertory, although the latter is still at its place of origin, a convent for Cistercian nuns founded
about 1180. The 14th-century Llibre Vermell (in MO) includes four monophonic songs as well as six pieces of
polyphony. At least four of these are dance-songs.

2. Renaissance.
Robert Stevenson, revised by Maricarmen Gómez

The major forms of Spanish Renaissance secular composition are the Romance and the Villancico. The
Renaissance romance was primarily a literary type. It always told some story, often drawn from the legends
of border wars with the Moors. In the chief secular song collection gathered during the epoch of Columbus,
the Cancionero Musical de Palacio (E-Mp 1335), the original indexer (c1525) classed 44 items as romances,
393 as villancicos (of the secular type) and 29 as sacred villancicos (villançicos omnium sanctorum). This
pioneer indexer called everything in Spanish with a prefatory refrain a villançico; he also gave this name to
a Spanish song if any individual section in it, not necessarily the first, was repeated, and, in some cases,
even to songs that lacked internal repetition. As used in the 16th century about 1525, villançico therefore
meant any Spanish song that was not a romance.

Juan del Encina, the most frequently represented composer in the collection, came naturally by his gift for
the folk elements in his phrases and melodies. The son of a Salamancan cobbler, Encina served Don
Fadrique de Toledo, Duke of Alva, from 1492 to 1498, and his song output during this period forms the core
of the secular repertory surviving from the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella. He entertained the ducal
family during at least five of these years with poetic compliments, amorous accompanied solo songs and
eglogas (short plays) into which he invariably introduced partsongs for three and four voices. Whether
designed for characters to sing in one of his eglogas or for independent performance, the Encina villancico

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comments on an existing dramatic situation that has already been defined by the dialogue. Much of the
charm of Encina’s villancicos is due to their immediacy: the scene having already been set, the song need
be no more than a purely emotional outburst. Much as one may regret his ceasing to compose his bold and
lusty villancicos after leaving the Duke of Alva, they belong in the quiver of a hot-blooded youth but not in
that of the staid ecclesiastic that he was to become.

The Cancionero Musical de Palacio also includes works by Anchieta, Peñalosa, Francisco de la Torre,
Alonso Perez de Alba, Millán, Mena and Juan Ponce. Several earlier composers in this manuscript, such as
Cornago (fl 1466), Triana (fl 1478), Juan Fernández de Madrid (fl 1479), Juan Pérez de Gijón (fl 1480) and
Juan de León (fl 1480), contributed also to the Cancionero de la Colombina (E-Sc 7-1-28).

The most influential foreign-born composer whose works are in both these sources was Johannes Urreda
of Bruges, who served as maestro de capilla to Ferdinand V. Other foreigners who left their mark on Spanish
music were Ockeghem (visited Spain in 1469), Agricola and La Rue (1506). In 1501 Josquin was recruited by
Philip the Fair for a journey to Spain; and although he did not go, he nevertheless became one of the most
influential, admired, imitated and transcribed foreign composers in 16th-century Spain. The influence of
Netherlandish polyphony is clearly reflected in the masterful masses and motets of Anchieta and
particularly of Peñalosa, the most important Spanish composer after Encina and before Morales. The same
contrast between the learning of Peñalosa, who held a post at the papal court, and the simplicity of
Anchieta, who stayed mostly in Spain, can be seen between the erudition of the most famous Spanish
theorists of the Renaissance, Ramis de Pareia and Salinas (both wrote in Latin and lived for a time in Italy),
and the more modest teachings of the many Spanish theorists who wrote in their own tongue and never
went abroad. Blindness made Salinas’s achievement all the more remarkable, as it did the works of Antonio
de Cabezón, the greatest Spanish Renaissance organist, and the works of the consummate vihuelist and
composer Miguel de Fuenllana.

The vihuela inspired a considerable group of publications in tablature in the mid-16th century. Although
Diego Pisador’s Libro de música de vihuela (Salamanca, 1552) betrays the hand of an amateur, the others,
from Luys Milán’s El maestro (Valencia, 1536) to Esteban Daza’s El Parnasso (Valladolid, 1576), testify to
the artistry of their compilers. Luys de Narváez (1538), Alonso Mudarra (1546) and Enríquez de
Valderrábano (1547) also published tablatures at Valladolid and Seville.

Milán’s El maestro, like the six other vihuela tablatures published later, purports to be a self-instructing
manual; easy pieces come in the first book, harder pieces in the second. But his notation system, unlike
that used in later vihuela tablatures, places the top course on the top line of the six horizontal lines, the
bottom course on the bottom line. Dedicated to King John III of Portugal, his is the only vihuela book to
contain any Portuguese songs. Among other novelties not found in any other vihuela tablature are the
ornamented versions printed for each of the six Spanish villancicos. In each of the four Spanish romances,
he interspersed elaborate virtuoso runs for the accompanying vihuelist between lines of the verse. To
prove his exquisite literary taste, he set three of his six Italian sonetos to poetry by Petrarch. These songs in
Spanish, Portuguese and Italian are the precursors of the equally sensuous accompanied monodies in
Fuenllana’s Orphénica lyra (Seville, 1554). In the purely instrumental pieces that dominate El maestro,
Milán established the practice of always indicating the tempo of each piece. His 40 fantasías are free, but
each is classified in one or two of the eight church tones. His four tentos are homophonic pieces, with fast

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runs between phrases, but the best-known works in El maestro are the six pavanas. His insistence on
classifying everything polyphonic according to a scheme of eight church tones is a peculiarly Spanish
aspect of El maestro, borne out even more emphatically by his concluding essay on the eight tones.

The greatest Spanish Renaissance composers of church music were Morales, Francisco Guerrero and
Victoria. As early as 1539, when Morales was not yet 40, he enjoyed the reputation in Spain of being ‘the
pope’s maestro de capilla’ (he served in the pope’s choir from 1535 to 1545). His second book of masses
(Rome, 1544) opens with a woodcut of Pope Paul III on his throne accepting the dedicated volume from the
kneeling composer. A similar woodcut, with a change of facial features to show the more youthful
Palestrina, prefaces the first book of Palestrina’s masses (Rome, 1554); the open book of music that
Palestrina offers Pope Julius III is that shown in the earlier woodcut. Symbolically as well as musically,
Morales stands midway between the Flemings and Palestrina. Although Morales knew Josquin to
perfection, his music lacks many of the traits that characterize his greatest predecessor. All voices enter
into imitation without delay, he writes no long ‘Pleni’ duos, he banishes verbal canons from his one mass
parodying Josquin’s chanson Mille regretz (even though they occur in the version that Morales never
published). Although his melodic writing was not as constrained as that of Palestrina he avoided melodic
intervals larger than an octave (which he used as an expressive, poignant interval) and avoided to some
extent the use of the melodic 6th. Victoria also avoided the melodic 6th, and Samuel Rubio, who studied
Morales’s technique in detail, remarked that prejudice against melodic 6ths of any sort should therefore be
accounted a Spanish trait. To cite further evidence, Morales’s immediate predecessors in Seville Cathedral
where he grew up, Escobar, Alva and Peñalosa, set a pattern of avoiding 6ths.

Much more than his Flemish predecessors, Morales overlapped beginnings and ends of phrases. His music
exhibits subtle techniques, particularly in form, distribution of voices, and use of dissonance; long
melismas are uncharacteristic and it has been claimed that Morales was the first to observe the rules of
Latin prosody in giving accented syllables longer aggregate values.

How well Palestrina knew Morales’s music is proved by his parody mass on a Morales motet, O sacrum
convivium, and the extra parts he wrote for six verses of Morales’s Magnificat settings. Victoria’s
indebtedness to Palestrina can be no less well documented. No feature of Palestrina’s detailed technique
escaped Victoria’s eye. His individuality asserted itself in a much greater reliance on the equivalent of
modern functional harmony, a predilection for melodic phrases that ascend and descend in the equivalent
of modern melodic minor scale movement, a fondness for diminished 4ths and a heightened
expressiveness in the use of melodic leaps such as the descending 5th. Both Morales and Palestrina wrote
only a few secular works, Victoria none at all.

Francisco Guerrero studied with Morales and composed a similarly serious and extensive sacred repertory.
In the New World he exceeded even Morales and Victoria in widespread and lasting popularity. As late as
1774 his works were expensively recopied on vellum for use in Mexico City Cathedral. In 1864 his Liber
vesperarum (Rome, 1584) was rebound for constant use at Lima Cathedral. Unlike Morales and Victoria, he,
as well as Morales’s other chief pupil, Juan Navarro (i), made important contributions to the secular
repertory. Several of Navarro’s secular songs are contained in a predominantly Andalusian collection of
madrigals, villancicos and romances (formerly E-Mmc 13230), the so-called Cancionero di Medinaceli,

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which also includes works by the Seville-born brothers Pedro and Francisco Guerrero, Ginés de Morata
(mestre de capela to the dukes of Braganza in Portugal) and Rodrigo de Ceballos (active at Seville, Córdoba
and Granada).

A printed collection of Villancicos de diversos autores (Venice, 1556), called the ‘Cancionero de Uppsala’
because the partbooks were discovered there, has works by Gombert as well as by Spanish composers such
as Encina, Cárceres, Mateo Flecha (i) and Morales. Although it is the sacred music of 16th-century Spain
that has received most attention, a number of composers published collections of secular music, among
them Vasquez (1551, 1560), Pere Alberch i Ferrament alias Vila and Mateo Flecha (i), whose ensaladas were
published in 1581 by his nephew Mateo Flecha (ii) in a collection that includes also ensaladas by Vila,
Cárceres, Chacón, and the nephew. The younger Flecha and Brudieu also published madrigals (1568, 1585
and 1614).

The Toledo-born Diego Ortiz spent his mature years at Naples, where he became director of the Spanish
viceroy’s choir; his Glose sopra le cadenze (Rome, 1553), which appeared simultaneously in Italian and
Spanish, provides thorough instruction in ornamentation for players of string instruments. Tomás de
Santa María’s Arte de tañer fantasía (Valladolid, 1565) gives similar help to the keyboard player and is also
one of the first manuals to give fingering and instruction for interpretation. The most important Spanish
treatise of the period, however, is Juan Bermudo’s Declaración de instrumentos musicales (Osuna, 1555),
which goes beyond fingering and interpretation to investigate a wide variety of musical problems.
Something of the didactic spirit is also found in the anthology published by Luis Venegas de Henestrosa,
Libro de cifra nueva (Alcalá de Henares, 1557) for keyboard, harp and vihuela. Even the great Antonio de
Cabezón, whose Obras de música appeared a dozen years after his death, left a body of intabulated pieces for
keyboard, harp and vihuela that he had taught his pupils, rather than the virtuoso repertory with which he
entertained Philip II during 40 years of peripatetic court service. Nonetheless, these ‘crumbs from his
table’ establish him as perhaps the greatest Spanish organ composer in history, and demonstrate at every
turn his mastery of variation technique, his sense of structural balance in the tiento, and his ability to
create an inimitable flow of gracious melody.

3. Late 16th century to mid-18th.

Louise K. Stein

(i) Genres and practices.

Many genres and musical techniques of the late Renaissance continued to be useful to Spanish composers
and musicians throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, although Spanish society was especially desirous of
novelty, invention, enigma, artifice and magnificent spectacle. For example, the association between
imitative contrapuntal polyphony and sacred texts was maintained even into the 18th century, especially
for settings of the Mass, though new textures and techniques were developed in a style that is easily
identified as pertaining to the Baroque era, with sections of homophony and solo song added to the mix.
Great formal flexibility, bold contrasts, clear harmonic organization, sensitive text expression, and careful

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attention to text declamation are notable characteristics of Spanish music in this period, whether in large-
scale sacred pieces for one or more choirs, romances for two or three voices, solo settings of romances, or
clever theatrical songs with continuo.

Among the musical practices that characterized Hispanic music in the 17th and 18th centuries, the all-
important traditions of improvisation, variation and recomposition shaped the sound and transmission of
music in this period as they had in the 16th century. The practice of glosas and diferencias, partly explained
by Luys Milán (1536), Juan Bermudo (1555) and Tomás de Santa María (1565), is demonstrated in the six
printed 16th-century vihuela books, and further elaborated in the collections for keyboard, harp and
vihuela by Luis Venegas de Henestrosa and Cabezón, mentioned above, and Francisco Correa de Arauxo
(1626). It grew in importance during the 17th century, especially because the preferred continuo
instruments for Spanish vocal music were harps and guitars. Of course, the art of poetic glosas was
essential in poetry by the 16th- and 17th-century masters, so it is no surprise that improvisation continued
to be a mainstay of musical performance and recomposition. Spanish composers had perfected the art of
writing sets of variations in both instrumental and vocal music of the 16th century, and their inventiveness
enlivened multi-strophic romances, villancicos based on traditional harmonic patterns, simple polyphonic
settings of courtly poetry based on well-known tunes, and improvised continuo accompaniments for all
kinds of music in the 17th century.

(ii) Sacred music.

Hispanic Baroque music presents an intriguing variety of musical sources. The repertory of Latin-texted
sacred music includes masses and other liturgical compositions primarily in imitative counterpoint, for
one or more choirs. Motets were composed to a very limited extent, to judge by the contents of the musical
archives of cathedrals, convents, monasteries and parish churches throughout the Iberian peninsula and in
Mexico and Central and Latin America (in addition to numerous libraries in Europe and the Americas),
which are replete with sacred villancicos. Although some of them seem to be no more than accompanied
solo songs with religious reworkings of formerly profane texts ‘a lo divino’, villancicos are settings of
vernacular sacred texts to honour all manner of religious festivities, especially Corpus Christi, Christmas,
Epiphany and Easter. They were composed in a variety of musical textures, and normally include sections
of strophic coplas and elaborate refrains known as estribillos. More prolifically cultivated even than large-
scale psalm settings for multiple choirs, these often festive pieces bring us the brilliant sound of concerted
music in the Hispanic Baroque. There are villancicos with or without instruments – harps and sometimes
organ, violón or guitars, usually chirimías and bajoncillos, but later also violins, oboes and clarino trumpets
– for many voices or for few, and a largely unstudied body of solo villancicos (some of which are
indistinguishable from sacred cantatas, while others seem to be religious arias in 18th-century style).
Among the most important repositories of Baroque sacred villancicos are the cathedral archives of Burgos,
Salamanca, Segovia, Valencia and Valladolid, the music archive of the royal monastery at El Escorial and
major libraries such as the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, and the Biblioteca de Cataluña, Barcelona.

The importance of the vernacular and Counter-Reformation genre of the villancico in Hispanic culture
cannot be overestimated. Pietro Cerone (Naples, 1613) recognized the pervasive influence of the villancico
in its early 17th-century manifestation when he wrote: ‘I don't wish to say that the practice of the

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villancicos is bad, because it is accepted in all the churches of Spain, and to such an extent, that it seems as
if no solemn occasion can be celebrated without them’. Cerone had lived in Spain and served in the court
chapel for nine years beginning in 1592. Admittedly a critic at some distance from his subject by the time
he wrote El melopeo y maestro, Cerone criticized the villancico especially for the characteristics that made it
so popular and so effective as religious propaganda, namely its obvious conceptism, its ‘diversity of
languages’ (with sections in dialect or pseudo-dialect for Asturianos, Gallegos, Portugueses, Vizcaínos,
Gitanos, Negros or Indios, for example), its quotation from theatrical songs and profane, popular bailes,
and its use of comic dialogue. For Cerone, these elements ‘turn God's church into a public theatre or
recreation room’. Sensitive to the power of the genre, which remained vigorous through the first half of
the 18th century, the chapters of many cathedrals agreed time and again to clean up the villancicos, given
the sometimes scandalous conduct of the faithful on hearing them. Virtually all Spanish composers
cultivated the villancico, from the most distinguished of court musicians to the masters of cathedral music
and those who composed or arranged music for parish churches.

As the correspondence between maestros de capilla such as Miguel Gómez Camargo and Miguel de Irízar y
Domenzain makes clear, villancicos (music and texts) circulated widely and rapidly in manuscript copies.
The publication of Pedro Rimonte's Parnaso español de madrigales y villancicos for four to six voices
(Antwerp, 1614) was exceptional. Rimonte was maestro de música de la cámara to the Archduchess Isabella
and Archduke Albert in Prague. His printed collection offers secular villancicos and madrigals with Spanish
texts, whereas the typical 17th-century villancico has little in common with the italianate madrigal and
survived almost exclusively in manuscript. Villancico texts, on the other hand, were often collected and
published in small booklets, including those sung in many cathedrals and in the royal chapels in Madrid.
Among the best representatives of the genre are pieces by Miguel de Ambiela, Jerónimo de Carrión, Joan
Cererols, Juan Bautista Comes, Sebastián Durón, Cristóbal Galán, Miguel Gómez Camargo, Juan Hidalgo,
Miguel de Irízar, José Martínez de Arce, Tomás Miciezes, José de Orejón y Aparicio, Tomás de Torrejón y
Velasco, José de Vaquedano, Matías Juan de Veana and Antonio Yanguas.

(iii) Secular song.

If the sacred songs of the period survive in great quantity and were cultivated with a rich variety of forms,
styles and textures, the secular repertories are less plentiful but equally inventive. The secular songs of the
first half of the 17th century are almost exclusively romances whose poetic content is now less heroic and
more amorous, pastoral, pseudo-popular and courtly in nature. They are preserved largely in manuscript
cancioneros: bound anthologies of polyphonic songs in partbooks or in choirbook format, dating from the
first half of the 17th century and dominated by the court composers. They are the musical sources for the
romance nuevo and for the well-known or pre-existing songs used in many plays in the genre of the
comedia nueva.

The cancioneros include (listed in roughly chronological order): P-La 47-VI-10/13, ‘Cancionero de Ajuda’;
I-Tn Ris.mus.1-14, ‘Cancionero de Turín’; E-Mn M1370–72, ‘Romances y letras a tres vozes’; I-Rc 5437,
‘Cancionero Casanatense’; Palma de Mallorca, Biblioteca Particular de Bartolomé March, Medinaceli 13231,

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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

‘Cancionero de Medinaceli – B’ or ‘Tonos Castellanos – B’; D-Mbs Mus.ms.E200, ‘Cancionero de La

Sablonara’; B. Ferriol's private collection, ‘Cancionero de Onteniente’; Olot (Gerona), Biblioteca Pública I-
VIII, ‘Cancionero de Olot’; E-Mn M1262, ‘Libro de Tonos Humanos’.

Many of the songs are presented without attribution, but a number of recognized composers are
represented as well: Mateo Romero, maestro of the royal chapel to his retirement in 1633; Carlos Patiño
(the last great master of contrapuntal polyphony and the first Spaniard to direct the chapel, maestro until
1675), along with other court musicians serving Philip III and Philip IV: Miguel de Arizo, Juan Blas de
Castro, Gabriel Díaz Bessón (maestro in Lerma and later at the royal chapel of the Monasterio de la
Encarnación), Diego Gómez de la Cruz, Manuel Machado, Juan de Palomares and Alvaro de los Ríos. Juan
Arañés (who accompanied the Duke of Pastrana to Rome in 1623–4), the justly famous Juan Bautista
Comes of Valencia, and Joan Pau Pujol, maestro in Barcelona and Zaragoza, contributed to this repertory, as
did a number of composers or arrangers about whom little is known at present – Borly, Company
(Compañí), Cruz, del Rey, Días, Felipe, Figuerola, Galán (perhaps the very young Cristóbal), García,
Garzón, Gramatge, Gutiérrez, Herrera, Martínez, Mesa, Morales, Muñoz, Mur, Murillo, Navarro, Peralta,
Peres, Pesa, Rubio, Santiago, Sebastián, Segarra, Settimio, Tapia, Tavares, Torres, Vicente, Viera and Vives.

To this central group of sources with polyphonic settings of Spanish romances for two to four voices it is
important to add those settings preserved in poetic manuscripts with alfabeto notation for guitar, such as
I-Fr 2774, 2793, 2804, 2951 and 2973; GB-Lbl Add.36877, ‘Villanelle … per sonare, et cantare su la chitarra
alla Spagnola’; I-MOe 2 (P.6.22), 3333 (R.6.4.) and 115 (Q.8.21); I-Nn XVII.30; F-Pn espagnol 390 (Corbie
55), ‘Libro di villanelle spagnuol'e italiane et sonate spagnuole’; I-Rvat Chigi L.VI.200 (1599).

Two printed sources, the Libro segundo de tonos y villancicos a una dos tres y quatro voces: con la zifra de la
guitarra española a la usanza romana of Juan Arañés (Rome, 1624; copy in I-Bc), which contains settings of
31 Spanish songs with alfabeto and mensural notation, and the Método mui facilíssimo para aprender a tañer
la guitarra a lo español by Luis de Briceño (Paris, 1626; copy in F-Pn), attest the popularity of the Spanish
guitar among cultivated amateurs outside Spain. The alfabeto notation facilitated the spread of the
romances and bailes (Hispanic dances of a non-courtly nature based on repeated patterns and
characteristic rhythms) such as the canario, the chacona, the folía, the seguidilla and the zarabanda. Some
of the bailes originated in the Americas – for example the chacona and the zarabanda were brought from
16th-century Peru to the Iberian peninsula and thus to Europe.

The consistency of the sources and the early 17th-century repertory speak of a musical practice both
dependent on well-known popular and courtly poetry and steeped in the culture of recomposition and
improvisation. Rarely do two settings of the same song text show exact musical concordance, though
settings of the same text often reveal that these polyphonic songs were based on well-known tunes or
standard harmonic or rhythmic patterns. The art of exquisite counterpoint graced the settings for two to
four voices, while solo performances of the same songs were tempered by the ‘sweetness’ of the well-
known tunes in improvised and mostly chordal accompaniments for guitar or harp. Secular and theatrical
songs from the later 17th century are preserved in an entirely different array of sources, although the Libro
de Tonos Humanos (1655–6) preserves music from at least one court play of 1653, and manuscripts from

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the monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra contain both early romances and slightly later theatrical songs, as
well as sacred villancicos and sketches for these (P-Cug M50, M51, M227, M229, M232–40, M242 and
M243; notated in score and probably dated 1630–70; the romances are mostly in M227, M229 and M236).

Musical sources for this central period of the Spanish Baroque contain mostly solo songs (secular and
theatrical) known as tonos humanos and tonadas, many of which have texts by the best poets of the epoch,
including Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Agustín de Salazar y Torres, Antonio Solís, Juan Bautista Diamante,
Antonio de Zamora and José de Cañizares. There are also theatrical ‘cuatros’, ensemble songs in four parts.
These ‘composed’ songs were probably intended in the first place for performance at court or for élite
patrons; many of them were composed for musical plays performed at the Madrid court in the later 17th
century.

Once popularized through public performance in Madrid and elsewhere, theatrical songs circulated in both
performing parts and manuscript anthologies throughout the Iberian peninsula and the Spanish colonies
in Italy and the New World. Spanish theatrical songs were also known and appreciated at the French court
and at the Habsburg court in Vienna, thanks to the close contact propitiated by the marriages of the
Spanish infantas and the travels of Spanish aristocrats and diplomats throughout continental Europe. The
principal composers represented include the court composers Juan Hidalgo, Cristóbal Galán, Juan del Vado
y Gómez, Juan Francisco de Navas, Sebastián Durón and the enigmatic José Marín, along with composers
who worked in other major musical centres, such as Barcelona, Segovia, Valencia and Valladolid. Many
songs are by the best theatrical musicians who worked in both the courtly and public spheres, such as José
Peyró, Juan de Serqueira and Manuel de Villaflor, employed by the acting companies.

Most characteristic of the second half of the 17th century are the collections of loose scores and performing
parts (some with alfabeto notation or tablature) in E-Bbc (especially music legajos 691, 698, 701, 737–8,
741, 743–4, 746–7, 749, 753–4, 759, 762–3, 765–7, 769, 774–5, and 888); E-Mn M3880 and M3881
(erroneously dubbed ‘Cancionero de Madrid’ or ‘de la Biblioteca Nacional’); E-SE Leg.39, 41–2, 44–5, 52,
56; E-VAc legs.10–11, 37–40, 42–3, 54, 83; E-V legs.21, 39, 40, 51, 62, 68, 80, and 70–71, 84–5 (among
sketches of villancicos); D-Mbs Mus.ms. 2872–938; Lima, Biblioteca Nacional de Perú, solo songs with
tablature for guitar; and US-NYhsa HC:380/824a.

Large anthologies of Spanish secular songs and theatrical music from the later 17th and early 18th
centuries are preserved in: E-Bc 3660; GB-Cfm MU.4-1958 (32-F-42): 51 songs in guitar tablature with
vocal melody, composed or arranged by José Marín; E-Mn M2478, ‘Libro de tonos puestos en cifra de
arpa’: songs in harp tablature, most from court plays 1660–1700; I-Vnm it.Cl.IV 470: anonymous songs
with continuo, many attributed to Hidalgo or Marín; E-Mn 13622, ‘Tomo de música vocal antigua’, c1705,
which belonged to Barbieri (in Mn since 1894); Almagro (Spain), Museo del Teatro, ‘MS Novena’ (formerly
in E-Mcns), undated, c1710: songs by Peyró and Hidalgo exclusively for comedias and autos sacramentales;
US-SFs SMMS M1: 134 songs (largely from the Madrid theatres) for soprano and continuo, by Serqueira,
Villaflor, Hidalgo, Marín, Navas and others; E-SCu 265: 100 secular and theatrical songs mostly for solo
voice and continuo (copied by J.M. Guerra, scribe of the royal chapel, c1680).

While the repertory of Spanish Baroque secular and theatrical songs is incomplete, owing to the loss of
many of the flimsy loose scores and performing parts over time, and to the disastrous fire in the Alcázar
palace, Madrid, in 1734, the repertory is a large one, still in great part unedited and rarely performed. The

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smallest group of musical sources is that of the bound complete scores for individual semi-operas, operas
and musical plays. Thanks to the royal family's habit of sharing news of its theatre presentations
(descriptions of plays, texts of plays, drawings of scenery, and copies of music) with courts to which it was
connected by blood ties or dynastic marriage, and thanks also to the travels of Hispanic opera's aristocratic
patrons, several bound manuscript scores for individual stage works have been preserved: US-CA
Houghton Library Typ 258H, ff.105v–150: vocal music probably by Hidalgo for Calderón, Fortunas de
Andrómeda y Perseo (prologue and three acts), 1653; Madrid, Palacio de Líria, Biblioteca del Duque de Alba,
Caja 174, num.21: ‘Musica de la Comedia Zelos aun del Ayre matan. / Primera jornada / Del / M.o Juan
Hidalgo’; P-EVp CL 1/2-1: ‘Zelos aun del Ayre matan / Comedia de D. Pedro Calderon / Muzica de Juan
Hidalgo’, opera (‘fiesta cantada’) in three acts; Lima, Biblioteca Nacional de Perú C-1469: ‘La púrpura de la
rosa, representación música, fiesta … Compuesta en Música por D. Thomas Torrejón de Velasco’, 1701.
These carefully copied complete sources help us to understand the conventions of Hispanic Baroque
musical theatre and to appreciate the rare musical beauty and true historical significance of major works
such as the operas La púrpura de la rosa and Celos aun del aire matan.

(iv) Theatre music.

(a) Opera.

The early history of opera and related genres in the Hispanic dominions followed its own path, with
limited reference to operatic developments elsewhere in Europe. The first opera performed in Spain was La
selva sin amor (1627), with libretto in Spanish by the prolific poet and dramatist Lope de Vega, almost
entirely in Italian poetic metre (only the brief coros are in Spanish octosyllables). The music (apparently
lost) was by Filippo Piccinini, a Bolognese lute and theorbo player who was among Philip IV's favourite
musicians and who accepted the commission under pressure from the Florentine diplomats assigned to
Madrid. The production of this tiny opera followed the model of the Florentine pastorals, but was given
only twice for the royal family. It was designed above all to display the talents of Cosimo Lotti, the stage
designer brought to Philip IV from the Tuscan court. While Lope de Vega was ‘enraptured’ to hear his
entire text performed in song (which we assume to have been recitative composed by the none-too-eager
Piccinini), the production did not persuade the Spaniards to cultivate opera.

The next operas composed and performed in Spain were created without recourse to foreign models, well
before a national, non-Italian genre of fully sung opera was developed elsewhere in Europe. A decade
before Lully and Quinault's tragédie lyrique, two Hispanic operas were created for the Madrid court by the
dramatist Calderón and the principal composer of secular and theatrical songs for Philip IV (and later
Charles II), Juan Hidalgo. The first of these, La púrpura de la rosa, was written and rehearsed in 1659, but
first performed on 17 January 1660. The second, Celos aun del aire matan, was performed on 5 December
1660. Opera was an extraordinary genre in the Hispanic Baroque, and these operas are full of
extraordinarily lyrical, beautiful music. They were composed to celebrate momentous events – the treaty
between Spain and France known as the Peace of the Pyrenees, and the marriage of the Spanish Infanta
María Teresa to the young Louis XIV of France. Both operas were revived a number of times at court before
the end of the Habsburg era. Another setting of La púrpura de la rosa was produced in 1701 at the viceregal

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court in Lima (Peru) to celebrate the accession of Philip V, the first Bourbon to reign as King of Spain. The
score carries an attribution to Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco, maestro de capilla of Lima Cathedral and
among the most influential composers in the New World.

Polymetric and mostly tragicomic plays known as comedias (many of them with songs drawn from the
repertory of the cancioneros) dominated the Spanish stage in the 17th century. Partly sung masques,
festival plays and spectacle plays were performed at court and at country houses and estates beyond
Madrid in the early 17th century. Just after 1650, Calderón – probably working with Hidalgo together with
the Roman stage engineer and scenic artist Baccio del Bianco – invented a new genre of serious dramatic
court mythological play with operatic scenes. In this kind of semi-opera the mortals sing only well-known
songs, whereas the gods converse in the heavens in recitative and use newly composed tonadas
(declamatory, strophic solo songs) to influence, persuade or seduce the mortal characters. These musical-
theatrical conventions were based in contemporary socio-political theory and Neoplatonic philosophy.
Examples of the Spanish semi-opera include La fiera, el rayo y la piedra (1652), Fortunas de Andrómeda y
Perseo (1653) and La estatua de Prometeo (?1674).

(b) Zarzuela.

A second genre invented by Calderón and shaped by Hidalgo's music in the 1650s and beyond (to his death
in 1685) is the zarzuela, a genre first exemplified in the court production of Calderón's El laurel de Apolo
(1657). As demonstrated in this work, the zarzuela was a lighter, increasingly burlesque genre of
mythological pastoral in which only the deities sing elaborate newly composed songs, and recitative (Sp.
recitado) is used sparingly, if at all. Zarzuelas dominated the court stages in the later 17th and early 18th
centuries, and all the major court dramatists provided texts. Almost all the songs are extant for Los celos
hacen estrellas (Juan Vélez de Guevara and Hidalgo, 1672), and much of the music survives for Los juegos
olímpicos (Salazar y Torres and Hidalgo, 1675). After Hidalgo's death the zarzuela became the preserve of
the court composers Navas, Durón and, slightly later, Antonio Literes, although music was contributed as
well by composers who worked for the acting companies. In the zarzuelas and semi-operas, the partly
sung roles for the classical gods and goddesses alike were played by women (with ranges we would identify
today as belonging to sopranos, mezzo-sopranos and, less commonly, contraltos). Special ‘old
man’ (barbas) roles, such as Morpheus or Father Time, were taken by male baritones and/or female
contraltos, as far as can be discerned. Some comic gracioso roles were sung by actresses, while others were
sung (however badly) by actors. The musical styles and conventions developed by Hidalgo over a period of
three decades continued to characterize zarzuelas into the 18th century.

Many musical plays outside the genre of the zarzuela were also popular, including Ulloa's Pico y Canente
(1656; music by Hidalgo), with its famous lament ‘Crédito es de mi decoro’, and Calderón's Eco y Narciso
(1661) and Ni amor se libra de amor (1662), source of the celebrated four-voice ‘Quedito, pasito’.
Exceptional for the repertory of zarzuelas and other partly musical plays are the printed scores for Destinos
vencen finezas by Navas to a zarzuela text by the Peruvian dramatist Lorenzo de las Llamosas (Madrid,
1699), and for Los desagravios de Troya by Joaquín Martínez de la Roca to a text by J. Escuder (Madrid, 1712).
While the first of these is a musical gem, revealing the richness, melodic grace, variety and textural
fullness of the Spanish Baroque zarzuela around 1700 (the score has parts for violins, clarino trumpets and

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oboes and gives the full scoring of the ensembles), the music for Los desagravios de Troya is less interesting.
Performed privately in Zaragoza for the Count of Montemar, the work is rich in political references and
cultural significance, quite apart from its importance as a complete printed score.

In the first two decades of the 18th century, the zarzuelas of Durón and Literes, written for the court and
for the public theatres (corrales) of Madrid, provide not only delightful music (to uneven and somewhat
insipid dramatic texts) but a more varied layer of Hispanic Baroque music, full of innovation and striking
contrasts. This is certainly the best Spanish music surviving from the early 18th century, and the charm of
Durón's zarzuelas helped the genre to become wildly successful with the public in the years 1710–20.
Although it has been claimed that Durón invented a kind of ‘operatic zarzuela’, his zarzuelas follow the
conventions developed by Hidalgo quite closely, and their music is no more ‘operatic’ than that of earlier
works in the genre.

The theatre scores of Literes (performed 1708–11) are highly original and present the traditional Hispanic
musical forms (tonos, tonadas, coplas, estribillos, recitados) alongside italianate arias and recitatives, within
a basic framework that preserves the conventions of Hidalgo (essential as well to the zarzuelas of Navas
and Durón). Literes also composed for noble patrons, which may be why he composed so few works for the
royal court and the public theatres. His zarzuela Accis and Galatea (1708) was a great success at court and
subsequently became the rage in the public theatres. Its combination of native Hispanic forms with
italianate arias was especially characteristic for this period of political and cultural change that
accompanied the arrival of Philip V on the Spanish throne in the midst of the War of the Spanish
Succession.

The taste of Spain's new French king and his wives tended toward the contemporary, pan-European
genres of opera and serenata, so that the zarzuela was transformed from a genre designed to delight
princes into one aimed at the mixed public of the corrales in the early 18th century. The theatre
administrators discovered (through the production of works such as Literes's Accis y Galatea) that musical
plays brought in substantial revenue. Many 18th-century ones (some based on older texts but revised with
new music) called for violins and oboes, and the harpsichord now presided over the continuo band, so that
the kind of small theatre orchestra (c1718–20) used elsewhere in Europe joined together with and
ultimately replaced the traditional large continuo band of harps, guitars and viols. Actress-singers were
still required for musical plays, even for Spanish versions of opera seria (with spoken dialogue), because
castrato singers were unwelcome on Madrid's public stages.

Apart from the works of Durón and Literes, few zarzuelas survive from the early 18th century, although
their performance history is known. The character of the full-blown 18th-century zarzuela, with its
absorption of the mainstream pan-European operatic style (principally in da capo arias and italianate
recitatives) and conservation of traditionally Spanish numbers (e.g. coplas, seguidillas, frequent four-voice
coros), characters (the graciosos) and conventions, is exemplified in José Nebra's Viento es la dicha de Amor
(1743; revised 1748 and 1752). Nebra's score preserves Zamora's older libretto, but replaces all the song
texts for the principal serious characters with new texts appropriate for recitative and da capo arias. The
work demonstrates the flexible, hybrid character of the zarzuela.

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(v) Cantatas.
The cantata (Sp. cantada) was also cultivated by Spanish composers of this period, though to a very limited
extent. Probably the first piece to be so called was Corazón, que en prisión de respetos (text by Salazar y
Torres), which exists in a number of musical settings and is ascribed in one source to Marín (d 1699). The
designation ‘cantada’ appears in a poetic manuscript that includes this text as well as many others by
Salazar y Torres, Calderón and others. The setting is entirely strophic with music for long series of coplas,
such that this first use of ‘cantada’ may well have been an extrapolation of the term ‘tonada’, which was
customarily used to describe this kind of long, declamatory, strophic air. Likewise, other pieces in
traditional Spanish forms are included in late 17th- or early 18th-century musical sources designated as
containing cantatas (the earliest of which may be E-Mn M2618), alongside or in alternation with
selfconsciously italianate arias, recitatives and graves. The Hispanic recitado is to be distinguished,
however, from recitativo. The composers who cultivated the cantada in the genre's early period include
Durón, Literes, Navas, Rabassa, Serqueira de Lima and (chief among them) Torres. A few of the first
‘cantadas’ are nothing more than scenes extracted from Spanish theatrical scores. Others demonstrate
that the very late 17th-century Neapolitan multi-sectional cantata with alternation of arias and recitatives
(exemplified in the works of Alessandro Scarlatti) was first cultivated in Spain, by composers who served
or worked in the ambitus of the royal court in Madrid.

(vi) Instrumental music.

(a) Sources.

With copious musical sources for sacred and secular vocal music, and the relatively full surviving
documentation concerning the functions and social use of vocal music, the paucity of musical sources for
strictly instrumental music in this period is striking. In part this can be blamed on the low social and
economic status accorded to musicians, especially instrumentalists, in Hispanic society. The lack of a
vigorous music-printing industry made itself felt in a scarcity of printed music of all kinds. Manuscript
sources, with few exceptions, do not contain notated music for instrumental ensemble, athough solo
compositions for organ, harp and guitar are preserved in both manuscript and printed sources (largely
instruction books). The only early 17th-century exceptions are three manuscripts for ministriles – players
of shawms (chirimías), cornetts and bajoncillos – containing music for the royal wind band in the time of
Philip III and his prime minister, the Duke of Lerma. Rather than original compositions, the three books
contain instrumental versions of vocal polyphony by both Spanish and Franco-Flemish masters: the same
kinds of pieces that were performed in this period by the chapel under the direction of Mateo Romero.

The Canzoni, fantasie et correnti (Venice, 1638) by Bartolomé de Selma y Salaverde is a printed collection of
instrumental music by a Spanish composer working abroad. Selma y Salaverde (son of Bartolomé de Selma,
instrument maker to the royal court in Madrid) was a virtuoso player of the bassoon and other wind
instruments who served the archducal court at Innsbruck (and perhaps others in the hierarchy of the
Habsburg empire) and the collection contains difficult and beautiful music both for solo instruments and
for small wind ensemble.

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(b) Organ music.

The Spanish organ music repertory was among the first to exhibit the virtuoso character of Spanish
Baroque music, independently of vocal models. The tiento (cultivated in the 16th century, and explained
first in Milán and Mudarra) after Cabezón became increasingly brilliant and exuberant in the hands of such
composers as Sebastián Aguilera de Heredia and most especially Francisco Correa de Arauxo. The latter
built extravagant embellishment into the tiento's traditional contrast between fast passages with
sometimes dissonant figuration, and consonant, chordal progressions, between redobles and consonancias.
Correa's tientos, substantial in length and both mono- and polythematic, preserve an underlying structure
of correct counterpoint, yet the elaborate and highly coloured figuration (whether performed on organ,
harpsichord or arpa doble) impresses us with its improvisatory character, perhaps due to diverse rhythmic
patterns filled with syncopation and hemiola. The Spanish predilection for contrasts of colour and texture
is demonstrated in these tientos, with their exploitation of the divided single keyboard of the Spanish
organ – the medios registros, or registros partidos – and timbral contrasts between registers: the very high
tiples against the low registro bajo. Correa published 69 of his own pieces (mostly tientos but also
canciones, glosas, diferencias and cantus firmus settings) in his treatise on organ playing, Facultad
organica (1626), an indispensable source for early 17th-century performing practice.

Many organist-composers flourished in the 17th and early 18th centuries (Antonio Brocarte, Pablo Bruna,
Bernardo Clavijo del Castillo, José Elias, José Ximénez, Gabriel Menalt, Andrés de Sola and Diego Xaraba, to
name only a handful), but none was as prolific as the great Valencian composer Juan Bautista José
Cabanilles (1644–1712), whose more than 1000 works (preserved in more than 15 manuscripts) include
religious pieces (versets and hymns) and some 200 tientos (including batallas and clarines), along with
tocatas and sets of variations or diferencias (gallardas, corrente italiana, passacalles, paseos, folías and
jácaras). Cabanilles's music was known beyond Spain, especially in France, and the composer himself knew
something of French and Italian instrumental music.

In addition to the virtuoso exuberance we associate with Cabanilles's music, his works embody the free
interchange of musical forms, figures and genres that characterized Hispanic instrumental music in the
later Baroque, as do the keyboard pieces contained in the four Flores de música anthologies of Antonio
Martín y Coll (MS, 1706–9, E-Mn). These contain many kinds of piece, both Hispanic and imported, and
are extremely valuable for the cross-sectional view they provide of the tastes and practices of instrumental
music, especially in Madrid (where Martín y Coll served as organist in the monastery of San Francisco after
1707).

(c) Other instrumental music.

While variations for organ barely surface in the 17th century, there are many such works, along with
character-pieces and those based on contemporary songs, in the Martín y Coll manuscripts (compared to
only a dozen or so within the works of Cabanilles). Of course, variations on popular bailes, court dances,
well-known tunes and bass or harmonic patterns were the mainstay of the guitar and harp repertories,
from the earliest printed guitar collections (Amat, Briceño, Doizi de Velasco). Later 17th-century
collections such as the Instrucción de música sobre la guitarra española (1674–5) of Gaspar Sanz (in Zaragoza
after his Italian training), the Poema harmónico (1694) by the Mallorcan Francisco Guerau, and several

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manuscripts notated for five-course guitar, including the Libro donde se veran pazacalles de los ocho tonos
by Antonio de Santa Cruz (E-Mn M2209; 1675–1700), tell us a great deal about the character of the bailes
and danzas and the techniques needed to play them. One of the most accessible sources is the instruction
book and collection of Lucas Ruiz de Ribayaz, Luz y norte musical para caminar por las cifras de la guitarra
española y arpa (Madrid, 1677), with music for guitar and for harp. The section devoted to the Baroque harp
– the most consistently used instrument for the accompaniment of Hispanic music of all kinds, sacred and
profane, before about 1750 – is, together with the Compendio numeroso de zifras armónicas (Madrid, 1702–
4) by Diego Fernández de Huete, our most important testimony concerning its repertory, performing
practice and the technique of improvised basso continuo. These printed books, along with several more
manuscript sources, bring us the core repertory of Hispanic Baroque instrumental music.

The 18th-century collections – especially the Resumen de acompañar la parte con la guitarra (Madrid, 1717)
by Santiago de Murcia, and his later Passacalles y obras de guitarra (MS, 1732, GB-Lbl) and the Mexican
Saldívar Codex 4 – not only enrich the repertory with longer and more daring passacalles and diferencias,
but show the all-important co-existence of Hispanic with French and Italian pieces and musical genres
that was so characteristic of musical life in 18th-century Spain. Although an independent repertory of
instrumental ensemble music does not survive from this period, there is no reason to suppose that it would
differ fundamentally from the music preserved with consistency of form, genre and technique in the
keyboard, guitar and harp sources.

(vii) Influences.
While the early 18th-century sources show that the music of famous contemporaries such as Lully and
Corelli was known and performed in Spain, there is little musical evidence for earlier foreign influence in
Hispanic Baroque instrumental music. Two important points of contact between Spanish instrumental
practice and the canzonas and sonatas cultivated so prolifically in Italy in the mid-17th century are the
compositions of Andrea Falconieri, who spent some time in Madrid and served the Spanish court at Naples,
and of Henry Butler, a viol player and violinist who worked at the Madrid court from 1623 to 1652. The form
of a multi-sectional sonata with sections based on successive points of imitation may well have been
known and cultivated by Spanish musicians, if the pieces by Falconieri and Butler may be taken as
representative. One undated manuscript trio sonata by José de Vaquedano (d 1711), maestro at the cathedral
of Santiago de Compostela, is preserved in the music archive there. Composed for two treble and one bass
instruments, with a separate bass line for the ‘acompañamiento’ or basso continuo, the piece may reflect a
particularly Hispanic practice of providing a separate continuo bass for the harp, labelled simply
‘accompaniment’, in addition to a bass line that is integrated into the imitative treatment of successive
motifs (to be played on tenor viol or by a wind instrument in the tenor/baritone range). This scoring is also
used for the instrumental parts of many villancicos and some chamber songs.

Francisco José de Castro published four books of Trattenimenti armonici da camera a tre for two violins with
cello or keyboard instrument (Bologna, 1695), with sonatas in the contemporary form and style, but, as he
makes clear in his preface, his musical training and orientation were wholly Italian. From about 1680
archival documents increasingly demonstrate the presence of many newly arrived Italian and French
musicians at the Madrid court. Many of these were singers, destined for the royal chapel, and violinists.

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They came directly from similar posts at the courts that ruled Spain's Italian possessions in Milan, Naples
and Sicily. Contemporary Italian and French styles were probably introduced by these new employees in
the 1680s and 90s.

Around 1700 a separate Hispanic practice still existed for instrumental music and for the accompaniment
of Hispanic vocal music, although the nature of both was to change during the next few decades. While it is
true that the presence later of Domenico Scarlatti at the Spanish royal court (c1728–57) furthered the cause
of Italian music and musicians, his employment was a very private matter. His sonatas were hardly
published in his lifetime, and certainly not in Spain. They were copied and collected into elegantly bound
manuscript volumes for the queen, Barbara de Braganza. The degree to which Scarlatti's sonatas were
known by his Spanish colleagues is questionable, yet the keyboard sonata was also developed among
Iberian composers (José Elías, Carlos de Seixas, Antonio Soler, Sebastián Ramón de Albero y Añaños and
Vicente Rodríguez Monllor). The independence of Hispanic accompaniment practice is made clear in the
all-important Reglas generales de acompañar, en órgano, clavicordio, y harpa (Madrid, 1702, 2/1736) by
Joseph de Torres y Martínez Bravo, organist in the royal chapel and maestro from 1718, and in other sources
(the earlier publications by Sanz and Ruiz de Ribayaz, for example). The first edition of the Reglas instructs
continuo players in the estilo español, whereas the second edition includes an additional new section that
explains and ‘demonstrates the modern style of accompaniment for Italian pieces’.

Torres y Martínez Bravo (1665–1738) was a distinguished musician and composer who was involved in
virtually every aspect of early 18th-century musical life in Spain. Between the second quarter of the 17th
century and the early 19th he was not only the first but the only one to issue printed music systematically
(beginning with Juan Francisco de Navas's Destinos vencen finezas of 1699), and the many pamphlets and
scores issued as musical pliegos by his Imprenta de Música in Madrid are extremely important. From an
early age Torres was employed by the chapel of the royal court (as organist, as director of the choir school,
and then as maestro de capilla), though he also composed secular works and (c1710–16) collaborated to
supply music by other composers for zarzuelas performed in the public theatres. Above all, he was the
principal composer of sacred music at court during his three decades of service, and he was responsible for
the renovation of its sacred music (together with Literes, and then Nebra, his former pupil), following the
disastrous fire that destroyed the music archive of the royal Alcázar de Madrid in 1734.

Torres's statement about the ‘modernity’ of Italian music is key to understanding the new taste for Italian
opera that characterized the musical life of Madrid (and of Barcelona and Valencia). While it is certainly
incorrect to describe the Italian presence as an ‘invasion’ or ‘conquest’ (both musical and non-musical
documents speak of the co-existence and plurality of musical genres and styles), there is no doubt that in
élitist social circles Italian music and performers were all the rage, beginning before 1720. Among the
distinguished visitors, undoubtedly the most illustrious was Farinelli, who first sang for Philip V at his
palace in La Granja in August 1737. Farinelli's performance won him a very special private position; Philip
V appointed him ‘my servant, who answers only to me or to the queen, my very beloved wife, for his unique
talent and skill in the art of singing’, with a generous salary and all perquisites. Farinelli used his unique
position at court to further the cause of Italian opera seria and to better the standing of fellow musicians.
An ambitious series of operas was planned for the Coliseo theatre of the Buen Retiro, which was completely
remodelled and transformed into one of the best opera theatres in Europe. Whereas the first opere serie

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were performed in Madrid in 1738 and depended on the talents of both Spanish and Italian composers and
performers, Farinelli's direction of the Coliseo (and his management of court entertainments at other
royal palaces, for example, at La Granja and Aranjuez) as a venue exclusively for Italian operas and Italian
singers, with performances for only a small invited audience, was limited to the years 1746–59. A number
of other Italian musicians worked in Madrid – at the royal court, for the public theatres, and for
aristocratic patrons – including Nicola Conforto, Francisco Corradini, Francesco Courcelle, Giacomo
Facco, Philipo Falconi and Giovanni Battista Mele. The orchestras put together by Farinelli included a
number of Italian players, but also talented Spaniards such as the violinist-composer Joseph de Herrando,
the virtuoso violinist Francisco Manalt, the oboist-composer Luis Misón, and the justly celebrated José
Nebra. By 1756, the lists of players for both the orchestra of the royal chapel and that of the Coliseo
included many more foreign than Hispanic names.

The 18th-century plurality of styles and the dialectic between Spanish and foreign styles were also a point
of contention still for church composers during and following the 20-year controversy sparked by the use
of an accented unprepared dissonance in the famous Missa ‘Scala aretina’ (1702) by the Catalan Francesc
Valls. Most Spanish composers defended the aptness of the stile antico for sacred texts. With this pamphlet
war as a backdrop, the royal chapels were hospitable to forms from opera seria (e.g. da capo arias replete
with luxuriant melismas), and the vernacular villancico, which had gradually absorbed the ‘modern’ forms
and mannerisms, was banished with the suppression of all vernacular sacred music in 1765.

4. Later 18th century.

Albert Recasens

(i) The church.

In the age of Enlightenment, the increasingly powerful middle classes joined the traditional list of music
patrons – church, court and theatre. The church continued to be the most important centre of musical
production in Enlightenment Spain. The music chapels around the court were the most reputable in the
land for both the economic benefits and the prestige they provided. Composers of high repute held posts in
the royal chapels of Madrid: José Mir y Llusá, Antonio Ripa, Antonio Rodríguez de Hita, José Lidón and
Jaime Balius y Vila. Towards mid-century a drastic reorganization of the royal chapel was carried out at the
instigation of Nebra, its vicemaestro from 1751. The music chapels attached to the cathedrals, collegiate
churches, parish churches and monasteries competed for the best musicians. Throughout the 18th century
the mobility of Spanish musicians increased progressively. The phenomenon of the flow of Catalan
composers to important positions at the court of Castile, such as the cathedrals of Toledo (Jaime Casellas,
Joan Rosell, Francesc Juncá) and Seville (Pedro Rabassa, Domingo Arquimbau), was particularly significant
for contributing to the assimilation of the Italian style into the peninsula's sacred music. Other coveted
posts were those at Santiago de Compostela (dominated by Italian musicians), Salamanca (which gave
access to the chair in music at the university), Zaragoza (the cathedral and El Pilar), Valencia and
Barcelona. Of all the genres of the second half of the 18th century, church music was the most conservative.
The liturgical output in Spain continued to make use of stile antico procedures. In the Mass Ordinary
settings, for instance, the polyphonic texture alternates with homophonic sections (usually in the Gloria

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and the Credo), which allow the text to be intelligible. Polychoral writing, generally for two SATB choirs,
survived. From the mid-18th century, old instruments such as the cornett, bass horn, key bugle and
Russian bassoon began to be replaced in the church by the oboe, bassoon and trumpet. The style of
Neapolitan opera and modern instrumental techniques had evidently penetrated not only Office pieces
such as responses, lamentations and vesper psalms, but, most particularly, paraliturgical religious
compositions such as villancicos and oratorios. Up to the beginning of the 19th century the religious
villancico remained popular in Spanish chapels, except at court, where its performance was abolished in
1750. The villancico assimilated the formal structure of the Italian cantata, with its preponderance of
recitatives and arias, without totally renouncing the traditional sections (introduction, estribillo). The
convention of including characters of popular origin (pilgrim, shepherd, blind man) or belonging to
national, regional or ethnic groups (Indian, Asturian, Galician, Gypsy) continued at this time. Its
prototypical presentation was marked in particular by colloquial language and traditional music. The
debasement of the textual content led some ecclesiastic authorities to ban villancicos in the last third of
the century, reinstating the singing of liturgical responses in Latin, in accordance with the exhortations of
Pope Benedict XIV's encyclical Annus qui (1749) and with enlightened ideology. Francisco Javier García
Fajer, maestro de capilla at Zaragoza Cathedral, was highly influential in this reform of sacred music,
assisted by his nephew Juan Antonio García de Carrasquedo and by Pedro Aranaz y Vides, maestros at the
cathedrals of Santander and Cuenca respectively. In the second half of the century, the polemics regarding
the adoption of the Italian operatic style in sacred music continued. Treatises by progressive composers
and theorists such as Antonio Rodríguez de Hita (Diapasón instructivo, 1757) and Antonio Soler (Llave de la
modulación y antigüedades de la música, 1762), drawing on the liberal ideas expressed by the Benedictine
monk Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro (1676–1764) in his Cartas eruditas y curiosas (1742–60), which
were a long way from the reactionary stance of the famous lecture ‘Música de los templos’ from Theatro
crítico universal (i, 1726), unleashed a barrage of attacks by conservatives. In 1796, the translation into
Spanish of Dell'origine e delle regole della musica by the expelled Spanish Jesuit Antonio Eximeno also
incited inflamed polemics in the capital's newspapers. Underlying this controversy is the confrontation
between the supporters of the old rationalist aesthetic, which advocates that music is directed at reason,
and the adherents of sensationalism, who accepted innovations in music so long as they provided auditory
pleasure.

(ii) Music for the stage.

For splendour of court music, the reign of Charles III (1759–88) cannot be compared with that of his
predecessors. The monarch's lack of inclination for music led to the cessation of Farinelli's employment
and to the progressive dwindling of operatic performances at court. When the Count of Aranda, president
of the Council of Castile (1766–73), promoted theatres at the king's country residences, French tragédies
and Italian opere buffe, some with text by Goldoni, were the preferred fare. From the beginning of the reign
of Charles III, Italian opera spread rapidly through all the important Spanish cities. Italian opera
companies, directed by impresarios like Nicolà Setaro, Alfonso Nicolini, Petronio Setti, Francisco Creus
and José Lladó, established themselves in the commercial theatres of La Coruña, Zaragoza, Valencia,
Seville and, especially, Cádiz – buoyant thanks to commerce with America – and Barcelona, among others.
The predominant entertainment was dramma giocoso. Some of the companies of Spanish actors, like those
at the municipal theatres of Madrid, found themselves obliged to compete by offering Spanish versions of
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comic operas. The pieces were adapted to zarzuelas: they were reduced to two acts, the recitatives were
eliminated and replaced by spoken dialogue and, in many cases, the characters and the action were also
modified. A local composer was commissioned to add a few numbers to the original score, usually by
Piccinni, Traetta, Galuppi or Scolari. The central figure in this process of assimilation was the playwright
Ramón de la Cruz (1731–94). Thus, for instance, one of the greatest successes in Europe at the time, La
Cecchina, ossia La buona figliola, a comic opera in three acts by Niccolò Piccinni with libretto by Goldoni
(1760, Rome), was performed as early as 1761 in Barcelona, the following year in Seville and Cádiz, in 1767
at the La Granja palace and, finally, in Aranjuez and Valencia (1769). In 1765 De la Cruz rewrote it into a
zarzuela for the Madrid public under the title La buena muchacha, while Antonio Bazo did the same for the
company of Carlos Vallés, who took it to Barcelona (1770) and Valladolid (1772). The overwhelming success
of adapted comic operas such as Pescar sin caña ni red (Le pescatrici) and Los cazadores (Gli uccellatori)
contributed to the creation, towards the end of the 1760s, of the ‘costumbrista’ zarzuela (centred on local
customs), by De la Cruz and the composer Rodríguez de Hita. Their two ‘burlesque’ zarzuelas, Las
segadoras de Vallecas (1768) and Las labradoras de Murcia (1769), set the foundations of the genre: division
into two acts, comic costumbrista theme, a mixture of noble and popular characters, use of vernacular and
regional language, folktunes, patter, arias in two tempos, etc. These costumbrista works prepared the way
for the 19th-century zarzuela. De la Cruz continued to exploit the vein of rural or bourgeois subjects in the
zarzuelas En casa de nadie no se meta nadie o El buen marido (1770), with music by Fabián García Pacheco;
Las Foncarraleras (1772), by Ventura Galván; and El licenciado Farfulla (1776), by Antonio Rosales. The comic
zarzuela also attracted Luigi Boccherini, whose Clementina, with libretto by De la Cruz, was first performed
in 1786 in the private theatre of María Josefa, Countess-Duchess of Benavente. The serious subject matter
characteristic of the zarzuela after Calderón was not completely abandoned in the second half of the
century, even though heroic story lines were preferred to mythological ones. De la Cruz himself, in his first
period, had written zarzuelas with plots taken from classical antiquity: Quien complace a la deidad (1757),
with music by Manuel Pla; Briseida (1768), by Rodríguez de Hita; and Jasón (1768), by an Italian resident in
Spain, Gaetano Brunetti, all follow neo-classical lines to a greater or lesser degree. Both the expansion of
Italian opera and the revitalization of existing zarzuelas coincided with the Count of Aranda's reformist
government. The measures in support of the theatre which followed the uprising of 1766 (‘Esquilache
mutiny’) reflected the wish to extend royal authority in the face of the Catholic Church's claims. In 1787
the Caños del Peral theatre reopened in Madrid with a prestigious company directed by Domenico Rossi,
and operas by Sarti, Cimarosa, Paisiello, Guglielmi and others were performed until the end of the century.
During the same period in Barcelona, Italian operas by such Spanish composers as Carles Baguer,
Fernando Sor and Vicente Martín y Soler (whose international renown had taken him as far as Russia) were
offered alongside the Italian repertory. Finally, in December 1799, Charles IV banned performances with
foreign actors and in languages other than Spanish. One of the products of the competition with Italian
opera was the stage tonadilla, the most characteristic phenomenon of musical theatre during the reigns of
Charles III and Charles IV. Like the sainete (a comic sketch or one-act farce), this independent piece would
be inserted in the second interval of a play or zarzuela; between one and four singers would take part
(tonadilla general). The musico-literary style is simple, rooted in the popular tradition. The tonadillas,
which became small musical dramas, portray working-class and bourgeois characters (together with the
typical fops, lovers, clergy and gallants) with critical irony and excessive conventionalism. The picturesque
qualities of the tonadilla are reflected in the painting of the period, particularly in the works of Goya. The
main proponents of the genre, which reached its zenith between 1770 and 1790, were Antonio Guerrero,
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Pablo Esteve y Grimau, Antonio Palomino, Mariano Bustos, Jacinto Valledor y la Calle and Pablo del Moral.
In 1778 it was established that the ‘company composers’ of Madrid's municipal theatres were obliged to
provide 60 tonadillas each year. The most prominent librettists were Luis Moncín, Manuel del Pozo, Gaspar
Zavala y Zamora (1762–1824) and Vicente Rodríguez de Arellano (1750–?1806), although the Catalan
Luciano Francisco Comella (1751–1812), the most prolific of the end-of-century dramatists, also
undoubtedly stands out. The success of the tonadilla lies in the fact that it was intended essentially for the
urban working classes. Owing to the methods used by the authors in order to please the audience, the
tonadilla, like the sainete, was severely criticized by the neo-classicists. The melólogo (melodrama) was one
of the most widely cultivated musical genres in the 1790s. The first adapter in Spain was the dramatist
Tomás de Iriarte (1750–91), author of the well-known didactic poem La música (1779), who wrote the
lyrics and orchestral commentary of Guzmán el bueno (1790, Cádiz). The authors of the texts, whose plot
was usually mythological, legendary or historical, were most often Rodríguez de Arellano and Comella.

(iii) Instrumental music.

Despite having little inclination for music himself, Charles III, who had been taught by the violinist
Giacomo Facco, took pains over his children's musical education. Prince Charles (the future Charles IV)
was trained by the Italian violinists Felipe Sabbatini and Gaetano Brunetti, whom he was to appoint
violinist of the royal chamber on his accession to the throne. José Nebra and the Hieronymite Antonio Soler
were the Infante Gabriel's clavichord teachers. A large proportion of Soler's instrumental works, most
prominently the quintets of 1776, were composed for the musical academies patronized by the Infante
Gabriel at his El Escorial palace. Another promoter of chamber music at court was the king's brother, the
Infante Luis Antonio, who was Boccherini's patron from 1768. In imitation of court circles, the nobility
organized musical academies in their salons. Among the foremost noble houses were those of Osuna,
Conquista and Arcos. The 12th Duke of Alba (1714–76) and his son, the Duke of Huéscar (1733–70), held a
pre-eminent position, with Luis Misón and Manuel Canales, the first Spanish composer of string quartets,
in their service. Another patron who stands out is María Josefa (1752–1834), Countess-Duchess of
Benavente, who kept an excellent orchestra and took the trouble to maintain an extensive musical archive
up to date. In 1783 she obtained, through her representative in Vienna, a contract with Joseph Haydn which
committed him to sending her every six months copies of any new music he composed. In 1786, following
the death of the Infante Luis Antonio, Boccherini passed into María Josefa's service as composer and
director of her orchestra.

The favourable political-economic choices of the reformist governments helped the consolidation of the
high bourgeoisie and the middle class, which constituted the new audience for music in the second half of
the century. Musical gatherings proliferated in salons, private houses and cafés, turning into soirées which
would end in music and dance, especially the fandango, the seguidilla and the bolero. Musical academies
became common, and the participation of amateurs increased. For instance, music came to occupy an
important place in the Sociedades Económicas de Amigos del País, one of the Spanish intelligentsia's
achievements. At the Caños del Peral theatre ‘concerts spirituels’ were organized for the first time, staged
by the opera company to compensate for the interruption of performances over Lent. The success of these
subscription concerts led to similar ones being held in the last years of the century in Barcelona and
Valladolid. The pre-Classical and Classical central European composers, until then heard only at court and

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the aristocratic salons, now reached a wider audience. As in the rest of Europe, musical education became
one of the main preoccupations of the educated in Spain as well. For the first time, the possibility of
offering musical training through lay institutions was raised. However, the requests of the poet Iriarte and
of Rodríguez de Hita for the creation of a music academy were ignored. Because the monarchy did not
favour the establishment of music publishers, the requirements of the new amateur market could not be
satisfied, nor could Spanish music be propagated abroad. Despite these unfavourable conditions, a number
of books on instruments and dances appeared, directed at aficionados. In particular, there was a
resurgence of treatises on learning to play the guitar, like those by Andrés de Sotos (Arte para aprender con
facilidad y sin maestro a templar y tañer, 1764), Fernando Ferandiere (Arte de tocar la guitarra española por
música, 1799), or Antonio Abreu and Víctor Prieto (Escuela para tocar con perfección la guitarra, 1799).

5. 19th century.
Belen Perez Castillo

(i) Historico-political background.

Turbulent and politically unstable, the 19th century in Spain was not propitious for major musical creation.
Until about 1830 the Napoleonic Wars, civil wars, revolutions, coups d'états and the reactionary
government of Ferdinand VII – anti-liberal and hence ‘anti-Romantic’ – caused many composers and
artists to leave Spain (thus consolidating Spanish music in Europe through composers such as Fernando
Sor and Manuel García). This situation prevented the development of major symphonic trends and of a
more substantial indigenous creativity, while causing an economic and intellectual crisis among
musicians, an absence of musical organizations and a deficiency in the state of musical education.
However, the negative image that has weighed upon this century is being dispelled as the result of events
that were decisive for the subsequent development of Spanish music, from mid-century onwards. Mention
must be made of the consequences of the Mendizábal sale of church lands, which began in 1835 and
reduced by half the proportion of revenue destined for music. As a result, many musicians were forced to
leave their positions in churches and cathedrals to perform in flamenco bars and cafés, where a number of
pianists also ended up. Their repertory included fashionable dances and arrangements of operas and
zarzuelas as well as more serious chamber music. Granados and Albéniz first performed several of their
works in these circumstances. Compared to the exaltation of composers in the rest of 19th-century Europe,
in Spain only a few composers and certain virtuosos escaped the general degradation of the music
profession. As for sacred music, a few composers such as Hilarión Eslava, Mariano Rodríguez de Ledesma,
Francisco Andreví y Castellar, Nicolás Ledesma and Enrique Barrera Gómez stand out despite the
disastrous situation.

(ii) Regenerative developments.

The low standing of musicians and their craft, and the impression abroad that Spain was a musically
backward nation, were not ameliorated until the arrival of the composers of the ‘Generación del 27’. From
then on, thanks to the efforts of Baltasar Saldoni, Eslava (director of the religious publications series Lira
Sacro-Hispana), Mariano Soriano Fuertes, Francisco Asenjo Barbieri, Antonio Peña y Goñi, Felipe Pedrell

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(a key figure through his teaching and his support of national music) and others, the beginnings of
musicological research can be seen. Music criticism reached a peak of brilliance, especially following the
death of Ferdinand VII, through such publications as La ilustración. The outstanding figures in this field are
Fargas y Soler, Manuel Manrique de Lara, Cecilio de Roda, Peña y Goñi, and Luis Carmena y Millán. Finally,
the century witnessed the birth of conservatories (first in Madrid, financed by the initiative of Queen María
Cristina in 1830), the first musical societies (Sociedad de Cuartetos, 1863; Sociedad de Conciertos, 1866),
the beginning of concert life and the rise of symphonic writing.

(iii) Orchestral music.

In the first third of the century, the lack of both an interested audience and an adequate infrastructure
prompted the production of music intended to introduce shows or pageants, whether on stage, at court or
in church; hence the predominance of overtures in the Italian style. The names that stand out are those of
Juan Baladó, Manuel García – who worked abroad – and Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga, with his symphonies
in the Classical style. From the 1830s onwards, the work of José Melchor Gomis, Ramón Carnicer – famous
for his italianate overtures – and Baltasar Saldoni, all of whom composed mainly for the theatre, should be
singled out. More substantial orchestral music began to be properly valued in the 1840s, and various
initiatives to found orchestras emerged. The creation of the Sociedad de Conciertos in 1866 indicates the
stabilization of instrumental music. Directed by Barbieri, Gaztambide, Monasterio, Bretón and Giménez
among others, it was born from the musicians' initiative with the aim of giving concerts of classical and
modern music, and it provided the necessary stimulus to symphonic creation in Spain. The Spanish
repertory performed by this society included the symphonies of Pedro Miguel Marqués y García, Bretón
and Ruperto Chapí; overtures; nationalist pieces such as Monasterio's Fantasía característica española; and
programme pieces and symphonic poems, such as Los gnomos de la Alhambra by Chapí. The concerto was
one of the least performed genres; the only one of significance is Monasterio's B minor Violin Concerto.

The War of Independence interrupted the establishment of a true school of chamber music. One isolated
case is Arriaga, whose premature death cut short an oeuvre in which the quartets stand out. The Sociedad
de Cuartetos, under Monasterio's direction, would later revivify this genre.

(iv) Piano music.

The piano, a typically Romantic instrument, gained a foothold in Spain following the visits of Liszt (1844),
Thalberg (1847) and Gottschalk (1851–2), and gave rise to a market of modest artistic pretensions.
Especially before 1830, when the first conservatory was established, the piano's main venue was the salon,
not the concert hall, with a wide range of easy pieces: dances, fantasies and variations based on operatic
themes, arrangements for voice and piano, etc. Two periods can be distinguished: the first defined by
European genres (waltzes, variations, scherzos, sonatas, mazurkas) and the virtuosity adopted by pianists
in imitation of the great performers; and the second, starting in the 1850s, in which Spanish and central
European dances would predominate. In any case, the most prominent compositions were small works –
which reflected the influence of both the great European masters and nationalism – free forms, of

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rhapsodic or programmatic type. The foremost composers of piano music were Pedro Albéniz y Basanta,
Santiago de Masarnau, José Miró, Pedro Tintorer, Juan María Guelbenzu, Marcial del Adalid y Gurrea,
Adolfo de Quesada, Eduardo Ocón, Teobaldo Power, José Tragó, Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados.

These last two are particularly notable. Albéniz (1860–1909), a child prodigy and a pianist of polished
technique, studied with Pedrell, who guided him towards composing. He was a tireless traveller: for a time
he followed Liszt, and he had contacts with musical fin-de-siècle Paris, especially Debussy. A connection
can be established between his pianistic language and that of Chopin, in that both endeavoured to create a
nationalist musical expression and to renew pianistic technique. Until La vega, the main criterion that
propelled his work was improvisation. Suite española and Chant d'Espagne stand out from this early period.
His greatest work is Iberia. Granados (1867–1916) was, like Albéniz, Catalan and a piano virtuoso. He
exhibits a purely Romantic tendency which is also nourished by the folklore of various regions. Prominent
among his piano works, which also owe some of their character to Pedrell's teaching, are Danzas españolas
and Goyescas (the latter was also to become an opera). Among his vocal works, the tonadillas and the
zarzuela María del Carmen are noteworthy. His orchestral music is more limited, although the intermezzo
of Goyescas stands out. As concerns other solo instruments, the majority of creative activity was focussed
on the guitar. Some of the eminent figures in this field were Fernando Sor, Dionisio Aguado – author of a
well-known method – and Julián Arcas, who may be considered the founders of the modern guitar school.

(v) Song and the lyric theatre.

The salon, the main centre for piano music, was also – together with the café – the venue for song, which
would only later pass on to the theatre. There is a marked Andalusist and populist component, as well as a
strong relation with the 18th-century tonadilla, which shows up in the use of seguidillas, boleros and polos.
Manuel García was one of the main song composers. In the second half of the century the influence of the
Italian romanza and the French mélodie was more evident. Choral activity reached its peak towards the end
of the century, building on the groundwork of Anselmo Clavé and his choirs composed of manual workers.
Clavé's music, expressive and popular in character, was widely imitated.

The theatre was one of the chief musical centres in the 19th century. A large number were built, among
them the Teatro Real and the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, the Arriaga in Bilbao and the Liceo in
Barcelona. The two main genres performed at these centres were zarzuela – aimed, in principle, at the
middle class – and opera, aimed at the aristocracy (these differences were to disappear with the arrival of
the género chico). Apart from an influence of French operetta at the start, the first 30 years of the century
were marked by a veritable delirium for Italian music, especially Rossini's works. In this ambience, so
unfavourable for vernacular production, the work that stands out is that of José Melchor Gomis, a
passionate liberal who was forced to flee to France, where several of his operas were performed. Ramón
Carnicer was another noteworthy dramatic composer; he, however, could not avoid the Italian influence.

In the 1840s, with nationalism at its peak, there was a reaction to the invasion by Italian opera, and the
first attempts to create a national opera took place. Generally, these failed owing to the audiences' rapture
with the Italian style, the agents' interests, the composers' scepticism and a lack of public funds; all of this
added fuel to the Teatro Real's boycott of Spanish opera and zarzuelas. Opera was the great unfinished

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business and one of the major subjects of discussion of the 19th century. While for Peña y Goñi Spanish
opera had never existed, for Barbieri Spanish opera was the zarzuela. The subject provoked the great
manifestation of nationalism reflected in Pedrell's treatise Por nuestra música (Barcelona, 1891). All the
same, it is worth mentioning some Spanish operas such as Tomás Bretón's Los amantes de Teruel, Chapí's
La bruja, Granados's María del Carmen, Pedrell's Els Pirineus, Arrieta's Marina and Albéniz's Pepita Jiménez.

On the other hand, the nationalist resurgence prompted the appearance of the ‘new zarzuela’, which
continued the national lyrical theatre's tradition of alternating spoken dialogue with songs. Though
characterized by classical harmony and Andalusist effects such as the use of the augmented 2nd and the
Andalusian scale, it nevertheless does not escape Italian influence and the typology of French operetta.
However, it also shows a relation to the tonadilla. The Sociedad de Artistas, formed in 1851 and consisting
of Salas, Joaquín Gaztambide, José Inzanga, Barbieri, Cristóbal Oudrid and Rafael Hernando, among
others, succeeded in obtaining the financial aid needed to build the Teatro de la Zarzuela and establish the
new theatrical genre. Among first examples of the latter were Los enredos de un curioso (1832) – a
collaboration between Carnicer, Saldoni, Piermarini and P. Albéniz y Basanta – and the one-act Jeroma la
castañera (1842) by Soriano Fuertes. The ‘restoration’ of the zarzuela was later consolidated with Colegiales
y soldados (1849) and El duende (1849), by Hernando (both in two acts); La mensajera (1849; two acts), by
Gaztambide; El dominó azul (1853; three acts), by Arrieta; and, above all, the works of Barbieri: El barberillo
de Lavapiés (1874; three acts), Gloria y peluca (1850; one act), Jugar con fuego (1851; three acts) and Pan y
toros (1864; three acts). Two types of zarzuela can be distinguished at this time: the zarzuela grande and the
one-act zarzuela. The zarzuela grande, in two or three acts, with 15 or 16 multi-sectional numbers,
generally used historic subjects. Sung text predominates, and it tends to begin with a prelude followed by a
large choral section. It continues with the first scene, in which the main character appears, and then goes
on with the acts and concertantes. The one-act zarzuela, Hispanic in nature and with popular subject
matter, was written for a small number of characters. Recited dialogue predominates, with reduced vocal
demands. The use of strophic songs and the presence of dances are two of its characteristics. This genre
prefigures the one developed later as the género chico.

Another form of lyric theatre up to the 1880s was the ‘género bufo’, whose name comes from the
Compañía de los Bufos Madrileños founded by Francisco Arderíus in 1866. Modelled on Offenbach's
Bouffes-Parisiens, these works were comic-burlesque in character and their aim was financial success.
Among them are El jóven Telémaco, by Rogel; Un sarao y una soirée, La trompa de Eustaquio and Sópleme
usted ese ojo, by Arrieta; Los sobrinos del capitán Grant, by M.F. Caballero; and Robinsón Crusoe, by F.A.
Barbieri. The librettists worthiest of note were López de Ayala and Eusebio Blasco. The influence of the
género bufo gave rise to competition that turns the spotlight on to the sainete, in which the music is
progressively simplified and strophic form is gradually imposed. But the ultimate victory belongs to the
cuplé (variety song) and the género chico, which originated with the hourly performances that theatres
began to offer in the last third of the century in an effort to solve the theatre crisis. Its birth is usually set at
1880, the composition date of La canción de la Lola by Federico Chueca. The roots of this genre are in the
stage tonadilla and the sainete with their popular Madrid setting. The main author was Chueca, who,
despite his great lyrical ease, required collaborators in the majority of his works. The most important of
these was Joaquín Valverde (i).

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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

The development, from the 1860s onwards, of ‘theatre by the hour’ finds its culmination in the famous
‘cuarta de Apolo'. The works destined for this market came to be produced in a mechanical manner, thus
becoming a focal point of criticism for the writers of the ‘Generación del 98’. One kind of programme that
stands out within the repertorio chico is the revue, which originally had a political content, and which ended
up giving way to a sort of ‘current affairs’ revue. All the current news and topics of discussion would be
included in these. Among its characteristics were the preponderance of spectacle over plot, the dramatic
possibilities of combining isolated scenes, and political satire. Its musical raw material would be in folk
tradition or urban folklore, and its form would come from the fashionable rhythms. One of the most
popular was La gran vía (1886), subtitled ‘comic-lyric-fantastic street revue’, by Chueca and Valverde. The
majority of dramatic composers cultivated these genres. Among the most famous at the end of the century
were Manuel Fernández Caballero, Tomás Bretón (with his masterly La verbena de la paloma), Jerónimo
Giménez, and especially Ruperto Chapí, who, with works like La tempestad and La bruja, revitalized the
zarzuela. In the years that followed, the dramatic composers who stood out were Vicente Lleó, Amadeo
Vives, José Serrano, Pablo Luna, Francisco Alonso, Federico Moreno Torroba, Pablo Sorozábal and Jacinto
Guerrero.

6. 20th century.
Belen Perez Castillo

Cultural development in 20th-century Spain is largely marked by the Civil War (1936–9) and by the
subsequent fascist government which held power for nearly 40 years. In the first part of the century, up to
the establishment of the Republic, the output of Spanish composers leant towards a kind of neo-
romanticism with popular connotations. The zarzuela continued to enjoy great success through the work
of authors such as Vives and Usandizaga. Manuel de Falla (1876–1946) himself, who exerted a decisive
influence on the careers of all the other composers, began his career in composition while living in Madrid
surrounded by zarzuela, a genre for which he demonstrated his admiration and to which he contributed
five works, two in collaboration with Vives. Of these, only the lyrical saineteLos amores de la Inés was to be
performed. The teaching of Pedrell acquainted Falla with the music of the Spanish polyphonists and with
the musical movements in Europe. This period of training culminated with the prize won by his stage work
La vida breve from the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts. Later, Falla travelled to Paris (1907–14), where
he came into contact with Albéniz, Debussy, Ravel and Dukas, who gave him guidance in orchestration. His
return to Spain signalled the beginning of a third stage. His style evolved from the Impressionism of works
such as Noches en los jardines de España, through the ‘Andalusist’ phase of El amor brujo and El sombrero de
tres picos, to the neo-classicism of El retablo del maese Pedro (1923), influenced by Stravinskian language,
and the Harpsichord Concerto (1923–6). From 1927 onwards he worked on Atlántida. Falla's last period
centred on Argentina, where he lived from 1939 until his death.

In the second decade of the 20th century an alternative line developed in Spain, headed by the composers
of the ‘Generación de la República’ or ‘Generación del 27’, the latter name originating from the celebration
in 1927 of the tricentenary of the death of Luis de Góngora by musicians and writers with similar aesthetic
concerns. In addition to Impressionist and neo-classicist tendencies evident in a process of expressive
refinement and the restriction of sound media, the work of these composers was profoundly marked by the

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nationalist language of Falla. Among them – within what might be called the ‘Madrid group’ – were Julián
Bautista, Gustavo Pittaluga, Fernando Remacha, Salvador Bacarisse, Jesús Bal y Gay, Rosa García Ascot,
Rodolfo Halffter and Juan José Mantecón, as well as the musicologist Adolfo Salazar. Among Catalan
composers may be mentioned Eduardo Toldrá, violinist, conductor and composer of works such as the
comic opera El giravolt de maig and the quartet Vistas al mar; Frederic Mompou, Baltasar Samper and
Manuel Blancafort. Mompou (1893–1987), trained in Paris and influenced by Debussy, is the author of a
piano oeuvre from which the series Cançons i danses and Impresiones íntimas stand out. Other noteworthy
composers from this period are Jaime Pahissa, Nemesio Otaño, Joaquín Nin, the Valencian Joaquín Rodrigo
and the Alicantino Oscar Esplá (1886–1976). The musical language of Expressionism went practically
unnoticed, except by the Catalan Roberto Gerhard (1896–1970). Through Gerhard, a pupil of Pedrell's,
serial techniques entered Spain via Schoenberg himself, who taught Gerhard in Vienna.

After this time, as a result of the Civil War and Spain's subsequent isolation from the rest of Europe,
Spanish music suffered a setback in the progression of compositional activity from which it did not recover
for some years. A number of composers were obliged to leave Spanish soil because of their rejection of the
fascist regime. Among those forced into exile were Pittaluga, Bacarisse, Salazar, Bal y Gay, Rosa García
Ascot and Rodolfo Halffter. Gerhard established himself in England until his death, while Falla remained in
Argentina. The majority of the Generación del 27 ended up settling in various parts of Europe and,
particularly, Latin America. Those who stayed in Spain included the composers Jesús Guridi, Conrado del
Campo and Joaquín Turina. The work of the last-named at the helm of the Comisaría Nacional de la Música
resulted in the creation of the Orquesta Nacional de España, which gave its first concert in 1942. Its most
distinguished regular conductor was Ataulfo Argenta. Turina also held its directorship, along with Conrado
del Campo and Julio Gómez. The works of these composers and of Falla, Esplá, Blancafort, Mompou and
Toldrá, as well as those of Ernesto Halffter, Jesús García Leoz, Muñoz Molleda and Xavier Montsalvatge,
made up Spanish production at the time, with prominence given to works of a nationalist character.
Alongside these was the work of Joaquín Rodrigo, whose Concierto de Aranjuez is probably the most
performed guitar concerto of the century. Also during this time the national dramatic genre went into
decline, being replaced by revues and variety shows.

The younger composers attempted to reject all trace of nationalism and to join European currents such as
dodecaphonism which, as already observed, had scarcely been taken up in Spain. Among these were
Cristóbal Halffter, Narcís Bonet, Josep Cercós, Xavier Benguerel, Alberto Blancafort and others. The
musical panorama was nevertheless desolate; there were hardly any scores or recordings of works in which
new composition techniques had been assimilated. Bibliography in Spanish regarding contemporary
composition was practically non-existent in Spain in the 1950s. The improvement in international
relations and the increasing ease in communication were to have consequences. In the 1950s a veritable
rupture with the predominant language of contemporary Spanish composition took place, the result of an
awareness of opportunities missed during the years of autocracy and a consequent need to link up with the
European currents. In Madrid, the main incentive towards renovation was provided by Nueva Música,
founded in 1958 under the patronage of the Ateneo de Madrid. The group played an essential role in the
emancipation of ‘new composition’ in Spain by organizing various concerts, conferences and seminars.
Among its members were Luis de Pablo, Antón García Abril, Antonio Ruiz-Pipó, Ramón Barce and Manuel
Moreno-Buendía, as well as the critic Enrique Franco. The group's heterogeneity was reflected in a

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subsequent compositional path of a very different character. In addition to the Ateneo, contemporary
music was disseminated at that time through the concerts of Sonda, Juventudes Musicales, the French and
German institutes and Tiempo y Música, founded in 1961 and directed by Luis de Pablo during the two
years of its existence. From 1965 until 1973 the development of Spanish contemporary composition
received a strong impetus from Alea. This was another organization directed by Pablo, created mainly
through his concerts and his Laboratorio de Música Electrónica, which channelled the interest of new
composers in concrete and electro-acoustic music. The Zaj group, which counted Walter Marchetti and
Juan Hidalgo among its members, commenced its notorious activities in 1964.

In Catalonia, Roberto Gerhard had caused an upheaval in musical language by promulgating 12-note
techniques and bringing about various musical events, among them the première in 1936 of Berg's Violin
Concerto in the setting of the 14th ISCM Festival and Schoenberg's stay in Barcelona. Traditionally
Wagnerian, Catalonia became confirmed at the beginning of the century as a champion of the Germanic
style in music. In the years before the Civil War, the musical ambience in Catalonia had created the perfect
climate for the development of new ideas, but the war truncated the promise of a generation of young
musicians. Fortunately, the younger composers – among them Josep Cercós, Josep Soler Sardà, Xavier
Benguerel and Josep M. Mestres Quadreny – had the advantage of the guidance of a Catalan musician
trained elsewhere in Europe: Cristòfor Taltabull (1888–1964), who was acquainted with Max Reger.
Traditionally, Spanish musicians had leant towards the French influence – take Falla or the majority of the
Generación del 27 – but Taltabull brought in addition a German influence, also present in musicians like
Conrado del Campo, which had a bearing on the structure and logic of musical discourse.

The formation of the Círculo Manuel de Falla in 1947, under the sponsorship of the Instituto Francés in
Barcelona, brought together a number of composers with different perspectives. The first members of the
circle were Joan Comellas, Alberto Blancafort Paris, Josep Cercós, Angel Cerdá and Manuel Valls. Josep
Casanovas, Jordi Giró and Mestres Quadreny joined later, and the singer Anna Ricci also took part. The
Círculo Manuel de Falla ceased its activities during the 1954–5 season. Other factors that contributed to the
dynamism of the period's musical life were the work of Juventades Musicales and the concerts and
activities of Musica Abierta organized by Club 49 between about 1960 and 1970. In retrospect, a certain
uniformity of style becomes evident in Catalonia, where serialist techniques matured and persisted, unlike
in the Madrid area, where they were generally employed over a shorter period of time. In the 1970s the
foundations of a democratic government were laid in Spain. At the same time – and probably even before –
there was, musically, a clear move towards the establishment of personal languages, as well as a degree of
backing away from the most radical avant-garde trends. On the other hand, interest in non-Western
cultures and in the development of non-academic musical creativity also reached a climax in the early
years of the decade, as manifested in the 1972 Encuentros de Pamplona, in effect a coda to the period.
Groups such as Canon, which assimilated the theatrical experiences of Artaud, Brecht and Grotowsky and
at the same time attempted to renew the relation between the piece and the actors on the one hand and the
spectators on the other, and in which the singer Esperanza Abad began her work in contemporary music,
developed their creative work in the 70s. Among the representatives of this anti-academic tendency is
Llorenç Barber, founder of groups such as the collective Actum (1973) – which concentrated on the
conceptual, on improvisation, musical actions and minimalism – and the Taller Música Mundana (1978).
The Catalan musician Carles Santos and the singer Fátima Miranda followed the same line.

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A series of ‘generations’ of composers in Spanish music can be identified in the second half of the century.
One is the Generación del 51, including those born between 1924 and 1938. Among these are Luis de Pablo
(one of those who have carried post-Webernian experimentation the furthest, in his most recent phase
interested in opera), Cristóbal Halffter (who has gone from serialism to the communicative potential of his
music for choir or full orchestra through textural procedures), Ramón Barce, Amando Blanquer, Agustín
Bertomeu, Miguel Alonso, Agustín González Acilu (whose work stresses the relation between music and
phonetics), Manuel Castillo, Carmelo Alonso Bernaola, Antón García Abril, Juan José Falcón Sanabria,
Miguel Angel Coria Varela, Angel Oliver, Francisco Calés, Juan Hidalgo, Angel Arteaga and Claudio Prieto.
In the Catalan region, the works of Soler Sardà – whose serialist language has frequently been put to use in
dramatic music – Mestres Quadreny, Benguerel, Joan Guinjoan and Jordi Cervelló stand out. Gerardo
Gombau, though older, is linked to these through his interest in renewal. Other composers, whose careers
had a greater degree of independence due to their more or less prolonged residence abroad, are Gonzalo de
Olavide, José Luis Delás and Leonardo Balada. The following ‘generation’ would include those born
between about 1939 and 1953. The names that figure here are those of Tomás Marco (although the path of
this musician, critic and music administrator converged temporarily with that of the Generación del 51),
Félix Ibarrondo, Jesús Villa Rojo, Carlos Cruz de Castro, José García Román, Javier Darias, Llorenç Barber,
Carles Santos, Marisa Manchado, Francisco Guerrero, José Ramón Encinar and José Luis Turina, as well as
the Catalans Albert Sardà and Jep Nuix. A mellowing of the language becomes most evident at the end of
the 1970s and beginning of the 80s, particularly in the composers of the Generación del 51. From that time
on, a large number of authors began to accept the use of a more or less open tonality. The variety of
aesthetic options has also had its effect on the younger generation, including Seco de Arpe, Manuel
Hidalgo, Adolfo Núñez, Zulema de la Cruz, Agustín Charles, Benet Casablancas, José Manuel López, Alfredo
Aracil, Manuel Balboa, David del Puerto, Jesús Torres, Jesús Rueda and Carlos Galán.

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S. Rubio : Historia de la música española, ii: Desde el ‘ars nova’ hasta 1600 (Madrid, 1983)

R.L. Gerber, ed.: Johannes Cornago: Complete Works (Madison, 1984)

R. Fernández : De las melodías del reino nazaride Granada a las estructuras musicales cristianas (Granada, 1985)

M.C. Gómez, ed.: Mateo Flecha [ii]: Il primo libro de madrigali (Madrid, 1985)

M. Morais, ed.: Vilancetes, Cantigas e Romances do século XVI (Lisbon, 1986)

J. Reif : ‘Music and Grammar: Imitation and Analogy in Morales and the Spanish Humanists’, EMH, 6 (1986), 227–43

D. Preciado, ed.: Francisco de Peñalosa opera omnia (Madrid, 1986–91)

M.C. Goméz, ed.: Mateo Flecha [ii]: La feria; La cañas (Madrid, 1987)

T. Knighton : ‘Northern Influence on Cultural Developmnts in the Iberian Peninsula during the Fifteenth Century’,
Rolling Stone, 1 (1987), 221–37

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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

P. Becquart and H. Vanhulst, eds.: Musique des Pays-Bas ancien – Musique espagnole ancienne (Louvain, 1988)

L. Robledo : ‘Sobre la capilla real de Felipe II’, Nassarre, 4 (1988), 245–48

C. Villanueva and others, eds.: El pórtico de la gloria: música, arte y pensamiento (Santiago de Compostela, 1988)

T. Knighton : ‘The Spanish Court of Ferdinand and Isabella’, The Renaissance from the 1470s to the End of the Sixteenth
Century, ed. I. Felon (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1989)

E. Castro : Tropos y troparios hispánicos (Santiago de Compostela, 1991)

M.C. Gómez, ed.: Mateo Flecha [i]: La viuda (Barcelona, 1992)

K. Kreitner : ‘Minstrels in Spanish Churches, 1400–1600’, EMc, 20 (1922), 533–46

O. Rees : ‘Guerrero's L'Homme armé Masses and their Models’, EMH, 12 (1993), 19–54

M. Christoforidis and J. Ruiz Jiménez : ‘Manuscrito 975 de la Biblioteca de Manuel de Falla: Una nueva fuente
polifónica del siglo XVI’, RdMc, 17 (1994), 205–36

M.C. Gómez : ‘The Ensalada and the Origins of the Lyric Theatre in Spain’, Comparative Drama, 28 (1994), 367–93

J.M. Hardie, ed.: Fransico de Peñalosa: Twenty Four Motets (Ottawa, 1994)

T. Binkley and M. Frenk : Spanish Romances of the Sixteenth Century (Bloomington, IN, 1995)

K. Kreitner : ‘Music in the Corpus Christi Procession of Barcelona’, EMH, 14 (1995), 183–91

R.J. Snow, ed.: Rodrigo de Ceballos: Obras completas (Granada, 1995–7)

C. Poché : La musique arabo-andalouse (Arles, 1995)

L. Robledo : ‘Felipe II y Felipe III como patronos musicales’, AnM, 53 (1998), 95–110

L. Robledo : ‘La música en la corte de Felipe II’, Felipe II y su época, Actas del Simposium: San Lorenzo del Escorial 1998,
ed. F.J. Campos (Madrid, 1999), i, 139–67

M.C. Gómez : La música medieval en España (forthcoming)

See also Mozarabic chant.

C: 17th and 18th centuries

E. Cotarelo y Mori : Historia de la zarzuela o sea del drama lírico en España desde sus orígenes a fines del siglo XIX
(Madrid, 1924)

J. Subirá : La tonadilla escénica (Madrid, 1927)

E. Cotarelo y Mori : ‘Ensayo histórico sobre la zarzuela, o sea el drama lírico español desde su origen a fines del siglo
XIX’, Boletín de la Real Academia Española (Madrid, 1934)

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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

J. Subirá : ‘La música de cámara en la corte madrileña durante el siglo XVIII y principios del XIX’, AnM, 1 (1946), 181–94

N.D. Shergold and J.E. Varey : Los autos sacramentales en Madrid en le época de Calderón, 1637–1681 (Madrid, 1961)

R. Andioc : Teatro y sociedad en el Madrid del siglo XVIII (Madrid, 1976, 2/1987)

A. Martín Moreno: El padre Feijóo y las ideologías musicales del siglo XVIII en España (Orense, 1976)

A. Martín Moreno : ‘La música teatral del siglo XVII español’, La música en el Barrocco, ed. E. Casares (Oviedo, 1977),
125–46

R. Goldberg, ed.: Tonos a lo divino y a lo humano (London, 1981)

M. Querol Gavalda, ed.: Teatro musical de Calderón (Barcelona, 1981)

M. Querol : La música en el teatro de Calderón (Barcelona, 1981)

L.K. Stein : ‘Música existente para comedias de Calderón de la Barca’, Calderón y el teatro español del siglo de oro:
Madrid 1981, 2, 1161–72

W.M. Bussey : French and Italian Influence on the Zarzuela 1700–1770 (Ann Arbor, 1982)

F. Civil i Castellví, ed.: Cançoner de la Garrotxa (Girona, 1982)

M.Q. Gavalda : Música barroca español (Barcelona, 1982)

L.K. Stein : ‘Un manuscrito de música teatral reaparecido: Veneno es de amor la envidia’, RdMc, 5 (1982), 225–33

J.J. Carreras López : La música en las catedrales en el siglo XVIII: Francisco J. García ‘El Españoleto’ (1730–1809)
(Zaragoza, 1983)

J. Griffiths : The Vihuela Fantasia: a Comparative Study of Forms and Styles (diss., Monash U., 1983)

J. López-Calo : Historia de la música española, iii: Siglo XVII (Madrid, 1983)

T. Taylor : ‘The Spanish High Baroque Motet and Villancico: Style and Performance’, EMc, 12 (1984), 64–73

J.H. Baron, ed.: Spanish Art Song in the Seventeenth Century (Madison, WI, 1985)

E. Bermudez : ‘Música e ideología: Domenico Scarlatti y España, 1719–1757’, Texto y contexto, 6 (1985), 21–34

A. Martín Moreno : Historia de la música española, iv: Siglo XVIII (Madrid, 1985)

L. Robledo : ‘Vihuelas de arco y violones en la corte de Felipe III’, España en la música de occidente: Salamanca 1985, 2,
63–76

L.K. Stein : ‘Accompaniment and Continuo in Spanish Baroque Music’, España en la musica de occidente: Salamanca
1985, 1, 157–70

J.J. Carreras : La música sacra española en el siglo XVIII (Zaragoza, 1986)

N.D. Shergold and J.E. Varey : Teatros y comedias en Madrid, 1699–1719: estudio y documentos (London, 1986)

L.K. Stein : ‘La plática de los dioses: Music and the Calderonian Court Play, with a Transcription of the Songs from La
estatua de Prometeo’, P. Calderón de la Barca: La estatua de Prometeo, ed. M.R. Greer (Kassel, 1986), 13–92
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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

A. Martín Moreno : La música en la corte española del siglo XVIII (Madrid, 1987)

L.K. Stein : Music in the Seventeenth-Century Spanish Secular Theater, 1598–1690 (diss., U. of Chicago, 1987)

A. Gallego Gallego : La música en tiempos de Carlos III: ensayo sobre el pensamiento musical ilustrado (Madrid, 1998)

B. Lolo : La música en la Real Capilla de Madrid: José de Torres y Martínez Bravo (Madrid, 1988)

L. Jambou : Evolución del órgano español, siglos XVI–XVIII (Oviedo, 1988)

F. Bonastre : ‘El barroc musical a Catalunya’, El barroc català (1989), 447–75

A. Martín Moreno : ‘La música en la corte española del siglo XVIII’, A tempo, no.3 (1989), 19–27

L. Robledo : Juan Blas de Castro (ca. 1561–1631) Vida y obra musical (Zaragoza, 1989)

X.M. Carreira : ‘El teatro de ópera en la Península Ibérica ca. 1750–1775: Nicolà Setaro’, De musica hispana et aliis:
miscelánea en honor al Prof. Dr. José López-Calo, ed. E. Casares and C. Villanueva (Santiago de Compostela, 1990), 2,
27–117

L.K. Stein : ‘Opera and the Spanish Political Agenda’, AcM, 63 (1991), 125–66

M. Esses : Dance and Instrumental Diferencias in Spain During the 17th and early 18th Centuries (Stuyvesant, NY, 1992)

L.K. Stein : ‘Convenciones musicales en el legado de Juan Hidalgo: el aria declamatoria como tonada persuasiva’, F.
Bances Candamo y el teatro musical de su tiempo: Oviedo 1992, 177–217

L.A. González Marín : ‘El teatro musical español del siglo XVII y sus posibilidades de restauración’, AnM, 48 (1993), 63–
101

L.K. Stein : ‘The Iberian Peninsula’, Man & Music: The Late Baroque Era: from the 1680s to 1740, ed. G. Buelow (London,
1993), 411–34

L.K. Stein : Songs of Mortals, Dialogues of the Gods: Music and Theatre in Seventeenth-Century Spain (Oxford, 1993)

L.K. Stein : ‘Spain’, Man & Music: The Early Baroque Era, ed. C. Price (London, 1993), 327–48

L. Robledo : ‘Questions of Performance Practice in Philip III's Chapel’, EMc, 22 (1994), 199–218

L.K. Stein : ‘Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco's La púrpura de la rosa in the Early History of Opera’, Inter-American Music
Review, 14 (1994–5), 79–82

J.J. Carreras : ‘‘Conducir a Madrid estos moldes’: Producción, dramaturgia y recepción de la fiesta teatral Destinos
vencen finezas (1698/99)’, RdMc, 18 (1995), 113–43

L. Jambou : ‘Cantatas solísticas de Valls y compositores anónimos’, RdMc, 18 (1995), 291–325

D. Kirk : ‘Instrumental Music in Lerma, c1608’, EMc, 23 (1995), 393–408

C.H. Russell : Santiago de Murcia's “Códice Saldivar No.4” – a Treasury of Secular Guitar Music from Baroque Mexico
(Urbana and Chicago, 1995)

J. Etzion, ed.: The Cancionero de la Sablonara (London, 1996)

R. Kleinertz, ed.: Teatro y música en España (siglo XVIII) (Berlin, 1996)

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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

A. de Vicente : ‘Un mecenas musical en los comienzos del Barroco: Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas, duque de
Lerma’, El órgano de la Colegiata de Lerma (Valladolid, 1996), 9–34

J.J. Carreras and J.M. Leza, eds.: ‘La circulación de música y músicos en la Europa mediterránea (siglos XVI–XVIII)’,
Artigrama, (1996–7), 9–312

P.-L. Rodríguez : ‘‘Sólo Madrid es corte’: Villancicos de las capillas reales de Carlos II en la catedral de Segovia’,
Artigrama, 12 (1996–7), 237–56

A. Torrente : ‘Cuestiones en torno a la circulación de los músicos catedralicios en la España moderna’, Artigrama, 12
(1996–7), 217–36

C. Caballero : Tonos humanos del barroco en la península ibérica (Valladolid, 1997)

J.J. Carreras : ‘La cantata de cámara española de principios del siglo XVIII: El manuscrito M 2618 de la Biblioteca
Nacional de Madrid y sus concordancias’, Música y literatura en la península ibérica 1600-1750 (Valladolid, 1997), 65–
126

A. Lázaro, ed: José Martin (1619–1699): Tonos para voz y guitarra (Columbus, OH, 1997)

J. Suárez Pajares : La música en la catedral de Sigüenza (1600-1750) (Madrid, 1997)

L.K. Stein : ‘De erotische harmonie van La púrpura de la rosa: de eerste opera uit de Nieuwe Wereld herleeft’, Tijdschrift
voor oude muziek, 12 (1997), 13–16

L.K. Stein : ‘“Este nada dichoso género”: la zarzuela y sus convenciones’, Música y literatura en la península ibérica
1600–1750 (Valladolid, 1997), 185–217

M. Boyd and J.J. Carreras, eds.: Music in Spain in the 18th Century (Cambridge, 1998)

L.K. Stein : ‘“Al seducir el oído …”: delicias y convenciones del teatro musical cortesano’, El teatro cortesano en la
España de los Austrias, ed. J.M. Díez Borque (Madrid, 1998)

L.K. Stein : ‘Eros, Erato, Terpsíchore and the Hearing of Music in Early Modern Spain’, MQ, 82 (1998), 654–77

A. Torrente and P.-L. Rodríguez : ‘The ‘Guerra Manuscript’ (c1680) and the Rise of Solo Song in Spain’, JRMA, 123
(1998), 147–89

J. Koegel : ‘New Sources of Music from Spain and Colonial Mexico at the Sutro Library’, Notes, 55 (1998–9), 583–612

L.K. Stein : ‘Zarzuela’, Diccionario de la música española e hispanoamericana, ed. E. Casares Rodicio (Madrid, 2000)

J.J. Carreras : ‘From Literes to Nebra: Spanish Dramatic Music between Tradition and Modernity’, Music in Eighteenth-
Century Spain (forthcoming)

D: 19th century
B. Saldoni : Efemérides de músicos españoles (Madrid, 1860, 2/1880–90 as Diccionario biográfico-bibliográfico de
efemérides de músicos españoles)

Almanaque de los Bufos Madrileños para 1868 (Madrid, 1868)

A. Peña y Goñi : L'ópera española y la música dramática en España en el siglo XIX: apuntes históricos (Madrid, 1881)
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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

T. Bretón : ‘Barbieri: la Opera Nacional’, Discursos leídos ante la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando en la
recepción pública … el día 14 de mayo de 1896 (Madrid, 1896)

J.M. Esperanza y Sola : Treinta años de crítica musical en España (Madrid, 1906)

L. Villalba Muñoz : Ultimos músicos españoles del siglo XIX (Madrid, 1914)

M. Zurita : Historia del género chico (Madrid, 1920)

J. Borrel : Sesenta años de música (1876–1936): impresiones y comentarios de un aficionado (Madrid, 1945)

M. Muñoz : Historia de la zarzuela y el género chico (Madrid, 1946)

J. Deleito y Piñuela : Origen y apogeo del género chico (Madrid, 1949)

V. Ruiz Albéniz (Chispero) : Teatro Apolo: historial, anecdotario y estampas madrileñas de su tiempo (1873–1929)
(Madrid, 1953)

C. Gómez Amat : Historia de la música española, v: Siglo XIX (Madrid, 1984)

R. Barce : ‘La ópera y la zarzuela en el siglo XIX’España en la música de occidente: Salamanca 1985, 2, 145–53

E. Casares, ed.: Francisco Asenjo Barbieri: Biografías y documentos sobre música y músicos españoles (Legado Barbieri)
(Madrid, 1986)

E. Casares Rodicio : ‘El teatro de los Bufos o una crisis en el teatro lírico del XIX español’, AnM, 48 (1993), 217–28

E. Casares Rodicio and C. Alonso González, eds.: La música española en el siglo XIX (Oviedo, 1995) [incl. E. Casares
Rodicio: ‘La música del siglo XIX español: conceptos fundamentales’, 13–122; M.E. Cortizo: ‘La zarzuela del siglo XIX:
estado de la cuestíon (1832–1856)’, 161–94; R. Barce: ‘El sainete lírico (1880–1915)’, 195–244; C. Alonso: ‘La canció
española desde la monarquía fernandina a la restauración alfonsina’, 245–78; R. Sobrino: ‘La música sinfonico en el
siglo XIX’, 279–324; J. Suárez-Pajares: ‘Las generaciones guitarrísticas españolas del siglo XIX’, 325–74; M.A. Virgili
Blanquet: ‘La música religiosa en el siglo XIX español’, 375–406; M. Nagore: ‘La música coral en España en el siglo XIX’,
425–62; E. Casares Rodicio: ‘La crítica musical en el XIX español: panorama general’, 463–91]

M.P. Espín Templado : El teatro por horas en Madrid (1870–1910) (Guerrero, 1995)

C.J. Gosálvez Lara : La edición musical española hasta 1936 (Madrid, 1995)

C. Alonso : La canción lírica española en el siglo XIX (Madrid, 1998)

E: 20th century
A. Salazar : La música contemporánea en España (Madrid, 1930/R)

J. Borrel : Sesenta años de música (1876–1936): impresiones y comentarios de un aficionado (Madrid, 1945)

A. Salazar : La música en España (Buenos Aires, 1953, 2/1972)

J. Pahissa : Sendas y cumbres de la música española (Buenos Aires, 1955)

F. Sopeña : Historia de la música española contemporánea (Madrid, 1958, 2/1976)

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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

M. Valls Gorina : La música catalana contemporánia (Barcelona, 1960)

M. Valls Gorina : ‘La música española después de Falla’, Revista de occidente (Madrid, 1962)

A. Fernández-Cid : La música y los músicos españoles en el siglo XX (Madrid, 1963)

A. Custer : ‘Contemporary Music in Spain’, MQ, 51 (1965), 44–60

T. Marco : La música de la España contemporánea (Madrid, 1970)

T. Marco : Música española de vanguardia (Madrid, 1970)

A. Fernández-Cid : La música española en el siglo XX (Madrid, 1973)

J. Ruiz and F. Huici : La comedia del arte (Madrid, 1974)

C. Santos : Dossier música y política (Barcelona, 1974)

A. Fernández-Cid : Cien años de teatro musical en España (1875–1975) (Madrid, 1975)

F. Sopeña : Historia de la música española contemporánea (Madrid, 2/1976)

R. Barce : ‘La musica contemporanea spagnola e i suoi condizionamenti’, Musica/Realtá, no.1 (1980), 119–32

J. Maderuelo : Una música para los 80 (Madrid, 1981)

E. Casares Rodicio, ed.: 14 compositores españoles de hoy (Oviedo, 1982)

España en la música de occidente: Salamanca 1985 [incl. A. Medina: ‘Primeras oleadas vanguardistas en el área de
Madrid’, ii, 369–97; T. Marco: ‘Los años cuarenta’, ii, 399–411; B. Casablancas: ‘Dodecafonismo y serialismo en España’,
ii, 413–32; A. Medina: ‘Crisis o reafirmación en la música española actual’, ii, 433–41]

R. Barce : Las fronteras de la música (Madrid, 2/1985)

E. Casares: La música en la Generación del 27 (Madrid, 1986)

Catálogo de obras de la Asociación de compositores sinfónicos españoles (Madrid, 1987)

J. Ruvira : Compositores contemporáneos valencianos (Valencia, 1987)

Composición musical I: Valencia 1988

Associació Catalan de Compositores, ed.: 68 compositors catalans (Barcelona, 1989)

T. Marco : Historia de la música española, vi: Siglo XX (Madrid, 2/1989; Eng. trans., 1993, as Spanish Music in the
Twentieth Century)

S. Salaün : El cuplé (1900–1936) (Madrid, 1990)

R. Barce : Tiempo de tinieblas y algunas sonrisas (Madrid, 1992)

R. Barce, ed.: Actualidad y futuro de la zarzuela:.Madrid 1991 (Madrid, 1993)

A. García Zurro and L. Martín : Nuevas músicas en España (Madrid, 1994)

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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

II. Traditional and popular music

1. Ethnomusicological research.
Josep i Martí i Perez

Research into the traditional music of Spain began only in the 19th century, although earlier folksong
collections, known as cancioneros, exist (see §II below; for a bibliography of early cancioneros see also
Cancionero). During this period an increasing interest in traditional life and the study of folklore led to the
collecting of folksongs. In 1799 a collection of seguidillas by J.A. Iza Zamácola appeared (under the
pseudonym of Don Preciso), and in the 19th century a major interest in folklore emerged among small
groups of intellectuals, particularly in Spanish territories with incipient regionalism, such as the Basque
country, Catalonia and Galicia. As early as 1826, for instance, J.I. de Iztueta published a collection of Basque
dances with musical transcriptions (see Basque music for a bibliography of further collections). Despite
this, 19th-century interest focussed on folksong; the greatest number of collectors were from a literary
background or were folklorists. As a result most collections were restricted to literary texts: for example,
those of Serafín Estébanez Calderón, Manuel Murguía and Marià Aguiló. Those of Manuel Milà i Fontanals
and Antonio Machado y Alvarez deserve special attention. The first, influenced by Herder and German
philology, carried out important research on balladry with a methodological rigour at that time unusual in
Spain. His Romancerillo catalán also included some melodies published as an appendix. Machado y
Alvarez's clear positivistic approach, with an interest in folk literature, particularly in the area of
Andalusia, included several studies on flamenco song. In 1881 Machado y Alvarez founded the society El
Folk-Lore Español, which encouraged research on traditional Spanish folksong.

At the end of the 19th century the publication of songs with their melodies became more frequent, often as
a small appendix, as in the Cancionero vasco of José de Manterola and the Cantos populares españoles of
Francisco Rodríguez Marín. More importance was given to musical transcription in the collections of Pau
Bertran y Bros, F.P. Briz, José Inzenga and Eduardo Ocón. Towards the close of the 19th century R.M. de
Azkue assembled the material for his monumental Cancionero vasco and Casto Sampedro y Folgar his
Cancionero gallego, works that would not be published until many years later. Also part of the musicological
production of the 19th century was the work of Mariano Soriano Fuertes, whose Historia de la música
española desde la venida de los fenicios hasta el año 1850, a speculative study, was seemingly based on
previous work of Josep Teixidor. This book considers musical aspects, which today are considered to
belong to the modern field of ethnomusicology, describing the music of old colonizers from Spain; it also
includes some Spanish folktunes as an appendix.

A number of publications from the end of the 19th century attest an increased interest in folksong. These
were largely the initiatives of isolated people with non-existent or at best weak support from academic or
other public institutions. Many such works were of nationalistic character and for general public
consumption, resulting in materials edited according to the literary and musical aesthetic objectives of the
time.

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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

By the beginning of the 20th century, the study of traditional music was increasingly influenced by
incipient Spanish musicology, most prominently the theoretical work of the musicologist and composer
Felipe Pedrell. A survey of his substantial work concerning musical folklore appears in the four-volume
Cancionero musical popular español (1918–22), which contains theoretical reflections as well as numerous
melodies from all corners of Spain. His teaching on musical nationalism strongly influenced not only
Spanish musicologists such as Higini Anglès and J.A. de Donostia but also some of the most important
Spanish composers of the 20th century (e.g. Albéniz, Falla, Granados, Turina).

In the first third of the 20th century, important cancioneros were collected and edited, focussing often on
musical aspects, sometimes to the detriment of literary ones. Noteworthy folksong collections of the
period include those of Federico Olmeda on Burgos, Dámaso Ledesma on Salamanca, Donostia on the
Basque country, M.F. Núñez on León, Bonifacio Gil García on Extremadura, Miguel Arnaudas Lorrodé on
Teruel and Eduardo Martínez Torner on Asturias. Of particular interest is the work of Martínez Torner,
who was also concerned with systematization and theoretical reflection and who organized his cancionero
according to a strictly musicological classification based on the tonal system and rhythmic-melodic
elements. The work of Kurt Schindler in several Spanish provinces between 1929 and 1933 was also
important as he was one of the first to make phonograph recordings.

L'Obra del Cançoner Popular de Catalunya (1921–39) is regarded as the first major attempt to systematize
research in Spain. This was a well-planned enterprise with ambitious aims and many collaborators,
including musicologists and folklorists such as Anglès, Francesc Pujol, Joan Tomàs i Pares, Joan Amades,
Joan Llongueras and Pere Bohigas. The project involved the systematic gathering of folksongs in the
Catalan-speaking area of Spain (Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands) and the comparative study
and later publication of materials. Ethnographic data were used as an important complement to the
collected musical materials, while the published fieldwork reports show the innovatory spirit and
methodological rigour that inspired the project. Although the initiative was cut short by the upheaval of
the Spanish Civil War, a great amount of material was collected, mostly transcribed in the field.
Phonograph recordings were made in only a few cases and only a small part has been published. After
many years hidden in Barcelona and Switzerland to avoid any reprisals by the Franco regime against
Catalan culture, the collection is now conserved in the library of the Monastery of Montserrat near
Barcelona.

The development in the first third of the 20th century of what was known at the time in Spanish as
‘folklore musical’ was reflected in the celebration of the third congress of the IMS, held in Barcelona in
April 1936, when the section on traditional music played a relevant role. But the promising evolution of
Spanish musical folklore was cut short by the Spanish Civil War. The victory of General Franco had
disastrous consequences for the intellectual development of Spain, including musicological research. In
the four decades following the Civil War, Spanish folk music studies were characterized by the undeniable
marginalization of international research trends. Analysis of published works from this period reveals
considerable conservatism in methodological and conceptual framework, with emphasis placed on
achievements in early Spanish musical folklore. Research interest centred almost exclusively on the
musical product, disregarding both musical processes and the dynamic of music as a cultural phenomenon.
Interest was focussed in rural areas, where musical materials pertaining to pre-industrial traditions were

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sought. As a result the cancionero constituted the closest paradigmatic study of ethnomusicology in Spain
during this era. This conservative approach to the collection of folksong moved Spanish research away
from the different perspectives of ethnomusicology that were developing in other countries from the 1950s
onwards.

In the 1940s and 50s, the Sección Femenina de la Falange (the women's section of the Falange party)
undertook the important task of collecting and disseminating traditional song and dance. Their work was
strongly marked by the nationalism of Franco's political regime. Ethnomusicological research in Spain was
led during this period by the Instituto Español de Musicología (IEM; later renamed the Departamento de
Musicología), founded in 1943 at the Consejo Superior d'Investigaciones Científicas in Barcelona. The
distinguished specialists working in its musical folklore section included Marius Schneider, J.A. de
Donostia, Arcadio de Larrea, Bonifacio Gil García and Manuel García Matos. Taking as their model the
previous initiative of L'Obra del Cançoner Popular de Catalunya, following closely its methodological and
conceptual framework yet working within the new political reality of the state, the IEM carried out a broad
collecting task in most Spanish provinces until the 1960s. As a result, in its first 20 years of existence the
institute created an archive of ethnomusicographical material; phonograms, however, are unfortunately
rare.

During his tenure at the IEM Schneider developed an important part of his theories on musical symbolism.
One of the most important researchers within the old line of Spanish musical folklore was García Matos,
who collected phonographic material in several regions of the country, leaving behind a rich
ethnomusicological legacy at his premature death in 1974. The ethnomusicologist Josep Crivillé also
carried out important research for several years. Since the 1960s interest in folk music research at the IEM
has progressively declined and the subject in Spain generally has relied on the initiative of individuals with
little support from academic institutions: these include the folksong collections of Salvador Seguí, Miguel
Manzano, Joaquín Díaz and Dorothé Schubarth. During the 1990s relatively new research perspectives with
a more culturalist view have been introduced by specialists such as Ramón Pelinski, Josep Martí, Jaume
Aiats and Joaquina Labajo.

The concentration of research into cancioneros has resulted in the remarkable underdevelopment of other
aspects of ethnomusicology. Little theoretical work has been undertaken, culturalist or sociological
approaches are quite unusual and research fields such as popular music are still incipient. The academic
base of ethnomusicology in Spain has always been weak, with most folksong collectors self-taught. Such
collectors have as their principal reference point the achievements of folk music from several decades ago.

Political transition following the death of Franco has provided an important catalyst for
ethnomusicological research. When Spain became a state composed of autonomous regions, initiatives in
folk music found the public administration a generous sponsor, encouraging the collection and publication
of materials as people recovered, reinforced and reinvented the ethnic identity of their communities. The
result has been the appearance of social groups concerned with regional musical traditions from which in
turn has evolved an interest in ethnomusicology and folklorism. Study has tended towards the descriptive,
with post-Romantic tendencies. This has led to the emergence of institutes of regional studies focussing
on folk music, often dependent on public administration and frequently subject to economic and political
change. Such centres encourage ethnomusicological research, promote publications and phonograph

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archives and include the Centro de Cultura Tradicional de Salamanca, Centro Etnográfico de
Documentación (Valladolid; now in Urueña), Centro de Documentación Musical de Andalucía (Granada),
and the sound archives of the autonomous governments of Valencia and Catalonia in Valencia and
Barcelona respectively. The need for furthering developments in Spanish ethnomusicology led to the
creation of the Sociedad Ibérica de Etnomusicología, which held its first congress in Barcelona in 1995.
Ethnomusicology in universities at the end of the 20th century was still weak because of its recent
adoption into the curriculum. Nevertheless, it shows indubitable progress and consolidation.

2. General features.

(i) Historical background.

Martin Cunningham, revised by Ramón Pelinski

Spain is remarkable for the abundance of its folk music and for the tenacity with which, until recently,
song and dance traditions have been preserved. This may be attributed to the close association of many
genres with the tasks and recreations of daily life and with a firmly established cycle of annual festivities,
and to the survival in Spain longer than in other European countries of a way of life in which such tasks and
festivities played an important part. By the 1990s few villages had not been influenced by mass
entertainment, agricultural mechanization, mobility of population and other factors which stimulate
musical change (Larrea Palacín, A1968; Pelinski, E1996). Nevertheless, traditional practices of music, song
and dance are still alive, although often in the form of revivals or reinventions (Martí, A1995).

Spanish folk music also displays a wealth of regional diversity, which can be partly explained by
geographical factors. The Iberian peninsula is divided by mountain chains that have proved effective
cultural barriers and have accentuated the individuality of particular regions. The main cause of its
diversity is undoubtedly the many invasions of peoples and cultures that have affected different parts of
the peninsula. But the extent to which Iberian, Celtic, Carthaginian and, in particular, Jewish and Arabic
influences underlie modern regional differences is a matter for conjecture; there is not sufficient evidence
from early times to trace any particular modern trait to an ancient source. Even the presence of Celtic
elements in modern Galician folksong, though frequently assumed, remains to be conclusively
demonstrated. Evidence for music in the pre-Roman period is chiefly literary; Greek and Latin authors
refer to ritual war dances and burial dances, songs relating deeds of war, nocturnal dance-feasts
accompanied by flute and cornet and circle-dances performed by groups holding hands. More tangible
evidence of Roman and liturgical influence has been sought in the modal characteristics of modern
folksong (see §3). Visigothic elements may perhaps survive in the music of Asturias. Eastern influence may
be traced to Byzantines and Jews in some areas (Anglès, B(ii)1958); the precise role of Arab influence
continues to arouse discussion (see Cantiga), and Schneider (A1948) drew parallels between Spanish and
Berber (and other more remote) non-Arab types of melody. French troubadour music was probably known
to the populace principally through the cantigas, but also through liturgical drama. Other cultural contacts
have been numerous, though their effect is also difficult to pinpoint: Frankish, via the Pyrenees; European,
via the route to Santiago de Compostela; Italian, via the Mediterranean coastline; English and German, via

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the Cantabrian ports. Peninsular music was taken by Sephardi Jews expelled at the end of the 15th century
(see Jewish music) to other Mediterranean lands, in particular Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, where it still
survives. Spanish colonists carried their music to the New World, where it partly survived and partly
mingled with Amerindian and African elements to produce new forms. The arrival of Gypsies (Gitanos) in
Spain in the 15th century was important for the development of cante jondo (see Flamenco and
‘Gypsy’ [Roma-Sinti-Traveller] music); other cultural contacts occurred during the Italian wars and later
during the wars of Succession (1701–12) and Independence (1808–14). Cultural ties with South America
from the 18th century onwards led to the introduction into Spain of new genres in the theatre (e.g. zorongo)
and in Andalusian (guajira, rumba) and Catalan (havaneras, rumba) popular music. Since the globalization
of mass media, the most potent influences are African and American styles and, in general, the commercial
pop music circulated by radio and television.

Since the Middle Ages a close relationship has existed between traditional music and art music (Anglès,
Pedrell; see also Grove5, ‘Folk Music: Spanish’); hence early records of art music give valuable information
about the history of folksong. The most important medieval types are refrain songs related in form to the
virelai (see Villancico, §1); the earliest musical collection is the Cantigas de Santa María of Alfonso el Sabio
(Alfonso X; d 1284), which in addition to probable French influence display popular Spanish elements.
Refrain songs have retained their importance up to the present day. The Siete canciones de amor of the
Galician jongleur Martin Codax (fl 1240–70) are in a parallelistic form which perhaps derives from the
oldest traceable lyric tradition in the peninsula (see Cosaute); melodically, these songs are similar to
modern Galician alalás. Medieval pilgrims’ songs from Montserrat, some with dance elements, reveal a
popular origin. Another medieval form is the romance (ballad), which in some cases derived from
fragments of epic that remained in the popular tradition, and in other cases from stories based on
legendary topics or contemporary events (see Romance, §1). Many ballads are documented over a period of
centuries, and some have survived into the 20th century in Spain and elsewhere; this is also true of many
songs used by Salinas in his De musica libri septem (1577) to explain aspects of ancient Greek rhythm. From
the late 15th century to the 17th, some of the most notable Spanish poets, including Juan del Encina
(Anglès, B(ii)1941), Lope de Vega (Gavaldá, B(ii)1986) and Góngora (Gavaldá, B(ii)1975), frequently
introduced popular refrains, themes and forms into their works (see Seguidilla). Settings of villancicos
based on popular refrains, as well as romances and other traditional songs, are found in cancioneros of the
same period (Bal y Gay, B(ii)1944; Haberkamp, B(ii)1968; Pelinski, B(ii)1971) and in the partsongs of
Antxieta, Flecha (B(i)1581), Juan Vásquez, Cristóbal de Morales and others. Traditional tunes are also found
among the vihuelistas (Milán, B(i)1536; Narváez, B(i)1538; Mudarra, B(i)1546; Valderrábano, B(i)1547;
Pisador, B(i)1552; Fuenllana, B(i)1554; Daza, B(i)1576), and in the treatise on ornamentation by Diego
Ortiz (B(i)1553).

Folk influence, mainly through the characteristic alternation of binary and ternary metres and the use of
traditional melodies, also pervades many sacred villancicos (cantatas) of the 17th and 18th centuries. While
these villancicos may be forgotten, some of the melodies upon which they drew are still alive in Spain and
in the Hispanic New World (Crivillé, A1983). Despite the increasing influence of Italian music in the 18th
century, composers such as Scarlatti and Boccherini drew on traditional Spanish styles. There is also a
relationship between some ‘popular’ (i.e. essentially urban and non-traditional) genres and theatre music,
notably the 18th-century tonadilla and the 19th-century zarzuela. The ‘Spanish idiom’ of such music was

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adopted not only by Spanish art-music composers (e.g. Falla, Granada, Albéniz, Turina), but also by
composers of other nationalities (e.g. Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy, Ravel). In the late 19th and the
early 20th centuries there was a vogue for arrangements of popular and traditional melodies, either in
keyboard versions or as songs with vocal harmonizations or piano accompaniment; such arrangements
were made by students of folk music (Pedrell, Torner) as well as by well-known composers (Falla,
Granados, Turina, Albéniz). Analogous interest in folk style was shown by poets such as García Lorca and
Machado.

(ii) Musical characteristics.

Martin Cunningham, revised by Jaume Aiats

(a) Metre and rhythm.

Four types of metric-rhythmic arrangements can be distinguished: unmeasured, ‘giusto syllabic’, so-
called children's rhythm and dance rhythms. ‘Unmeasured’ refers to a sung phrase (although there are
exceptional instrumental versions, such as certain flamenco guitar styles) that employs a flexible
succession of tempos and a certain amount of melodic freedom, while maintaining fixed points of tonal
reference. In between these points, the phrases are mostly melismatic and greatly ornamented in form,
and timing is flexible (ex.1). These are individually sung pieces (occasionally with musical accompaniment,
as in the cant d'estil of Valencia or some cantes flamencos) which are typical of work songs (see §3 below).
The melodies are based on scales of varying types; these are rarely tonal and are often chromatic or made
up of intervals which are close to an augmented 2nd.

Ex.1 Work song, Mallorca (Pujol and others, 1926–9)

Brăiloiu's term ‘giusto syllabic’ describes a sung metric-rhythmic device over an established base of a
syllabic pattern, with stable accentuation that combines short and long rhythmic values in measured
succession. This pattern is typical of a great number of ballads and romances (see §3). Among the
variations of this device are found melodies in strict tempo giusto and others with some flexibility. The
possibilities inherent in giusto syllabic allow for the combination of rhythmic patterns known throughout
Europe with more unusual arrangements such as the asymmetrical metre, aksak or binary-ternary
combinations (see C. Brăilou: ‘Le rythme aksak’, RdM, xxx, 1951, pp.71–108). It is common in both

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individual and collective, monodic or heterophonic songs and can employ diverse tonal or modal
structures. In addition to its use in ballads, it is often found in sacred repertory (such as goigs, see §3) and
in some sung dances. Giusto syllabic is only rarely interpreted instrumentally.

Children's rhythm may be observed in group songs and more specifically during certain children's games.
In this case the number of syllables is combined with the duration of the musical period. In a way, this is
the reverse procedure to that of giusto syllabic, in that it works with a variable number of syllables which
can be fitted into a musical period of fixed duration. Similar procedures are found in various cases of
collective expression, including games or children's challenges, charivaris, protest or demonstration
slogans, sports-fans' chants, and group participation at large-scale concerts. These are collective chants
that are rhythmically similar, but with diverse melodic patterns: from slogans with a barely defined and
structurally irrelevant melody to two- or three-level patterns and, finally, strictly tonal melodies. Any
musical accompaniment to these collective forms of expression is incidental.

The rhythmic patterns of dances present considerable and variable characteristics and offer a large
number of possibilities. These are found principally in collective dances but also in parades (processions,
pasacalles, cavalcades, ronda serenades, collections, carnivals etc.), at other ritual moments and in various
song types (e.g. ballads, cuartetas, tonadillas, seguidillas). These can be purely instrumental, vocal with
instrumental accompaniment, sung by a group or by a soloist. The melodies are mostly tonal and
anacrusic, frequently multi-part and of harmonic arrangement, although they can also include other types
of scale patterns (e.g. modal, chromatic). They show three basic rhythmic structures. First, some coincide
with the models of Western musical theory. Secondly, some structures exhibit polyrhythms similar to
hemiola: these consist in playing with the accentuation on a ternary metric base (the percussive base of
dance steps) and with a melody in double time or combined double-triple time, over a minimum period of
12 beats (as found in the danses of southern Valencia, a number of boleros, jotas, fandangos and some
flamenco styles common in Andalusian dances). Finally, the melodies of dances using the aksak form,
more common than most collections imply, have developed into a more regular rhythmic structure
working within rules of written music. There are well-known examples of quintuple metre, found in the
rueda of Castile or the Basque zortziko (see Basque music) and also observed in Extremadura, Aragon,
Valencia and Catalonia with different melodic forms (Torrent, A1994). Dances in metres of seven, ten or 11
were observed in Castellón de la Plana (Torrent, A1994), in Castile and Extremadura (García Matos, 1982:
see D1944). Ex.2 shows the rhythmic patterns of the charrada of Salamanca with its two variants: aksak in
(a) and the polyrhythm between shawm and percussion in (b).

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Ex.2 Charrada rhythms (García Matos, 1960–61)

The four categories used as metric-rhythmic models may coincide and overlap and are therefore useful
only as general points of reference to demonstrate the potential panorama of possible patterns.

(b) Melodic features.

Melodic configuration, a privileged parameter in Western music theory, has often been the only element
considered in collections of traditional Spanish music. The great variety and complexity of melodic
patterns and possible scale models offered by the oral tradition, as indicated by García Matos (D1944), has
given rise to broad speculation on historical origin and melodic types. Apart from a large proportion of
melodies in major and minor keys, there are many others that do not conform to these systems of tonal
organization: these are not easily classifiable. In 1931 Torner commented on the tonal and modal
ambiguity of many melodies but, so far, research has not offered descriptions of these beyond using basic
techniques of comparative musicology. Many publications continue to provide oversimplified explanations
that make unverifiable links between a given type of melodic element and certain historical periods and
contexts. Thus it has been argued that simplified notations of oral melodies are related to plainchant or to
ecclesiastical modes. In other cases these same melodies have been related to ancient Roman or Greek
modes. Arab influences or the use of Persian modes have been assumed in melodic notations including
augmented 2nds or changing chromatic elements. The rich expressiveness of cante jondo and flamenco
dance has been attributed to a variety of origins, which inextricably link the genre to its performer, the
Gypsy, tracing back to Byzantine or North African beginnings. These relations between periods, models,
origins and cultures are rarely based on verifiable criteria, and almost always refer to a written version of a
musical form, ignoring the performance context, possible variants and the whole host of elements which
may coincide in the melodic configuration (e.g. sonority, vocal or instrumental timbre, attack, intensity).

Within the context of simple melodic features, children's or collective melodies have already been
mentioned that can sometimes be limited to two or three degrees and which do not always have stable
pitches. A rare example of anhemitonic pentatonic music was pointed out by García Matos (c1954) in a
sonada de xeremies (double clarinet) from the island of Ibiza.

Melodies using four to seven pitches can be divided into two large groups, one tonal, the other presenting a
great diversity of modal variation. The latter is distinguished by melodies on a descending A–E tetrachord,
which Donostia classified as E-mode (i.e. melodies that end on E). Ex.3 shows a number of E-mode types
(only the lower part of the scale is given, though the range of actual melodies may vary between a 4th and
over an octave; for more examples see Donostia). The first (ex.3a, which contains a leap of an augmented
2nd, has been attributed unquestioningly to Arab influence, even though it occurs not only in Andalusia
(where Arab culture was implanted for several centuries) but as far away as Catalonia (where the Arabs
exercised less influence). More common is an E mode whose third degree can be either natural or raised
(ex.3c) the melodic contour of songs in this mode frequently shows a terraced descent (as in ex.4), centring
successively on A, G, F and cadencing on E; apart from this formula the natural and sharpened third
degrees are used in complementary distribution throughout the rest of the melody. This E mode is found in
accompanied song, where the cadential formula outlined in ex.3e occurs; this, with its parallel triads,

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serves to dissociate the mode definitively from the tonality of modern European art music. Torner (A1931)
pointed to this mode as the most obvious defining feature of Andalusian music; it, too, has generally been
regarded as Arabic, but for García Matos (D1944) the natural third degree was a Spanish introduction,
resulting from the fusion of the ‘Arabic’ mode (ex.3a) with the diatonic mode on E (ex.3b).

Ex.4 Olmeda, 1903

Ex.3 E-mode types

Another variety of E mode, found in Andalusia, Extremadura, Castile and León, includes the alternative of a
sharpened or natural second degree (ex.3d). This scale probably resulted from the introduction of modern
tonal elements into the Andalusian E mode (ex.3c), but it should be observed that ex.4, which uses the
mode of ex.3d, never alludes to the major or minor scale. The central and central northern areas (Castile
and León), in addition to possessing examples of all the modes so far discussed, also have other hybrid
types, as when a terraced descent ends in A minor. Fusion of the E mode with elements of major and minor
in some melodies is thus a distinctive feature of this area.

Ornaments are important in performance, and grace notes (as in ex.5 and ex.1 above) are included
spontaneously even when a group of singers perform together.

(c) Harmony.

Unaccompanied songs have been habitually described as monodic, the result of collections compiled by
individuals with preconceived ideas about the simplicity of popular songs. Recent research has uncovered a
variety of heterophonic and polyphonic practices that are not, as previously thought, exclusive to the
religious repertory, but are found in the music of ballads and dances of certain areas. The most common
arrangement is a single rhythm for two voices in parallel 3rds over a melody in major key. In some
religious repertories the same model can be found over a minor-key melody. This formula is present
unevenly in virtually all areas of Spain. It shows a marked presence within the territories of the old
Kingdom of Aragon (Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands): a large part of the tonal
repertory uses this heterophony, whether in religious or ballad repertories or jotas and other types of
dance. The 3rds can be completed with parallel 6ths (realized in contrary movement to the 3rds) and with a

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brief harmonic bass motif (as a dominant–tonic movement on the cadence). In some instances three
voices in parallel 3rds and 5ths can appear. One example of this is the use of ornamented motifs in
progressively superimposed 3rds found in the Misteri d'Elx, an exceptional example of religious theatre
combining religious and oral traditions. In the jotas aragonesas the voice imitates the arpeggiated chords
played by the string instruments. In Mallorca the use of parallel 5ths between male and female singers has
been observed. Murcia has the most complex polyphony: the Auroros (a religious brotherhood) sing in
parallel 3rds contained by lines above and below the dominant note; during the performance a sudden
change is made to the minor mode or to the dominant key, to follow the same pattern. In Castile, the
Cantabrian coast and Galicia parallel 3rds are strict and are of less importance. Towards the south in
Extremadura and Andalusia the verified incidence of parallel 3rds is rare. In the Basque country there is a
great tradition of songs for more than one voice (see Basque music). Instrumental music is divided into
music where the melody is strictly monodic (restricted to a single wind instrument with percussion), and
that which follows patterns similar to those for song, often transformed and used in the modern wind
band. The guitar uses a simple chord repertory often rigidly prescribed by the genre (in flamenco, however,
discords typical of the guitar are used). The repertory of the Catalan cobla (see §4) betrays its 19th-century
origins in more complex harmony, including frequent chromatic passages.

(d) Other characteristics.

The remaining formal elements of Spanish traditional music have rarely been studied. The timbre,
modulation of intensity and of attack, changes in voice register and the particular sonority of each
expressive situation are all essential elements of musical communication of obvious importance to styles
such as the cante jondo. However, they have rarely attracted the interest of researchers and await future
study.

(iii) Socio-cultural context.

Josep i Martí i Perez

In Spain the prevalence of music conventionally known as ‘traditional’ has declined. 20th-century changes
in Spanish society have resulted in the disappearance of many musical practices: remaining practices have
become part of passive repertories recycled or revived within the phenomena of folkloric performance or,
more exceptionally, assimilated into urban popular music as in the case of flamenco.

When talking about musical cultures, we may define the word ‘moment’ as the actualization of a musical
product for a given time and place with specific agents, meanings and objectives. Moments related to the
performance of traditional music are varied and, in Spain, are closely linked to traditional life and custom.
Some musical moments belong to everyday life and periods of leisure; these are governed by less precise
determinants and it is difficult to find musical genres that are specific or exclusive to these occasions.

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Everyday life is the context for a great portion of songs belonging to the rich tradition of Spanish balladry.
Until the beginning of the 20th century this genre still fulfilled its functions of entertainment and the
communication of news. Often including texts with obvious enculturation functions coinciding directly
with the social values of the time, these songs were disseminated by itinerant singers and in printed form
by vendors of popular printed sheets.

The children's song repertory, which has a more specific context, is very varied within Spanish folk music.
Simple in form, these songs have both a playful and didactic character. In the late 20th century the
repertory of children's songs became heavily influenced by the media. Songs for children, including
lullabies sung by adults, have much more varied formal patterns. Within the framework of everyday life,
work songs form another important category. Songs sung traditionally to accompany work such as
ploughing, harvesting and grape-picking were of great interest to early researchers for their archaic
features and formal and specific characteristics. Traditionally the tasks of the home, factory and workshop
were also accompanied by song. Today, owing to the disappearance or mechanization of traditional
working methods, such musical genres have declined. In many working environments, radio and recorded
music provide background musical accompaniment at work.

In addition to the examples mentioned above, musical products, in all cultures, happen at specific
moments determined by time and space and produced by people with meanings and objectives laid down
by tradition. These are festive moments, religious or secular, associated with traditional life-cycle and
calendrical customs. The importance of religion in traditional Spanish life gives rise to many well-defined
moments which engender a characteristic musical repertory: the Christmas repertory is an especially rich
example. Within the sacred repertory songs for Lent and music for Easter week are particularly
noteworthy. These range from the most traditional to more modern manifestations, such as the playing of
drums during Holy Week in several localities of lower Aragon. But these are not the only moments marked
by religious feeling. In addition to pilgrimage and processional chants there are liturgical and
paraliturgical repertories. Hymns for the saints, which differ in name and kind from region to region, have
an important place in the Spanish musical tradition. Also important are the sung rogations dedicated to the
Virgin or to the patron saints of towns and villages, through which requests related to the health of the
community, especially in the past during epidemics, are made. Sung rogations with regard to work in the
fields and requests for rain also exist. These songs are less and less common owing to the modernizing
reforms adopted by the church and the increasingly secular character of Spanish society as a whole.

Youthful songs related to courtship and marriage make an important contribution to Spanish repertories
related to the life cycle. Funeral repertories are not common in Spain, although they did exist once. The
cançó de mort in Mallorca was performed when one partner of an engaged couple died; a song would be
composed by or for the surviving partner (by a glossador) to sing as a lament. Among the more secular
calendar festivals, the most important, doubtless, are the Carnival celebrations. During Franco's
dictatorship (1939–75) these were forbidden, resulting in a break with tradition for the towns and villages
that had always celebrated Carnival. With the return to democracy many of these festivals have been
recovered. With the exception of some cases that date back to ancient times, such as the Laza carnival in
Galicia, the great majority of these festivals are now markedly urban in character, although on occasion
they can still be of undoubted ethnological and musicological interest, as is the case of the Cádiz, Huelva,

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Canaries or Murcia carnivals, in which groups called comparsas perform typical carnival repertories.
Another especially interesting festive context for musical manifestations is the fiesta mayor, dedicated to
patron saints and celebrated over several days in many Spanish towns and villages. Although these fiestas
are of religious origin, today they have been largely secularized. They give rise to specific song repertories
as well as ceremonial or entertainment dances.

Apart from the entertainment or ceremonial objectives of the traditional Spanish musical repertory, music
also has other functions worth noting. Petitionary songs were widespread in Spain and could be found in
various contexts. The most common of these were begging songs asking for gifts at Christmas time, and
also religious romances or cuartetas sung during Lent and alluding to the Passion (Guadalajara), Easter
songs such as the Catalan caramelles or the canciones de ánimas which were sung in Asturias for All Saints.
Certain children's songs, songs of quintos (young people who have to join the army) and wedding songs
were also often used for this purpose. More unusually, some dances were sometimes also performed as
supplicants' dances, as in Mallorca and Málaga.

Traditional music has also served as a vehicle for social criticism. The clearest example of this is the
cencerrada (or cowbell serenade), which in many cases could include musical elements providing a
symbolic inversion of love serenades. Social criticism was thus expressed by means of a cacophonous
serenade in which censuring lyrics were combined with the noise of zambombas, cowbells, pots and pans
and other rudimentary percussion instruments. Social criticism expressed through satirical and biting
texts at times took on a more concrete form, as in the case of the cançons de picat of Mallorca, el cantalet of
southern Catalonia or the Visclabat of the Catalan region of El Maresme.

Music may also have a therapeutic function in Spain, for example as part of the treatment for tarantism.
The sufferer was made to perform different dances but always of fast tempo. This practice was common in
Spain in the areas of La Mancha and Aragon, surviving in the latter until the 1940s.

Studies of gender within traditional Spanish music are still virtually non-existent. Songs specifically for
either men or women exist, especially among children and the young. Ceremonial dances are performed
mainly by men, and the traditional musician figure is also, generally speaking, male. Apart from the
contributions of the tambourine or the castanets, female traditional musical activities were limited largely
to singing, although in some cultures, such as the Galician, women took a more prominent role. Since the
late 20th century (see §6 below) the traditional division of roles between men and women in folk music
has changed radically. It is common for women to play instruments, such as bagpipes, oboes or drums,
that previously had been reserved for men.

(iv) Popular music.

Sílvia Martínez García

The musical scene in post-Civil War Spain concentrated on the over-exploitation of patriotic folk clichés,
and the singers of these melodies were the Spanish equivalent of the great crooners. The backward state of
the country and lack of communications with the outside world provided a poor environment for the
development of cultural and musical activities, which were closely controlled by Franco's censors.

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During the 1960s, television broadcasting and the rapid growth of tourism led to the relaxation of the
musical scene. Foreign melodies began to make their mark and the so-called yé-yé (yeah-yeah) songs
became popular, while romantic songs gave rise to the phenomenon of the fan club.

Parallel to these developments but for different reasons an important and significant movement of singer-
songwriters and interpreters emerged, many of whom still enjoy widespread popularity. The songs of Paco
Ibáñez, José Antonio Labordeta and Víctor Manuel, among many others, challenged the status quo.
Members of the Catalan nova canço movement, such as Lluís Llach, María del Mar Bonet and Raímon (and
other members of a cultural group called Els Setze Jutges), used poetic metaphor to serenade their country
and their values, the lives, experiences and desire for freedom of their people, implicitly denouncing the
misery, repression and violence of the regime, using the Catalan language, which had been hit hardt by
Franco's repressive policies. Their performances were subject to censorship and in Llach's case resulted in
a period of exile in France.

By the beginning of the 1970s, records by English-speaking rock stars were already in circulation and
inspired the first rock groups, including Miguel Ríos and Los Bravos, the progressive proto-rock of Los
Canarios, Máquina and Música Dispersa, who were pioneers of the musical underground. During these
years the first radio programmes, music magazines, festivals and recording labels began to develop their
infrastructures. The pre-history of rock was being written in Madrid, where groups such as Burning,
Mermelada and Indiana were vindicated by future generations of rockers, including Loquillo, Los
Ronaldos, Los Rebeldes and Desperados.

The 1980s saw the recording of the first ‘new wave’ records. It was a time of explosive creativity in all
artistic environments which served as a catalyst for the general euphoria experienced after the end of years
of dictatorship. In Madrid groups such as Mamá, Los Secretos, Kaka de Luxe and Radio Futura, together
with the most unbridled punk rock (Ramoncín and WC), found institutional support from the socialist
administration. Events and developments in the capital had repercussions in many other areas of the
country: Vigo (Siniestro Total, Golpes Bajos, Os Resentidos), Barcelona (Loquillo, Los Rebeldes, Los
Futuros, El Ultimo de la Fila) and Seville (Kiko Veneno, Martirio) among others. A particularly hard rock
movement that called itself rock radikal basko arose in the Basque country and was fuelled by the example
of hard rock groups such as Coz (later called Baron Rojo), Leño and Ñu. A handful of groups produced
sounds that ranged from hard rock to punk and ska (Barricada, La Polla Records, Eskorbuto, Kortatu).
Meanwhile, commercial pop produced groups of considerable stature, such as La Unión and Mecano, who
sold their music successfully at home and abroad.

From the end of the 1980s with the establishment of autonomous regions music was often employed by
local athorities to emphasize their own regional or national identity. An example is the case of Catalonia,
where institutions gave firm backing to specifically Catalan rock groups which until then had managed to
survive without any kind of official help.

In the 1990s the alternative scene was consolidated with the advent of very young groups from provincial
capitals who sang mostly in English. These groups, influenced by Sonic Youth, Lemonheads, the Pixies and
others, have created everything from pop (La Buena Vida, Los Planetas) to punk rock and the ‘noise’ of the
Getxo groups (Los Clavos, El Inquilino Communista, Cancer Moon), or the so-called Xixon Sound
(Australian Blonde, Penelope Trip). Other noteworthy phenomena of the 1990s were the jóvenes flamencos.

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Groups such as Pata Negra and Ketama have produced a musical hybrid based on Gypsy tradition which
combines flamenco with rock or Caribbean rhythms, following the example of innovatory musicians such
as El Camarón de la Isla and Paco de Lucía while echoing the caño roto sound developed by Gypsy musicians
in Madrid in the 1970s.

3. Song.
Arcadio de Larrea Palacín, revised by Jaume Aiats

The classification established below, in which songs are grouped according to function, cuts across that
based on melody types, outlined in §2(ii) above; this dual perspective will give some idea of the complexity
of Spanish folk music.

Ex.1 Work song, Mallorca (Pujol and others, 1926–9)

Work songs accompany labour in the fields and household chores. Some work songs are measured; in
regions where the jota is sung it is sometimes used as an occupational song. More often (and
characteristically among the agricultural songs) they are in free rhythm (see ex.1 above), even though the
task for which they are used may be rhythmic and collective. Such songs are sung during ploughing,
sowing, weeding, reaping, threshing and the picking of olives and fruits. Their texts are often amatory, and
sometimes refer to the task in hand. Women usually sing when they meet to sew or embroider. Texts are
arranged in octosyllabic quatrains with abba rhymes or rhyming even lines. Unmeasured work songs often
begin with insignificant syllables, such as ‘Ay, ay, ay’. Work songs are traditional to all of Spain but
enjoyed a greater presence in the Mediterranean areas and in León, Asturias (with the special trillo vibrato)
and Galicia (with special reference here to the alalá). The texts are in Spanish, Catalan or Gallego,
depending on the areas and traditions. The unmeasured and ornamented style of work song can also be
found in other situations, such as the ronda de enamorados in Asturias.

The narrative ballad, of great popularity and diversity, has been generally referred to as a romance,
although, strictly speaking, this term should be used only for a specific type of heroic or historical ballad
with formal literary rules that are not found in all Spanish ballads. This poetic form of ballad is made up of
an indefinite succession of long verses divided into two phrases, with assonance or rhyme in the second
phrase. The melody can span one or, more frequently, two verses, with or without refrain. The refrain may
be placed between the phrases (internal) or after each pair of verses (external). In some romances and

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ballads of ancient origin, the assonance or rhyme may change between episodes of the song's story.
Romances are made up of octosyllabic phrase lines (occasionally hexasyllabic), like most other ballads,
although they may have other patterns. Ballads in the Spanish language allow the accent to fall on the
ultimate and penultimate syllable in the first phrase (with the relevant melodic results), and except for the
linguistic accent at the end of the phrase, linguistic and musical accents do not always coincide. Ballads in
Catalan have strict alternation of accents on the ultimate and penultimate syllables between the two
phrases of the verse; likewise, in this language, linguistic and melodic accents often coincide. Catalan
syllabic patterns are more diverse: lines of eight, seven, six and even five syllables, with alternating
possibilities in a verse such as eight or five. Ballads have giusto syllabic rhythms (see §2(ii) above) as well
as dance rhythms and commonly exploit all possibilities between these two. They very rarely have
unmeasured rhythms. In melodic terms, they employ the whole range of characteristics described above,
including heterophonic song.

The function of the romance (ballad) has been largely superseded by newspapers and mass entertainment.
Formerly it had a dual role: it recounted heroic deeds of the past and more recent newsworthy events. Both
functions survived into the 20th century in ballads that were often performed by itinerant blind singers.
These singers have disappeared, however, and the ballads now sung are rarely historical, being mostly
based on legends and stories, and in all but a few regions serving as children’s songs and women’s work
songs. The ballad was a highly mobile genre, and of those recorded in the 20th century many occur in
widely separated localities and in textually and musically variant forms; some examples of romances can be
traced in literary compilations as far back as the 16th century; ballad melodies of that period, however, are
distinct from modern ones. There is no rigid dividing-line between dance genres and song genres, since
many dances are accompanied vocally. Moreover, some genres are executed sometimes as a sung dance,
and at other times simply as a song; they are referred to in Spanish as canción bailable (‘danceable’ song),
and in the present article as ‘dance-songs’.

In all regions there are lullabies based on and named after the repetition of certain syllables: in Basque
country, lo-lo; in Andalusia and on the Mediterranean coast, nana; in northern and western Spain and the
Canary Islands, arroró or arrolo; in Mallorca, vou-veri-vou; and in Catalonia, non-non. In addition to these
special songs mothers often use whatever comes to mind: a romance with its repeated stanzas or religious
songs. Other songs invoke legends or superstitions. It was generally believed that singing children to sleep
drove away evil spirits.

There are numerous songs by adults for children with educational or entertainment objectives. The so-
called children's rhythm is often used in melodic arrangement of this type of song. These same forms
appear in a great variety of sequential songs or in children's games, although melodies of various origins
are also used, from ancient ballads or fashionable songs. Skipping songs are common, as are counting-out
songs: one begins Uni, doli, treli, catroli (‘Eeny meeny miney mo’). Children are advised to sing when they
are afraid, in the dark or alone, a practice also followed by many adults. Ritual singing is sometimes
associated with children; it is common to have a child’s hair or nails cut for the first time by one who can
sing well and does so while cutting. In Andalusia rites used to be performed to give newborn children the
ability to sing and dance well.

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Unlike cognate words that refer to a dance in other languages, the Spanish ronda is a custom, in which a
group of young men visit the houses of young ladies during the evening to serenade them. Song texts are
generally amatory, sometimes satirical or religious; accompanying instruments are described below (see
§5). The songs are those typical of the region, for example, ballads, the jota etc. The men also sing
pasacalles (from pasar: ‘to walk’, calle: ‘street’) while walking from house to house. The ronda just
described, the ronda de enamorados (lovers’ ronda), which is sung in country districts, has been
institutionalized by the tuna, a rondalla composed of university students who dress in 16th-century
student garb to perform their serenades and pasacalles. Even in large cities the local university, and
perhaps each faculty, will have its tuna. The repertory of the tuna tends away from traditional material
towards popular song. Variants of the ronda de enamorados include the ronda de quintos, sung by young
men as a farewell to a comrade going off to military service; a collection may be made during such a ronda
to provide a party for the conscript. Other rondas include those sung at dawn on Sundays (again by young
men to their girlfriends), called in different regions alboradas (though this name can also refer to an
instrumental genre), albades or albas. On some occasions young people of both sexes may sing in a ronda,
as on the eves of certain feasts, and during a romería (pilgrimage). Among festival songs, the generalized
use in Mallorca of a ximbomba (friction drum) accompaniment is worthy of note.

Religious songs are important expressions of popular devotion. Foremost among the songs of the liturgical
year are villancicos (in the broad modern sense of Christmas carols), whose usual structure is an
octosyllabic quatrain with or without a refrain. During Lent and particularly Holy Week, Passions are sung,
either in simple narrative ballad form or as a baraja (using playing-cards as an aide-mémoire to tell the
Passion story), a reloj (‘clock’, a narration of the events of the Passion in chronological order), the Siete
palabras (Seven Last Words) or the Viacrucis (Way of the Cross). Such Passions are sung in church or in
outdoor processions (see also Saeta). The Passion story is also found as a text for aradas (ploughing songs),
in which the parts of the plough are used as an aide-mémoire. The goigs (in Catalan) or gozos, which praise
life, the miracles and celestial ascension of the Virgin Mary or of the local patron saint (ex.6), are perhaps
better known. These are invocations sung by the entire community congregated in a sanctuary or chapel on
the feast day of the Virgin or the patron saint. They are sung in the area of the old Kingdom of Aragon
(including the island of Sardinia) and contribute to maintaining a sense of community. The melodies
generally use the giusto syllabic metric-rhythmic pattern (except in new compositions) and are often sung
in a heterophony of parallel 3rds.

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Ex.6 Two variant openings of a goig, Catalan religious song (Baldelló, 1932)

Other religious genres are similar to the ronda. The aurora is performed at dawn by a small group (usually
members of a religious confraternity) to call people to the Rosario de la aurora (Dawn Rosary, a devotional
practice dating from the 17th century). Some auroras are related to specific feasts; others are general
devotional exhortations. Singers are known as auroros (dawn singers), despertadores (awakers), rosarieros
(rosary tellers) or campanilleros (bellringers). Aguinaldos are a seasonal ronda (usually for Christmas but
sometimes for Epiphany or Easter) usually performed by children, asking sometimes for food or sweets for
themselves. At Easter, the Ses Panades in Mallorca and the caramelles in Catalonia are exceptional
examples. These are processions which combine the celebration of Easter with ancient celebrations of
spring, alternating goigs to the Virgin with amatory songs, balls de bastons (stick dances) and with
corrandes (quatrains improvised by a soloist, either satirical or on the theme of love). In Catalonia, the
textual improvisations of the cançons de pandero (tambourine songs) are sung by women. In some villages
the confraternity of Animas (Holy Souls) sings similar songs (cantares de Animas) on November evenings
when collecting alms; cantares de ayuda are sung to raise funds for church functions.

Ritual songs include endechas (laments), which have a long history in Spain (see Endechas). Some are still
performed by the Sephardi Jews (see Jewish music, §IV, 2, (ii)); but despite the survival into the 20th
century of the plañideras (women mourners), no modern occurrence has been written down, either of the
endecha or of the songs that were once performed during velatorios, wakes with song and dance held at the
death of a child in parts of Andalusia, Valencia and New Castile. Marriage songs are still in use, however,
and consist of a morning ronda or alborada to greet the bride on her wedding day. The subject of such songs
is generally Christian, but the Gypsy alborá celebrates the bride’s virginity. Various regional festivals
include the marzo (1 March) and mayo (night of 30 April), probably remnants of pre-Christian spring
fertility rites. The ronda de quintos may perhaps be considered also a ritual farewell. Other annual events
such as St John’s and St Peter’s days, kept in certain areas as ostensibly Christian feasts, have an
atmosphere of Carnival festivity. All these festivals have their appropriate songs.

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Solo renditions of a more or less improvised text appropriate to the occasion are often encountered at local
festive occasions. These songs may arise during the rondas, in the form of a copla (octosyllabic quatrain
with assonance or rhyme between the second and fourth verses) or a seguidilla (a quatrain with a 7 + 5 + 7 +
5 syllabic distribution with rhymes on even lines; and sometimes consisting of three verses, 5 + 7 + 5), or
in the previously mentioned corrandes de caramelles in Catalonia. But these improvisations become more
important in the Basque bertsulari (see Basque music), in the troveros of Murcia and in the gloses of
Mallorca: in these three cases, encounters and competitions take place between singers who are required
to give a demonstration of wit and inventiveness. The structure of the text becomes much more
complicated: for example, the gloses can have between four and six verses and as many as 15 in exceptional
cases.

The cançó pagesa or redoblades of Ibiza deserve a special mention. They include a guttural sound effect
unique to the Mediterranean. These songs are sung at Christmas or at weddings by a soloist. The text is
syllabic with notes of equal length and stress; drum beats which may accompany the performance are
sporadic, with no apparent metre. At the beginning of the phrase the singer ascends to the highest note
and gradually descends often using intervals of imprecise magnitude. At the end of the stanza there is a
redoble, a stammer or yodel of imprecise pitch. The genre has no known parallel.

At the very limits of what is commonly held as music is the modulated shout, such as the typical ajijido of
the Canary Islands. This stylized shout, which is used over an extended geographical area, is a shrill vocal
emission rather like a high trill or a cascading forced laugh; one of its names means ‘neigh’. It is used as a
cry of defiance (as to competing serenaders in a ronda) or simply as a shout of joy at the end of a song or
dance.

4. Dance and instrumental music.

Arcadio de Larrea Palacín, revised by Martin Cunningham and Ramón Pelinski

Spain probably has over 1000 choreographically different dances (over 200 were known in the 19th century
in Catalonia alone). What follows is a schematic account of various categories of dance practised in
different regions of Spain; singled out with detailed examination of their musical characteristics are the
jota, fandango and seguidillas, whose diffusion covers practically all of the Spanish territory. Two broad
classes can be conveniently distinguished: danza ritual (ritual dance) and non-ritual dance. The Spanish
terms ‘danza’ and ‘baile’, sometimes used with these senses respectively, are now used indiscriminately
for both.

Ritual dances are performed by a fixed number of specially rehearsed performers; they were evidently once
symbolic or commemorative, though their meanings have been changing under the pressures of
modernization and secularization. This is also true for the specific occasions with which most dances were
originally connected. Indeed, the phenomenon of folklorism includes a delegation of traditional
community practices into formally constituted dance groups; these conjuntos (ensembles) are integrated
usually by young people in their twenties or thirties; the realm of action of these groups often transcends

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the limits of the village; their repertory regularly includes a selection of the traditional musical practices of
the village and the region, privileging those which are considered to be emblematic of the identity of a
community.

The main categories of traditional dance have connotations of war, religious ceremonies and courtship. A
frequent feature of all types is the use of aparatos (‘props’ or ‘paraphernalia’); there are many
handkerchief and hoop-arch dances in northern Spain, and some involving caballitos (hobby horses) in
Mallorca and parts of Catalonia. Sticks and swords are often used, and are sometimes held between
adjacent performers in a chain-dance. Both are common in war dances; sticks may be beaten on the
ground or used in stylized combat, often with vaulting. Swords are brandished to simulate combat, and the
free hand in some dances carries a shield, stick or dagger. In some cases the texts of accompanying songs
can be traced to specific wars or campaigns between the 16th and 19th centuries.

A flourishing medieval tradition of ritual dance performed in cathedrals during Mass lapsed in the 17th
century; only the danza de los seises (‘dance of the sixes’) survives, still performed by boys in Seville
Cathedral for Corpus Christi. Other ritual dances associated with the processions of Corpus Christi were the
danza de águilas (eagles' dance) which used to be popular in the Catalonian-speaking area; and the Tarasca,
a woman-mime dancing on a monstrous animal during Corpus Christi processions in such cities as
Madrid, Toledo, Granada, Seville and Valencia. Other expressions of popular devotion are the dances
simulating fights of Christians and Moors, as are dances representing giants and big-headed figures,
biblical characters and evangelists or theological ‘forces’ (vices, virtues, demons), and scenes from the
Passion. Mime is present in some of these dances. In spite of past prohibitions (the strongest was by
Charles III in 1780), some are performed in close association with the liturgy, after or even during Mass,
and in processions.

The old sword and stick dances (danzas de espadas, danzas de bastones) also have a ritual character. They
are among the oldest and most widespread dances in Spain, where their practice has been documented
since the 15th century; variants of these dances are found all over the world. They are often performed by
eight men accompanied by a dulzaina or gaita (shawm) and a tambor or tabalet (drum), and a characteristic
figure of some variants can be seen in the Danza guerrera of Todolella (Castellón province) when the
symbolic beheading (degollada) of the main dancer is followed by his being lifted on the shoulders of the
other dancers (Covarrubias Orozco, B(i)1611). In Aragon, sword and stick dances and the villano are often
integrated into religious representations called dances, some of which were performed in church. In León
the baile de la rosca is danced on solemn occasions; a rosca (curled loaf of bread) and wine are present on a
table, giving the dance liturgical, even eucharistic overtones. The Maragatos, an isolated mountain
community, preserve many old customs and ceremonial dances such as the peregrina, a wedding dance in
which each man takes two partners. In Morella (Castellón), another isolated mountain community, ritual
dances such as Els torners and Els llauradors are performed every six years in honour of the Virgin María of
Vallivana. Catalonia possesses numerous ritual dances of interest: on Maundy Thursday, a Dansa de la mort
is still performed at Verges (Gerona), and the moixiganga, associated particularly with Sitges (Barcelona),
is an acrobatic dance with elements of pantomine which stops periodically in a number of tableaux
symbolizing scenes of the Passion. In Tarragona the jota foguejada (‘fiery jota’) is a seemingly non-ritual

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dance which has acquired ritual connotations; fireworks are thrown by the male dancers who are expected
to perform energetic feats. The dance takes place around a tree, real or artificial, to which phallic
significance may be attributed.

Courtship dances are rarer and may involve a greater number of women than men. The men are expected
to perform energetic and acrobatic feats. Examples of such dances are the pericote and corri-corri of
Asturias. The pericote is performed by four men and eight women; in the corri-corri a single man
performing agile feats courts six to eight women who carry olive branches (a symbol of fertility); the dance
ends when he chooses one of them. Another example of courtship dance is the zángano; in its Andalusian
variant as a fandango, a man is supposed to keep dancing in front of two women who try to turn their back
to him (Berlanga, A1997). Sometimes courtship dances appear curiously mingled with devotional
elements, as is the case of damas y galanes (ladies and courtiers); when danced at the village of Santa
Cristina de Lavadores (Galicia) it involves four women and eight men who, after Mass on the feast of the
Assumption, walk backwards out of the church to perform their dance.

Non-ritual dances are generally known over a wide area and, having no symbolic meaning, are danced on
any festive occasion. Non-ritual dances are for participation rather than spectacle; their steps are simple
and repetitive and can be danced by untrained performers. In contrast to the usually complicated
choreography of ritual dances, the non-ritual present a repeated series of relatively simple steps. Circle-,
line- and couple-dances are the most common. Circle-dances (rueda or corro) are widespread and vary
greatly, from those performed with solemn regard for the correct execution of the steps (e.g. the Catalan
sardana) to others which are freer (the resbalosa and other Castilian forms). Children’s games are usually
based on a circle-dance, as are a number of balancing-dances for drinkers (mampullé, escoba, gayata).
Line-dances, performed by two parallel rows (sometimes one of men, the other of women) may be
regarded as a variant of circle-dances; among them the Villano, mentioned in literary sources of the 16th
and 17th centuries, may still be seen in some villages. Important also are the couple-dances. A form which
fits none of these categories is the amusing jerigonza (or jeringonza, jeringosa), which goes back to the 16th
century (Fuenllana, B(i)1554); with many local variants, it used to be very popular throughout Spain and in
Latin America at family and public festivities until the 1970s (Gil García, A1958). The jerigonza is performed
to a song which alludes to a friar’s exploits; the text is delivered at a fast patter to a repetitive melody in
major tonality and ternary rhythm; meanwhile, members of the company are brought in turn into the
dance (or perhaps rather the game), each at first following the one before, then dancing alone, then
leading a successor.

The jota, fandango and seguidillas are all widely known and transcend regional classification. All are
dance-songs (see §3); dancers are grouped in pairs, though sometimes in competition and festival
performance elements of formation dancing are introduced. These dances are usually accompanied by
guitars, bandurrias, laúdes (lutes), castanets, panderetas and, sometimes, violins.

The jota, regarded as primarily Aragonese, is nevertheless common in Navarre, Old and New Castile,
Murcia and in Valencia (where the local variant is sufficiently differentiated to merit the name jota
valenciana); it also occurs in local versions in most of the other Spanish regions (Manzano, A1995). The
jota is invariably in rapid triple time, with four-bar phrases. Its core section called copla, whose text is an
octosyllabic quatrain; this is accommodated to the seven musical phrases of the copla by singing the lines

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in the order babcdda (see Copla). Only two chords are used in the accompaniment: the even-numbered
phrases have tonic harmony cadencing on the dominant, and the odd-numbered phrases have dominant
harmony cadencing on the tonic. The copla is preceded by an instrumental introduction in which this
harmonic pattern is reversed. Several coplas are generally performed in succession, and the last may be a
despedida (farewell) with a suitable closing text, sometimes involving a pious dedication. The jota may also
include other sections among which the coplas may be interspersed: these are estribillos, which are
musically and sometimes textually distinct, and instrumental interludes known as variaciones. Where
coplas are outnumbered by such additions, the estribillos and variaciones may be danced even if the coplas
are not, and this may be an older manner of performance.

Ex.3 E-mode types

The fandango, performed in Andalusia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands and adjacent regions, is
known from the beginning of the 18th century. In its basic form it is similar to the jota; the essential
difference lies in the length of the text, the number of musical phrases in the copla, and the fandango’s
special modal characteristics and greater harmonic diversity. After the fandango’s instrumental
introduction comes the copla, whose text is mostly four (usually five in the fandango flamenco) octosyllabic
lines, sung to six musical phrases in the order abcdea or babcde. The fandango follows a rigid harmonic
pattern: the introduction cadences in the E mode (an expansion of the formula given in ex.3e above), after
which the first phrase of the copla cadences on a major chord a major 3rd lower than the final chord of the
E mode. This new chord is the harmonic centre for the duration of the copla; within this new harmonic
centre the second phrase cadences on the fourth degree, the third on the harmonic centre, the fourth on
the fifth degree, the fifth again on the harmonic centre; the sixth phrase leads back to the original E mode,
where the copla ends. The fandango incorporates some of the same modifications that affect the jota, in
particular the insertion between coplas of instrumental passages, which in the fandango flamenco are called
falsetas. As with the jota and seguidilla, the fandango has different names depending on the places in which
it is practised: these include the rondeña (from Ronda), malagueña (Málaga), granadina (Granada),
fandangos alosneros (after the small town of Alosno) and the fandangos de verdiales (typical of the hills of
Málaga; Berlanga, A1997).

The dance-song seguidillas (always plural in this sense) is typical of New Castile where it occurs notably as
seguidillas manchegas (from La Mancha); it also occurs in other regional variants such as seguidillas
murcianas (Murcia) and sevillanas (Seville) (see Flamenco). (For the seguiriya gitana, ‘gypsy seguidillas’, see
Flamenco.) The literary metric form seguidilla (7–5a–7–5a), used in the homonymous dance-song, occurs
also in many other popular songs (nanas, harvesting songs, estribillos etc.). Seguidillas are in moderately

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fast triple time and tonality is usually major. Typical features are four introductory strummed chords,
melodic phrases beginning on the second or fourth quaver of a 3/4 bar and melismas often sung to a weak
syllable at the ends of phrases. An initial section (not repeated during the performance) consists of a brief
instrumental introduction followed by the salida, a ‘false’ entry for the vocalist, who sings a short portion
of the text. The main section (repeated ad libitum) consists of a further brief instrumental passage (called
falseta, estribillo or interludio) followed by the copla, the vocal section proper. Each copla normally
accommodates five lines of the text, which consists of a series of seguidilla quatrains and sometimes
tercets (see §3). The deployment of the text may follow many patterns, but constant features are the
frequent repetition of lines and inversion of their order, and transition from one stanza to the next in the
middle of a musical copla. In performance a second singer may ‘jump in’ with a new stanza in the middle of
a copla section, thus obliging a further repetition of the whole main section to accommodate the text. A
stricter variety of seguidillas (seen chiefly in the sevillanas) permits only three repetitions of the main
section; the text in this case is a seguidilla quatrain (abcd) followed by a tercet (efg, sometimes referred to
as the estribillo); a, c and f are long lines. A typical deployment of the text in sevillanas is as follows: bb
(salida); babab (first copla); bcdce (second copla); efefg (third copla). After fandango, seguidilla and jota, the
bolero deserves special mention. Already known in the 18th century, it is still present in folk music,
although sometimes under other names, particularly in the Levante and in the south. Besides these song-
dances, there are numerous regional and local non-ritual dances whose use is often associated with the
construction and celebration of collective identities.

Galician dances are characterized by a lively 6/8 rhythm (at times 2/4 with the occasional triplet), a
persistent and unvaried rhythmic support on a percussion instrument, and regular phrase lengths with
repetition of at least the first pair of phrases. The most popular dance is the muiñeira (from muiño: ‘mill’);
sometimes accompanied by a gaita gallega (Galician bagpipe) and tambor, sometimes by songs (which may
also be performed without dancing) whose text is an unusual decasyllabic quatrain with an anapaestic
rhythm, referred to as ritmo de gaita gallega (Galician bagpipe rhythm). Another popular song-dance is the
Pandeirada, in which a solo voice alternates with a choir of women playing the pandero (tambourine).
Among Galician dances which have crossed regional borders the Farruca is the best-known (Crivillé, 1983,
pp.226–8). Purely instrumental pieces for sanfona, pito y tambor (short vertical flute, flute and drum),
chirimía and gaita include the alborada (dawn song) and preludes to dances and processional marches.

Popular in Asturias is the giraldilla (from girar: ‘to turn round’), which means to turn around rhythmically;
it is also known in neighbouring León; the danza prima is a communal circle-dance whose origins may be
Celtic; it alternates verses of a romance (ballad) with religious exclamations such as ‘¡Viva la Virgen del
Carmen!’ (Crivillé, A1983, pp.229–31).

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Ex.2 Charrada rhythms (García Matos, 1960–61)

Non-ritual dances of Castile and León include the fandango, the jota and the formerly more popular
bolero, as well as those referred to simply as a lo llano or asentao. The charrada, associated particularly with
Salamanca, is one of the most rhythmically interesting of all Spanish dances. The first form of the dance,
transcribed by early collectors (Ledesma, Sánchez Fraile) in 6/8, 9/8 or 3/4 time, has been shown (García
Matos, E1960–61) to be in compound quintuple time (some typical rhythms are shown in ex.2a above).
Quintuple metre in forms related to the charrada is found in neighbouring areas of Extremadura and Old
Castile. The second form of charrada is in 2/4 time, but has a polyrhythmic percussion accompaniment
(played on the tambor): while the melody (played on the shawm) keeps regular 2/4 time, the percussion
pattern is 3 + 2 + 3 quavers (which also defied early collectors). The combination of this rhythm with a
melodic pattern in 2/4 time is shown in ex.2b. Very popular in the Castilian region of La Mancha is the
bolero manchego, an art of seguidilla manchega which is usually danced at slower pace by eight couples,
accompanied by a rondalla (ensemble of plucked instruments).

Extremadura shares the musical characteristics of its neighbours (León and Castile in the north and
Andalusia in the south). Here the jota is the most widespread dance; the so-called fandango, performed in
some areas of Extremadura, is really a jota; typical dances are the son or son brincao (leaping dance), and
the quita y pon (‘take and put’), both sung and danced at a lively pace. Some ceremonial dances are
performed by men with blackened faces wearing white smocks.

The repertory of Navarre, situated between Aragon and Basque country, reflects its geographical situation.
In the mountainous areas folksong is musically and linguistically Basque. The lower regions show affinity
with Aragon; for instance, the popular Navarrese jota differs from the Aragonese only in its greater use of
melisma and instrumental virtuosity (see Basque music for a discussion of dances in Navarre).

In Aragon, the jota is the most important and widely used form. In spite of its simple structure, it is an
adaptable form which can suit moods, and with simple harmonies lends itself to improvisation. Although
there are many minor local variants, a broad division may be made between the jota of upper Aragon which
is more lively, the dancers touching the ground only with the toes, and that of lower Aragon which is
slower and has fewer leaps. The jota sometimes invades the domain of other genres (e.g. agricultural work
songs). Ceremonial dances include the señoríos y reiñados (lordships and those who reign) and the
contradanza, noted for its complexity. In the province of Teruel the baile de las gitanillas (‘ball of the
Gypsies’), performed by women holding ribbons around a pole carried by a man, is popular. In the province

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of Huesca, the dance is a favourite sword dance which may also include dialogue and theatrical
representations through stereotypical figures (Christian and Moorish generals, the mayoral, the gracioso,
four flying children, etc.). Huesca has musical affinities with Catalonia, as does Teruel with neighbouring
Valencia.

The cultural separateness of Catalonia is based mainly on language; the Catalan language is closer to
Provençal than to Castilian and for many centuries Catalan culture was influenced from the north rather
than from the south. The ball pla is popular in Catalonia and in the Valencian province of Castellón.
Although it is performed on ceremonial occasions, it is an open dance in which everybody can participate.
Guitars, lutes, bandurrias and castanets provide the accompaniment. It has three parts: an ‘invitation to the
ball’, in which the dancers walk to the rhythm of a jota or a pasodoble, the jota with at least three different
figures, and the bolero danced in a circle with joined hands. This last figure is similar to the basic sardana,
the national dance of the Catalans (Crivillé, A1983; Martí, E1994 and A1995). It is a circle-dance for
alternate men and women holding hands. Although not an ancient form (the modern sardana owes much
to the 19th-century enthusiast Pep Ventura), it derives from the medieval ball rodó (round dance). Despite
the strictness with which the steps are executed, few Catalans do not dance it and in city and village alike
the sardana has become the symbol of Catalan identity. The dance is accompanied by the cobla, usually with
11 musicians (see fig.14 below). The opening ‘introit’ on the flabiol serves to announce that the dance is
about to begin. The curts (short steps), each four beats long, occupy the first section, followed by the llargs
(long steps), each eight beats long; meanwhile, the music becomes louder and more energetic until the
final section in which the llargs are adorned amb salts (with leaps). Popular at feasts in various villages and
cities of Catalonia is the acrobatic building of a human tower or pyramid some six ranks high; although it is
a game rather than a dance, its construction is accompanied by a toc (toccata) played on the gralles
(shawms).

Some of the dances of the Balearic Islands are evidently importations, such as the jota and, particularly in
Mallorca, the bolero; more typical are two dances called sa mateixa and copeo. The mateixa (meaning
‘same’ for no obvious reason) is similar to the jota but has the gentler style of Mallorca; the copeo is
another couple-dance, in which the woman dictates the movements (which are very fast) and the man
imitates them to the best of his ability. An old wedding custom in Mallorca was the auctioning of dances
with the bride, the object being to raise funds to pay for the feast; it was, of course, arranged for the groom
to win the first bid. The chief dances of Ibiza are sa llarga and sa curta (the long and the short), which differ
only in speed; particularly large castanets are used, and while the woman dances coyly, the man leaps
about and demonstrates his agility, never turning his back on his partner.

Valencia possesses a great richness of local dance traditions which include ritual (like those performed
around a fire on St Anthony's day), processional and pantomimic dances representing different
occupations etc. Particularly important are the local variants of the fandango and the jota. The Valencian
jota accompaniment has the structure and harmonic simplicity of the Aragonese jota, but its melodic
characteristics are often surprisingly free. Tending towards syncopation and ornament, its tonality is
frequently ambiguous, so that if the melody were sung alone it would scarcely suggest the well-defined
harmonic pattern typical of the jota. Other dances of the region include el u i el dos (the one and the two)
and el u i el dotze (the one and the twelve), a double circle-dance with the men forming the inner circle.

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Popular in the eastern regions of Valencia, as well as in Catalonia, is the ball pla: an open dance with a
variable number of participants and performed on the plaça (square) of the village during its main
festivities. In some villages of Castellón the ball rodat (round dance) is still performed; it consists of a
‘walking dance’ through the festive space until the dancers find a broad space in which they can dance a
jota in a double circle. Castellón is also known by the relative frequence of aksak (or asymmetric) rhythms
in its dances and songs, although this trait can also be found in other regions of Spain (León, Catalonia,
Basque country).

Murcia has lively and fast dances similar to those of Andalusia. Most popular are the fandango, known
usually as the malagueña, the jota, danced at a lively pace, and the seguidillas in its local variant forms of
parrandas, gandulas or paradicas.

Andalusia has the richest treasury of folk dances in Spain. Its chief dances are fandangos and sevillanas
(usually composed in the metric form of the seguidillas) and variants. The fandangos in particular appear in
many variants according to local traditions. One of these variants is the verdiales of the Montes de Málaga,
which are danced by the pandas (bands); these dancers are called tontos (fools) and collect money for the
celebration of religious feasts. They wear hats decorated with ribbons and pieces of mirror and are
accompanied by violin, tambourine and miniature cymbals (see Verdiales). The style of the fandangos
verdiales is seen along the Mediterranean coast from Tarifa to Valencia (Berlanga, A1997). Sevillanas are the
seguidillas of Seville; whether they speak of love or extol the beauty of Seville they are often praised for
their high literary merit. Some examples, bearing a 17th-century imprint and locally called antiguas (old)
or bíblicas (biblical), take their subjects from history, mythology or the Bible. Sevillanas are not fossilized:
new ones began to be recorded in the 1960s and are still composed in abundance for fiestas and romerías
(pilgrimages undertaken in a spirit of profane festivity). Purely popular dances are sometimes put to
functional use: the jotilla (little jota) is danced in the province of Córdoba to celebrate the end of the olive
harvest, just as the fandangos verdiales are used in eastern Andalusia after grapes have been harvested.
Collection for the All Souls is made using verdiales by groups from Málaga to Murcia; in Andalusia they may
dance as well as sing.

A common dance on the larger of the Canary Islands is the isa; musically it is similar to the Aragonese jota,
to which it is probably related (although the name isa and the steps of the dance are probably of the pre-
Spanish guanche origin). The folía is a very important sung dance, a curious mixture of the idyllic and the
passionate, accompanied by a group resembling the rondalla. The tango, performed on the island of Hierro,
is a ritual dance whose limited melodic range and often forced underlay of Spanish texts suggest non-
peninsular origin. Seguidillas and malagueñas, and also polkas and mazurkas, are popular too. Two
instruments deserve special mention: the timple, a small guitar used in the folía, and the transverse flute
used in the tango.

Dances are the best-kept domain of Spanish traditional music. From the 1980s, their practice has been
promoted by autonomous administrations who saw in the support of dance a way of strengthening
regional cultural identity.

5. Organology.
Arcadio de Larrea Palacín, revised by Sílvia Martínez García
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Foremost among struck idiophones are castanets (castañuelas; also palillos, postizas), the most common
being those with both parts tied to the thumb. A very small type, pulgaretas (from pulgar: ‘thumb’), is
found in Aragon. A large type, fastened to the wrist, is found in Jaca (province of Huesca), Ibiza and in
Gomera (Canary Islands) where they are called chácaras. Platillos are cymbals, of which a miniature type,
chinchines, is found in Málaga and Almería, and parts of Andalusia and New Castile. Other struck
idiophones include the hierrillo (‘little iron’ or triangle) and campanas (bells) of various sizes, sometimes
mounted on frames of different designs (a wheel, a cross) for use in religious contexts; cencerros (animal
bells), known sometimes as esquilas, are also common.

Shaken idiophones include cascabeles (small spherical bells, worn by dancers or tied to the end of a stick
which is shaken); the carraca (cog rattle or ‘corncrake’); the matraca (various types of clapper or castanet
on a handle) and other types of sonajero (rattle); and the aro de sonajas (like a tambourine with jingles, but
without a membrane; it may be beaten or shaken). Finally, scraped idiophones include the carrañaca or
raspadero (a notched piece of wood rubbed with a stick; there are also some hollowed-out, gourd-like
varieties called güiro, of Cuban provenance) and conchas or conchas de peregrino (pilgrim shells), used in
Galicia, the knurled surfaces of two shells being rubbed together.

Besides these instruments, percussion is frequently improvised on household objects; a mortar (almírez)
may serve as a bell; a frying pan (sartén), spoons (cucharas, usually wooden), a grater (rallador) or a key and
a bottle may be used to keep rhythm. Other percussion instruments may be tools, such as a hammer and
anvil, yoke, or tejoleta (piece of tile, which may also be used as a tradesman’s or other signal); even the
rhythmic creaking of a farm cart may be used to mark time.

The most important membranophone is the pandereta (tambourine with jingles). A larger tambourine, the
pandero (usually without jingles), has a square variety sometimes called adufe or alduf, among other
names; both are often used by women in dances. The nomenclature of drums is complicated, since
different sizes are known by the same names. The generic term is tambor, with large types known as
tamboril (about 50 cm in both height and diameter) and caja (larger in diameter but not as deep), both built
like side drums. Smaller instruments may also be referred to as tamboril; a very small drum, called
tamboret in Catalan, is used in the cobla. Ritual processions sometimes demand the use of timbales
(kettledrums). The zambomba, used above all in Christmas festivities, is a friction drum, the membrane
being pierced with a stick which the player rubs up and down. The groups of drummers have become
emblematic of lower Aragon. One of the most important celebrations is the tamborinada, during which a
multitude of drums are played continuously.

The guitar, commonly called guitarra, is the most important chordophone and is popular in all regions. In
ensembles smaller varieties are used, including the requinto and tiple or timple, which have fewer strings
and are only strummed. The guitarro is a type with 12 strings. Two instruments are used with a plectrum
(púa) to pick out a melody: the laúd (lute) and bandurria (a large instrument of the mandolin family). The
bowed violin appears sometimes (mainly in Valencia and Murcia); the rabel, a rebec with only one string, is
rarer. The sanfona (hurdy-gurdy; also chanfona, zanfona among other names) is used in Galicia. The salterio
is beaten like a drum: a type of dulcimer consisting of a number of thick strings stretched over a box
resonator; it is used in ritual dances in some localities in the Huesca province (Aragon).

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A common name among aerophones is ‘gaita’, which is used for a confusing array of instruments.
Although the name usually means bagpipe, in some areas of the country the gaita is a conical wind
instrument with a double reed, known also by the names of dolçaina or gralla. The most important pipe is
the one with three holes and given various names: chiflo in Aragon, pito in Castile, txistu in Basque country,
where it has become an emblem of Basque nationalism. In Basque country a bass flute, silbote, is also used
(in Basque, txistu aundi). Catalonia has the flabiol, a small seven-hole flute, and in the Canary Islands a
transverse flute is used. A double-reed instrument, called variously gaita, dulzaina or chirimía (shawm) is
played in most areas of Spain; gralla is the Catalan name, and in this region two varieties, tenora and tiple
(tenor and treble shawm), are used in the cobla. The xeremía and gaita (or gaita serrana) are pastoral
instruments from Ibiza and Castile respectively, though both are now rare; the former is a double clarinet
made from a single piece of wood, and is sometimes pentatonic; the latter is a capped single-reed hornpipe
(see Wind-cap instruments), with an animal-horn bell. The large class of instruments made by children
includes some similar ones such as the double-reed Basque alboka (Sp. albogue, fig.2). In most of Spain,
gaita or gaita de fuelle are generally understood to mean an instrument of the bagpipe family found in
Asturias, León, Aragon, Catalonia (where it goes by the name sac de gemecs: ‘bag of groans’), Mallorca
(xeremies) and particularly in Galicia, where it is now considered a symbol of regional identity.

Alboka (double-reed hornpipe) (Horniman Museum, London)

Horniman Museum, London

The flauta de Pan (panpipes) is used to warn of the approach of tradesmen such as knife grinders and pig
gelders (hence the instrument’s vulgar name of castrapuercas). Various types of shell or horn, all with
extremely narrow range, are also used for giving warning signals. Among the brass instruments

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traditionally used are the corneta and trompeta, used to attract attention particularly by pregoneros (town
criers). Brass instruments of several sizes are used in the modern cobla in Catalonia. The guimbarda or
birimbao (jew’s harp) is a shepherd’s instrument.

The most usual combinations of instruments are flute and drum, played by the same player, and gaita
(either bagpipes or shawm) with drum or tambourine(s), played by different players. Such groups
commonly accompany dancing. The rondalla is a street band which performs for the ronda (see §3),
comprising some or all of the following: guitars of various sizes, laúd, bandurria, triangle, tambourine or
aro de sonajas, and perhaps a cántaro (a large jug which may be either struck or rhythmically blown into).
Similar to the rondalla, the banda is a group composed of various combinations of aerophones. These
groups are very popular throughout the country particularly in the area of Valencia. In Catalonia an
ensemble comprising three gralles and drum is no longer found, but the cobla persists. The standard
instrumentation dating from the beginning of the 20th century is composed of flabiol and tambori, two
tenores and two tiples (instruments derived from the old tarota), two cornets (now replaced by trumpets), a
trombone, two fisicornos (flugelhorns) and one berra (a three-string double bass; fig.3).

Cobla band in Catalonia, with (front row, left to right) flabiol and tamboret (flute, and small drum attached to player’s arm), two
tiples (treble shawms), two tenores (tenor shawms) and (back row, left to right) two trumpets, trombó de vares (trombone), two
fisicornos (flugelhorns) and double bass

Instiutucio Obra del Ballet Popular

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6. Contemporary developments.
Josep i Martí i Perez

Despite the fact that in many parts of Europe traditional folk music began rapidly disappearing at the end
of the 19th century, giving way to a new model of society marked by urban culture, in Spain awareness of
the progressive disappearance of traditional culture, coupled with the importance people have placed on
the maintenance of a collective identity, particularly as a result of the development of autonomous
regions, has produced a generalized interest in folklore – hence the discovery, preservation and
popularization of traditional music, often through its involvement with political and economic objectives.
In this way, many of the diverse manifestations of traditional culture, originally an integral part of a
concrete way of life, has become part of urban society. As people have assigned it aesthetic, commercial
and ideological value, folklore has become folklorism.

At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, folklorism attained certain social relevance
within Spanish society. Interest in what was then a fading tradition was not confined to those intellectuals
who had begun collecting some decades earlier, but included people from diverse sections of society.
Traditional song repertories had been embraced by choral societies by the end of the 19th century, with the
first choreographic groups for traditional dances, such as the Esbart de Dansaires de Vic in Catalonia,
appearing in 1902. All such groups were engaged in the task of recuperating and disseminating the
traditional dances of the country.

By the beginning of the 20th century a well-configured series of narratives could be found around
particular musical and choreographic genres, which through folklorism became markers of regional
identity: the jota for Aragon, the zortziko for Basque country, the muiñeira for Galicia, the sardana for
Catalonia, etc. Each of these dances contributed to the emergence of similar mythologies, which by
emphasizing their rural origin and claiming ancient precedence (often back to unprovable Greek or Roman
times) aim to establish them as quintessentially ethnic.

The Franco dictatorship, in common with other European totalitarian political regimes, found the
exploitation of folklore one way of promoting state nationalism. For ideological reasons the women's
section of the Falange party assumed the task of collecting and disseminating folk music and dance
throughout Spain. As a result, during the dictatorship such folklorism became (because of its opportunistic
use by the government) socially discredited, particularly among sectors of the population most opposed to
the political regime. However with the restoration of democracy folklorism regained its value. Spain
became a state constituted by autonomous communities, many of them with strong regionalist traditions,
others with artificial ones, but each with a need to recover or invent regional identities. Flags and official
anthems appeared, and people sought in folklore, especially in music, ethnic justification for the newly
shaped administrative boundaries. In contrast with the period of Franco's dictatorship, new democracy led
to a revaluation of folklore not only by the public administration but also by the broadest sectors of society.
The result has been not only the proliferation of festivals and competitions for folk music and dance
throughout the country but also the creation of numerous groups and associations with the objective of
recovering and popularizing local traditional music and dance. At the end of the 20th century, expressions
of local folklore, rare in previous decades, were seldom missing from festivities of big cities such as Madrid

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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

and Barcelona to Zaragoza and Valencia. In urban areas, the associations called the casas regionales,
important focal points for immigrants from many Spanish provinces, maintain the ties of immigrants with
their home region, thus acting as an important focus for musical folklorism.

The presence of folklorism on Spanish streets has never been as strong as it is at the beginning of the 21st
century. But this should be understood as much for political reasons as for the positive values tradition
implies for society. The importance of tourism for Spain fosters such music not only in areas of touristic
affluence such as the east and south coasts but also in the interior regions of Spain, which appreciate
cultural tourism as an important economical resource. Typical festivities associated with the colourful
processions of Holy Week, particularly in south and central Spain in cities such as Seville, Toledo or
Zamora, have been strongly revitalized despite the steady decrease in religious feelings throughout
Spanish society; in addition new festivities have been fashioned from the re-elaboration of traditional
elements, as in the case of the ruta del tambor y bombo (route of drum and bass drum) in lower Aragon, an
economically depressed zone which has made Holy Week its main festivity and an important tourist
attraction. Another reason for the significance of folklorism in Spain is the relative delay in the
incorporation of many Spanish regions into post-industrial society, which has ensured the greater survival
of cultural elements of a pre-industrial nature. Many folkloric events have not lost the thread of history, as
with many ceremonial dances seen at local festivities. At the same time these dances have become objects
of folklorism experiencing important modifications, particularly in both semantics and function. In earlier
periods it was not necessary to stress any ethnic connotations or to appeal to a sense of local heritage, but
at the end of the 20th century such dances were being performed outside traditional spatial and temporal
frames, although their forms have remained more or less constant because of a modern, aesthetic stress
on purism and ethnic fidelity. As a result people have recuperated archaic rhythms such as those of aksak
type, which had been replaced by more regular rhythms; band instruments have been supplanted by more
traditional instruments such as bagpipes or dulzainas (shawms); and dancers often use regional dress
belonging to the 19th century.

The reiteration of particular versions by the mass media, coupled with the social prestige implied by
commercial diffusion, has influenced bearers of traditional culture to alter what they have learnt through
oral transmission. This is easy to observe in balladry and traditional children's repertory. Although these
songs have been passed down from one generation to another, modern modification is influenced by
particular variants which circulate in the mass media. In this way traditional repertories, apart from the
problems they have to overcome to survive in the modern world, undeniably undergo a process of
qualitative and quantitative impoverishment because of restrictive and selective modifications by their
interpreters. Thus a tourist flamenco has emerged, modifying the traditional relationship between song
and dance, with more importance given to dance for reasons of spectacle. The flourishing situation of the
Catalan haranera, including the encouragement of new compositions according to traditional patterns, has
led to a much broader diffusion than was enjoyed in earlier decades of the 20th century.

At the end of the 20th century a preoccupation with ripproposta became evident, in which different levels
are distinguished. One level implies the simple task of restoration with absolute fidelity to tradition;
another considers the traditional as raw material or a source of inspiration for musical creation. Besides

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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

numerous groups playing traditional music, modern bands consciously incorporate elements of tradition,
most of all melodic and timbric features, creating music known as etno-pop, jazz-folk, folk-rock and folk
eléctrico.

Bibliography

A: General studies and collections

and other resources

M. Soriano Fuertes : Historia de la música española desde la venida de los Fenicos hasta el año de 1850 (Madrid, 1855–9)

E. Ocón : Cantos españoles: colección de aires nacionales y populares(Malaga, 1874, 2/1906)

Demófilo [A. Machado y Alvarez]: Cantes flamencos: colección escogida (Madrid, 1886, 2/1947)

J. Inzenga : Cantos y bailes populares de España (Madrid, 1888)

E. López-Chávarri : Música popular española (Barcelona, 1927, 3/1958)

E.M. Torner : ‘La canción tradicional española’, Folklore y costumbres de España, ed. F. Carreras y Candi, 2 (Barcelona,
1931), 7–166

A. Capmany : ‘El baile y la danza’, Folklore y costumbres de España, ed. F. Carreras y Candi, 2 (Barcelona, 1931), 169–
418

E.M. Torner : Temas folklóricos: música y poesía (Madrid, 1935) [incl. bibliography]

H. Anglès : ‘Das spanische Volkslied’, AMf, 3 (1938), 331–62

G. Chase : The Music of Spain (New York, 1941, 2/1959) [incl. bibliography]

K. Schindler : Folk Music and Poetry of Spain and Portugal (New York, 1941)

Revista de dialectología y tradiciones populares (1944–) [incl. bibliography]

J.A. de Donostia : ‘El modo de mi la canción popular española’, AnM, 1 (1946), 153–79

Marius Schneider: La danza de espadas y la tarantela (Barcelona, 1948)

Marius Schneider: ‘Tipología musical y literaria de la canción de cuna en España’, AnM, 3 (1948), 3–58

B. Gil García : ‘La jeringonza en la actual tradición’, AnM, 13 (1958), 129–58

W. Starkie : Spain: a Musician's Journey through Time and Space (Geneva, 1958)

A. de Larrea Palacín : ‘Canción popular’, Enciclopedia de la cultura española, ed. F. Pérez-Embid (Madrid, 1962–8)

J. Amades : ‘Etnología musical’, Revista de dialectología y tradiciones populares, 20 (1964), 113–200

J. Tomás : ‘Canciones populares de trabajo’, AnM, 19 (1964), 225–39

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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

A. de Larrea Palacín : ‘Aspectos de la música popular española’, El folklore español, ed. J.M. Gómez-Tabanera (Madrid,
1968), 297–318

T. Martínez de la Peña : ‘Aspectos particulares de las danzas populares españolas’, El folklore español, ed. J.M. Gómez-
Tabanera (Madrid, 1968), 319–38

I.J. Katz : ‘The Traditional Folk Music of Spain: Explorations and Perspectives’, YIFMC, 6 (1974), 64–85

Marius Schneider: ‘Die arabische Komponente im spanischen Volksgesang’, ÖMz, 30 (1975), 175–85

J. Diaz : Canciones tradicionales(Madrid, 1978–83)

J. Crivillé : Historia de la música española, vii: El folklore musical (Madrid, 1983)

V. Torrent : La música popular (Valencia, 1990)

V. Torrent : ‘Ritmes amalgamats en la tradició valenciana’, Actes del Col.loqui sobre cançó tradicional: Reus 1990, ed. S.
Rebés (Barcelona, 1994), 111–17

J. Aiats : ‘El ritme g.s.1212: un cas notable de giusto sil.làbic en les cançons baladístiques de la comarca d'Osona’,
Actes del Col.loqui sobre cançó tradicional: Reus 1990, ed. S. Rebés (Barcelona, 1994), 93–109

E. Rey : Bibliografia de folklore musical español (Madrid, 1994)

J. Martí : El folklorismo: uso y abuso de la tradición (Barcelona, 1995)

M. Manzano : La jota como género musical (Madrid, 1995)

M.A. Berlanga : El fandango (diss., U. of Granada, 1997)

J. Martí : ‘Folk Music Studies and Ethnomusicology in Spain’, YTM, 28 (1997), 107–40

B: Historical background

(i) Sources
L. Milán : Libro de musica de vihuela de mano intitulado El maestro (Valencia, 1536/R); ed. R. Chiesa (Milan, 1965) and C.
Jacobs (University Park, PA, 1971)

L. de Narváez : Los seys libros del delphín de música de cifra para tañer vihuela (Valladolid, 1538/R); ed. in MME, 3 (1945/
R)

A. Mudarra : Tres libros de música en cifras para vihuela (Seville, 1546); ed. in MME, 7 (1949)

E. de Valderrábano : Libro de musica de vihuela intitulado Silva de sirenas (Valladolid, 1547/R); i–ii ed. in MME, 22–23
(1965)

D. Pisador : Libro de música de vihuela (Salamanca, 1552/R)

D. Ortiz : Trattado de glosas sobre clausulas y otros generos de puntos en la musica de violones (Rome, 1553); ed. Max
Schneider (Berlin, 1913; Kassel, 1936/R, 3/1961)

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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

M. de Fuenllana : Libro de música para vihuela intitulado Orphénica lyra (Seville, 1554/R); ed. C. Jacobs (Oxford, 1978/
R)

E. Daza : Libro de musica en cifras para vihuela intitulado El Parnasso (Valladolid, 1576/R); ed. R. de Zayas (Madrid,
1983)

F. de Salinas : De musica libri septem (Salamanca, 1577/R; Sp. trans., 1983)

M. Flecha : Las ensaladas (Prague, 1581); ed. in PBC, 16 (1955)

S. de Covarrubias Orozco : Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española (Madrid, 1611/R)

(ii) Studies
J. Bal y Gay : Cancionero de Upsala (Mexico City, 1944)

H. Anglés : La música en la corte de los reyes católicos, ii: Polifonía profana (Barcelona, 1941)

H. Anglès : La música de las cantigas de Santa Maria, iii: Estudio critico (Barcelona, 1958)

G. Haberkamp : Die weltliche Vokalmusik in Spanien um 1500 (Tutzing, 1968)

R.A. Pelinski : Die weltliche Vokalmusik Spaniens am Anfang des 17. Jahrhunderts (Tutzing, 1971)

M.Q. Gavaldá : Cancionero musical de Góngora (Barcelona, 1975)

M.Q. Gavaldá : Cancionero musical de Lope de Vega (Barcelona, 1986)

C: Organology
J.A. de Donostia and J. Tomás : ‘Instromentos de música popular española’, AnM, 2 (1947), 105–50 [incl. bibliography]

R. Violant y Simorra : ‘Instrumentos músicos de construcción infantil y pastoril en Cataluña’, Revista de dialectología y
tradiciones populares, 10 (1954), 331–99, 548–90

M. García Matos : ‘Instrumentos musicales folklóricos de España’, AnM, 9 (1954), 161–78; xi (1956), 123–63; xiv (1959),
77

A. de Larrea Palacín : ‘Instrumentos musicales populares’, Enciclopedia de la cultura español, ed. F. Pérez-Embid
(Madrid, 1962–8)

G. Ferré i Puig : ‘La flauta i el tambor a la música ètnica catalana’, Recerca musicològica, 6 (1986), 173–233

T. Noda Gómez and L. Siemens Hernández : ‘Los idiófonos tradicionales en la Isla de La Palma’, RdMc, 9 (1986), 169–
204

A. Jambrina Leal and J.R. Cid Cebrián : La gaita y el tamboril (Salamanca, 1989)

J. Morey and A. Artigues : Repertori i construcció dels instruments de la colla de xeremiers catalans a Mallorca (Palma,
1989)

E.M. Zamora : Instrumentos musicales en la tradición asturiana (Oviedo, 1989)

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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

D: Regional collections
J. de Zamácola : Colección de las mejores coplas de seguidillas, tranas y polos (Madrid, 1799, enlarged 3/1805/R)

J.I. de Iztueta : Gispuzkoa'ko dantzak/Dantzas de Guipúzcoa (San Sebastián, 1826, 3/1929)

A. Durán : Colección de romances castellanos anteriores al siglo XVIII (Madrid, 1828–32) [texts only]

F. Pelay Briz : Cançons de la terra (Barcelona, 1866–77)

J. Manterola : Cancionero vasco (San Sebastián, 1877–80)

M. Milá y Fontanals : Romancerillo catalán: canciones tradicionales (Barcelona, 1882)

F. Rodríguez Marín : Cantos populares españoles (Seville, 1882–3, 3/1981)

P. Bertrán y Bros : Cançons i follies populars recullides al peu de Montserrat (Barcelona, 1885)

J. Pérez Ballesteros : Cancionero popular gallego (Madrid, 1886) [texts only]

A. Noguera : Memoria sobre los cantos, bailes y tocatas populares de la isla de Mallorca (Palma de Mallorca, 1893)

A. Capmany : Cançoner popular (Barcelona, 1901–13)

F. Olmeda : Cancionero popular de Burgos (Seville, 1903)

J. Verdú : Cantos populares de Murcia (Madrid, 1906)

D. Ledesma : Cancionero salamantino (Madrid, 1907)

A. Carrera : Cançons populars catalanes (Barcelona, 1910–16)

F. Echevarría : Cantos y bailes populares de Valencia (Valencia, 1912)

N. Otaño : El canto popular montañés (Santander, 1915)

F. Camps y Mercadal : Folklore menorquí (Mahón, 1918)

N. Otaño : Canciones montañesas (Valencia, 1918)

F. Pedrell : Cancionero musical popular español (Valls, 1918–22, 3/1958)

E.M. Torner : Cancionero musical de la lírica popular asturiana (Madrid, 1920)

J.A. de Donostia : Euskel eres-sorta (cancionero vasco) (Madrid, 1921)

R.M. de Azkue : Cancionero popular vasco(Barcelona, 1923)

R.M. de Azkue : Las mil y una canciones populares vascas (Barcelona, ?1923)

M. Arnaudas Larrodé : Colección de cantos populares de la provincia de Teruel (Zaragoza, 1927)

B. Gil García : Cancionero popular de Extremadura, 1 (Valls, 1931, 2/1961); ii (Badajoz, 1956)

M. Fernández y Fernández Núñez : Folk-lore leonés: canciones, romances y leyendas (Madrid, 1931)

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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

S. Llorens de Serra : El cançoñer de Pineda (Barcelona, 1931)

C. Sampedro y Folgar and J. Filgueria Valverde, eds.: Cancionero musical de Galicia (Madrid, 1942)

K. Schindler : Folk Music and Poetry of Spain and Portugal (New York, 1941)

A. Sánchez Fraile : Nuevo cancionero salamantino: colección de canciones y temas folklóricos inéditos (Salamanca,
1943)

M. Arnaudas : Colección de cantos populares de la Provincio de Teruel (Teruel, 1982)

M. García Matos : Lírica popular de la Alta Extremadura, 1 (Madrid, 1944); ii (Barcelona, 1982)

S. Córdova y Oña : Cancionero popular de la provincia de Santander (Santander, 1948–55)

A. Galmés : Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza: folklore: danzas, costumbres, canciones (Palma de Mallorca, 1950)

A. Mingote : Cancionero musical de la provincia de Zaragoza (Zaragoza, 1950, 3/1981)

J. Amades : Folklore de Catalunya: cançoner (Barcelona, 1951, 2/1982)

P. Echevarría Bravo : Cancionero musical popular manchego (Madrid, 1951)

M. García Matos : Cancionero popular de la provincia de Madrid (Barcelona and Madrid, 1951–60)

J. Menéndez de Estéban and P.M. Flamarique : Colección de jotas navarras (Pamplona, 1967)

A. Mingote : Cancionero musical de la provincia de Zaragoza (Zaragoza, 1967)

A. Capdevielle : Cancionero de Cáceres y su provincia (Cáceres, 1969)

A. Aragonés Subero : Danzas, rondas y música popular de Guadalajara (Guadalajara, 1973)

E.M. Torner and J. Bal y Gay : Cancionero gallego (La Coruña, 1973)

S. Seguí : Cancionero musical de la provincia de Alicante (Alicante, 1974)

B. Gil : Cancionero popular de la Rioja (Barcelona, 1987)

M. Manzano : Cancionero leonés (Madrid, 1988)

M. García Matos and others: Páginas inéditas del cancionero de Salamanca (Salamanca, 1995)

E: Regional studies
J. Ribera : ‘De música y métrica gallegas’, Homenaje ofrecido a Ramón Menéndez Pidal (Madrid, 1925), 3, 7–35

F. Pujol and others, eds. : Obra del cançoner popular de Catalunya: materials (Barcelona, 1926–9)

J. Ribera y Tarragó : La música de la jota aragonesa (Madrid, 1928)

F. Baldelló : Cançoner popular religiós de Catalunya (Barcelona, 1932)

A. de Larrea Palacín : ‘Preliminares al estudio de la jota aragonesa’, AnM, 2 (1947), 175–90

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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

M. Palau i Boix : Cuadernos de música popular valenciana (Valencia, 1950)

J. Amades : ‘Las danzas de espadas y de palos en Cataluña, Baleares y Valencia, AnM, 10 (1955), 163–90

M. García Matos : ‘Sobre algunos ritmos de nuestro folklore musical’, AnM, 15 (1960), 101–31; xvi (1961), 27–54

B. Gil García : ‘Panorama de la canción popular burgalesa’, AnM, 18 (1963), 85–102

J. Mainar, A. Jane and J. Miracle : La sardana (Barcelona, 1970, 2/1972)

J. Benito and A. Buylla : La canción asturiana (Gijón, 1977)

J. Crivillé : ‘Ethnomusicologie d'un village catalan: Tivissa’, AnM, 33–35 (1978–80), 171–254

D. Schubarth and A. Santamarina : Cántigas populares (Vigo, 1983)

S. Schmitt : Arbeitslieder auf Mallorca (Tutzing, 1984)

H. Schmidt : Die Sardana: Tanz der Katalanen (diss., U. of Hamburg, 1985)

M.A. Juan : ‘Folk Music Research and the Development of Ethnomusicology in Catalonia since 1850’, European Studies
in Ethnomusicology: Historical Development and Recent Trends, ed. M.P. Baumann, A. Simon and U. Wegner
(Wilhelmshaven, 1992), 42–51

J. Martí : ‘The Sardana as a Socio-Cultural Phenomenon in Contemporary Catalonia’, YTM, 26 (1994), 39–46

R. Pelinski : Presencia del pasado: reestudio de un cancionero castellonense (Castellón de la Plana, 1996)

F: Popular music
D.A. Manrique : De qué va el rock macarra (Madrid, 1977)

C. López : La edad de oro del pop español (Madrid, 1992)

M. Muniesa : ‘El heavy metal en España’, Historia del heavy metal (Madrid, 1993), 85–100

P. Calvo and J.M. Gamboa : Historia-guía del nuevo flamenco (Madrid, 1994)

M. Román : Canciones de nuestra vida: de Antonio Machín a Julio Iglesias (Madrid, 1994)

I. Julià : Grunge, noise, rock alternativo (Madrid, 1996)

G: Recordings
Magna antología del folklore musical de España, Hispavox S-66171 (1977) [incl. notes by M. García Matos]

Magna antología del cante flamenco, Hispavox S-66201 (1982) [incl. notes by J.B. Vega]

Fonoteca de materials: tallers de música popular, Conselleria de cultura, Generalitat Valenciana, Discos CBS LP TMP1–
24 (1985–) [incl. notes ed. V. Torrent]

Madrid tradicional: antología, Tecnosaga, series issued outside numbered sequence (1985–98) [incl. notes by J.M.
Fraile Gil]

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Spain (Sp. Reino de España)

Fonoteca de música tradicional catalana, Centre de Documentació i Recerca de la Cultura Tradicional i Popular, Tecno
CD DT001–9 (1991–) [incl. notes ed. J. Crivillé]

Romancero panhispánico: antología sonora, Centro de Cultura Tradicional de Salamanca, Tecnosaga 5LP AD(5) 10–
9004 (1991) [incl. notes by J.M. Fraile]

Antología de la música tradicional salmantina, Centro de Cultura Tradicional de Salamanca, Sonopress-Ibermemory

KPD-(5) 10/9005 (1996) [incl. notes by A. Carril]

More on this topic

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omo-9781561592630-e-5000904766> in Oxford Music Online <http://oxfordmusiconline.com>

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