Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T14:19:22.861Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

15 - Case study: Seville Cathedral's music in performance, 1549–1599

from PART III - PERFORMANCE IN THE RENAISSANCE (C. 1430–1600)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2012

Colin Lawson
Affiliation:
Royal College of Music, London
Robin Stowell
Affiliation:
Cardiff University
Get access

Summary

In 1549 the young Francisco Guerrero returned to his native Seville as a contralto singer of the cathedral. He remained there until his death in 1599, serving as assistant chapelmaster and (from 1574) chapelmaster. Seville Cathedral, the largest Gothic church in the world, dominated the musical life of a city and region enjoying a golden age both economically and culturally, given its central role in trade with the New World. Indeed, the cathedral's liturgical and musical practices influenced those of many New World churches. This chapter considers musical performance within two liturgical contexts at the cathedral: the Marian Salve service and Vespers of a high-ranking feast. It examines how various types of polyphony and instrumental music were deployed in these contexts, taking elements of Guerrero's output as specific examples. This selection allows the reader to draw some comparisons with the repertoire discussed in Chapter 19 of this book, namely Monteverdi's Marian Vespers music published in 1610. More generally, the influence of Seville Cathedral and the broad dissemination of Guerrero's music nationally and internationally lends wider relevance to some of the performance issues raised here, as does the degree of common musical practice among Iberian churches.

The provision for vocal and instrumental music at Seville Cathedral was of a lavishness designed to reflect the magnificence of the cathedral, in competition with Toledo, the primatial church of Spain. In 1587, Alonso Morgado commented that ‘the music and the choir, both of voices and of instrumentalists, shawms, trombones, bassoon, recorders, cornetts, and all instruments, can compete with the finest in Christendom’. This musical establishment encompassed several (and in some cases overlapping) groups of personnel.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×