Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Although Mexico City was the foremost cultural center in North America before 1800, the musical history of this capital has been strangely neglected. Not until 1946, when Lota M. Spell published a pioneer article on music in the Conquest century, was a first attempt made at bringing the viceregal music to international attention. Four years later Francisco Curt Lange translated her article into Spanish. In 1952 Jesús Bal y Gay handsomely edited what he hoped would be but the first in a series to match Monumentos de la Música Española. As unique source for the transcriptions of Mexican colonial chefs-d’oeuvres in this luxurious 235-page volume, Bal y Gay availed himself of a filmed codex. In April, 1961 Roger Wagner recorded approximately half of the Bal y Gay volume—including Juan de Lienas’ splendid Missa super fa re ut fa sol la (the identical cantus firmus used in Morales’s Missa cortilla and in Masses by Melchor Robledo and Ginés de Boluda), Francisco López [y] Capillas’ Magnificat secundi toni, Hernando Franco’s Peccantem me quotidie, Memento met Deus, and the Spanish Masses transcribed by Bal y Gay because they were in the source codex.
1 Spell, Lota M., “Music in the Cathedral of Mexico in the Sixteenth Century,” Hispanic American Historical Review, XXVI (August, 1946), 293–319 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For Mexico Cathedral actas capitulares she relied on Gabriel Saldívar, Historia de la Música en México (Épocas precortesiana y colonial) (México, 1934); he read the acts systematically from 1536–1600 (p. vii).
2 Revista de estudios musicales (Mendoza [Argentina], Universidad de Cuyo), II (August, 1950), 217–255.
3 Jesús Bal, y Gay, (ed.), Tesoro de la música polifónica en México, I: El Códice del Convento del Carmen (México, 1952 [1953])Google Scholar. Reviewed in Notes of the Music Library Association, sec. ser. XIV/1 (December, 1956), 49–50.
4 Since in addition to music by such easily identified Neo-Hispanic composers as Hernando Franco and Francisco López the Carmen codex contained Francisco Guerrero’s Missa Beata Mater (1566) and Tomás Luis de Victoria’s Missa Ave maris Stella (1576), Bal y Gay edited these two Masses also (Tesoro, pp. 114–144, 223–226; 49–83). Agnus Dei II and the tenor at mm. 34–44 in the Et resurrexit of Victoria’s Mass must be supplied from Pedrell’s edition; the bass in the Tesoro edition, p. 69, mm. 14–17 needs correcting if it is to agree with the 1576 version.
5 Formerly in the custody of the Museo Colonial del Carmen in Villa Obregón (=San Angel), this codex is now reported lost, by Dr. Eusebio Dávalos Hurtado, Director General del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. The loss of similar manuscripts is discussed in “Latin American Archives,” Fontes artis musicae, 1962, No. 1 (January-June), pp. 19–21.
6 Stevenson, R., Spanish Cathedral Music in the Golden Age (Berkeley/Los Angeles, 1961), p. 326.26.Google Scholar
7 FAM 1954/2, pp. 69–78 and 1955/1, pp. 10–15 (the Christus resurgens Mass mentioned at p. 13 [Valdés codex, fols. 101v-109] is by Pierre Colin); HAHR, XXXV (August, 1955), 363–373.
8 Alice Ray [Catalyne] transcribed and commented on his extant music a 8 in her University of Southern California Ph. D. dissertation, “The Double-Choir Music of Juan de Padilla: Seventeenth-Century Composer in Mexico,” 2 vols., 1953. Steven Barwick, John Knowles Paine travelling fellow in Mexico during the late 1940’s and author of the indispensable Harvard Ph. D. dissertation, “Sacred Vocal Polyphony in Early Colonial Mexico,” 1949, obtained the microfilms that served both Jesús Bal y Gay and Alice Ray. The microfilm from Puebla Cathedral is deposited at the Library of Congress (Music Division). Corrections of the biographical data in Grove's, Dictionary, VI, 484–485, are given in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, X, cols. 564–565.
9 At the beginning of the Baroque epoch, Mexico City numbered about 15,000 Spanish families, 80,000 Indians, and 50,000 Negroes and mulattoes. See Leonard, Baroque Times in Old Mexico, pp. 72–78, for further statistics and physical details, pp. 78–84 for a cultural summary, and map-paintings opposite pp. 80 and 112 for the layout of the city in 1628 and c. 1660. Philip W. Powell, reviewing this book in HAHR, XL (August, 1960), pp. 444–445, rightly bespoke the dearth of monographs. For lack of a specialized monograph, the little that Leonard could say on music was reduced to two paragraphs. Kerr’s, C. C. “The Organs at the Cathedral of Mexico City,” The Organ, XXXVI (October, 1956), 53–62 Google Scholar, is the only recent study of a colonial instrument (see Vente’s, M. A. corrections in The Organ, XXXVII [July, 1957], 46)Google Scholar.
10 Stevenson, R., The Music of Peru: Aboriginal and Viceroyal Epochs (Washington, 1960), pp. 69–71, 75–78, 98Google Scholar; “Colonial Music in Colombia,” The Americas, XIX (October, 1962), 125.
11 Mexico City Cathedral, Actas Capitulares [hereafter, A.C.], V, fol. 240v (July 5, 1611): “El Mro de Capilla hizo presentacion ante los dhos ss de Vn libro escripto y puntado en vitelas en que por su yndustria se pusieron las diez y seis magnificas de todos los ocho tonos que dexo compuestas El Mro Franco su anteçesor todo recogido en el dho libro enquadernado en tablas, y bien adornado, y certificando que demas del y abiendose tratado sobre el caso ausente el dh0 Mro de Capilla y communicadolo los dhos ssres con los ss Prebendados musicos y çertificadose del costo del dho libro dixeron que se reçiba Para el usso y seruicio desta santa yglesia, y que los ssres hazedores despachen por contaduria librança delos dhos doscientos pesos … abiendose primero comunicado este negocio con el IIImo Sr Arçobispo para que lo apruebe. …”
12 Alemán, Mateo, “Sucesos de D. Frai Garcia Gera,” ed. by Bushee, Alice H., Revue hispanique, XXV (December, 1911), 380 Google Scholar. Alemán, author of Guzmán de Alfarache and the most renowned Spanish writer to emigrate in the colonial period, traveled in the same fleet with the archbishop; so did Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, but at greater distance.
13 A. C., V (1606-1616), fol. 91 (August 19, 1608).
14 A.C., III (1576–1609), fol. 230v (June 17, 1586); hired at 100 pesos de tepuzque.
15 A. C., V, fol. 101v (October 7, 1608). López became maestro de ceremonias January 16, 1609.
18 Ibid., fol. 114v.
17 Ibid., fols. 116v and 119.
18 Ibid., fols. 386v-387, 388v-389, 398, 402 (April 28, 1615, May 28, May 12, June 30, August 3). In the intervening years, Barreto had pleased the chapter so mightily that on August 7, 1612, (fol. 292v) the canons bought him two surplices of finest Rouen fabric; and on January 8, 1613, (fols. 309v-310) a complete outfit in consideration of his “many excellent services ” during the preceding Christmas season. It was Archbishop Pérez de la Serna, Guerra’s successor, who prevailed on the chapter to let Barreto purchase his freedom for 1500 pesos in 1615. Three canons assailed this move—the archdeacon, chantre, and Dr. Luis de Herrera. On May 29, 1615, the chantre forced the submission of Barreto’s case to letrados, and only the archbishop’s diplomatic plea that Barreto—now 40—was costing the chapter 450 annually and would grow less valuable later, plus Barreto’s promise to serve six more years as salaried singer, gained the day. August 11, 1615, his salary was fixed as 300 pesos. In 1632, aged 62, he was still singing for the cathedral (A.C., VIII [1626–1632], fol. 374v). Six years later, the chapter released another slave, a 26-year-old mulata, Ursula. Bound to the Hospital del Amor de Dios, she was exchanged August 26, 1639, at her father’s request (A. C., IX [1633–1639], fol. 379v). However, few slave-musicians seem to have served the cathedral at any time. The notice of December 11, 1576, that two Negro slaves had been purchased to work the organ bellows (A. C., III [1576–1609], fol. 19) hardly qualifies them as “musicians.”
19 A. C., I (1536–1559), fol. 58: “Recibieron por Su Sa y mrds los menestriles yndios con partido cada vn año de xxiij p0s de oro comun.”
20 Sample entries deal with players of the following instruments: sacabuche (sackbut), May 13, 1575 (A. C., II, fol. 308), June 23, 1592 (A. C., IV, fol. 78v); chirimía (shawn), January 13, 1576 (A. C., II, fol. 317v); bajón (bassoon), August 16, 1588 (A. C., IV fol. 5v); trompeta (trumpet), June 7, 1591 (A. C., IV, 49v). In 1586 Guerrero at Seville obtained a chapter-ruling that one verse of festal Salves must be confided to flautas, another to chirimías, another to cornetas (R. Stevenson, La Música en la Catedral de Sevilla 1418–1606, p. 53b). Never to be outdone by Seville, Mexico City bought January 17, 1595, an expensive set of twelve flautas para el servicio del coro (A.C., fol. 111). Next month, February 25, two ministriles—Juan Maldonado and Andrés de Molina—had to be disciplined for refusing to switch from one instrument to another during versos of the Magnificat, Psalms, Offertory, and Communion, when commanded to alternate by the maestro de capilla.
21 A. C., v. fol. 157.
22 Ibid., fol. 189v: “Y ansimismo propuso de quanta ymportancia era para la devocion y frequencia del pueblo Xpiano ultra dela solemnidad referida para las horas canonicas que en las extraordinarias despues de medio dia antes de entrar en visperas vbiese mucho concurso de cantores e ynstrumentos que tañesen y cantasen los villancicos y changonetas que pudiessen = y ansimismo acabadas las visperas hasta entrar en maytines.”
23 Ibid., fol. 162.
24 Ibid., fol. 354 (April 18, 1614). His six-year contract began in 1607. The chapter dismissed him February 23, 1616 (fol. 425).
25 Ibid., fols. 187, 188 (May 14 and 21, 1610).
26 Ibid., fol. 189 (May 25). Lorenzo Martínez was bassoonist; see note 32 below.
27 Repairs included tuning, replacing pipes, and fixing the registros (stops) of both organs. Such thoroughgoing repairs were needed every few years, however well constructed the organs were to begin with.
28 A.C., V, fol. 202v.
29 Ibid., fols. 196v, 200v, 202v.
30 Ibid., fol. 242.
31 A. C., IV, fol. 78v, A. C., V, fols. 131, 136.
32 A. C., IV, fol. 184 (September 12, 1597, the chapter loaned him 50 pesos); A. C., V, fol. 21v (January 12, 1607, his salary rose 150 pesos because “in Advent, Lent, and at Offices of the Dead, he is the only instrumentalist required to play ”).
33 Just as the Peraza clan was famous in Spain, so dynasties of New World instrumentalists can be traced in colonial documents. See The Music of Peru, pp. 96–97.
34 Lorenzo Martínez’s place had been given Francisco de Medina presbytero August 5, 1611 (A. C., V, fol. 242v), but the gift was voided on August 30.
35 Ibid., fol. 245v.
36 Stevenson, The Music of Peru, p. 79; Sas, Andrés, “La vida musical en la Catedra de Lima,” Revista Musical Chilena, XVI (July-December, 1962), p. 32.Google Scholar
37 León, Martín de, Relación de las exequias (Lima, 1613), fol. 26 Google Scholar; Stevenson, Tht Music of Peru, pp. 57, 73.
38 See also Coelho, Manuel Rodrigues, Flores de Música, ed. by Kastner, M. S. (Lisbon 1959), I, xxv.Google Scholar
39 Arauxo, Francisco Correa de, Libro de Tientos, ed. by Kastner, M. S. (Barcelona 1952), II, 14 (introduction).Google Scholar
40 Franco, first of the great Mexico City maestros, has been more investigated anc transcribed than any of his successors. See The Music of Mexico, pp. 104–121 (Nahuat hymns at pp. 119–121 are probably spurious).
41 A. C., III, fol. 168. October 16 of the year previous, he had exercised his “legal ’ skill to help get Pascual Crespo out of prison by writing a cedula to the alcalde de la carcel. When Crespo left Mexico without paying the debt for which he had been imprisoned, Hernández had to forfeit a month of his prebend (fol. 157).
42 Ibid., fol. 173v (June 14, 1583).
43 Elected chapelmaster in 1586 (fol. 219v), his ascent to chapter secretary came about fifteen years later. He lost the secretary’s office at the end of 1619 (A. C., VI [1617–1620], fol. 179 [January 7, 1620]).
44 A. C., IV (1588–1605), fol. 32 (July 31, 1590). He claimed to have been sick December 24-January 1, 1590. On March 26, 1591 (fol. 46), the chapter recognized his claim for 40 pesos de tepuzque “owing him for having composed the chanzonetas the last two years.”
45 A. C., III, fol. 218; the large sum suggests that Guerrero had sent either his Liber vesperurum, 1584, or his Liber secundus missarwm, 1582
46 A. C., V, fol. 349v.
47 Sosa, Francisco, El Episcopado Mexicano (third edition; Mexico City, 1962), I, 156–157.Google Scholar
48 Guerrero began on very much these same terms at Seville September 11, 1551 (see La Música en la Catedral de Sevilla, p. 23a).
49 A. C., V, fol. 381 (February 13, 1615).
50 A. C., VI (1617–1620), fol. 66v; fols. 85 and 90v (February 1 and 20, 1619).
51 A. C., VII (1620–1625), fol. 61. Juan López de la Guarda, who handed the petition to the chapter, was sochantre. Probably he was the succentor of the same name brought over by Archbishop Guerra (see note 15).
52 Thomas Gage’s Travels in the New World, ed. by Thompson, J. E. S. (Norman, Oklahoma, 1958), p. 72 Google Scholar. In the introduction, p. xlvi, Thompson writes: “In all matters, except religious, which can be verified, I have found Gage truthful and reliable.”
53 A. C., VII, fol. 383v (September 19, 1625).
54 Sosa, El Episcopado Mexicano, I, 175.
55 A. C., VIII (1626–1632), fol. 241 (August 2, 1629).
56 Sosa, El Episcopado Mexicano, I, 177.
57 A. C., VIII, fol. 374v (May 14, 1632); IX (1633–1639), fol. 35v (November 8, 1633).
58 A. C., IX, fol. 32 (October 7, 1633).
59 Ibid., fol. 400v (November 15, 1639). Eight days later the chapter appropriated 100 pesos for their repair (fol. 402v), after which they were to be put some place where they would not be mistreated.
60 Ibid., fol. 167. Possibly, the tiple (A. C., V, fol. 410) is a mere homonym.
61 A. C., X (1640–1650), fol. 101 (March 9, 1641).
62 Ibid., fol. 238v (April 24, 1643). In the interim since Mata’s appointment as tithecollector, a cathedral musician active since at least 1632 (A. C., VIII, fol. 374v)— Melchor de los Reyes—had served as Theniente de Maestro de Capilla at 300 pesos annually (A. C., X, fol. 150v [February 14, 1642]).
63 A. C., X, fol. 637v. By terms of the appointment he was saddled with the inferior Juan Coronado as ayudante. November 28, 1642, Ximeno induced the chapter to hire Juan Vital = Vidal as Maestro de hacer organos and as organ-tuner.
64 Stevenson, , “The ‘ Distinguished Maestro ’ of New Spain,” HAHR, XXXV, 367Google Scholar. For his Masses in the Puebla archive, see Fontes artis musicae, 1954/2, p. 77.
65 A. C., XI (1650–1653), fol. 33v. Ximeno presented first a request for more salary, “because he is poor and has served a long time.” This was denied, with good reason probably. A century later, Ximeno was still recalled as one of the two best-paid musicians in cathedral history (A. C., XXXVI [1741–1744], fol. 35v [January 30, 1742]). His second request was that “se quitten las capillas de musicos, Y en particular, Vna de vn negro, por la indecenssia, con que cantan, y disparates que diçen en el officiar las missas, Y en otros actos tocantes al ministerio [fol. 34] de Iglessia, fuera de que se minoran las obensiones, dela Capilla dela Cathedral, donde es interesada la fabrica.”
66 A. C., XI, fol. 43 (May 26, 1651).
67 A. C., X, fols. 176 (July 8, 1642, allowed 15 days to take his parents to Puebla), 198 (November 21, 1642, decides to stay in Puebla). The consecration of the completed Puebla Cathedral on April 18, 1649, climaxed the golden decade of Puebla music. When salary cuts were ordered in 1651, Grinón was one of three musicians to escape (“The ‘Distinguished Maestro’,” p. 368).
68 A. C., XI, fols. 138v (hired at 100 pesos), 199v (resignation September 3). Hernando López Calderón succeeded Grinón December 7, 1654, with 60 pesos annually and the obligation of coming only when specially called. February 18, 1656, his salary rose to 150 pesos on condition that he come more frequently (A. C., XII [1652–1655], fol. 139; XIII [1656–1660], fol. 233v).
69 A. C., XII, fol. 40v (April 21, 1654): “Nombrasse al Br Francisco Lopez Capillas presbitero por Mro de la Capilla y Muzica desta Sta Yglessia, y por organista de ella.” Ten days earlier, the chapter had posted “edictos, con termino de quarenta dias ” (fol. 35v). However, López Capillas already enjoyed such fame in Mexico City that the chapter commissioned him the very day of issuing edictos to compose the Corpus Christi, Assumption, and SS. Peter and Paul chanzonetas. At present, López Capillas’s only music in print is the extremely beautiful odd-verse Magnificat secundi toni published in Jesús Bal y Gay’s Tesoro (see note 3 above), pp. 42–49, and recorded at Schoenberg Hall, UCLA, on April 18, 1961, by Roger Wagner, If this is a representative sample, López Capillas’ three Masses, 12 motets, passion, and lamentation in a cathedral choirbook inventoried by Saldívar (Historia de la Música en México, p. 121) are hidden treasure awaiting the enterprising transcriber. Perhaps this very choirbook is the one presented by López Capillas to the chapter March 10, 1654 (A. C., XII, fol. 26v).
70 A. C., XII, fol. 41. Preacher of the sermon at the first solemn dedication of the cathedral February 2, 1656, Beltrán de Alzate was in his own right a sufficiently wealthy Maecenas to endow special music for Assumption and St. Peter’s, and to bequeath money for the printing of the villancico texts. See Cruz, Sor Juana Inés de la, Obras Completas, II (Villancicos y Letras Sacras), ed. by Planearte, Alfonso Méndez (México, 1952), facsimiles opp. pp. 144, 224, 320Google Scholar; Medina, J. T., La Imprenta en México 1539–1821, II (Santiago de Chile, 1907), 492, 494.Google Scholar
71 A. C., XII, fol. 183v (April 6, 1655).
72 A. C., XIII, fol. I6v.
73 “Que se encarguen A los Maestros de Cappa Las diuicciones de los quatro Choros Lo qual ajusten con todo Cuidado Para que a vnos y otros ni vnos a otros se hagan dissonancia sin que [fol. 17] con toda perfeccion se Ministren Las quatro Missas.”
74 A. C., XIII, fol. 404v. Quevedo demanded that López be fined no less than 50 pesos, but the chantre protested “no es conbeniente tenga tanta superioridad e imperio ” and the canónigo magistral reminded the chapter of López’s “puntualidad, y su Virtud.” Another canon came to López’s rescue calling attention to “how hard he had worked ” both at ceremonies and “en los conciertos de capilla” (“chapel concerts ”). López had more friends to defend him than Juan de Araujo at Sucre in a similarly tight spot (The Music of Peru, pp. 188–189).
75 A. C., XIV (1661–1662), fol. 40v (September 13, 1661).
76 A. C., X, fols. 205v, 228v, XI, fol. 172v, XII, fol. 197v, XIV, fols. 37, 38v.
77 A. C., XIV, fol. 40v.
78 Sosa, El Episcopado Mexicano, I, 184; 277–278, 290 (consecrated for Oaxaca October 13, 1656), 299 (translation to Mexico City).
79 A. C., XVI (1664–1667), fols. 119, 120v.
80 Ibid., fol. 122v: “Hauiendo llamado al Mro de Capilla para sauer por que se hauian escusado los Villancicos y demas solemnidad q se acostumbra, Respondio no ser de su cargo, Cossa que le hiço mucha nouedad a Su Señoria y assi hacia esta propuesta … = Determinose se notifique al Mro de Capilla acuda segun ha sido costumbre de ochenta años a este partte a Componer los Villancicos, segun que le toca por su obligacion, y de no hacerlo assi se proueer el remedio que combenga.”
81 As early as November 11, 1557 (A.C., I [1536–1559], fol. 150v), the chapter had to begin disciplining musicians who wandered off for extra pay elsewhere at hours when they were being paid for cathedral services. On February 4, 1578 (A. C., III [1576–1609], fol. 46), Archbishop Moya de Contreras had to threaten with excommunication anyone who hired the boy choristers for unauthorized outside functions.
82 Sosa, El Episcopado Mexicano, II, 31.
83 Ydiáquez taught Manuel de Zumaya, who occupies a place in Mexican music equal to that of José de Orejón y Aparicio in Peruvian. These two organist-composers outdistance all musicians known to have been born on American soil before 1800. Ydiáquez’s other creole pupils included his successor as principal organist, Juan Téllez Xirón, and Cristóbal Antonio de Soña. See notes 118, 119, and 122 below.
84 Ydiáquez was a “great tiento-player ” (A.C., XXIV [1695–1697], fol. 29).
85 A. C., XVIII (1670–1673), fol. 368.
86 Ibid., fol. 372v; (February 7, 1673).
87 Ibid., fol. 397v.
88 A. C., XXXVI (1741–1744), fol. 35v.
89 Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Obras Completas, II, 355, 365, facs. opp. p. 144.
90 Ibid., pp. 355, 388, 401, 365, 397.
91 Ibid., pp. 469, 499.
92 Ibid., pp. 427, 479, 485, 489, 494, 512, 517; 408, 413, 419, 506; 431.
93 A. C., XXI (1680–1683), fols. 38 (December 17, 1680), 54 (January 11, 1681).
94 A. C., XXII (1682 [sic]-1690), fols. 64, 125 (May 26, 1684). Melanges sang in Puebla Cathedral before coming to Mexico City.
95 The Music of Peru, pp. 184–185, 202.
96 López, Simón de la Rosa y, Los Seises de la Catedral de Sevilla (Seville, 1904), p. 137.Google Scholar
97 Date kindly supplied by Dr. Efraín Castro Morales of Puebla. For Salazar’s birthyear, see note 126 below.
98 Fontes artis musicae, 1954/2, p. 76.
99 Méndez Planearte ed., II, 262, 266 and 299, 270, 276, 289.
100 A. C., XXII, fol. 313.
101 Ibid., fol. 315. Girón (first name not given) was his nearest opponent.
102 Ibid.: “que haga lo que en la Puebla, que ponga en archivo sus obras, y se le de para papel.” Salazar’s works were not the first to be so valued. February 1, 1619 (A. C., VI, fol. 85), the chapter stipulated that Rodriguez Mata’s 30 pesos for each set of chanzonetas would be paid “on condition he provides the Archive with a copy.”
103 A. C., XXII, fol. 318v.
104 Sosa (El Episcopada Mexicano, II, 57, 62, 66) quotes contemporary descriptions of cathedral ceremonies, November 13, 1701, and January 29, 1702, including Salazar’s Te Deum.
105 Saldívar, Música en México, pp. 108–109.
106 Ibid., pp. 109–108 [sic], 110–111.
107 Méndez Planearte ed., II, 148–163, 330–342, 342–353.
108 Juguetes were as popular in Peru as in Mexico throughout the 1690’s. But Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco, Lima chapelmaster 1676–1728, wrote a letter to a Cuzco colleague (found by Rubén Vargas Ugarte in the Seminary library at Cuzco), warning him to abandon such “jocular music ” if he hoped to please an austere archbishop elected in 1703. See The Music of Peru, p. 107. When they crept back into favor at Sucre c. 1772, juguetes took the form of gay sung playlets (ibid., p. 205).
109 Méndez Planearte ed., II, 161. Such popular touches came usually at the close of the last nocturn.
110 Méndez Plancarte ed., II, 339–340, 516. Data on the contemporary use of many of these same instruments at Lima in Sas, “La vida musical,” pp. 23–32.
111 A. C., XXII, fol. 394 (January 17, 1690). The dean thought Don Tiburcio’s prospective wages ought to be set before leaving Spain, but Joseph Vidal de Figueroa, cura of the Sagrario, did not think this kind of decision possible before arrival. For Don Tiburcio’s biography, see Saldívar, pp. 189–190.
112 A. C., XXIII (1691–1695), fol. 331 (October 1, 1694); XXIV (1695–1697), fol. 29 (May 17, 1695).
113 A. C., XIII, fol. 116 (December 19, 1656). Hired at the small sum of 50 pesos to play when the ayudante could not come, and to tune, Orsuchil hung on in 1699 (A. C., XXV [1698–1701], fol. 72v) but had always been a poor player. February 16, 1700, someone proposed diverting his 60 pesos to the up-and-coming teen-age organist, Juan Téllez Xirón (fol. 154), but the more humane solution of retirement on “full ” pay was accepted.
114 A. C., XVIII, fol. 369 (January 13, 1673).
115 According to Vente, Drs. M. A. and Kok, W., “Organs in Spain and Portugal,” The Organ, XXXV (October, 1955), p. 60 Google Scholar, the swell box is almost certainly an Iberian invention. “The swell box is not operated by a long flat pedal as we have known since the 19th century, but by a pedal knob which must be pressed down.” A corner nearly always went in its own swell box, and if medio registro, treble and bass of the cornet would each need a separate swell pedal. Page 62: “The swell box deviates strongly from the common type [outside the Peninsula], but its effect is even greater; there are no slatted blinds; the swell box is indeed a little box of which the upper cover can be opened and closed.” Vente and Kok’s translations of Spanish names for organ stops deserve careful attention: flautado = diapason, tapadillo = flute, and lleno = mixture. Idas y venidas or suspension = swell pedal.
116 Punto alto stops were drawn by the organist when he wished pieces written in F to sound in G. According to Ydiáquez, punto alto was used only to accompany bassoon, cornet, or shawn when these players came up to the organ loft to play solo versos. They were never used to accompany the singers. After Don Tiburcio had re-tuned the main body of the organ to Mexico City pitch (semitone higher than Madrid), the punto alto mixtures served as automatic transposers from F to Mexico City F # = Madrid G. Since punto alto did not serve even for solo tientos, Ydiáquez’ forte, he advised dispensing with the whole punto alto group.
117 A. C., XXIII, fol. 132v (January 9, 1963).
118 Ibid., fol. 297v.
119 In a petition dated May 24 (1694), Zumaya asked to be dismissed from cathedral employ with the customary terminal pay granted graduating seises. The petition asked licencia para salir a aprender organo.
120 See Music in Mexico, p. 149. For his drama celebrating Luis Fernando’s birth. El Rodrigo (printed in 1708), see Medina, III (1908), p. 398.
121 A. C., XXIV, fol. 197.
122 Ibid., fol. 110v; salary mentioned at fol. 197. The three students that he taught in 1692 are named in A. C., XXIII, fol. 37v (January 8).
123 A. C., XXVI (1706–1710), fol. 157v (February 28, 1708). On the same day, the chapter obligated all three cathedral organists—Zumaya, Tellez, and Esquivel—to teach talented choirboys polyphony, so that the stream of new candidates for important positions would not dry up.
124 A. C., XXV, fol. 211; XXVI (1706–1710), fol. 337.
125 A. C., XXVI, fols. 336v-337.
126 Now a priest, Zumaya had been dispensed from the normal intervals between tonsure and the orders by an act dated February 12, 1700 (A. C., XXV, fol. 157v).
127 A. C., XXVI, fol. 376.
128 Miguel de Dallo y Lana succeeded Antonio de Salazar December 16, 1688; edictos announcing a competition for his successor were issued on September 1, 1705, shortly after his death. Atienza became maestro no later than 1712. Between 1715 and 1722, twelve sets of villancicos for which he had composed the music were published at T, Puebla. J. Medina inventoried the copies in the Biblioteca Palafoxiana (La imprenta en la Puebla de los Angeles [Santiago, 1908], pp. 184 Google Scholar, 185, 187, 189, 191, 194, 195, 201, 202 [twice], 206 [twice]). His name on the title pages of these villancicos is always Francisco de Atienza y Pineda presbítero. Any hard feelings against Zumaya in 1710 did not prevent Atienza from adding numerous compositions by his erstwhile rival to the Puebla repertory. Zumaya’s altogether admirable villancico which is in effect a solo cantata for tenor and accompanying ensemble, A la Asuncion de Nuestra Señora, dated 1719, was transcribed not from a Mexico City but rather from a Puebla manuscript by Alice Ray [Catalyne]. To date, this 1719 piece at Puebla is Zumaya’s only recorded villancico. Richard Robinson was the soloist, Roger Wagner the conductor, and John Korman and Joan Druckenmiller were the obligato violins in the April 30, 1961 Schoenberg Hall, UCLA performance during which the recording was taken. Because Saldivar fell prey to a faulty transcription of a Zumaya villancico dated 1715 (Música en México, pp. 112–113), Zumaya’s reputation has suffered in modern Mexico, quite unjustly. The recording will convince even the casual listener that Zumaya was a true master.
129 See León, Nicolás, Bibliografía Mexicana del siglo XVIII (México, 1903), Sec. I, pt. 2, p. 223 Google Scholar (Gazeta de México, núm. 370); also p. 557. Before coming to Mexico City, Nazarre built a 2226-pipe organ for Guadalajara. The 86 mixturas in his nuevo famoso Organo for Mexico City Cathedral were inaugurated August 15, 1735, amidst splendor rarely equalled in colonial annals.
130 See C. C. Kerr’s article (note 9).
131 Later given to the Congregación del Sor San Pedro (A. C., XXXIII [1735–1736], fol. 129 [October 31, 1735]).
132 Three days later, they made their peace with him (A. C., XXXIII, fol. 144).
133 Clarin y cuerno de caza (A. C., XXXVI [1741–1744], fol. 6).
134 In contrast with Mexico City, Lima was in the hands of the consummate creole José de Orejón y Aparicio (d. 1765), whose compositions place him on a par with Zumaya. See The Music of Peru, pp. 87–89, 286–303.