THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MYTH
OF SPANISH RENAISSANCE MUSIC AS A GOLDEN AGE
Pilar Ramos Lopez
M
usicology has recently concerned itself with the powerful nationalism that has marked Spanish
historiography from its beginning.1 Although the ideological factors that determined Spanish
historiography have been analyzed,2 the ways these factors have shaped certain commonplaces
concerning Spanish Renaissance music have yet to be studied. However, the construction of the myth of
Spanish Renaissance music as a golden age is central to the study of the historiography of Spanish music,
because it has always been considered the high point of the history of Spanish music. Thus, thoughts
about Spanish Renaissance music turn not only to a past or lost paradise, but to desires about the way
Spanish music should be.3 These commonplaces state the existence of Renaissance music that was: (a)
original and wholly Spanish, without any foreign influences, (b) mystical, with a deep religious
expressiveness, (c) highly appreciated among the influential social circles, and (d) overlooked by foreign
musicologists. Some of these clichés have been questioned,4 however some are still uncritically repeated .5
This paper intends to study the way these stereotypes have been constructed.
The construction of the myth of Spanish Renaissance music as a golden age was the result of various
claims. The first Spanish musicologists, most of them composers, saw an age where music with Spanish
text was listened to in the courts and collected in the songbooks alongside music by the most celebrated
composers, such as Dufay or Josquin. In this context, Mariano Soriano Fuertes (1817-1880) was the first
to speak of a ‘simple’ Spanish Renaissance music as distinct from Renaissance music in Europe at that
time. Soriano, as a composer of zarzuelas6 in the mid-19th century, was defending the prestige and national
character of early secular Spanish music. His contemporary colleague Hilarión Eslava (1807-1878)
demonstrated the falsity of such an idea and held that Spanish music in the Renaissance was not essentially
different from European music of the time. 7 The rough polemics between Soriano and Eslava have been
Xoán M.Carreira, "La musicologia spagnuola: un’illusione autarchica?" in Il Saggiatore Musicale, II, (1995); Emilio Ros-Fábregas,
"Historiografía de la Música en las Catedrales Españolas: Nacionalismo y Positivismo en la Investigación Musicológica." Codexxi,
1, (1998).
2 Juan José Carreras, "'Hijos de Pedrell' La Historiografía musical española y sus orígenes nacionalistas (1780-1980)" Il Saggiatore
Musicale, VIII, 1 (2001).
3 For Manuel de Falla "old [musical] manuscripts [from Spain] revealed the aeternal traits of our art" [....] "La simplicidad en los
medios de expresión fue también patrimonio de los compositores de nuestra edad de oro, y de ella hicieron gala dentro de las
mismas formas escoláticas. El barroquismo musical y la inútil complicación no son cosas que se compaginen con el carácter
reciamente sobrio y expresivo que campea en las obras más ilustres de los clásicos españoles." Manuel de Falla, "Felipe Pedrell"
Escritos sobre Música y Músicos. (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1972 [1923]), 93 and 87.
4 Robert Stevenson made an important effort to demonstrate that some commonplaces about Tomás Luis de Victoria (his gloomy
character) and Francisco Guerrero (his mellifluous one) were not based on musical analysis. In particular, Stevenson's studies
insisted on the intricate or elaborate counterpoint by Fernando de las Infantas, Francisco Guerrero, Alonso Lobo, Sebastián
Vivanco and other supposed simple composers. R. Stevenson, Spanish Cathedral Music in the Golden Age. (Wesport, Connecticut:
Greenwood Press, Publishers, 1976). There is an updated Spanish version but full of translation mistakes: La música en las catedrales
españolas en el Siglo de Oro. (Madrid: Alianza, 1992). In the same way Bruno Turner and Tess Knighton have insisted on the
affinities between Francisco de Peñalosa's music and that of Josquin and his contemporaries. Ros-Fàbregas has shown the
importance of the presence of "foreign" music in Spanish Renaissance libraries and songbooks during the 15th and 16th
centuries, Emilio Ros Fábregas, "Libros de música en las bibliotecas españolas del siglo XVI" I, II and III. Pliegos de Bibliofilia 15,
16 and 17 (2001-2002) and "Música y músicos «extranjeros» en la España del siglo XVI" In La Capilla Real de los Austrias. Música y
ritual de corte en la Europa Moderna. Ed. Juan J. Carreras and Bernardo J. García García (Madrid: Fundación Carlos de Amberes,
2001). I have tried to demonstrate that the supposed prestige of music in the Spanish Renaissance was not an extended idea,
because music was linked to women, prostitution and the lower social circles. Pilar Ramos López, "Music and Women in Early
Modern Spain: Some Discrepancies between Educational Theory and Musical Practice." In Musical Voices of Early Modern Women:
Many-headed Melodies. Ed. Thomasin LaMay. (London: Ashgate Publishers, forthcoming).
5 See the texts by M. Querol (1992) and J. López Calo (1983 and 1985) quoted by Ros-Fábregas, "Música y músicos
«extranjeros»," 108, 109 and 120, or the reference to a dramatic mysticism in Ma. Asunción Gómez Pintor, Juan Navarro. Labor
compositiva en Castilla y León: Estudio analítico de su producción himnódica en Avila (1565) Musica Española del Renacimiento. (Valladolid: V
Centenario, Universidad de Valladolid, 1994), 34.
6 The zarzuela is a Hispanic genre of musical theatre with spoken parts, very popular at the time.
7 "the music school in the 15th century was not essentially different from the ones in the other European nations" "we can
present a high quantity of treatises and works from the first half of the 16th century that demonstrate clearly that there were not
1
considered by scholars as a dispute between a stubborn nationalist (Soriano) and a positivistic historian
(Eslava). But this is only one aspect of the polemics and probably not the most relevant one for
prospective Spanish musicologists. Actually they were presenting opposing models of Spanish Renaissance
music, a national one (Soriano) and a European one (Eslava). We could even say they were proposing a
secular (Soriano) and a sacred Renaissance (Eslava), as Eslava focused only on sacred music. Although
Soriano Fuertes has been an easy target for criticism,8 his concept of a 'national' Spanish music has long
been a topic of Spanish historiography. However, the 'European' thesis by Eslava, a much-respected
historian by later musicology, has been overlooked.
Despite the quick acceptance of Soriano’s concept of a “national” and “simple” Spanish Renaissance
music, his explanation of its "decadence" would be ignored by later historians. Soriano stated that the
"decadence" of Spanish music in the 17th and 18th centuries was a consequence of the excessive influence
of the Church and the lack of rulers promoting the arts.9 In fact, for him the "death of our musical
schools" began earlier, in the 16th century, when foreign, mostly francoflemish, musicians arrived at the
Spanish court. Following the Enlightenment tradition, Soriano Fuertes regarded Philip II and the
Inquisition as the origin of all the evils of Spain: fanaticism, obscurantism, religious intolerance, and so on,
not a very pleasing portrait for Eslava the priest.10 Before him, Antonio Eximeno had attributed Spanish
musical backwardness to the Church’s predominance.11
Continuing within the genealogy of clichés about the Spanish musical Renaissance, we arrive at Felip
Pedrell (1841-1922), the clearest exponent of considering the music of the Golden Age as the model for
the music being composed at his own time. For him the characteristic of the "Spanish School" of the 16th
century was to compose on the basis of popular motifs. The first modern editor of Tomas Luis de
Victoria, Pedrell was also an active collector and editor of traditional Spanish songs, regarded by him as a
reflection of the folk or race.12
If Texidor, Eximeno, Soriano and Pedrell had showed a great interest in researching Early secular
Spanish music, surprisingly it would be one of Pedrell's students, Henri Collet, who would interrupt this
tradition. Subsequent Spanish historiography has for a long time followed Collet's idea that secular
repertoire was an inferior and lighter music.13 Henri Collet (1885-1951) observed Spain as a foreigner
overwhelmed by exoticism, following a long tradition among French Hispanists.14 However the Spain of
Collet was not that of Georges Bizet's Carmen. It was not Andalusia but Castile; it was not the gypsy,
joyful, spontaneous, and colorful Spain, but the somber, rude, violent, sad, rough, black Spain. Thus,
Henri Collet shared with the Spanish Generation of 1998 (Miguel de Unamuno, Antonio Machado,
these simple, fresh, young and inspired melodies in sacred music, nor do we think there were any in secular music", Hilarión
Eslava, Breve Memoria histórica de la música religiosa en España. (Madrid: Imprenta de Luis Beltrán, 1860), 35.
8 [The History written by Soriano] “is written with little criticism, especially in the study of music in the middle ages; Soriano is
obscure and deficient in accurate information” J. F. Riaño Critical and Bibliographical Notes on Early Spanish Music. (London:
Quaritch, 1887), 11. Fétis, Barbieri and later historians criticized Soriano's deficiencies and mistakes: “Soriano no merece ningún
crédito ni como historiador ni cómo músico”. Felipe Pedrell, Tomás Luis de Victoria Abulense. Biografía, bibliografía, significado estético de
todas sus obras de arte polifónico-religioso. (Valencia: Manuel Villar, 1918), 127.
9In that point Soriano was refuting the thesis by José de Teixidor who attributed the decadence of Spanish Music to the influence
of the treatise by Pietro Cerone El Melopeo o el Maestro (1613). Mariano Soriano Fuertes, Historia de la música española desde la venida
de los fenicios hasta el año 1850. vol. II, Madrid: Bernabé Carrafa, 1856, 77-78 and 85-86. Soriano considered that only with King
Philip IV (1621-1665) did Spanish music know again a good short time. Ibidem, vol. III, 1856, 77 and 139-140.
10"El gusto y afición a la música y poesía fue desapareciendo al terrible resplandor de las antorchas de Torquemada [...] Este
fanatismo religioso unido [a la expulsión de musulmanes y judíos y al rigor de la inquisión] cubrieron con un negro crespon las
bellas artes, y el genio aterrorizado huyó de nuestro suelo, o hipócrita se ocultó en los solitarios claustros de los conventos y
catedrales" M. Soriano, Historia de la música española. vol. II, 105. In Charles V's age: "El verdor y lozanía de nuestros cantos,
embellecieron a la hermosa Italia centro de las bellas artes, mientras la monotonía sistemática de los lamentos, y las hogueras de la
inquisición, arrancaban y quemaban las raíces del vergel melodioso de nuestro suelo, para legarnos al olvido y al desprecio"
Soriano. Historia de la música, vol., II, 111, on Philipp II see pp. 126 and ff.
11Eximeno, Antonio Dell'Origine e delle regole della musica colla storia del suo progresso, decadenza, e rinovazione (Roma: Michel'Angelo
Barbiellini nel Palazzo Massimi, 1774), 447.
12 Felipe Pedrell, Cancionero Musical Popular Español. Tercera Edición Vol. I (Barcelona: Boileau, 1958), 27 and 20.
13 The repertoire of the secular songbooks of the 16th century "préparait le peuple à l'audition d'une musique plus élevée et faisait
son éducation" Henri Collet, Le mysticisme musical espagnol au XVI siècle. (Paris: Editions d'Aujourd'hui. 1978 [1913]), 137.
14Victor Hugo considered Spain as Oriental in the preface to his book Les Orientales, quoted in Susan McClary. Georges Bizet:
Carmen. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 30. For a comparison of Bizet's Spain and that of Collet and Raoul
Lapparra see Miguel Angel Palacios Garoz, El hispanismo musical de Raoul Laparra y Henri Collet. Dos discípulos franceses de Federico
Olmeda en Burgos. (Burgos: Institución Fernán González, Academia Burgense de Historia y Bellas Artes, 1999), 32 and 41.
According to Collet's friend the composer Raoul Laparra, Spain was at the time of their visits an "exotic land". M. A. Palacios, El
hispanismo musical, 16
Menéndez Pelayo) the admiration for Castile and its austerity, the identification of Castile and Spain, and
the exaltation of 'medieval' values as authentically Spanish (opposed to the 'pagan-humanist-Italian'
ones).15 Collet insisted upon the decadence of Spain, an idea very loved as well by Spanish intellectuals of
the Generation of 98.
At a time when race was considered by musicologists as a determining factor, Collet spoke of
mysticism as an "originalité de race".16 Exotic Spanish music should be irrational, spontaneous, pure, far
from the 'science', the reflection and erudition associated with counterpoint.17 Thus authors characterized
by their intricate counterpoint, like Fernando de las Infantas, were judged simply as not very Spanish by
Collet.
The reception in Spain of Henri Collet's Le mysticisme musical espagnol (1913) was decisive, as it
determined for almost a century the concept of the Spanish Musical Renaissance. Although Collet pointed
out the mystic quality of Spanish music more than its "simplicity", his insistence on the singularity of
Spanish music, and his notion of francoflemish music as "science subtil mais sèche"18 were points of
contact with Soriano. Collet's aversion towards Italian opera was a link to Felipe Pedrell, as it would be to
later historians Rafael Mitjana and Adolfo Salazar. On the other hand, Collet was a disciple of Pedrell and
Federico Olmeda, a friend of Manuel de Falla and held a relevant post in Madrid. Furthermore his book
was written in French, the foreign language most known in Spain at the time. And, more importantly, his
central thesis about an essentially medieval and sacred Spain connected easily with the traditionalist view
of Spain held by Menéndez Pelayo (from whom he borrowed the characterization of Spanish mysticism as
a "voix virile, énergique et robuste"19) and would connect even better with the national Catholicism of
Franco's regime.
Actually, the idea that the more sacred Spanish music was, the more national it was would be
welcomed between 1940 and 1990 by Spanish musicology, whose ecclesiastical character is a well-known
fact. However, the three main consequences of this ecclesiastical background have so far not been
acknowledged: amateurism, corporatism and National-Catholicism. Most of the musicologists were priests
whose musical training was completed at the seminary. Only a few studied at the Conservatory or at the
Pontificio Istituto di Musica Sacra in Rome; for example, Samuel Rubio (1912-1986) and José López Calo
(1922), with the exception of Higinio Anglés (1888-1969) who did musicological studies at a German
university. Besides the shortcoming in musicological training, the amateurism has had other negative
consequences:20 the scarcity of recent musicological literature in our libraries, the deficiencies of musical
editions21 and catalogues of musical archives,22 the ignorance of foreign writings about the history of
Spanish music, the isolation from the contemporary tendencies in musicology, etc.
The major Spanish musicological institution until the development of musicology as a university
discipline (1985) was the Instituto Español de Musicología, under the auspices of the Consejo de
Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC. It was a center established and controlled directly by Franco's regime in
1946, when the best university professors and scientists were exiled or dead. 23 Until recently the
15The idea of Renaissance by Collet was essentially the same as Buckhardt's. He studied Spanish Literature with Ramón Menéndez
Pidal in Madrid, see M. A. Palacios, El hispanismo musical, 37.
16 See Pamela Potter, Trends in German Musicology, 1918-1945: The Effects of Methodological, Ideological and Institutional Change on the
writing of music history. Ann Arbor, Mi: UMI, 1991. H. Collet, Le mysticisme musical,1.
17 About exoticism see Edward Said Orientalism (Vic: Eumo, 1991 [1978]).
18 H. Collet, Le mysticisme musical, 3.
19 H. Collet, Le mysticisme musical, p. 3.
20 Miguel Querol mistook isorhythmic for homorrhythmic. M. Querol Gavaldá (Ed.) Música Barroca Española VI: Teatro Musical de
Calderón. Barcelona: C.S.I.C., Instituto Español de Musicología, 1981), 16, and in the Notes to the L:P. recording El Cancionero
Musical de la Colombina. MEC 1011, with unnumbered pages. Recently in a History of Music prologued and praised by a Spanish
musicologist and university professor, Gregory the Great is presented as the actual collector of Gregorian Chant: “Este papa
recopiló, reconstruyéndolos, los cantos religiosos que forman el Antifonario Romano. Además creó escuelas, se ocupó de la
enseñanza y compuso melodías” Ticià Riera Evolución del Arte Musical. Historia, Estilos y Fromas. (Barcelona: Editorial del Bronce,
2000) The original edition was in Catalan (Barcelona: Collumna, 1997).
21 For example, musical editions by Querol do not indicate ligatures, colorations, arbitrary transpositions, and so on. M. Querol
Gavaldá, (Ed.): Música Barroca Española, or his Cancionero Musical de Lope de Vega I: Poesías cantadas en las novelas. 3 vols., (Barcelona:
CSIC, 1986-1991), or La música española en torno a 1492. Vol.I: Antología polifónica práctica de la época de los Reyes Católicos (Granada:
Diputación Provincial, 1995).
22 See my review: P. Ramos López: “López Calo, J. Catálogo del Archivo de Música de la Capilla Real de Granada” TRANS 2
(1996) http://www.sibetrans.com/trans/trans2/indice2.htm
23 About the birth of the CSIC and its organization see Gonzalo Pasamar Alzuria Historiografía e ideología en la postguerra española: La
ruptura liberal. (Zaragoza: Universidad de Zaragoza, 1991), 46 and ff.
ecclesiastical and conservative character of this institution has been maintained in its musicological
branch.24 Unfortunately, non-conservative Spanish musicologists, mainly Adolfo Salazar (1890-1958) and
José Subirá, (1882-1980) did not focus on Renaissance music, so they did not question Collet's concept
nor its updating by Higinio Anglés.25
Anglés considered that musical mysticism was present in every Spanish school, not primarily in
Castilian schools as Henri Collet and Rafael Mitjana had said. 26 But when studying the late 15th and 16th
centuries he was not as interested in mysticism as in an apology of the Spanish Catholic Kings and their
heirs Charles V and Philip II. Anglés described the courts of Charles V and Philip II as cultivated and
learned courts where everybody understood music and valued it to the utmost and where the kings were
loving husbands, Christian parents and judicious rulers. The connections in this image between a strong
political power, religious orthodoxy and artistic quality cannot be understood without taking into account
the particular representation of Franco's regime as the continuation of the Catholic Kings and of the first
Austrias Kings.27
Ecclesiastical musicologists between 1940 and 1990 viewed the 16th century as a sacred and intellectual
age, when the moral honesty of the composers was transformed into mystical compositions. Thus, the
religious attitude of the composers became the main standard for aesthetic evaluation. For this reason,
Samuel Rubio considered it impossible to evaluate musical works by Juan del Encina or by Juan Navarro
because no missa by either of them was extant.28 Again, we can trace this idea back to Henri Collet.29 On
the other hand, Pedrell had considered Juan del Encina as the founder of Spanish national music and
Spanish modern theatre.30 If 19th century historians were interested in secular and sacred music, Henri
Collet and later Spanish musicologists in the 20th century focused on sacred music and saw the 16th
century as the high point of religiosity and morality. Given that Spanish histories of music in the 16th to
18th centuries are essentially histories of sacred music, their overlooking of the Inquisition is astonishing.
The Inquisition is one of the most present topics in any (non-musicological) discussion about Modern
Spain.
Nevertheless, considering the 17th century as a decadent one is a commonplace of Spanish political
and economical historiography that has only been challenged by historians for a few decades. In fact, the
coincidence of this supposed economical, political and moral decadence with the brightness of arts and
literature (Cervantes, Calderón, Zurbarán, Velázquez etc.,) has been a recurrent topic of reflection for art
historians. But Spanish musical historiography has rarely dealt with these problems, interpreting the
coincidence between the 'moral decadence' (ergo political ergo economic) and the 'musical decadence’ as
merely a causal relationship.31 Given the small repercussion of culturalist trends or Geistgeschichte among
Spanish musicologists, the simultaneity of the 'musical decadence' and the 'Golden Century' of painters,
sculptors and writers has not been regarded as problematic. So, the way that Tirso de Molina, Lope de
Vega, Alonso Cano, or Góngora managed to write masterpieces while leading unedifying lives, a grace not
conceded to musicians, continues to be a mystery.
Finally, as late as 1980, the so-called Spanish Renaissance music and the Spanish style were common
terms.32 Since then we have attended the birth of several “Renaissances”: Andalusian, Valencian, Catalan,
24 Miguel Querol (1912-2002) was named Collaborator and Secretary of the Instituto Español de Musicología in 1946,when he
had just received his bachelor degree in Philosophy (1945). Later he would defend his thesis on contemporary Catalonian
aesthetics (1948). Actually, Querol directed the Institute for nearly forty years, firstly under the supervision of Anglés - because
Anglés, the official director, was living in Rome- and later, from 1970 until 1982 as the official director. He was succeeded by
Josep Maria Lloréns (1983-1988), José Antonio González del Valle (1988-1999) and Josep Pavia i Simó (1999). Federico Sopeña
was the Professor of the History of Music at the Conservatory of Madrid till 1987 and Samuel Rubio was the president of Spanish
Society of Musicology (1977-1984). All of them were priests.
25 About the thought of Salazar and Subirá see J. J. Carreras "Hijos de Pedrell", 163 -166, and Beatriz Martínez del Fresno Julio
Gómez. Una época de la música española. (Madrid: Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales, 1999), 363-376.
26 Higinio Anglés, La música en la corte de los Reyes Católicos. (Barcelona: Instituto Español de Musicología, 1941), vol, I, 10
27About the representation of the Catholic and Austrias Kings as belonging to the identity of Spanish regime with General Franco
see Gonzalo Pasamar Historiografía e ideología, 316 and ff.
28 Samuel Rubio, Historia de la Música española II: Desde el Ars Nova hasta 1600. (Madrid: Alianza Música, 1983), 126 and 158.
29 H. Collet, Le mysticisme musical, 58.
30 F. Pedrell, Cancionero musical, 45.
31 Take for example Higinio Anglés Gloriosa contribución de España a la historia de la música universal (Barcelona: CSIC, 1948).
32Samuel Rubio identifies theological orthodoxy as the roots of musical esthetics of the Spanish Renaissance: "La renovación
disciplinar promovida por los Reyes Católicos; impulsada con más tesón por el cardenal Cisneros; impuesta por las decisiones
emanadas del Concilio de Trento, que Felipe II apoya con todo su enorme poder; esta renovación que cala y contagia a todo el
as so on. Certainly the present administrative organization of Spain in "comunidades autónomas" or
autonomous regions has promoted the focus of historians on local topics. However, the distinction
between different schools in Spanish Renaissance music is an old question. Henri Collet, Rafael Mitjana
and Adolfo Salazar agreed to identify Andalusian, Castilian, Aragonese, Valencian and Catalan schools of
sacred music.33 The distinctive traits of these schools have never been clearly established. Significantly,
Robert Stevenson in his major work about music in the Spanish Golden Age does not speak of schools.34
Others, such as López Calo, stated the existence of a uniquely Spanish music, the same for the whole
national territory and the American colonies and, of course, absolutely different from the music from
abroad.35
The complaint about the neglect of Spanish Music by foreign musicologists has not only been a cantus
firmus obstinatus in Spanish musical literature since the early 19th century, but also the main reason to write
for many Spanish scholars. Today, this persistence is sometimes updated so that in a recent book on
Renaissance Catalonian music we read that it has not been a very well studied topic because "Spanish
musicologists" focused on Castilian polyphonists.36 This is, in fact, a comical statement, given that the
main musicological jobs in Spain between 1900 and 1980 were occupied by Catalan people: Pedrell,
Anglés, Subirá, Querol, Lloréns, etc.
Actually, although Spanish Music has never been at the center of historical musicology (a place
reserved to France, Austria, Germany and Italy), foreign researchers have always written about the music
of Spain, so that in the 19th and 20th centuries most of the main studies about it were published abroad.
These foreign scholars had to surmount the many obstacles caused by corporatist Spanish musicologists
who considered sources and information as personal property (while lamenting the disregard for Spanish
music by international musicology!)37
CONCLUSIONS
Among the mentioned clichés about Spanish Renaissance music, its national character without any foreign
influences, its high intellectual and social status, and its disregard by foreign musicologists are premises to
be found in any nationalist musicology and as such have been stated throughout the 19th and 20th
centuries. However, the insistence in the mysticism is an idea linked to that music only since the early 20th
century, as a consequence of the Orientalist perspective and of the specific nuances of Spanish
musicological nationalism: sacredness and amateurism. In the following figure, the genealogy of these topoi
are represented, with the exception of the disregard by international musicology, an idea repeated by all
Spanish historians:
pueblo va a ser la raíz de la estética musical de todos nuestros compositores renacentistas. En ella radica su reconocida sobriedad
técnica y su poderosa fuerza expresiva, igualmente confesada por los historiadores propios que por los extrangeros" S. Rubio,
Historia de la Música española II, 149. Thus, his whole study on the music by Cristóbal de Morales is directed to demonstrating that
Morales anticipated the musical aesthetic of the Concile of Trento. S. Rubio: Cristóbal de Morales: estudio crítico de su polifonía. (El
Escorial: Real Monasterio del Escorial, 1969)
33 H. Collet, Le mysticisme musical; Rafael Mitjana. La Música en España: Arte religioso y arte profano, Ed Antonio Alvarez Cañibano.
(Madrid: Centro de Documentación Musical del INAEM, 1993), 71 and ff. (translation of "La musique en Espagne." Encyclopedie
de la musique, A. Lavignac. Paris: Librairie Delagrave, 1920; Adolfo Salazar. La música de España. (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1972
[1953]), 192.
34 In the case of organ music an Aragonese and a Castilian-Andalousian school has sometimes been stated (José López Calo,
Historia de la Música española, 3. El siglo XVII. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1983 and 1987) and refused (Luis Robledo Review in
Revista de Musicología, XIII, 1990: 665-667). No school has been differentiated for Spanish vihuelists or secular vocal music.
35 J. López Calo, Historia de la Música, 84-85.
36 Romà Escalas. El Renaixement. Xosé Aviñoa (dir.) Història de la música catalana, valenciana i balear, vol. I (Barcelona: Ed. 62, 2000)
186.
37 For example, in a letter to Miguel Querol, Higinio Anglés tells how he boycotted the research by a young German musicologist,
Gertrud Haberkam, in the 60's. Far from considering them shameful, Querol has published Anglés' words. See M. Querol
Gavaldá, Introducción. La música española en torno a 1492, XII. Willi Apel claimed that he applied unsuccessfully for copies of
works by Spanish organists to the Instituto Español de Musicología. Willi Apel, The History of Keyboard Music to 1700. (Indianapolis:
Indiana University Press, 1972).
Scholar Judith Etzion has spoken of a deliberate exclusion of Spanish music from European historiography as a case of the
"Black Legend" against Spain. Judith Etzion, "Spanish Music As Perceived in Western Music Historiography: A Case of the Black
Legend?" International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, XXIX, 1998. As Carreras argues, this is a difficult thesis to
accept, because it does not explain why this exclusion did not affect other arts, like painting or theatrical literature. Juan J. Carreras
"Hijos de Pedrell", 131.
Figure 1
We have to rethink our concept of the Spanish Musical Renaissance. It is not enough to acknowledge
that nationalism marked our musical historiography, although it has been a decisive step that distances us
from the blind reverence, typical of military and ecclesiastical life and not such of an academic activity. We
need to detect the way not only nationalism, but also National Catholicism, Orientalism, and amateurism
have painted a Golden Age that is not supported by musical or historical evidence. Recent studies have
tried to challenge the commonplaces about Spanish Renaissance music. But the work which remains to be
done is enormous.