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A New-World Collection of Polyphony for Holy Week and the Salve Service

Guatemala City, Cathedral Archive, Music MS 4

With an Introduction by Robert J. Snow
Following the conquest of Mexico by Cortés and much of Central America by Alvarado, cathedral churches were established throughout the region, all with European-style polyphonic choirs. Among the most important of these early centers of Spanish culture was the cathedral of Guatemala City, where polyphony was already in use in the 1540s.

Shortly after 1600, the organist and choir director of the cathedral collected, organized, and copied into choirbooks all of the then-extant music used by the choir. The manuscript presented here in modern edition, one of at least five choirbooks prepared at the time, contains a number of otherwise unknown works by such major Old World composers as Francisco Guerrero and Cristóbal de Morales. Significant works by Hernando Franco and Pedro Bermúdez, choirmasters of the Guatemala City Cathedral, are also included. The manuscript presents a unified repertory for Holy Week and for the Salve services in Lent, including four settings of the Passion, for which the Spanish were famous throughout Christendom. Some of the works predate the sixteenth-century reform of the Roman Breviary and Missal, among them the original versions of several Vespers hymns and Magnificat settings by Guerrero that are otherwise known only in later versions found in Spanish sources. An extensive historical introduction by Robert J. Snow discusses the formation of the cathedral’s musical repertory and illuminates both Old and New World practices of sixteenth-century Spanish liturgical music.

494 pages | 6 halftones | 9 x 12 | © 1996

Monuments of Renaissance Music

Music: Music Editions

Table of Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgments
Illustrations from Guatemala Cathedral Music MS 4

Part One: Introduction
I. Guatemala City and the Cathedral, 1524-1606
The Episcopacy of Francisco Marroquín, 1537-1563
Sede vacante, 1563-1564
The Episcopacy of Bernardino Villalpando, 1564-1570
Sede vacante, 1570-1574
The Episcopacy of Francisco Gómez
Fernández de Córdoba, 1574-1598
Sede vacante, 1598-1601
The Episcopacy of Juan Ramírez, 1601-1606
II. The Extant Guatemalan Choirbooks and Their Contents
Appendix: Inventories of the Guatemala Choirbooks
III. Liturgico-Musical Aspects of the Works for Holy Week
Asperges me
Gloria, laus, et honor
Mass Ordinary Items
Et incarnatus est
Adjuva nos
Motets
Passions
Miserere mei
Lamentations
Vexilla Regis
IV. Music for the Salve Service and Compline
Spanish Liturgical Use of Salve Regina
The Spanish Chant Version of Salve Regina
The Independent Salve Service
The Emergence of the Polyphonic Salve Regina
The Settings of Benedicamus Domino
Compline
 
Part Two: Concordance and Commentary
V. List of Sources and Bibliography
A. Manuscripts and Prints of Polyphonic Music
B. Liturgical Manuscripts and Printed Books
C. Literature and Modern Editions
D. Sound REcordings
E. Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Works
VI. Commentaries on the Individual Compositions
 
Part Three: The Edition
Editorial Principles
The Transcriptions:
1. Missa de feria - Pedro Bermúdez
2. Adjuva nos (Anon.)
3. Et incarnatus est (Anon.)
4. Missa de feria (Anon.)
5. Gloria, laus, et honor (Anon.)
6. Ave sanctissima Maria (Anon.)
7. Sancta Mater, istud agas (Francisco de Peñalosa)
8. Missa de feria (Anon; = Pedro Bermúdez?)
9. Et incarnatus est (Anon.)
10. Gloria, laus, et honor (Anon.)
11. Passio secundum Matthaeum [Pedro Bermúdez]
12. Passio secundum Lucam - Pedro Bermúdez
13. Passio secundum Joannem [Pedro Bermúdez]
14. Passio secundum Matthaeum - Juan de Carabantes
15. Miserere mei (Anon.)
16. Miserere mei - Pedro Bermúdez
17. Incipit Lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae
Santos de Aliseda
18. Incipit Lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae
Francisco Guerrero
19. Incipit Lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (?)
20. Incipit Lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae (Anon.)
21. Incipit Lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae - Pedro Bermúdez
22. De Lamentatione Jeremiae Prophetae - Pedro Bermúdez
23. De Lamentatione Jeremiae Prophetae - Cristóbal de Morales
24. Vexilla Regis - Francisco Guerrero
25. Asperges me - Alonso de Trujillo
26. Salve Regina - Francisco Guerrero
27. Salve Regina - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
28. Benedicamus Domino (Anon; = Hernando Franco?)
29. Salve Regina - Francisco Guerrero
30. Benedicamus Domino - Antón de España
31. Salve Regina - Hernando Franco
32. Benedicamus Domino - Hernando Franco
33. Salve Regina - Hernando Franco
34. Benedicamus Domino - Hernando Franco
35. Salve Regina - Hernando Franco
36. Benedicamus Domino (Anon.)
37. Salve Regina - Hernando Franco
38. Benedicamus Domino - Hernando Franco
39. Salve Regina - Pedro Bermúdez
40. Salve Regina - Pedro Bermúdez
41. Salve Regina - Pedro Bermúdez
42. Salve Regina - Hernando Franco
43. Benedicamus Domino - Hernando Franco
44. Salve Regina (Anon.)
45. Salve Regina - Pedro Bermúdez
46. Cum invocarem - Pedro Bermúdez
47. Qui habitat - Pedro Bermúdez
48. In manus tuas [Pedro Bermúdez]
49. Nunc dimittis [Pedro Bermúdez]
Index of Composers
Index of Compositions




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