Historical context

Spanish music  (XVI - XVII) 

RENAISSANCE SXVI 

Historical context: the end of the Catholic Monarchs, Austrias largest (Carlos I and Felipe II). Global hegemony, economic and political.Music Culture: During the Middle Ages, art was only a means to honor God and guide the footsteps of mankind through the examples proposed. But in the Renaissance the idea that music could express human emotions, especially when supported by a text. Composers appear first, individual creators name as Josquin.Unable to find Greek and Roman music with the same precision as its architecture and sculpture, Renaissance music was not a restoration of antiquity.Music: as in the letters, the sixteenth century is also the Golden Age of Spanish music, both vocal and instrumental.1) The religious polyphony (many voices) Spanish Renaissance had a mystical sense in which, with apparent technical simplicity, developed many daring harmonic-contrapuntal.• The school Spanish. Its chief representative was Tomás Luis de Victoria Avila (to 1548-1611). Wrote masses and motets, but his main work is Easter Craft. Sobriety and dramatic power of his works make it the colorful compare the sound with the painter Ribera, mysticism with Juan de Juanes and in the sweeping poetic force, with St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross.• The Andalusian school. Cristóbal de Morales (ca. 1500-1553) Among other works he wrote Jubilate Deo omnis terra, to celebrate Spanish-French peace between Charles I and Francis I. Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599) was a disciple of Morales and choirmaster at the cathedral of Jaen, Malaga and Sevilla.2) The secular polyphony

 Of much lower quality than the religious are secular polyphony samples found in the songbooks, full of ballads, carols and especially romances, very Spanish genre. The madrigal did not have the acceptance that achieved in other countries. Musicians featured in secular polyphony were Juan del Encina (1469-1529), Juan Vázquez (1500-1560) and Catalan Mateo Flecha the Elder (ca. 1481-1553),3) Instrumental musicInstrumental music in the sixteenth century was twofold: profane and participated in events accompanying served in religious ceremonies. Emphasize the vihuelística School, where shone Luis Milan (circa 1500-1561) Luis de Narváez (XVI century), and Alfonso de Mudarra (early sixteenth century-1580),The body had an essentially religious use and had two great teachers: Antonio de Cabezon (1510-1566), and Francisco de Salinas (1513-1590), also blind.