Musical Exchanges, 1100-1650: The circulation of early music in Europe and overseas in Iberian-related sources

PTDC/EAT-MMU/105624/2008, 2010-2012 (extended till May 2013)

Total funding (FCT): 150.000 €.
2010: 50760 €
2011: 70340 €
2012: 28900 €

Research team: Manuel Pedro Ferreira (coordinator), Bernadette Nelson, João Pedro d'Alvarenga, Elena Sorban, Ivan Moody, Pedro Sousa Silva, Elsa De Luca, Diogo Alte da Veiga, Rui Araújo, Mara Fortu, Adriana Latino, JorgeMatta, Tess Knighton, Katherine Helsen, Owen Rees, Leandra Scappaticci.
Grant Fellows: Ana Delfina Carvalho, Carla Crespo, Zuelma Chaves.

PROJECT CLOSED.

The global aim of the project is to understand better the various ways in which Portugal and its cultural and spiritual relations integrate and participate in European cultural dynamics through music, ceremonial and liturgy from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Age.

One of the most important questions concerning musical heritage in Portugal is the extent to which it was both dependent on and independent from traditions elsewhere in Europe. This project builds upon the results of former, yet incomplete fieldwork concerning the identification and digital reproduction of early musical MSS. The recovery and the beginning of a systematic codification and study of thousands of chant fragments as well as complete corpuses of chant in Portugal dating from c. 1100 onwards is exposing ways in which Portugal was the recipient of chant traditions developed in important monastic houses and areas in France – Cluny, Clairvaux and the Aquitanian region.

One of the most interesting aspects of this research is to trace patterns of dissemination regarding melodic traditions, and placing these in a more global context. This requires the continuation of fieldwork and the construction of a fully indexed and searchable database accessible to scholars through an international network. One of the most significant collections of medieval music dating from the 13thc., the Cantigas de Santa Maria of Alfonso X, also demonstrates some links with melodic and rhythmic traditions found elsewhere – including France and the Eastern Mediterranean.

The recently created CSM database will be used to refine this knowledge. While Portuguese musical heritage is sadly lacking in vocal polyphonic sources dating from the early renaissance period, collections of polyphony of an international repertory that have been imported at a later date such as Ms Porto 714 provide testimony of musical exchanges that took place in northern Italy (Ferrara). Isolated fragments of polyphony dating from the 15thc. that have been found in Portugal impress on us the extent to which – at least in more privileged circles – music associated with prestigious courts and musical centres in northern Europe and Spain was also known and imported. Inter-dynastic marriages at the Portuguese royal court (c.1390-1570) especially would have been by and large responsible for such repertorial transmissions and exchanges.

On the other hand, a very large corpus of polyphonic sources copied at the royal monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra (also included in the digital database) gives us clear paradigms of compositional trends during the period c. 1520 to c. 1620. In its earliest examples of vocal composition it seems to adopt either characteristics associated with northern schools lead by Josquin in northern Europe of c.1500 or the characteristics of ‘Spanish court repertories’ which were evidently circulating at about the same time as Spanish musicians and theorists such as Mateus de Aranda began making their mark in Évora and Coimbra.

An important composer of Portuguese origin who worked both in the Spanish courts and in Portugal during this period was Pedro de Escobar (Pero do Porto) whose music is an example of the dialogue of musical styles.
The publication of the recently found keyboard anthology of Gonzalo de Baena (1540) will be another important contribution to document this international dialogue.

As an integral part of the study of repertorial styles and their development, transmission and influence, is a consideration of purpose and context. Ceremonials and legislative texts and other kinds of documentation prescribing and attesting even to closely-knit choreography and timing between ministers and performers provide an important perspective on musical performance and compositional structure of both chant and polyphonic works. Historical documentation provides important insight into the workings of important choral foundations such as the great cathedrals (Evora, Lisbon, Coimbra and Braga), monasteries (Santa Cruz, Alcobaça) and ducal and royal chapels. The close relationship between the cathedrals of Elvas and Badajoz will provide a significant case study of Portuguese-Spanish musical relations.

An important part of the present project will be a focus on music and ceremony in the royal chapel from the time of D. Duarte to D. João IV (c. 1433-c.1656) using documentation that has only partially been explored in earlier historiography. Moreover, we may regard this institution as a paradigm for taking into account the extent to which Portugal received and was exposed to international musical repertories that were to be integrated into its own traditions. Portuguese music travelled to Latin America and India, and the earliest testimonies of this intercontinental circulation will also be subject to systematic study. In short, the project will allow both a quantitative and qualitative leap forward in our understanding of Portuguese musical culture in context.