Abstract
Manuel de Tavares (c. 1585–1638), was a Portuguese composer, born in Portalegre, who accomplished his professional career as Chapel Master in several Spanish cathedrals, Baeza (1609–1612), Murcia (1612–1631), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (1631–1638) and Cuenca (1638), left a legacy of 28 compositions. Almost a third of his surviving work is for the Holy Week, which includes various music-liturgical genres such as: Passion, Lesson, Improperia and Hymn. In this chapter, it is proposed to characterize this set of compositions and carry out a study of their characteristics according to the following parameters: description of sources, the musical contents and their normative framework; analysis of the macro-formal structure, counterpoint texture, types of writing, the use of the modality, metric punctuation and clauses, thematic and motive materials and the expressive relationship between text and music.
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Notes
- 1.
As evidenced by the Regiment of the Church, Choir and Cathedral of Portalegre, from 1560, in Martins (1997), p. 55.
- 2.
Books of Autos Capitulares the Year 1611–1616, archives of the Cathedral of Baeza, Fol. 29.
- 3.
Actas Capitulares, Diocesan Archives of Cuenca, f. 43v e 117.
- 4.
The abbreviations of the voices used in this text are the usual S (Soprano), A (Alto), T (Tenor), B (Bass).
- 5.
Sometimes the S and T make divisi.
- 6.
Sometimes the S and A make divisi.
- 7.
Continuation of the previous work, however this second part is the eight voices and the first choir is missing.
- 8.
Translation: Caeremoniale Episcoprum, which Pope Clement VIII (1592–1605) had codified, following the liturgical norms of the Council of Trent, presents a version of the Passion of the Christ ceremony that has become staple for the Church as a whole.
- 9.
All polyphonic voices are similar, not just one. According to Cardoso (1998, p. 287), although this may not be common, it also appears in examples where polyphony is used only in the Turbae or even in Bradados.
- 10.
That is, four vocal lines, in which each voice corresponds to approximately one octave, whose tessituras unfold and intersect in order to reach a range of approximately 2.5 octaves. Cf. (Meier, 1988, pp. 53–60).
- 11.
The following assumptions were taken into account when classifying the various types of counterpoint writing:
-
(a)
Free counterpoint: textures that do not consist of imitation or homophony/homorhythm.
-
(b)
Imitation: strict or canonical imitation, which consists of the presentation of a theme or motif in several voices, either in real or tonal imitation; free imitation in which an incomplete or unequal presentation of the theme or motif is given.
-
(c)
Homophony: presupposes the equality of rhythmic values in all voices, but may include situations in which there is some configuration, especially in cadential places. Homophony can be free, or they can be in polychoral imitation.
-
(a)
- 12.
Polyphonic music was governed, above all, by one of the most predominant principles of formal organization of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which was called the formal motetic principle or motetic style. This, according to Wolff (2001), emerged as a division of the ecclesiastical style and was categorised as a style of composition derived from the traditional polyphonic language, especially Palestrina and its tradition, and was applied to genres other than Motet, such as Mass, psalms, lessons, antiphons, hymns, songs, etc. Gonzalez Valle (1992) also refers to the motor style in the following terms: “Las Pasiones polifónicas españolas han sido elaboradas de diversos modos…Junto a estas encontramos otras, en las que esa técnica se entremezcla con la del motete, es decir, donde el contrapunto simple, o nota contra nota, alterna con el compuesto o imitativo” (p. 92). Further describes: “ Las pasiones de Guerrero tienden al estilo motético. No me refiero aquí a la “Pasión-motete”, es decir, todo el texto compuesto como un motete, sino al estilo técnico-compositivo “ (p. 105). Thus, it was characterised by the constant melodic flow of the various voices, in an uninterrupted succession of the sound discourse, and the author went so far as to state that there is nothing more opposed to true polyphonic art than a piece with a series of passages limited by their respective cadence and separated from each other by a silence, even if it is very brief. As such, the conduction of the voices must be such that, while some of them make a cadence, the others continue their movement, that is, the entries of each of the voices and the ends of the sentences must alternate. All this contributes to the formal balance of discourse at the level of composition as a whole (Rubio, 1983; Torrente, 2016).
- 13.
According to Massenkeil (2001) stylistically the Lamentations are similar to the motet.
- 14.
We find this hymn treated in a similar way by several composers, for example in Francisco Ximeno, Maestro of the Albarracin Chapel. CF. Obras de la Capilla de la Catedral de Albarracin (Teruel) de los siglos XVII y XVIII, estudio y transcripción de Muneta (1986) «Polifonía Aragonesa» (vol. III, p. 13) Zaragoza: Institución Fernando el Católico.
- 15.
It was with his musical piece composed in 1547, entitled Dodecachordon, that this theorist carried out the definitive codification of modes, extending the eight traditional modes to twelve. Thus, the new modes of A (aeolian) and C (Ionian) received their theoretical consecration, since they were progressively adopted in polyphonic praxis, tending towards an evolutionary process, which would ultimately lead to the prefiguration of the modern major and minor tonalities. The vulgarization of these two modes would also lead to the effect of the gradual dissolution of the intervallic patterns characteristic of the eight older ecclesiastical modes.
- 16.
Minor modes are those whose first third is minor.
- 17.
Zarlino (1573). Intitvtioni Harmoniche (III Parte, Cap. 71, f. 341–342). Venetia: Francesco de i Francschi Senefe.
- 18.
The term clausula was used in most Iberian sources but also, according to Meier (1988), by Germanic authors, although cadenza or cadenza was used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a synonym, mainly by Italian authors.
- 19.
Zarlino (1573). Intitvtioni Harmoniche (libro III, cap. 51, fol 148–149 [248-249]); Bermudo (1555). Declaración de instrumentos musicales (libro V, cap. 7 a 29, fols 123–136). Osuna: Juan de León. [Edición facsímil por Macario Santiago Kastner (Kassel, 1957)]; Santa María (1565). Libro llamado Arte de tañer fantasia (pp. 62–67). Valladolid: Francisco Fernández de Córdoba.
- 20.
Meier (1988): I parte, Cap. 4º, pp. 89–99.
- 21.
In the case of some musical pieces by Tavares in which the Tenor is the deepest voice of texture, the bassizans clause appears in this voice.
- 22.
The typology adopted was that used by Lopes (1996). A Missa “Pro Defunctis” na Escola de Manuel Mendes. Dissertação de Mestrado. Lisboa: Universidade Nova de Lisboa. CF. Castilho (2009). As obras de Manuel de Tavares e o desenvolvimento da policoralidade portuguesa do século XVII. Tese de Doutoramento. Évora: Universidade de Évora; Castilho (2010). «A pontuação métrica e semântica na música polifónica: cláusula e plano cadencial». Convergências, nº 5. Retrouved in Internet: < http://convergencias.esart.ipcb.pt >.
- 23.
Cf. d’ Alvarenga (2002, pp. 94–97). Where the author presents the comparison of paradigmatic melodic types of Gloria, laus et honor, from the most significant Portuguese sources. He also states that the presence of the universal melody, or a variant of it, in a polyphonic version is almost certainly an indication of origin in Spain.
- 24.
Illustration or musical symbolism also some authors call madrigalism or word-painting. . CF. Tim Carter, «Word-painting », in Stanley Sadie, ed, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2ª Ed, London, 2001, vol. 27., p. 563 and following.
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Correia Castilho, L. (2021). The Music for the Holy Week of Manuel de Tavares. In: Correia Castilho, L., Dias, R., Pinho, J.F. (eds) Perspectives on Music, Sound and Musicology. Current Research in Systematic Musicology, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78451-5_1
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