-Index-
Presentation
Presentation
André GABY
Original title: Presentación
Special Issue
Saint Augustine and the definition of Music as Scientia (De Musica I, IV, 5)
Luís Carlos Silva de SOUSA
Original title: Santo Agostinho (354-430) e a definição de Música como Scientia (De Musica I, IV, 5)
Keywords: Modulation, Music, Order, Reason, Saint Augustine, Scientia, Transcendence.
The objective of this work is to analyse the use of the term Scientia in the definition of Music proposed by Saint Augustine in the work De Musica (I, IV, 5). The Music, one of the seven Liberal Arts, was understood by Augustine as a manifestation of th order of audible realities. The Music had as its object not exactly modulatio, but bona modulatio. Many animals are capable of modulation, they fellow numerical laws: but, for Saint Augustine, the Music was a Scientia bene modulandi, and it assumed a specific, transcendent telos (τέλος). The term Scientia could not be dispensed with, since ignorance of the bona modulatio, as an exercise of Reason, could cause disorder in the use of song.
Between sins and virtues. A look at the feminine condition in medieval daily life through sacred and secular songs
Antonio Celso RIBEIRO
Original title: Entre Pecados e Virtudes. Um olhar sobre a condição feminina no cotidiano medieval a partir de cantigas sacras e seculares
Keywords: Eroticism, Female condition, Joglarezas – Soldadeiras, Middle Ages, Social class, Ŷawari.
The present work intends to briefly analyze the role of the medieval woman from her social class whether she is a well-born woman, or a slave, God fearing or mistress of her needs and desires, lover or loved one, courtesan, intelectual and artist and their interest-relationships with eroticism. Therefore, we will briefly discuss on these roles and their implications for society at the time, especially for the joglarezas/soldadeiras and ŷawari – slave-singers specially trained within Arab-Muslim culture, outlining the boundaries between public and private spaces and between the sacred and the profane.
Toward a didactic of Music in two Carolingian treatises: Musica and Scolica Enchiriadis
Julieta CARDIGNI
Original title: Hacia una didáctica musical en dos tratados carolingios: Musica y Scolica Enchiriadis
Keywords: Didactic features, Discursive analysis, Musica Enchiriadis, Scolica Enchiriadis.
The present paper aims to analyze the didactic features present in two Carolingian writings about music: Musica and Scolia Enchiriadis, from 9th century. Traditionally transmitted and read together, these treatises contain some of the earliest medieval reflections on polyphony, modal theory, and musical training. In addition, Musica and Scolica Enchiriadis show how the Ars Musica turns into a performative notion, while still trying to be part –at least formally– of the tradition of speculative music and the harmonia mundi. In the context of the Carolingian reforms, Music seems to be acquiring a more practical dimension, according to the needs of homogenization of Liturgy accomplished throughout the Empire. This dimension, which of course had always existed as a performative aspect of Music, needs now to be theorized and systematized for its transmission. In his attempt to teach the –until then– oral knowledge about singing, the anonymous writer(s) of Musica and Scolica Enchiriadis needs not only to explain the new concepts, but also to create a common language to accomplish this task. The result of this intent is one of the first musical notation systems which, though not of great further impact as a means of transmission, gives us however a glimpse to the metalinguistic process of creating a musical language. Departing from Discourse Analysis, we will trace and analyze these didactic strategies and resources, with the purpose of delineating the didactic project of both treatises.
Itaque sine musica nulla disciplina potest esse perfecta: musical iconography in hispanic romanic sculpture
Alicia MANSO SAN ISIDRO
Original title: Itaque sine musica nulla disciplina potest esse perfecta: la iconografía musical en la escultura románica hispana
Keywords: Instruments, King David, Last Judgement, Middle Ages, Minstrels, Music, Romanesque sculpture.
The presence of musical iconography in medieval art, particularly in Romanesque sculpture, is enormous. Thus, in this article we will focus on the chronology from the 11th to the 13th century, analyzing the most important examples on the most representented topics: the Final Judgement, King David, and profane scenes. Musical instruments are represented in both non-religious and religious scenes, included as a reflection of biblical texts with a profound theological content. Analyzing the representation of instruments gives us information about iconographic influences, that begin with the miniatures in the Beatos. Moreover, this analysis is useful regarding organology and musicology, assessing the verisimilitude of these representations with a multidisciplinar methology.
Oh Fortune! Reminiscence of the Boecian Consolatio in the moral verses of Carmina Burana
Mariano OLIVERA
Original title: ¡Oh Fortuna! Reminiscencia de la Consolatio boeciana en los versos morales de Carmina Burana
Keywords: Consolatio, Fortune, Philosophy, Poetry, Therapeutic.
The purpose of this article is to present reminiscences of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy in three goliard poems by Carmina Burana. To demonstrate the identity of rhetorical and philosophical style: consolatio, between the poems of Book I-II of the Consolation of Philosophy and the selected Goliard poems. From which we will glimpse their potential to awaken consolatory and therapeutic philosophical reflection. All this in an almost abysmal leap between the 5th century AD and the 13th century AD. The survival of the consolatio, not only as a rhetorical-poetic style but also as a spiritual exercise that continues to be present in monastic and clerical life, will be substantiated. To do this, first, we will justify in general the importance of the Consolation of Philosophy in courtly and monastic life, that is, its reception in the Latin Middle Ages. Then we will elaborate on the philosophical practice and the exercises that emerge around the speeches and consoling verses, which although they lack argumentation, in their entire poetic splendour, awaken the philosophical reflection of the present towards past goods, the loss of virtue and the deceptive nature of Fortune. Everything is resolved in four movements: aegritudo or perturbatio, lethargum, avocatio mentis, revocatio mentis that make up the consolation or recovery of what makes the soul and reason “sick”. To culminate our journey on such a therapeuo, we propose the key content that all the work signifies, a comparative analysis between the Boecian verses and the Burano verses.
The musical esoterism of Francesco Zorzi (1466-1540) in the work De harmonia mundi totius (1525)
André GABY
Original title: O esoterismo musical de Francesco Zorzi (1466-1540) na obra De harmonia mundi totius (1525)
Keywords: Christian Kabbalah, Esoterism, Philosophy of music, Pythagoreanism, Renaissance.
The humanism and the musical renaissance derived from it are both the result of Italian thinkers contact with the Neoplatonic and Hermes Trimegistus works – coming from Byzantium thanks to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 – and with Kabbalistic works brought by Jews definitively expelled from Spain. in 1492. Among so many names in Italian humanist thought, stands out in Venice the Franciscan friar Francesco Zorzi (Giorgi). He learned the Hebrew language and the teachings of Kabbalah, dedicating his intellectual efforts to the continuation of the synthesis work of ideas on spiritual elevation (Platonic, Aristotelian, Neoplatonic, Hermetic, Jewish, or Christian) initiated by Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola. Zorzi believed that Kabbalah could prove the truths of the faith of Christianity present in the Bible, that is, the numbers generated by the letters of the Hebrew alphabet would be related to the Pythagorean “Harmony of the Spheres” conception, and the truths of the cosmos reality would be described in the scriptures enterlines of Judeo-Christian religious tradition. Our work consists of presenting to the Portuguese language community the esoteric-kabbalist musical conception present in the work Harmonia mundi totius by Francesco Zorzi, together with some extract’s translation into Portuguese.
La quale fu cantata molto bene – The performances of Alessandro Striggios’ monumental 40-part compositions in Munich 1567/68
Bernhard RAINER
Keywords: 16th c. instrumentation, 40-part compositions, Alessandro Striggio, Cantorey, Ecce beatam lucem, Missa sopra Ecco si beato giorno, Transposition.
In the 1560s Alessandro Striggio composed monumental works such as his Missa sopra Ecco si beato giorno à 40 and a 40-voice motet, both of which can be proven to have been performed in Munich in 1567 and 1568. Analysis of the performing forces of Munich’s Cantorey of this time concludes not only that the instrumental participation of these performances must have been significant, but also that the works were transposed downward. Furthermore, a hypothesis is proposed that the Munich performance of an untitled 40-voice motet in 1568 involved Striggio’s Ecce beatam lucem à 40, which itself may constitute a contrafactum of Ecco si beato giorno, a madrigal that circulated in copies during the decade.
Marin Marais (1656-1728) and the didactic function of the Avertissement
Kristina AUGUSTIN
Original title: Marin Marais (1656-1728) e a função didática dos Avertissement
Keywords: Avertissement, Early Music, Historically Informed Performance, Marin Marais, Viol.
This text concludes a work begun in 2019 that included the production of an article on the life of the gambist Marin Marais, published in this magazine, with the respective review of primary sources. This was followed by the publication of a second article with the translation of the prefaces (Avertissement) of the five books of Marais. This article seeks to analyze the didactic function of the afore mentioned Avertissement and demonstrate in what aspects they contribute to a better understanding and execution of the works of Marin Marais.
Music and dance in the paintings of Nicolas-Antoine Taunay (1755-1830)
Bárbara DANTAS
Original title: Música e dança nas pinturas de Nicolas-Antoine Taunay (1755-1830)
Keywords: Dance, Modern Painting, Music, Nicolas-Antoine Taunay.
The French painter, Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, lived in a confused time. It witnessed one of the most important political upheavals the world has ever seen, the French Revolution. Even though he was in the “eye of that hurricane”, his painting pleased both the monarchy and the republicans. An example of this are the landscape paintings in which he referred to an iconography linked to dance and music, more specifically, to the roda and to fête galante. This work, therefore, intends to demonstrate how modern landscape painting, normally dissociated from a political content, is also a symbolic expression of power while referring to classical and melancholic themes.
Schemata, Motif and Topics in Theme and Variations in Sonata K305 for Piano and Violin in A Major by W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Aline Mendonça PEREIRA; Ernesto HARTMANN
Original title: Schemata, Motivo e Tópicas no Tema e Variações da Sonata K305 para Piano e Violino em Lá Maior de W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Keywords: Compositional Procedures, Mozart’s Sonata for Piano and Violin in A Major K305, Schemata, Theme and Variations, Topics.
The present work investigates in the second movement of Mozart's Sonata for Piano and Violin in A Major K305 (1778) – Tema con Variazioni – the compositional and expressive procedures employed by the composer. To this end, it reviews the literature on the Theme with Variations (Zamacois, Stein, Schoenberg and Scliar) concepts of Topic, Style, and Schemata (Ratner, Hatten, Sutcliffe, Day-O’Connell) proposing an analysis of the movement grounded on these concepts. The results are discussed in the light of the analysis and it is concluded that, even using the non-amplifying Variation or Fantasy model; preserving formal structures due to the Schemata repeatedly employed; and presenting themselves within the script described by Ratner (from his study of contemporary treatises), the diversity of styles and topics present ensure unity of the movement as expected of a part of a larger work without abstaining the contrast that is widely explored by the vast repertoire of composer of the constitutive elements of each style.
The Music. One of the keys to understanding Time
Ricardo da COSTA
Original title: A Música. Uma das chaves para a compreensão do Tempo
Keywords: History, Liberal Arts, Methodology, Music.
The purpose is to present José Enrique Ruiz-Domènec’s (Spanish Historian 1948- ) methodology for the study of the Past: the appreciation of Music – traditionally one of the seven liberal arts – in historical studies as a key element for understanding the history of cultures in time. To do this, we will concentrate on four of his books: España, una nueva historia (2009), Personajes intempestivos de la Historia (2011), Europa. Las claves de su historia (2012), and Escuchar el pasado. Ocho siglos de música europea (2012). In them three characters are presented that symbolize the imperative need for Music studies to find the key to the Past: Pope Gregory, the Great (540-604) and the creation of the universe European sound with Gregorian chant, Mozart (1756-1791) and the rational sense of civilization of the Ancien Régime, and Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999) and the incurable nostalgia of Spanish in Aranjuez Concert (1939).
Articles
Apotropaic Middle Ages laughter: Visions of the Sacred Obscene in Classical Greece
Manuel ÁLVAREZ JUNCO
Original title: La risa apotropaica medieval: visiones de lo obsceno sagrado de la Grecia Clásica
Keywords: Apotropaic, Classical Greece, Evil eye, Middle Ages, Romanesque, Sacred obscene.
In classical Greece, the images of the apotropaic –protector against evil eye, satanic spirits or misfortune–, together with their magical and sacred aspects, combined the grotesque, the obscene and the laughable. This article delves into the analysis of this surprising conjunction in the symbolic visualizations of that culture, pointed out by some authors as belonging to the “sacred”. It also analyzes them as a possible origin of the images of explicit obscenity of the carvings on the exteriors of many buildings of the European Middle Ages, such as the spinaries, sheelas, double-tailed mermaids, moons, gargoyles, caganers, etc.
The flourishing of painting in the time of Plato (427-347 a. C.) and Aristotle (384-322 a. C.). Hunting scene
Miháy BODÓ
Original title: El florecimiento de la pintura en la época de Platón (427-347 a. C.) y Aristóteles (384-322 a. C.). Escena de caza
Keywords: Aigai, Central perspective, Greek Painting, Greek Theater, Hunting scene, Scenography, Tomb II, Vergina.
The essay focuses on Hunting scene, mural painting from Tomb II of Vergina, and is part of a larger investigation in which I have set out to analyze the pictorial structures of the few Greek works that have been preserved and have survived to this day. Through the reconstruction of the artistic creation processes, the article tries to reveal the knowledge of the craft of painting of the time. The results of the analysis show that it was the Hellenic workshops that laid the foundations for the visual communication tools that we use the most today, as well as the representation of form, light and shadow, space and even the use of linear perspective. The text is addressed both to specialists in the subject and to a wider audience. The graphic images produced by the author facilitate the understanding of the painting's high pictorial level.
The Cançon de la Crosada (13th century) by William of Tudela. An English Translation (II-LXV)
Antonio CORTIJO OCAÑA
Original title: La Cançon de la Crosada (s. XIII) de Guillermo de Tudela. Traducción al inglés (II-LXV)
Keywords: History of the Albigensian Crusade, Inquisition, Persecution.
The History of the Albigensian Crusade is one of the most intriguing medieval Provençal texts. It represents the beginning of a persecuting society. We provide a translation.
Sacred and profane in Medieval: superposition or symbiosis? – The case of dedicated medieval religious institutions to non-religious purposes
Armando Alexandre dos SANTOS
Original title: Sagrado e profano no Medievo: superposição ou simbiose? – O caso das instituições religiosas medievais dedicadas a finalidades não religiosas
Keywords: Building bridges, Middle Ages, Military life, Religious orders, Rules of Religious Orders.
This article considers the interpenetration of the sacred and profane spheres in the Middle Ages, studying the case of some religious orders destined for temporal and profane purposes, such as the construction of bridges; it focuses, in a special way, on the theological foundation of these orders and the constitutive importance of the rules or statutes for their regular and official existence.
Vasa Sacra or Non Sacra? The Aquila Beaker Bearing a Kabbalistic Inscription from the Medieval Hoard from Vinerea, Transylvania
Cristian Ioan POPA
Keywords: Aquila symbol, Gothic Kabbalistic Inscription, Middle Ages, Silver Becker.
In the middle of the last century, a medieval treasure, made of gold and silver objects, was accidentally discovered in Transylvania on Vinerea (Cugir town). The hoard contained several precious metal objects and several hundred coins, out of which 396 are still preserved today, after a small part was stolen upon discovery. An extremely interesting item is the gold plated silver becker. On its surface was incised a ribbon that contains a text written in Gothic characters – nceirmoiahedrpma // indecmhpeoirsli. The text is most likely encrypted, making the message difficult to interpret. Towards the centre the ribbon is interrupted by the presence of a carefully incised aquila. The becker has analogies with similar items from Central Europe, datable around the year 1500. The aquila could be considered as a Christian symbol, in relation with Saint John’s (?) iconography.
Alienora Dei gratia regina Anglie. The potestas of the English queen Eleanor of Castile (1241-1290): status quaestionis
Andrea BERGAZ ÁLVAREZ
Original title: Alienora Dei gratia regina Anglie. La potestas de la reina Leonor de Castilla (1241-1290): status quaestionis
Keywords: Eleanor of Castile, England, Historiography, Potestas, Queenship.
The aim of this article is to analyse from a historiographic point of view the potestas of Eleanor of Castile (1241-1290), Queen of England. It studies her activity before she became queen and the extent to which it influenced her subsequent exercise of power. This power is analysed by evaluating the different mechanisms that were used by the queen: mediation and intercession, marriage policy, her influence in the court, her cultural activity, her intervention in the internal and international policy… The political biography of this consort still shows many gaps and questions, something that opens a wide range of possibilities that we believe should be highlighted.
Duplex Spiritus Almus: the semantics of the “X” in the Romanesque period
Dominique J. PERSOONS
Original title: Duplex Spiritus Almus: la sémantique du “X” à l’époque romane
Keywords: Double soul, Holy Spirit, Jaca, Ornate letters, Plato.
The illumination from the early thirteenth century English manuscript Harley-MS-4951 shows a curious disposition of the divine trinity. If the Father and the Son are easily identified, the Holy Spirit appears in the form of an X surmounted by two animal heads, one threatening and the other affable. This suggests that the Spirit was considered double and made up of two opposing spirits. This hypothesis is verified by the observation of the tympanum of the cathedral of Jaca.
The Woman and the Androgyne in Leonardo da Vinci’s (1452-1519) pictorical work
María del Carmen BREA REINA
Original title: La Mujer y lo andrógino en la obra pictórica de Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Keywords: Androgyne, Cinquecento, Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna, Quattrocento, Renaissance, Virgin.
Leonardo da Vinci is one of the main exponents of Italian Renaissance painting. In his work the female characters or Madonnas stand out, in many cases with a leading role of great symbolism. Leonardo makes this concept evolve into the figure of the androgynous person, mixing feminine and masculine features to bring a new perspective to his production.
Forms of defence of the social body before criminal agency, in 16th-century imagery creations
Maria Leonor García da CRUZ
Original title: Formas de defesa do corpo social perante arbítrios criminosos em criações imagéticas quinhentistas
Keywords: Andrea Alciato, Crime, Emblem, Music, Social order.
A very fashionable creation in modern Europe since the first edition of Andrea Alciato, the book of emblems, has been chosen as a historical source. The selection of the socio-political message and socio-economic discourse was made in emblems of different editions and spatial and time contexts that bring together inscriptio, pictura and subscriptio. It is valued a deepening of the explicit meanings in the motto and in the picture, when they exist, and we seek to unravel the hidden, not always completely decoded in the comments of the different editions. Hence, we choose to compare several versions of the same emblem, built in different contexts. Alciato’s political discourse necessarily reveals on many occasions social concerns, and they are the ones that lead us to clues about a discourse after all interdisciplinary, leading us to considerations sometimes of artistic nature or economic and financial management. Music and musical instruments become vehicles of concord and social concert, solidarity, resistance to crime and dissent that call into question social peace. The action of the prince or ruler, on the other hand, is considered in several perspectives: from a firm-hand ruler in defence of the common good to a tyrant, and to a defender of the good of the State not benefiting the victims of tax crimes. Alciato thus reveals strong controversies in the Renaissance.
Iconographic Analysis of the Façade of the Temple of San Miguel Arcángel, in Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo
Carmen Fabiola MORENO VIDAL
Original title: Análisis Iconográfico de la Portada del Templo de San Miguel Arcángel, en Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo
Keywords: 2 acatl, Augustinians, Façade, Ixmiquilpan, Nahui-Ōlin, Shield, Winged hippocampus.
The Plateresque façade of the temple of San Miguel Arcángel, has a harmonious and elegant composition, with a rich decoration based on grotesques, presenting a clear moralizing and reflective message for the Christian observer of the time; for the indigenous observer, the grotesques could contain the main symbols of their worldview by presenting familiar and mimetic forms, such as the four-petalled flowers representing the Nahui-Ōlin, the flamer cauldron shaped like the sign 2 Acatl, the shields of San Nicolás Tolentino with Atl tlachinolli, the tops of the columns as a representation of the Tlachieloni and the undulating forms like Xonecuilli. This cover also presents the unification of European elements with the local ones, such as the coats of arms that contain the local flora and fauna, as well as the representation of a territorial partiality in the pre-Hispanic way, through the Altepetl.
