Discursive-musical Polyphony in the Cantigas de Santa Maria by Alfonso X, el Sabio
Antonio Celso RIBEIRO
Original title: A Polifonia discursivo-musical nas Cantigas de Santa Maria de Alfonso X, o Sábio
Published in Medieval and Early Modern Iberian Peninsula Cultural History
Keywords: Bakhtin, Cantigas, Dialogism, Discursive-musical polyphony, Jewish, Middle Ages, Music.
The aim of the present work is to analyse the interrelationship between the text and the musical tessitura in one of the pieces from the Cantigas de Santa Maria, by Alfonso X, el Sabio (13th Cent.). The chosen work is extracted among those which deal with the presence of the Jewish people in a Christian realm, where I look for to recover in the melodies, marks that reinforce or denigrate their image, comparing them with Christian presence as well the Virgen Mary. Thus, I take in assumption that music is a language, and I will support the analysis in taking into account the concept of “discursive-musical polyphony” created by Lanna using the theoretical framework of the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin.
The Cantigas of Santa Maria – a musical treasure of the reign of Afonso X, the wise man (1252-1284)
Lenora Pinto MENDES
Original title: As Cantigas de Santa Maria – um tesouro musical do reinado de Afonso X, o Sábio (1252-1284)
Published in Music in Middle Ages and Early Modernity
Keywords: Cantigas, Music, Poetry.
Produced in the alfonsine scriptorium, the Cantigas de Santa Maria constitute a true encyclopedia of medieval music. Inserted in the medieval European troubadour movement in its Marian aspect in which the Virgin Mary takes the place of the lady of the court. They survived in four richly illuminated manuscripts with the record of all their melodies on the staff of five lines and squares neums developed a little earlier by the master Guido D’Arezzo. Considered a treasure by the wise king, the books of the songs also possessed healing powers. Some cantigas record passages of the life of its royal author.
