The soundworld of Toledo Cathedral

Carlos Martínez Gil, La capilla de música de la catedral de Toledo: evolución de un concepto sonoro (Toledo: Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, 2003) €37

Studies of cathedral music have long been at the core of Spanish musicology (a theme only recently challenged by the emerging interest in 19th-century theatre music). If a starting date had to be given for the inauguration of this trend in research, it would probably be that of the publication of the then path-breaking book by José López-Calo, La música en la catedral de Granada en el siglo XVI (Granada, 1963). Taking into account the historiographical and academic state of Spanish musicology when López-Calo's study was published, we would all agree on its merits, and it is not hard to understand why it was widely regarded as a model for subsequent studies. Since 1963 a significant number of studies have been published of music and musicians in virtually all 56 Spanish cathedrals during the ancient regime, and in a good number of collegiate churches and other minor church institutions. The resulting map, however, contained a few black holes, since some of the most important centres in the 18 th-century musical landscape remained to be scrutinized, among them Toledo Cathedral. Accordingly, many of us have been keenly anticipating the moment when Carlos Martínez Gil's thesis (submitted in July 2000) appeared as a book.

At a first glance at the table of contents, it is striking how rooted certain methodological traditions have become. Exactly 40 years after López-Calo's book on Granada Cathedral, this study on Toledo Cathedral sticks closely to the same structure and approach. That is to say, it devotes specific chapters to particular musical posts established in the institution, aiming to document who held the positions when, and what their duties were (which typically were similar in most places). According to this well-established plan, we find chapters focusing on the maestros de capilla, the choirboys, adult singers and instrumentalists. The book is completed by the introduction and two initial chapters on general aspects (the town of Toledo and the capilla de música as a whole), as well as several compendious appendices with lists of capilla members and a broad selection of cathedral chapter acts that takes up around a third of the total of 623 pages.

Several problems emerge with this traditional structure arranged by musical posts and their holders. Perhaps the most evident is that the resulting image is one compartmentalized by particular groups of musicians, and repetition becomes almost inevitable (the career of, say, a choirboy who later taught as violinist and then gained the position of maestro would be described in three chapters). The author tries to minimize these problems of layout by discussing the functioning of the capilla de música in chapter 2. Recruitment procedures, marital status, family ties, salaries and patterns of mobility are among the issues treated here.

But the results are not always completely satisfactory, nor is repetition avoided. A case in point is the mobility of Toledo musicians, an issue discussed at several places in the book. Simply confirming that some musicians came from far away (even from Italy), or that others were promoted elsewhere does not itself help to clarify key questions such as: what proportion of musicians active in Toledo came from outside? (Detailed tables given without perspective do not provide the answer, as in the case of choirboys, pp.142 -8.) Did all types of musicians move at the same rate and within similar distances? Does the pattern of musicians' mobility reveal any particular institutional network in which Toledo Cathedral formed part? What are the profiles of the institutions that both provided and searched for Toledo musicians? In what sense did the mobility of Toledo musicians help disseminate the repertory composed there that contemporaries seem to have appreciated? And to what extent did the arrival of outside...