Music and Ceremony at the Court of Charles V: The Capilla Flamenca and the Art of Political Promotion by Mary Tiffany Ferer (review)

The study of music and ceremony at important courts is neither new nor controversial. For many years scholars have documented the music produced for various events by court composers and performers and sought to understand the motivations behind certain style choices by parsing documentary, historical and theoretical ideas. In so doing, they began to explain the manner in which the music might have been significant and aided the promotion of the ruler's image and agendas. Few scholars, however, have attempted such a broad topic as the music at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. In Music and Ceremony at the Court of Charles V: The Capilla Flamenca and the Art of Political Promotion, Mary Tiffany Ferer takes on that challenge, producing an encyclopedic discussion of many aspects of music at one of the most prestigious courts in Europe. Her choice of title suggests the focus on Charles's chapel of musicians from the Low Countries. Indeed, Charles had two significant chapels, the Capilla Flamenca and the Capilla Española; the former traveled with the peripatetic emperor and thus would have produced the music that many Europeans associated with the emperor, while the second chapel remained resident in Spain.

The thesis for the volume, although "informed by new findings" (p. 15), does not rely so much on new interpretation or newly uncovered information, but rather on a painstaking collation and review of the extensive scholarship that documents the life, travels and musicians of Charles V. The author discusses the chapel membership and rituals using documentary evidence, from payroll documents and chapel registries, to prescribed duties included in various ordinances. Finally, the study attempts to identify specific musical compositions, looking primarily at compositions that might have been written to celebrate important events and activities of the emperor, and their political contexts.

In constructing the concept of Charles's image and direction as a leader, the author opens with an examination of his idea of his primary roles: that of defender of the faith and that of monarch ruling over both inherited and conquered territories so vast that he might even be considered "universal." His constructed image as protector, defender, and fortress led him to choose as his personal device (adopted at the 1516 meeting of the Order of the Golden Fleece) a banner reading Plus ultra (Even further), with the motto set between the Pillars of Hercules. The author continues by listing known musical settings of the device text (among the composers are Lupi, Gombert, and Festa) and some issues regarding their performances and transmission. Ferer also provides a list of the known sources and scholarly editions of the same works (a helpful practice which is repeated in quite a number of the other tables listing musical works). Omitted are discussions of the music itself, as well as full texts of these compositions, although there is mention that one of the Plus ultra settings doubtfully attributed to Lupi "convey[s] an image of military power" (p. 8).

In order to give adequate context for the political-musical traditions that Charles inherited, in chapter 2 the author examines the situation of his parents, Philip the Fair and Juana of Castile, and their development and use of their musical chapel. Ferer also examines the musical court of his aunt, Margaret of Austria, who assumed the role of guardian and oversaw Charles's education while he stayed at her court in Mechelen after his father passed away when he was six years old. As a result, he was instilled with a sense of the role that the arts (and music in particular) could play in the promotion of his perception as leader of what would rapidly become a broad and multicultural empire. The...