Aspectos de la cultura musical en la Corte de Felipe II (review)

The extraordinary cultural efflorescence that characterized the reign of Philip II (1556-98) has spawned, especially in the last fifteen years or so, a spate of interpretative studies that shed light on the monarch's complex and intense relationship with the arts and artists. Yet even Fernando Checa's monumental Felipe II mecenas de las artes (3d ed. [Madrid: Nerea, 1997]), arguably the most important and influential of these studies, all but ignores the role of music and musicians within the Spanish court. Since Philip II's reign coincided with a period that has rightly come to be regarded as perhaps Spanish music's most glorious—the age of Cristóbal de Morales, Francisco Guerrero, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Antonio de Cabezón, and Sebastián de Vivanco—we ought to be asking what this consignment of music to the cultural periphery might mean.

Despite its unassuming title, Aspectos de la cultura musical en la corte de Felipe II is the first comprehensive study of music in Philip II's court, and it deserves to be recognized as the great contribution to musical scholarship that it undoubtedly is. The project brings together an international team of distinguished scholars who employ a refreshingly innovative methodology that emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches without abandoning the essential and more traditional tasks of archival research and interpretation of documents. This book will become essential reading for generations of music and cultural historians as well as performers, and it is so full of richly documented details that no research library can afford to be without it.

The book's most substantial contribution is that of Luis Robledo. In three densely detailed chapters, buttressed by an impressive documentary appendix, Robledo presents the results of over a decade's archival research into music in the royal households of the Spanish Hapsburgs. In a chapter on the chapel and household of Philip as prince (1543-56), Tess Knighton revisits documentary territory first explored by Higini Anglés over half a century ago, and through the skillful manipulation of a dazzling variety of richly detailed sources, she arrives at new and important conclusions about Philip's education and the musical repertory of both his chapel and his household. Cristina Bordas brings her considerable expertise to bear on the fascinating subject of musical instruments at Philip's court through close examination of surviving inventories. In the sixth and briefest chapter, Juan José Carreras turns to two public spectacles: the ceremonial entrances of Isabel de Valois into Toledo (1561) and Ana of Austria into Madrid (1570). No fewer than 150 pages are dedicated to a substantial documentary appendix, a thorough and up-to-date bibliography, and an index of proper names.

In the first of three finely honed chapters, Luis Robledo examines the structure and administrative framework of the Spanish royal household. The sheer organizational complexity of the vast staff inherited by Philip II on his accession to the throne in 1556 has impeded any profound understanding of the Royal Chapel as a musical institution. An essential first step must be an understanding of the way in which the institution functioned. Robledo unveils the Royal Chapel as a very peculiar and very particular kind of institution that was in an almost constant state of reorganization. Through a painstakingly systematic examination of the many so-called etiquetas (ceremonials) and ordenanzas (ordinances), Robledo is able to elicit clarity and order from the confusion and seeming chaos presented by a great number of archival sources, many of whose status and function remain imperfectly understood. With dogged determination and dazzling thoroughness, Robledo precedes an examination of Philip II's own court with a consideration of his Burgundian and Castillian...