... the great Philip sovereign,
illustrious king of the
wide Hispanic soil,
to whom fortune and
people yield.
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F |
rom the moment the bells of Valladolid rang to
announce the birth of the heir on 21 May 1527 until those of the monastery of
El Escorial tolled for the dead king on 13 September 1598, the life of Philip
II was always surrounded by music. The Flemish composer Nicholas Gombert, at
the service of the emperor Charles V, father of Philip, wrote his motet Dicite in magni to celebrate the birth of the prince.
During his christening, singers disguised as angels sang a Gloria in his
honour.
The Prince’s household had, since he was seven years old, singers and musicians, as well as teachers of several disciplines, among other, dance, hunting and riding, which were his favourites. In 1539, after the death of the Isabel of Portugal, mother of Philip, Charles V founded the music chapels of the Infantas and the Prince, with the musicians who served the queen. To this Philip shall add the Flemish chapel, inherited from the emperor, when he abdicated. Flemish musicians were in fashion and their reputation was well deserved. From an early age Philip was very fond of choral sacred music. One must remember that the monarch intervened directly in matters referring to his music chapels: hiring of musicians, recruitment of children trebles (they were carefully chosen in the Netherlands), payment of salaries, repertoire, etc. The Monastery of El Escorial reminds us that in those times a monarch showed his prestige in the art of which he surrounded himself, apart from political campaigns and battles.
The chronicler Baltasar Porreño
tells us of Philip II, that “although he
did not know of music, he judged wisely about it.”
Plainsong was his favourite style. He never
tired of hearing it and his curiosity was famous. Father Sigüenza recounts how
after a new plainsong book had arrive to El Escorial, then under construction,
the monarch “was so eager to see it, to be the first on to do so, that, after the
monks had retired, he went on all fours from his room through a window into the
choir; the prior was watching if all monks had retired and, when he saw some
light in the choir, entered to see who it was and found the King inside and
caught him with the loot, and no doubt the King blushed”. Philip was so
zealous that, warned by don Fernando de las Infantas, he intervened before the
Pope Gregory XIII to stop Palestrina and Zoilo in their reform of the Gregorian
chant, which he achieved. He also took good care to continue the papal
privilege of maintaining the Hispanic chant, of Toledo, alongside the Roman
rite. All of this stresses a fact that many historians have remarked: Philip’s
conservatism. There are also other points to be made like the absence of a
musician of such stature as Tomás Luis de Victoria, who dedicated a book of
masses to the monarch, from the Royal Chapels or the ban of polyphony in the
foundation papers of El Escorial. Behind a royal decision not always stood a
purely artistic motive, but rather a strategic or economic one.
Many works were written for a royal occasion
(four weddings and several funerals helped) or dedicated to Philip II by the
leader composers of the time, among others: Palestrina, Guerrero, Victoria,
Cabezón, Fuenllana, Pisador, Infantas, Rogier, Escobedo, Lobo, Brudieu,
Turnhout, etc. Since 1548 Antonio de
Cabezón accompanied Philip in his trips. The blind organist was one of
Philip’s dearest servants. He also travelled to England with 400 other people,
among them the monarch’s two music chapels and musicians.
Bartolomé de Escobedo is not a very well known figure. It
is believed that he was born in Zamora in 1510. During fifteen years he was a
singer at the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, where he was famous for his lack
of discipline ( in more than one occasion he faked an illness to avoid
rehearsals, he exchanged insults with another singer and he was even
excommunicated for a day). On the other hand he had a reputation as a great
expert of music theory; he acted as a judge in more than one much talked-of
dispute. In 1554 Escobedo returned to Spain, wher he pursued his work at the
diocese of Segovia. He died in 1563. His legacy as a composer consists of only two masses and six motets. The splendid
Missa
Philippus Rex Hispaniae has caused quite a stir four centuries after it
was written. for centuries the only manuscript that survives was preserved in
the library of the Vatican. The British publishing company Mapa Mundi, directed
by Bruno Turner and Martin Imrye, decided to publish it, a job that took the
musicologist Anthony Fiumara and his team five years, because of the poor
condition of the manuscript ( there was some severe ink corrosion on some
pages). There is some speculation of the occasion for which the mass was
written; he might have written it for celebrations on the accession of Philip
II to the throne, which took place on 28 March 1556 in Valladolid (Fiumara) or
as a means to flatter the king in order to obtain a better pension on
Escobedo’s return to Spain (Turner). In any case, Bruno Tuner and Pro Cantione
Antiqua have performed the premiere in modern times of the mass on 14 February
1998 in Madrid and Coro Cervantes offered the second world performance, and
premiere in the U.K., last 29 April in London. The mass conteins a variety of music
techniques. It is based on a motive, which repeats incessantly by on of the
parts of each section, around which a rich counterpoint is woven. The motiv is
sung on the words Philippus Rex Hispaniae.
The vowels of each syllable coincide with those of the names of the old
medieval notes mi-mi-ut-re-mi-fa-mi-re,
(hexachord of the mode in which the mass is written). Escobedo also uses a wide
variety of canons.
It is ten years that I stretch and change my step
With the loud voice of a
victorious sign
in service of our
great Philipo,
breaking
the clear air, the sun showed
now with rest, now
tired and weary ;
that
the Christian right hand was victorious.
and on the lucky
day when fate
To
this sweet reason, I sad was
was so sinister to
the enemy armada
with
one hand seizing the sword,
as it was
favourable and dexterous to ours, and
the other shedding blood.
accompanied by
fear and effort
My
chest scarred by a deep wound
was my person
present at the feat,
I
felt, and my left hand was
armed with hope
rather than sword.
in
a thousand pieces already shattered.
On 25 July 1554 Philip, created King of Naples
by his father for the occasion, married Mary Tudor, queen of England, at Winchester Cathedral. The chapels of both royal
families got together for the ceremony. Among the Gentlemen of the English
chapel were Thomas Tallis (ca.1505-1585) and Richard Farrant (ca.1525-1580), one of the first composers to use
the “verse” style of lithurgical anthem. William
Byrd (1543-1623) benefited from the teaching of Tallis; both stood by the
old catholic faith.
The Flemish composer Gérard de Turnhout (1520-1580) served as master of the king’s
chapel until his death. His motet Gratias
agimus tibi, of his colection of Sacred songs and other for three voices,
was dated in Antwerp the 30 June 1569 and reflects Philip’s troubles in the Low
Countries during the late 1560’s.
The secular music was written for the enjoyment
of the court. Diego Ortiz (ca1510-ca1570)
spent an extended period of time at the court of Naples, then under Spanish
rule. There he was maestro de capilla
of the viceregal chapel of the Duke of Alba. His main treatise is the Tratado de glosas (Rome, 1553), which
includes a series of studies or recercadas.
The villancicos
consisted of several stanzas linked by a refrain. Those sung here tonight
have always been among the most popular. Francisco
Guerrero (1527-1599), born in Sevilla, is, together with Victoria and
Morales, one of the greatest composers of the Spanish Renaissance. In 1588 he
kissed the hand of Philip II, invited by the cardinal of Sevilla. His
villancico belongs to the collection Canciones
y villanescas espirituales.
Takes a brief
space on the soil
the majesty of the
great Hispanic Philipo. He
was confusion and terror to nations
Yesterday the
world was little to the superhuman power, from
the first land to the hindermost,
which today such
small space encloses. and
in the end he ceased to be Philip and saint.
He lived,
searching peace, always in war ; His
fame, his soul, his zeal, his body, his name,
he lived to die ;
he held in his hand to
the world, to the sky, to the soil, to his heir.
the brake of the
vicious Lutheran,
and his mettle
terrifies the common enemy.
Much music was dedicated to Philip II on the
hour of his death, but few documents survive to tell us exactly what was played
on each occasion. A funeral took place at the church of St. Jerome in Madrid, the documents of which
have been studied by Professor Luis
Robledo. One of them states “the order
that must be kept on the last honours of His Majesty concerning the service:
That, the Vespers finished, may the Invitatory ‘Regem cui omnia vivunt’ by
Morales begin, in polyphony with only four singers, Honguero, Vázquez, Maçedo
and Aragüés, and the choir repeat the same, and the four soloists proceed with
the psalm, the whole choir repeating the Responsory of the Invitatory as it is
customary.” However, it is not
clear what Invitatory by Cristóbal de
Morales (c1500-1553) was sung during the ceremony and if it survives. That
of his Officium Defunctorum was sung
at the city of Mexico at the funeral of emperor Charles V in november 1559. The
musical style is very different to the rest of the concert: the gregorian chant
is harmonised for four voices and the psalm is sung by a solo quartet answering
the choir.
Mortuus est Philippus Rex is a little known piece by the
composer of Alicante Ambrosio Cotes
(c1550-1603). It has the same subtitle as the previous and was written for the
funeral rites that took place at the Valencia cathedral.
After considering such overwhelming amount of
music written to honour a monarch loved by many and hated by many others, it is
interesting to remember that there was yet another style of song which
attracted enormously Philip II and about which he wrote in more than one letter
to his daughters:
The motet Versa
est in luctum (1602), by the Sevillian
composer Alonso Lobo (1555-1617) bears the subtitle For the obsequies of Philip II, Catholic King of Spain. Without any
doubt, it was written for one of the requiem masses that took place during the
year 1598. The expressive beauty of its melodies places this motet among the
masterpieces of Renaissance.
Magdalena envies much the strawberries
and I the nightingales, although a few can be heard from my window. (1 May 1581). I enjoyed much your letters and the news that you
bring me of Aranjuez. And what has brought me more loneliness is the singing of
nightingales, which this year I have not heard, for our house is far from the
countryside. I do not know wether I shall hear them on the way. (16 April 1582).
Finally,
I let Miguel de Cervantes, who lost the use of his left arm at the battle of
Lepanto serving the king, to end this note with some more verses dedicated to
the Spanish monarch:
It seems that I show the frailty
of my oh so dim talent ; which seeks
to speak so low before such highness ;
yet the just desire defends it...
But I wish to set all to silence,
for I fear that my pen now offends you,
and to work they call me where I die.
© Carlos
Fernández Aransay
I
Missa Philipus Rex
Hispaniae Bartolomé de Escobedo
Oid los qu’en la
yglesi’aveis nascido Joan
Brudieu