Josquin des Prez

2015 marks the 500th anniversary of the foundation in Jaén of a major confraternity attached to the parish church of San Andrés and known as Santa Capilla. What differentiates this brotherhood of others created in Spain at the time is the bylaws established presence of a music chapel in order to exalt its religious celebrations. This article offers a panoramic study of the Santa Capilla as a musical institution during the 16th century, based on new archival findings. The work includes an analysis of models of patronage that its founder, the Apostolic Protonotary Gutierre González Doncel, might have in mind; a critical review of the musical activities of singers, instrumentalists and chapelmasteres at the service of the institution; some hypotheses about the repertoire used; and a specific study, accompanied by the critical edition, of two odd sets of verses for minstrels by Gil de Ávila, the only pieces preserved by the only 16th-century chapelmaster of the Santa Capilla with known musical production. // En el año 2015 se conmemora el quinto centenario de la fundación en Jaén de una importante cofradía adscrita a la iglesia parroquial de San Andrés y conocida con el nombre de Santa Capilla. Lo que diferencia a esta hermandad de otras creadas en la España de la época es la presencia, estatutariamente establecida, de una capilla de música con el propósito de enaltecer sus celebraciones religiosas. El presente artículo ofrece un estudio panorámico sobre la Santa Capilla como institución musical durante el siglo XVI, basándose en nuevos hallazgos archivísticos. El trabajo incluye un análisis de los modelos de mecenazgo que pudo tener en mente su fundador, el protonotario apostólico Gutierre González Doncel; una revisión crítica de las actividades musicales de cantores, instrumentistas y maestros de capilla al servicio de la cofradía; algunas hipótesis sobre el repertorio musical empleado; y un estudio específico, acompañado de la edición crítica, de dos singulares juegos de versos para ministriles de Gil de Ávila, únicas piezas del único maestro de la Santa Capilla del siglo XVI del que conocemos música.

This book explores the corpus of motet cycles composed and disseminated in manuscript and printed sources of polyphony ca. 1470-ca. 1510, including works by Loyset Compère, Gaspar van Weerbeke, and Franchinus Gaffurius. In doing so, it tackles some of the most essential and stimulating issues of late medieval and Renaissance music, clustering around the role of sacred polyphony in the interaction between devotion and liturgy. The different chapters, organized in four sections, cover topics ranging from the relationship between ritual and cycles to the "shape and sound of prayer texts", revisit the problematic association between Milan, motetti missales and Josquin, and offer a series of case studies approached from an interdisciplinary perspective. By addressing issues of textual and musical design, function, and performance, the book illuminates this fascinating repertory and the rich devotional and cultural context in which it flourished.

The aim of this conference is to investigate the corpus of motet cycles composed and disseminated in manuscript and printed sources during the period between c.1470–c.1510. Whereas in scholarship up to the present day reflection on the notion of ‘cycle’ has been focused almost exclusively on the Milanese motetti missales, we propose a broader definition. We will consider different types of cycles and mixed forms, and reassess their nature by combining the results of archival research, musical analysis, textual scholarship and liturgical studies. In particular, we will address the principal undefined issues concerning the cycles’ functions: how do we position them within the framework of the liturgy? Can we make connections to aspects of late medieval devotional practices, such as private meditation or confraternity rituals? Or were some of these pieces actually in an uncharted area between liturgy and devotion?
This event is part of a three-year research project started at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in September 2014 and funded by the SNF: “Motet Cycles (c.1470–c.1510): Compositional Design, Performance, and Cultural Context” (see www.motetcycles.com).