Description
The daily activity of chapel masters in the Hispanic territories during the 17th century revolved around the calendar of sung liturgy, in which they were required to meet the ceremonial demands: polyphonic practices according to the solemnity of the day, organization and training of singers and choirboys, presence of instrumentalists, and creation of repertoire. This intense activity compelled musicians to reuse, adapt, and modify not only their own music but also that of the most esteemed masters present in their archives—a circumstance reflected in the many surviving copies of compositions we have today.
In the presentation I propose, I will analyze two scores and their evolution over time: chronologically, the first is the Danzas del Corpus —sign. E-VAcp-Mus/CM-C-86— composed in 1609 by Juan Bautista Comes (ca. 1582–1643) for the celebration of the Corpus Christi octave procession at the Colegio Seminario de Corpus Christi in Valencia. The second is a Nunc Dimittis for shawms —E-VAcp, CM-LP-24, pp. 165v–170r— by José Hinojosa (†1673), also written for the Colegio.
Comes's dances, arranged for two choirs, were performed throughout the century, though not without some vicissitudes, and were copied in 1706 by maestro Pedro Martínez de Orgambide —E-VAcp-Mus/CM-C-85— with alterations and omissions. The Nunc Dimittis, scored for three choirs, reached the Cathedral of Barcelona at an unknown date —E-Bbc, M. 1648/16— and was also copied and modified during the 18th century, replacing the two shawms of the second choir with two violins.
The changes introduced in both works reveal a desire to update them—subtly in the first case, and less delicately in the second—while simultaneously enabling their survival in a time that perhaps was no longer truly theirs.
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