La Guitare Baroque Part II
Angelo Michele Bartolotti, sa vie, ses oeuvres et l'adaptation de ses oeuvres choisies en ré majeur pour la guitare moderne
Université de Montréal
Par Amir Houshangi
Présenté à l'examen général de doctorat
Novembre 2021
Click here to read previous part
1.6. The Spanish School:
Although we know that Corbetta visited Spain and dedicated a guitar collection to Phillip IV during the 1640s, there is no sign of his influence on guitar music in Spain. Still, it seems that this influence was later realized with the trip of a Spaniard named Gaspar Sanz to Italy. 34
Francisco Bartolomé Sanz Celma (1640– 1710), better known as Gaspar Sanz, was a Spanish composer, organist, guitarist, and priest. He studied music, theology and philosophy at the University of Salamanca, where he was later appointed professor of music.
At the same year of the publication of Corbetta's second book La Guitarre Royalle, in 1674 in France and the emergence of the French school, Spanish school began to come to life with the publication of Sanz's Instrucción de música Sobre la Guitarra Española (fig.10) by Gaspar Sanz.
Prior to the Publication of Gaspar Sanz's Instrucción in 1674, the only published work was the same Amato's book described earlier, which had been reprinted in Italy.35
After graduating from the University of Salamanca, Sanz travelled to Italy, where he studied under musicians such as Cristoforo Caresana and Lelio Colista; he was also appointed as an organist in the Royal Chapel of Naples.36
In the preface to the first volume of the Instruccion, Sanz mentions Foscarini, Granata and Corbetta as guitarists whom he had met and whose music he had studied while in Italy.37
On the Sanz style of music, the scholar Stanley Yates has an opinion that can be generalized to the whole Spanish school music style; in his Ph.D. dissertation, Yates states: "Despite his clear debt to the Italians, Sanz's music remains distinct from that of his teachers. Setting out with the intention of teaching the instrument through Spanish music rather than foreign pieces.38
About the importance and the contents of this work Robert Strizich in the Grove Dictionary of Music explains:
“Sanz’s Instrucción de música is the most comprehensive guitar treatise of its time. Comprising three books, it contains 90 pieces written for a five-course instrument. Most of its pieces are based on dance forms, such as the folía, Canario, and Españoleta, typical of the late 17th-century Spanish 34 . Yates, Stanley “THE BAROQUE GUITAR: LATE SPANISH STYLE AS REPRESENTED BY SANTIAGO DE MURCIA IN THE SALDIVAR MANUSCRIPT (1732)”, Doctoral dissertation, University of north Texas, 1993, (p-13)
35 . Ibid.
36 . Rodrigo Zayas, "Gaspar Sanz and His Music," Guitar Review No.40 ,1976, (p-3)
37 . Sanz, Gaspar, Instruccion Libro I, 1674, Préfacé
38 . Yates, Stanley “THE BAROQUE GUITAR: LATE SPANISH STYLE AS REPRESENTED BY SANTIAGO DE MURCIA IN THE SALDIVAR MANUSCRIPT (1732)”, Doctoral dissertation, University of north Texas, 1993, (p-14)
baroque style. The first book includes a detailed introductory tutor with instructions for stringing, fretting, and tuning and an explanation of the rasgueado (strummed) and punteado (plucked) styles; it also contains an extended essay on figured bass accompaniment for the guitar. While many of its pieces are intended for beginners, those in the second and third books are longer, broader in scope, and more technically demanding."39
Fig.10. Sanz’s Instrucción de música Sobre la Guitarra Española. 1674
Another prominent figure in the Spanish school is Lucas Ruiz de Ribayaz (1626-after1677), a Spanish guitarist, harpist, composer, and priest who served at the collegiate church of Villafranca del Bierzo as a prebendary. In 1677 he published a treatise in Madrid about which Robert Strizich writes in the Grove dictionary:
"Ruiz de Ribayaz is known only through his treatise: (Luz y Norte musical para caminar por las
cifras de la Guitarra española y Arpa, tañer, y cantar a compás por canto de órgano; y breve
explicación del Arte), which contains detailed introductory tutors for the Baroque guitar and twocourse
harp, theoretical chapters on general musicianship and an appendix, 'Ecos del Libro,
containing compositions in tablature for both instruments. In the 'Ecos del libro'Ribayaz quoted
extensively of Sanz's Instrucción; however, this collection includes guitar pieces by Sanz and harp
pieces by Andrés Lorente and Juan del Vado, several unidentifiable pieces presumably composed
by Ruiz de Ribayaz himself. The pieces are in dance forms characteristic of the late 17th-century
Spanish Baroque style and predominantly of Iberian origin (folia, jácaras, Canario, Passacalles,
etc.)."40(Fig.11)
Fig.11, Ruiz de Ribayaz's Luz y Norte,,,( Madrid,1677)
The last two guitarist-composers we discuss in this section are Francisco Guerau (1649-1722) and Santiago de Murcia (1673- 1739)
Francisco Guerau was a Spanish guitarist, singer, composer, and priest. In 1659, he was admitted to the Royal Chapel of Madrid as a choirboy and became an adult chorister in 1669. From 1693 to 1701, he was chamber musician and maestro de capilla of the Colegio de Niños Cantores
Guerau's Poema harmónico compuesto de varias cifras por el temple de le Guitarra Española/Harmonic poem composed of several figures by the temper of the Spanish guitar (Madrid, 1694.
fig.12) which is the last Spanish publication of the seventeenth century includes 27 compositions and an introduction to the principles of notation and ornamentation of tablatures.
Stanley Yates explains the style of this work as: "Although writing in the same forms as Sanz and Ribayez, Guerau's compositional style is significantly different from that of his published predecessors. Strummed chords are almost absent from his tablature, campanela technique is not employed, ornamentation is profuse, counterpoint is the basic texture. However, the most striking feature of Guerau's music is the vastly expanded length of the pieces.41
In the Grove dictionary, the Spanish musicologist Joan Parets i Serra, on the importance of this work, states: "The Poema is comparable in value to the works of Gaspar Sanz and Ruiz de Ribayaz for Spanish guitar music of the period, and Guerau's music was highly regarded by his contemporaries such as Santiago de Murcia."42