Scan 335
The American history and encyclopedia of music .., 1908
10 lines. Read by computer on 9 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1tion has retarded the art at every stage. And so at the present day there is to be found little evidence of a distinct style of art music as the outgrowth of the folk-song and the early music of the church as is the case in other countries.
3The earliest Spanish music was probably that of the church, though there is little information on the subject. Juan F. Riaño, in writing of the matter, says that the history of Spanish music dates from the Seventh Century, when the old mode of chanting used in the churches of Spain is supposed to have been invented. In a chapel of the cathedral at Toledo there is heard today precisely the same ritual that was followed in mediæval times.
5From the Seventh to the end of the Twelfth Century, the Spanish composers were almost exclusively churchmen and writers of church music. During the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, there was an influx of French monks into the kingdom, and they brought with them the music of their own country, thus coming to influence that of Spain. The "Cantigas de Santa Maria," a set of poems on devotional subjects, dating from the Thirteenth Century, is the most celebrated Spanish work of that day. Both text and music have been preserved, though the notation of the melodies has not yet been deciphered.
7Musicians are mentioned as being retainers of the king from the year 1296. Juan Ruiz, a writer of the Fourteenth Century, notes the following instruments as being in use at that time: the guitar, the rota, the tambourine, the violin, the flute, the trumpet and the organ.
9For typical Spanish music we must turn to the old folk-songs, which sprang from the hearts of the people. Many of them never have been written down but have passed from mouth to mouth, being preserved in this way by the blind street-singers, who exist in Spain today as they did in mediæval times. There was published at Valencia, in 1511, a collection of folk-songs, which at that time already dated back many years. These old melodies probably were sung first as improvisations at feasts or by the camp-fire. They
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