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| A good troubadour in Cantiga 194, T codex. Cantiga 194 gives Our Lady's Troubadour its title. RB. Patrimonio Nacional. |
With music, poems, and pictures, the Cantigas de Santa Maria are still a true multimedia experience. The music was the most enigmatic aspect for a long time, but since the code was unlocked in the early twentieth century, musicians have leapt at the chance to re-create the sounds of Alfonso X's court.
A major reason Alfonso X is considered “the wise king” is
because he placed himself at the center of the constant exchange of hybrid cultural
currents of his era. He fostered an avid interest in the both the sciences and the
arts and was obsessed with setting it all down in writing. This mania for
compilation led to the Cantigas manuscripts becoming one of the largest
songbooks of medieval Europe, with musical notation for more than 400 songs.
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| Alfonso holds up the musical prologue in the T manuscript of the Cantigas. RB. Patrimonio Nacional. |
I’ve studied the Cantigas de Santa Maria, mostly as literature, for more than twenty years, and I’m accustomed to English-speaking people having some strange preconceptions about this marvel of the Middle Ages. Now that I live in Spain, where the people ought to have these rhythms in their blood, I thought I might be able to skip the introductory lecture on what the Cantigas are really like.
I was wrong. My wonderful musician friends who are helping
me put together some cantigas for my book launch in December made the
same assumption non-Spaniards have made in the past. Since the stories tell the
miracles of the Virgin Mary, they think the melodies are going to be droning,
stultifying church music heavily influenced by the apparent shapelessness of
Gregorian chant.
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| Cantiga 380 (E manuscript) with exotic hats and written music. RB. Patrimonio Nacional. |
Now, I don’t consider Gregorian chant to be boring, but it’s true it never captured my imagination the way the Cantigas have, with their virtuosic earworms and lively rhythms. Although the Cantigas have a single line of text and music, this doesn’t reflect the influence of church music, which at the time was largely polyphonic. Here, monophony is a way to avoid obscuring the words and the meaning of the stories.
It’s important to remember that this music was written by
the best troubadours at the most sophisticated moment of their age, and in some
cases by the cosmopolitan king himself. It was meant to be heard at court,
possibly accompanied by dance or even some type of drama. The story was
all-important. The Cantigas’ music is more like the movies,
singer-songwriters, folk music, and even marching bands of their time than like
something a monk would sing.
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| This illustration for Cantiga 130 from the E manuscript shows a multicultural environment. RB. Patrimonio Nacional. |
Additionally, the Castilian court likely welcomed the influence of the Andalusians or Moors, who brought the latest innovations in instruments and theory to the Iberian Peninsula. Although no one has discovered a manuscript describing the style with which Alfonso wanted the Cantigas to be played, the melodies, the stories, and even the miniatures point clearly to Muslim musicians, who were, culturally, the posh kids of the time everyone wanted to imitate.
These seemingly opposite currents of northern troubadours
and southern musicians, and ostensibly religious themes in a secular court
setting, came together to create what I consider some of the most beautiful and
just plain fun music in the world.
I leave you with a version of Cantiga 166, which features in the introduction of Our Lady's Troubadour, because when I heard it for the first time, it changed my life.
Our Lady's Troubadour lets you experience this rich world in a fun new way with ten exciting stories!
