Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Mexico City Cathedral Music: 1600-1750

1964; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 21; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/979056

1533-6247

Robert Stevenson,

Latin American history and culture

Although Mexico City was the foremost cultural center in North America before 1800, the musical history of this capital has been strangely neglected. Not until 1946, when Lota M. Spell published a pioneer article on music in the Conquest century, was a first attempt made at bringing the viceregal music to international attention. Four years later Francisco Curt Lange translated her article into Spanish. In 1952 Jesús Bal y Gay handsomely edited what he hoped would be but the first in a series to match Monumentos de la Música Española. As unique source for the transcriptions of Mexican colonial chefs-d’oeuvres in this luxurious 235-page volume, Bal y Gay availed himself of a filmed codex. In April, 1961 Roger Wagner recorded approximately half of the Bal y Gay volume—including Juan de Lienas’ splendid Missa super fa re ut fa sol la (the identical cantus firmus used in Morales’s Missa cortilla and in Masses by Melchor Robledo and Ginés de Boluda), Francisco López [y] Capillas’ Magnificat secundi toni , Hernando Franco’s Peccantem me quotidie, Memento met Deus , and the Spanish Masses transcribed by Bal y Gay because they were in the source codex.