THE PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF ALFONSO EL SABIO’ S PECULIAR USE OF THE ZÉJEL
1970; Liverpool University Press; Volume: 47; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/1475382702000347001
ISSN1469-3550
Autores Tópico(s)Medieval Literature and History
ResumoThe aim of this article is to re-examine briefly, in the light of textual evidence hitherto apparently ignored, certain entrenched assumptions about the mode of presentation of Alfonsine verse and other mediaeval material in similar forms. A large majority of Alfonso’ s Cantigas de Santa María are in the zéjel form, with accompanying musical notation in the manuscripts, and ideas about the mode of presentation of the early zéjel in romance are based largely on the Cantigas. Any theory falling down in respect of the Cantigas has no very strong crutches to support it elsewhere in the early period. It seems to me that the dual interest of the collection has caused an unfortunate Galician mist to seep in between musical and literary considerations, to the disadvantage of both. The musicologist (e.g. Anglés) has largely ignored the words; the literary historian (e.g. Le Gentil) has accepted as proven the musical-textual links suggested by the musicologist. When one does examine the words, and in particular the degree of correspondence between sentence- and phrase-structure and versification, one must either call into question certain generally accepted assertions about the methods of musical presentation of the Cantigas, or conclude that the thirteenth-century Spanish courtier’ s entertainment showed characteristics more bizarre than has yet been supposed.
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