3 - Source Materials

Summary

AS WE HAVE ALREADY SEEN, our knowledge of Esquivel the composer comes to us through three publications only. These are the Liber primus missarum (1608), Motecta festorum (1608) and Tomus secundus, psalmorum, hymnorum … et missarum (1613). In addition to the missing volume of 1623, he may well have written other works; given the importance of Corpus Christi processions in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain, it would be surprising if he had not produced works for these ceremonies. The capitular acts of Oviedo mention records of payment to Esquivel for the composition of villancicos and music for the autos de corpus, but none of this music seems to have survived.

It was a remarkable achievement that Esquivel was able to see all three of his volumes through Spanish printing presses when so few of his fellow countrymen succeeded in this respect. The huge expense involved and the paucity of printers no doubt explains the scarcity of printed polyphonic music at this time. Although over fifty books containing vocal polyphony and/or instrumental polyphonic music were published in Spain and Portugal in the period 1535–1648, the total number of music books does not begin to compare with those for the major centres of music publishing in Italy, France or the Low Countries. And as Anglés pointed out many years ago, in the regions of Castile, Aragon and Navarre in the period 1598 to 1628, the number of published volumes of sacred polyphony did not exceed twelve. In addition to the three volumes of music by Esquivel the principal publications were: Philippus Rogier, Missae sex (Madrid, 1598); Tomás Luis de Victoria, Missae, Magnificat … (Madrid, 1600); Alfonso Lobo, Liber primus missarum (Madrid, 1602); Victoria, Officium defunctorum (Madrid, 1605); Sebastián de Vivanco, Liber magnificarum (Salamanca, 1607) and Motetes (Salamanca, 1610); Miguel el Navarro, Liber magnificarum (Pampeluna, 1614); Sebastián Aguilera de Heredia, Liber canticorum Magnificat (Zaragoza, 1618); Stefano Limido, Armonia espiritual (Madrid, 1624); Sebastián López de Velasco, Libro de misas (Madrid, 1628). That Esquivel was successful was probably due to the generosity of Don Pedro Ponce de León, bishop of Ciudad Rodrigo from 1605 until 1609.