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Guerrero's L'homme armé masses and their models*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

Owen Rees
Owen Rees*
Affiliation:
University of Surrey
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Extract

Of the three most important Spanish composers of the Renaissance – Morales, Guerrero and Victoria – it is undoubtedly Guerrero who has attracted the least musicological attention. The complete edition of his works begun in 1949 is still little more than half complete, and the only substantial published account of his life and output is over thirty years old. As this article will show, at least one major work by Guerrero has managed hitherto to slip almost entirely through the musicological net, thanks to the general concentration on printed sources of his music at the expense of manuscripts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Early Music History , Volume 12 , January 1993 , pp. 19 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

1 Stevenson, R. M., Spanish Cathedral Music in the Golden Age (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1961), pp. 135–238.Google Scholar

2 See, for example, Stevenson's, R. M. article on the composer in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Sadie, S., 20 vols. (London, 1980), vii, p. 788.Google Scholar

3 The possible existence of such a work by Guerrero is mentioned nowhere, as far as I am aware, in published studies of the L'homme armé tradition.

4 Ed. Colles, H. C., II, p.477.Google Scholar

5 Spanish Cathedral Music, pp. 186–7.Google Scholar

6 Francisco Guerrero: opera omnia, IV, Monumentos de la Música Española 38 (Barcelona, 1982), p. 25.Google Scholar

7 The New Oxford History of Music, ed. Abraham, G., iv (London, 1968), p. 390, note 1.Google Scholar The fact that Anglès contradicts Trend in one important detail (stating that the missing book is the bass rather than the tenor) would seem to indicate that his information concerning the source was not merely derived from Trend's reference.

The most detailed discussion of Guerrero's masses to date, Luis Merino's doctoral thesis, merely notes Anglè;s's reference to the Missa L'homme armé, without providing further information; see ‘The Masses of Francisco Guerrero (1528–1599)’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles, 1972), p. 8, note 19.Google Scholar

8 Alfonso, de Vicente Delgado, La música en el Monasterio de Santa Ana de Avila (siglos XVIXVIII):catñlogo (Madrid, 1989).Google Scholar The three partbooks (from an original set of four) containing the Missa L'homme armé attributed to Francisco Guerrero are described on pp. 52–6. The missing partbook is neither the tenor, as stated by Trend, nor the bass, as stated by Anglès. The remaining books bear the following (correct) part-names on their covers: ‘tiple primero’, ‘tiple 3o’ (i.e. ‘tercero’) and ‘Baxo’. It thus emerges that the lost book was the ‘tiple segundo’ (a hypothesis confirmed by the existence of a different version of this Missa L'homme armé, described later in the present article). This vocal scoring suggests that the books may have been copied for a house of nuns, in all likelihood the monastery which still possesses the source. That this richly endowed monastery supported a polyphonic choir in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries is demonstrated by a reference to ‘una magnífica de canto de órgano’ (‘a Magnificat setting in polyphony’) in the autobiographical writings of one of the nuns; see Olegario, González Hernández (ed.), Doña María Vela y Cueto: Autobiografía y Libro de las mercedes (Barceìona, 1961), p. 237.Google Scholar From the fourteenth century onwards the monastery had also been provided with capellanes to assist in the singing of the services (ibid., p. 47); it may be that the lowest part of the works in the source under discussion was taken by one of these capellanes.

9 Cabral, L., Catñlogo do fundo de manuscritos musicais, Bibliotheca Portucalensis, 2nd series, 1, pp. 28–34.Google Scholar

10 The Portuguese scribe consistently spells the name thus, and was certainly referring to Francisco Guerrero. Thus, the next work in the manuscript after the Missa L'homme armé – Guerrero's Missa Dormiendo un giorno, published in 1566 – is likewise attributed to ‘Guerreiro’. Another Portuguese copyist, working at the Monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, spelled the name ‘gurreiro’ (Coimbra, Biblioteca Geral da Universidade, MM 34, fol. 24v).

11 It contains a large number of works by Manuel de Fonseca and Pedro de Gamboa, both of whom held the position of mestre de capela at the cathedral (the former in 1544 and the latter in 1587; see Robert, Stevenson's introduction to Antologia de polifonia portuguesa 1490–1680, Portugaliae Musica 37 (Lisbon, 1982), pp. xxxiii and xxxvi).Google Scholar

Although the editor of Guerrero's opera omnia had been informed in 1982 of the existence of the Missa L'homme armé in the Oporto manuscript, he was not then in a position to examine the work and, as noted above, believed the Avila source to be lost. See Llorens, Cisteró, Francisco Guerrero: opera omnia, iv, pp. 24–5.Google Scholar

12 It should be noted that the relationship between the two settings confirms beyond reasonable doubt that the attributions in the Oporto and Avila sources are correct, since these attributions (in sources which could not have been directly dependent upon one another, or even stemmatically close) can be seen as reinforcing one another. The recognition of the resemblances between the masses is particularly useful in another respect: where the settings are most similar one can use the Oporto mass as an aid to the restoration of the missing voice in the Avila mass.

13 Luis Merino concluded from a comprehensive study of Guerrero's parody technique that ‘the parody Masses are characterized by a close proximity to the model. Like his mentor Morales, Guerrero saturates his Masses with borrowed material, presenting it in novel polyphonic combinations. Like Morales, he combines the motives from the model’ (‘The Masses of Francisco Guerrero’, p. vii). Robert Stevenson came to much the same conclusions about Guerrero's parody technique ( Spanish Cathedral Music, pp. 195–9)Google Scholar.

The Oporto mass is very atypical of parody masses in other respects: it is scored for fewer voices than its model, and takes another mass as its model.

14 In a study of a ‘student’ work and its model in Uppsala, Universitetsbiblioteket, Vokalmusik i handskrift 76a, Howard Mayer Brown expressed the view that ‘emulation – using models to guide a student's initial efforts until he has mastered his craft – may well have been as basic a principle of musical pedagogy in the sixteenth century as it is now’, and also made clear the distinction between such pedagogical imitation and cases of ‘one mature composer basing a new piece on an older piece by another mature composer’ (‘Emulation, Competition, and Homage: Imitation and Theories of Imitation in the Renaissance’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 35 (1982), pp. 8 and 10).Google Scholar The significance of imitatio as an educational tool in the sixteenth century is discussed by Michele, Fromson in ‘A Conjunction of Rhetoric and Music: Structural Modelling in the Italian Counter-Reformation Motet’, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 117 (1992), pp. 209–46.Google Scholar

15 ‘From the first years of my childhood I was inclined towards the art of music, and was instructed in that art by a brother of mine called Pedro Guerrero, a very learned master. And he imparted such skill to me through his teaching and correction that, given my willingness to learn and since my talents were well fitted to the said art, within a few years he drew from me rewarding results. Afterwards, owing to my brother's absence, and anxious always to improve myself, I availed myself of the teaching of that great and excellent master Cristóbal de Morales, who directed my progress in the composition of music to the level where I could aspire to any post of maestro. And so it was that at the age of eighteen I was appointed maestro de capilla at Jaen Cathedral.’ This passage occurs on pp. 3ff in the 1596 Barcelona edition of the Viage, and is reproduced by Anglès, Higini in Cristóbal de Morales: opera omnia, i: Missarum liber primus (Roma, 1544), Monumentos de la Música Española 11 (Rome, 1952), p. 41.Google Scholar

16 The possibility that Morales first became Guerrero's teacher on the visit of 1540–1 cannot, however, be ruled out, and Stevenson's attempt to do so ( Spanish Cathedral Music, p. 138)Google Scholar lacks supporting evidence. Stevenson takes Guerrero's statement that he went to Morales for tuition only after the departure (to Italy) of his brother Pedro as an indication that Morales could not have taught Guerrero until 1545; however, since we have no indication of the date at which Pedro left Seville, no such conclusion can be drawn.

The hypothesis that the tuition occurred between the summer of 1545 and April 1546 does pose one logistical problem: where did the lessons take place? By 31 August 1545 Morales had already secured the post of maestro de capilla at Toledo Cathedral, and one can presume that he spent some time in the city prior to this, even though the appointment apparently proceeded without the customary competition. This leaves very little time during which he could have taught Guerrero in Seville during the summer of that year. (As already noted, Morales obtained his leave from the papal chapel on 1 May.) In fact, an entry in the capitular acts of Toledo suggests that Morales did not visit his native city of Seville at all between his arrival in Spain and August 1546. (The relevant document is quoted by Moll, J. in ‘Cristóbal de Morales en spaña (Notas para su biografia)’, Anuário Musical, 8 (1953), p. 19.Google Scholar) It is just conceivable that Guerrero went to Toledo in order to study with Morales; however, quite apart from the difficulty of obtaining leave from his post as a singer in Seville Cathedral, the journey of well over 200 miles betweern Seville and Toledo must have restricted the opportunities to make such visits. Previous writers on this subject are in disagreement: Stevenson, (Spanish Cathedral Music, p. 138)Google Scholar believes that the tuition took place in Seville during ‘the early summer of 1545’, while Higini Anglès argues for Toledo as the likely site of the lessons (‘Cristóbal de Morales y Francisco Guerrero’, Anuário Musical, 9 (1954), pp. 62–3).Google Scholar Interestingly, there are indications that Morales played a significant role in securing the Jaen post on behalf of his pupil, which sheds a new light on the conclusion of the passage from the Viage de Hierusalem quoted above; see Stevenson, , Spanish Cathedral Music, p. 140.Google Scholar

17 Christophori Moralis Hyspalensis missarum liber primus and liber secundus.

18 The chapter act confirming Morales's appointment states that the decision was made ‘atenta la abilidad y sufiçiençia del dicho Cristoval de Morales en la música, según consta por los libros de canto de órgano impresos en Roma‘ (‘in view of the musical ability and competence of the said Cristóbal de Morales, as is made apparent by the books of polyphony printed in Rome’); see Moll, , ‘Cristóbal de Morales en España’, p. 16.Google Scholar It seems quite likely, indeed, that Morales had made a gift of the two Dorico volumes to the chathedral, judging by a further entry in the chapter acts dated 25 September 1545: ‘Libros canto de órgano. Este dia, los dichos señores cometieron a los señr;ores olvero y visitadores que vean lo que valen los libros de órgano que dió Morales, maes[t] ro de capilla, y se le pague de la obra lo que valeren‘ (lsquo;Books of polyhony. On this day, the said gentlemen commissioned Senhor Olvero and the Visitors to look into the value of the books of polyphony given by Morales, the maestro de capilla, and [agreed] that the be paid what the work is worth]); see Moll, , ‘Cristóbal de Morales en España’, p. 18.Google Scholar

19 There is, it should be pointed out, no certainty that Guerrero came to know Morales's mass through the Dorico print, since the work had previously appeared in two Venetian anthologies: Quinque missae Moralis Hispani, ac Jacheti musici excellentissimi: liber primus, cum quinque vocibus (Scotto, 1540)Google Scholar and Quinque missarum harmonia diapente (Scotto, 1543).Google Scholar

20 Morales's choice of tritus modality for this treatment of the L'homme armé melody was rather unusual within this mass tradition, although there was of course the precedent of Josquin's Missa L'homme armé sexti toni. The melody used by Morales and Guerrero departs from the more typical forms – including that found in the Josquin sexti toni mass – in omitting the fourth phrase which typically concludes the A section (and which in this mode would consist of the notes C–C–C–F).

21 This countersubject is one of a number of motivic elements which appear also in Morales's Missa Quaeramus cum pastoribus, published in the same 1544 edition as the five-voice Missa L'homme armé. The idea of incorporating such cross-references was in all likelihood originally prompted by the close similarities between the opening material of Mouton's motet, of which the Missa Quaeramus is a parody, and phrases A2–3 of the L'homme armé melody. The countersubject under discussion appears towards the start of the first Agnus Dei in the Missa Quearamus, accompanying a motive in the lowest voice almost identical with its equivalent in the Christe of the Missa L'homme armé, this motive being, of course, a reference to the opening of the L'homme armé tune. Other striking parallels between the two Mass settings include the bass subjects at the openings of the Credo settings, and the countersubjects at the very start of the Agnus Dei settings.

22 Guerrero's tendency to quote from Morales's mass at cadences is seen again at the end of the first major section in the Gloria, at ‘Jesu Christe’, where he suddenly reproduces his moded note for note (except that Guerrero's lowest voice is an octave higher).

23 One can, I think, be confident that the Agnus Dei was the last part of the Oporto mass to be wtitten, given this increased technical competence.

24 Dufay's Missa L'homme armé likewise incorporates retrograde motion in its Agnus Dei.

25 For example, at the opening of the Sanctus, where Morales added a new countersubject to Josquin's imitative entries.

26 At the very end of the Oporto mass, Guerrero copied the device with which the lower two voices of Josquin's final Agnus Dei begin: against the retrograde statement in the lowest voice is fitted phrase B of the L'homme anné melody in the voice immediately above. Guerrero again took a leaf out of Josquin's book at the only point in the Oporto mass where canonic writing is attempted: in the Hosanna. The Spaniard here followed Josquin in constructing a canon between the two lower voices, based on the L'homme armé melody, while the upper voices engage in a looser canon.

Given these references, together with the heavy reliance on Morales's mass already described, it can be seen that the Oporto mass provides further evidence of the extensive practice of emulation existing within the tradition of L'homme armé masses. On this subject, see for example Taruskin, R., ‘Antoine Busnoys and the L'homme armé Tradinon’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 39 (1986), pp. 225–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

As a measure of Guerrero's respect for Josquin, one might note that as late as 1586 he proposed to the Seville Cathedral Chapter that a book of Josquin's works be recopied; see Stevenson, R. M., La música en la Catedral de Sevilla 1478–1606: documentos para su estudio (Los Angeles, 1954), p. 52a.Google Scholar

27 Those Sections of the Avila mass which are partially or entirely new are also more concise than their equivalents in the Oporto mass, usually by as much as fifteen per cent. The one exception is the final Agnus Dei, which is longer in the Avila mass than in the earlier work presumably Guerrero wished to provide a more fittingly expansive conclusion to his new setting.

28 It will be noticed from these examples that the two superius parts have been reversed at this point in the Avila mass.

29 It should also be noted with regard to this passage that the end of the cantus firmus phrase in the alto, with its longer d′, now corresponds more closely to the rhythm of the L'homme armé melody than it had in the Oporto mass.

30 It must of course be borne in mind that the second superius part is here editorial.

31 ‘A maestro de capilla from Seville called Guerrero, whom I knew, presented [to the emperor] a book of motets and masses which he had composed, and [the emperor] ordered them to sing one of the masses by him, and when the mass was finished he sent for his confessor and said, “What a son of a bitch, what a crafty thief is this Guerrero, for he stole this passage from so-and-so, and this passage from so-and-so.”’ See Serrano, D. C. Seco, ed., Fray Prudencio de Sandoval: Historia de la vida y hechos del Emperador Carlos V, Biblioteca de Autores Españoles 82 (Madrid, 1956), iii, p. 498 Google Scholar. Sandoval's biography was first published in Valladolid in 1604/1606; a second edition appeared at Pamplona in 1614.

32 ‘The Masses of Francisco Guerrero’, p. 21.

33 The motet was first published in Cantiones quinque vocum selectissimae (Petrus Schöffer, Strasbourg, 1539).Google Scholar For a modern edition, see Nicolai Gombert opera omnia, viii, ed. Schmidt-Görg, J., Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 6 (Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1970), pp. 137–43.Google Scholar

34 Spanish Cathedral Music, p. 57.Google Scholar

35 Gombert wrote a piece for two lutes under the title Plus ultra.

36 See Rosenthal, E. E., ‘The Invention of the Columnar Device of Emperor Charles V at the Court of Burgundy in Flanders in 1516’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 36 (1973), pp. 201–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

37 Rosenthal, , ‘The Invention of the Columnar Device’, p. 230.Google Scholar

38 Ibid.

39 See, for example, Prizer, W. F., ‘Music and Ceremonial in the Low Countries: Philip the Fair and the Order of the Golden Fleece’, Early Music History, 5 (1985), pp.128–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Taruskin, , ‘Antoine Busnoys’, pp. 272–3Google Scholar; Haagh, B., letter in Journal of the American Musicological Society, 40 (1987), p. 143.Google Scholar

40 It should be pointed Out that by 1556 Charles was no longer Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece, having passed the title to his son Philip.

41 ‘Audi filia … tuam’ is from verse 11 (according to the Vulgate versification) and ‘Diffusa … aeternum’ from verse 3; ‘Specie … regna’ is verse 5; in addition, ‘Quia concupivit Rex speciem tuam’ is similar to the first part of verse 12, ‘et concupiscet rex decorem tuum’.

42 For a commentary on this psalm as a ‘royal wedding song’, see for example Weiser, A., The Psalms: a Commentary, trans. Hartwell, H. (London, 1962), pp. 362–4.Google Scholar

43 de Zúñiga, D. O. reproduces detailed descriptions of these arches in Annales ectesiasticos y seculares de la muy noble y muy leal ciudad de Sevilla (Madrid, 1677), pp. 483–8.Google Scholar

44 ‘To Caesar, most powerful in fortitude, since he has freed the Christian Republic from imminent defeat, and has convulsed the Arabs, Armenians, and North Africans far and wide with terror’. See Zúñniga, , Annales, p. 484 Google Scholar. This inscription suggests comparison with the following passage in Psalm 44:

Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty!

In thy splendour and glory.

In thy glory ride forth triumphantly

in the cause of truth and wronged right.

May thy right hand teach thee dreadful deeds.

Thine arrows are sharp; nations are subject to thee:

the enemies of the king lose heart.

45 See Stevenson, , Spanish Cathedral Music, p. 24.Google Scholar

46 Perhaps a copy of the piece, by means of which Guerrero might have come to know it, was preserved in Seville after the wedding.