From Spain to New Spain: music and modernity in the 18th century.

The first half of the 18th century saw a major change in musical taste all over Europe. This taste, which musicologists have defined as ‘galant’, took Italian opera seria as its main reference, with its lyrical and cantabile melodies and transparent textures, thereby escaping the rigidness of the rules that had hitherto governed compositional practice. To be fashionable became a composer’s main concern, trying to please both the audience as well as their sponsors, which brought about a continual circulation of new music, especially that composed by Italians. In this regard, the Spanish monarchy was no exception.

The composers included in this recording belong to a generation born around 1700. These musicians were very much influenced by Neapolitan authors such as Leonardo Vinci, Francesco Durante and Leonardo Leo, whose music enjoyed a wide diffusion throughout the whole Hispanic world during the first half of the 18th century. It was these composers who, on a more regular basis, began writing in Spain for the flute, an instrument which has a special presence in this CD.

The flute was gradually introduced in the Spanish musical chapels from the decades of 1720-1730, its use being registered later in the musical chapels in Ibero-America. The aria Cristal Bello, preserved in the Basilica de Santa María de Guadalupe (Mexico) is a fine example of the use of this instrument in Ibero-America, written by the violinist and composer Ignacio Jerusalem y Stella, born in Lecce (Naples) in 1707.

In 1749 he was named acting Director of Music at the Mexico Cathedral, a post he occupied permanently from 1750 until his death in 1769. During his charge, Jerusalem modernized Mexican sacred music, crucially introducing the new trends of Italian origin which were already dominating the Iberian Peninsula.

It is to be noted that under Jerusalem’s charge, various sets of sacred music composed by the directors of music of the three Royal Chapels in Madrid – José de Torres, José de Nebra, José de San Juan and José Mir y Llusa – were acquired in Madrid for their use in the Mexican cathedral.

Also included in this programme is a set of instrumental verses in second tone (mode) by Jerusalem. These pieces are part of a collection of instrumental verses by the Neapolitan composer preserved to this day in the musical archive of the Mexico City Cathedral. The function of these pieces, mainly short in length, was that of substituting some verses of liturgical text, such as psalms, canticles or hymns, alternating sung sections with instrumental ones.

Although it was more common for the organ to play the verses, we also find some written for an instrumental ensemble, such as those by Jerusalem.