The Spanish Nation in the Papal Chapel, 1492–1521

364 Sherr Chapter 10 The Roman Connection: The Spanish Nation in the Papal Chapel, 1492–1521 Richard Sherr The Roman Connection I: The Establishment of the Spanish Nation in the Papal Chapel Whilst Ferdinand and Isabel always maintained a diplomatic connection with the papacy in Rome, a permanent musical connection was established only towards the end of their reigns when the ‘Spanish Nation’ (a cohort of singers from Spain) in the papal chapel was founded. More specifically, the ‘Spanish Nation’ was founded during the last years of the pontificate of the Spanish pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia, r. 1492–1503), was maintained and grew in the chapels of his successors Julius II (Giuliano della Rovere, r. 1503–13) and Leo X (Giovanni de’ Medici, r. 1513–21), and lasted until the end of the sixteenth century (Sherr 1992b). The establishment was gradual, which suggests that it was not the result of a decision on the part of the pope or the Catholic Monarchs, but rather that word might have gotten back to Spain that positions in the chapel were available and some singers decided to take advantage of the opportunity. It began with the entry of Juan de Hillanis, a cleric of Saragossa who also had ties to the diocese of Gerona (see below), into the chapel in July 1492, the last month of the pontificate of Innocent VIII (Giovanni Cibo, r. 1484– 92). Hillanis remained the only Spanish singer in the choir for four or five years. By 1496 or 1497, another Spaniard, Alonso de Troya from Toledo, had entered the choir, and in 1499, two more Spanish singers joined (perhaps not coinci dentally, one was a cleric of Saragossa, another a cleric of Gerona), bringing the complement to four. In 1502–3, the last year of Alexander’s pontificate (he died on 18 August 1503), four Spanish singers (again, perhaps not coincidentally, the first two of these were from the diocese of Toledo) joined the chapel, and the complement stood at seven of whom one, Troya, had moved to the position of capellanus missarum and subdeacon of the chapel, so there were really six Spanish singers out of twenty (thirty per cent) of the choir (see Appendix 1). The number of Spanish or Iberian singers (one seems to have been Portu guese) increased in the pontificate of Julius II, so that by its end c. 1512, © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2017 | doi 10.1163/9789004329324_012 The Spanish Nation in the Papal Chapel, 1492–1521 365 there were nine out of a complement of twenty or fortyfive per cent of the total.1 There are no chapel lists from the pontificate of Leo X (1513–21), but from other sources it can be estimated that four Spanish or Iberian singers joined the chapel at different points, including Francisco de Peñalosa. A notarial doc ument of 3 September 1522 signed by seventeen singers claiming to represent more than twothirds of the choir, contains seven Spaniards (Haberl 1888: 70–71). In 1545, the newly promulgated Constitution of the Chapel officially recognized in Chapter 37 that the singers of the chapel were divided into three ‘nations’: Italian, French, Spanish.2 In 1545, there were fourteen singers who came from Italy, eleven singers from France or French language areas, and six singers from Spain. That number remains more or less constant until the mid dle of the sixteenth century, after which the number of Spaniards declines as the papal choir becomes more and more Italian and eventually the Spanish Nation (along with the French Nation) disappears.3 The introduction of Spanish singers into the papal chapel also had a lasting effect on the music of the papal liturgy of Holy Week. Manfred Schuler has presented evidence drawn from the diary of Johannes Burckard, the papal master of ceremonies from 1483–1506, that Spanish singers introduced a new way of performing the Passion in the pontificate of Alexander VI (Schuler 1970). On Palm Sunday 1499 (24 March), Burckard reported that the [St Matthew] Passion was sung by three Spaniards (one of whom was a papal singer), each performing one of the ‘characters’ of the Passion (Evangelist, Crowd, Christ), and that they mixed in the more elaborate ‘Spanish style’ of chanting to their performance; furthermore they sang the words ‘flevit amare’ [Matthew 26: 75] and ‘emisit spiritum’ [Matthew 27:50] in sweet three part polyphony.4 Later entries add more words from the Passion sung in 1 The increase in Spanish singers comes at the end of Julius II’s pontificate and seems to be related in some way to his break with Louis XII of France, which would have cut off the supply of French singers for the chapel, who were then replaced with Spaniards; see Sherr 2010. 2 The Constitution is transcribed in Haberl 1888: 96–108. 3 In 1565, there were eight Spaniards in a choir of thirtysix of whom twentytwo were Italians. In 1590, there were two Spaniards in a choir of twentytwo of whom twenty were Italians. From the 1550s on, all the Spanish singers who joined the choir were castrati—a phenomenon that cannot be treated here. The details of chapel membership in the sixteenth century are re ported in Sherr 2016. 4 ‘Passionem dixerunt tre hispani, quidam novus senex in voce evangeliste, alius, cantor capelle nostre in voce judei, et d. Raphael de Arena, diaconus capelle, in voce Christi; bene vociferati erant omnes, et si accentus et cantum capelle observassent simpliciter, cantassent optime; sed ubi morem Hispaniarum miscebant nostro, male sonabat. Verba flevit amare, emisit spiri tum contra sepulchrum cantaverunt omnes tribus vocibus suavissime’ (Schuler 1970: 30)..

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