Abstract
This article is, primarily, a synthesis of decades of research into organ building in Spain. But it also deals with a topic rarely considered: the temperament of keyboard instruments at the end of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries in Spain. The recent discovery of a 1696 contract to build an organ at the Toledo Cathedral, signed by Liborna Echevarria, provides a new perspective on the way organs were built at the time. Moreover, this contract can be compared with the one signed by Domingo Mendoza in 1695 for the construction of an instrument in this very cathedral, which allows us to compare and study the differences between the two projects. Indeed, these differences are not only mechanical but represent the two main standard bearers of the art of Spanish organ building at its height. A new interpretation of both documents will also give us a better understanding of the two main approaches to keyboard temperament: the one tending towards equal temperament, with a “tonal” orientation, from classical harmony (characteristic of Liborna Echevarria and Domingo Aguirre), which dominated the Western part of the Peninsula; and the one tending towards a “pretonal” or “modal” temperament, whose origins are to be found in the Renaissance period and which disappeared during the eighteenth century. The latter was widely used in South-Eastern Spain, developed and revived around the city of Valencia and inspired by Juan de Andueza and his pupil Domingo Mendoza. Both approaches used friar Jose de Echevarria as their model.
Highlights
Este artículo supone, en primer lugar, una síntesis de décadas de investigación sobre organería en España
48 Cuadernos de Música Iberoamericana. volumen 29, 2016 mechanical but represent the two main standard bearers of the art of Spanish organ building at its height.A new interpretation of both documents will give us a better understanding of the two main approaches to keyboard temperament: the one tending towards equal temperament, with a “tonal” orientation, from classical harmony, which dominated the Western part of the Peninsula; and the one tending towards a “pretonal” or “modal” temperament, whose origins are to be found in the Renaissance period and which disappeared during the eighteenth century
The latter was widely used in South-Eastern Spain, developed and revived around the city of Valencia and inspired by Juan de Andueza and his pupil Domingo Mendoza
Summary
L’école Echevarría en Galice..., vol I, pp. 42 y 44. 38 L. Pero de momento por lo menos se ignora el trabajo que efectúa en los órganos de las catedrales de Sevilla y, sobre todo, de Burgos. Su relación con el maestro eibarrés (“discípulo mío” dice Echevarría) queda clara, pero no así las que tiene este con Félix de Yoldi (desconocido por él pero que, pese a sus indebidas apropiaciones de inventos que en realidad son suyos, recomienda para la hechura del órgano de Logroño[43]). Sus órganos son instrumentos realizados sobre todo para localidades rurales y con presupuesto limitado (con excepción de los de la Capilla Real, las colegiales de Alcalá de Henares y de Talavera de la Reina): Torrelaguna, Alcalá de Henares (iglesia de Santiago), Méntrida, Madrid (iglesia del convento de la Trinidad),Almonacid de Zurita, Siete Iglesisas o Driebes. Se puede dudar de su afán por alcanzar los deseos de su maestro: sus teclados no pasan del ámbito de 42 o, como máximo, de
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