Bringing Heavenly Music Down to Earth: Global Exchange and Local Devotion at Segovia Cathedral, 1678

Abstract

ABSTRACT A few months before Christmas in 1678, Miguel de Irízar, the thrifty chapelmaster of Segovia Cathedral, made a notebook out of a pile of his received letters, drafting music on the margins of letters from other musicians about the exchange of music and poetry. This article examines Irízar’s output of villancicos for Segovia, including works written for specific local devotional practices, and, through a codicological analysis and sketch study of his letter-notebook of 1678, reconstructs the chapelmaster’s compositional process. Irízar adapted and rearranged the texts he received in correspondence to tailor a coherent cycle for his own community. Based on a new edition of the first villancico in the 1678 cycle, the article analyses Irízar’s use of musical conventions and practical craftsmanship in producing music that suited his ensemble and congregation. Villancicos served as a point of intersection for local and global aspects of both music and devotion.