La Sibila: Sonido. Imagen. Liturgía. Escena ed. by Maricarmen Gómez Muntané, and Eduardo Carrero Santamaría, and: El Juicio final: Sonido. Imagen. Liturgía. Escena ed. by Maricarmen Gómez Muntané

Abstract

Reviewed by: La Sibila: Sonido. Imagen. Liturgía. Escena ed. by Maricarmen Gómez Muntané, and Eduardo Carrero Santamaría, and: El Juicio final: Sonido. Imagen. Liturgía. Escena ed. by Maricarmen Gómez Muntané Jane Morlet Hardie Gómez Muntané, Maricarmen, and Eduardo Carrero Santamaría, eds, La Sibila: Sonido. Imagen. Liturgía. Escena, Madrid, Editorial Alpuerto, 2015; paperback; pp. 305; R.R.P. €19.50; ISBN 9788438104897. Gómez Muntané, Maricarmen, ed., El Juicio final: Sonido. Imagen. Liturgía. Escena, Madrid, Editorial Alpuerto, 2017; paperback; pp. 352; R.R.P. €21.00; ISBN 9788438105009. It is not often that a group of scholars, all leaders in their respective disciplines, come together to examine a topic from all angles, leading to an exciting interdisciplinary collaboration. In this case, the twenty often interrelated chapters of the two books here reviewed grew out of two symposia, held respectively at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona in 2014, and at Castelló d'Empúries in 2016. The resulting volumes are bookended by thoughtful observations from central members of the 'team'—Maricarmen Gómez, Eduardo Carrero, and José Enrique Ruiz-Doménec, all from the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. Gómez edited the first volume with Eduardo Carrero, and the second alone, and it was indeed through their passion for a true integration of humanistic enquiry and scholarship across disciplinary boundaries that this project took wings. Maricarmen Gómez has been, for many years and through many publications, the primary scholar of and spokesperson for the Song of the Sibyl (Canto de la Sibila) from its earliest documentable beginnings in Spain through to the latest reconstructions and performances of various versions. The Song of the Sibyl refers to a liturgical drama and chant in which the Sibyl prophesies the signs that describe the Apocalypse. The most ancient texts were Greek, better known through a Latin translation attributed to St Augustine in the Middle Ages in the Sermo de Symbolo, but now attributed to Quodvultdeus, Bishop of Carthage from 437 to 453. The earliest known written-down chant comes from a miscellaneous collection from the ninth or tenth century (St Martial of Limoges, F-Pn lat.1154). [End Page 200] Although the introduction of the new Roman breviary in 1568 led to the abolition of the Song of the Sibyl, scholars have continued to revive it, and various versions are now performed in a number of places in Spain and elsewhere. There were and are many versions that have survived over a long period of time, in some cases with a written record, and in others through oral transmission. As Gómez has pointed out, the majority of these versions come from Spain (26) and include six in Catalan, and one in Gallo-Portuguese; and although no two versions are identical in their texts, the chants remain fairly stable. Declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO on 16 November 2010, the Song of the Sibyl has been performed in one guise or another from the Middle Ages up until today. Daniel Rico's magisterial opening chapter in the first book provides a full background to this UNESCO decision and meditates on its meaning, providing a context and paving the way for the complex studies that follow. Inextricably related to the Song of the Sibyl, the Final Judgement (el Juicio Final)—referring to the passage in Matthew (25.31–46) in which Christ will come in all his glory, accompanied by all his angels, and sit on his throne of glory—was a recurrent subject of representation in both the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and manuscript evidence goes back to the first third of the fourteenth century, with the representation of the mystery of the Jour du Jugement (Besançon, Bibl. Municipale, M 579). While the preservation and discovery of the past, musicologically speaking, began with the recovery of manuscript evidence and its interpretation from a technical point of view, scholars today have moved far beyond a linear and single-focused approach. Now, any discussion of music or texts of the past must consider questions of context and meaning. In...