...«Laconice Scribunt» : Artes de Canto Llano en las Ordenes Religiosas españolas del siglo XVIII

Abstract

In the varied panorama of the musical theory of 17th Century Spain, two types of treatise can be identified: the extensive, encyclopedic type which aspires to gather together all of the musical knowledge of the era, and the treatise of smaller dimensions, dedicated to concisely explaining a practical method of vocal and/or instrumental interpretation. This second type of treatise is generally called an handbook, or «artecilla», a diminuative not without a certain tone of disdain. Artecillas were used for specific themes, and were intended to resolve specific musical problems, such as rapidly teaching a chant to the chorus of a monastic community, as the use of these artecillas could quickly make teaching the unnecessary. Throughout the 17th Century, we find some twenty artes of plainsong, intended to train novices and members of diverse religious orders in a task as specific as it was indispensable. In addition, there are ceremonials and processionals which contain instructions for the chant or short treatises of the «canto llano» within the body of its pages. The handbooks fulfill an important mission for which their concise formula is highly valued: that of instructing a religious choir with the aim of training them, simply and quickly, in their task of divine worship. It is also important to consider the function of these treatises as propaganda. They were occasionally used to defend the excellence of a particular method of plainsong or to reaffirm the Catholic faith in light of the advances of Protestantism. As a literary style, didactic necessity, or ideological vehicle, the presence of these artes of «canto llano» in the 17th Century Spanish religious orders is by no means casual or accidental; they have an important place in the musical theory of the era, as concise manuals of particular usefulness in liturgical instruction.