‘THE SOUNDS OF THE HOLLOW MOUNTAIN’: MUSICAL TRADITION AND INNOVATION IN SEVILLE CATHEDRAL IN THE EARLY RENAISSANCE

Abstract

With the restoration of the Seville diocese in 1248, its organisation followed the model established by other Castilian cathedral chapters. Seville Cathedral's symbolic importance and the wealth created by its endowments resulted in a flourishing development of worship, in which music played a key role. The ritual space in the Mozarabic cathedral was radically transformed with the construction of the Gothic building over a period of almost a hundred years, from 1434 to 1517. In tandem with this architectural programme, the cathedral's musical resources also underwent transformation, being adapted according to changing aesthetic considerations, liturgical modifications and new spatial and acoustical demands. The city of Seville periodically welcomed the court, with the monarch and the royal household residing for extended sojourns in the Alcázar, which was renovated by Pedro I in the fourteenth century. These royal visits favoured musical exchange with the royal chapels, especially during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabel. Seville became the paradigm for the consolidation and standardisation witnessed during the fifteenth century throughout the ecclesiastical institutions of Castile and Aragon. The direct consequence of this reforming impulse was an exponential increase in the number of composers active in this environment, and the amount of polyphonic repertory created through church patronage in both the institutional and private spheres, as well as the increase in the use of that polyphony in liturgical and devotional ceremony.