Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Juan de Anchieta served the Spanish royal family for 30 years, from his appointment in 1489 as a singer for Queen Isabella, until he was pensioned off by her grandson, the Emperor Charles V, in 1519. During these years Anchieta produced a body of works that - along with his contemporary Francisco de Pe alosa - formed the Spanish response to the polyphonic innovations of Josquin and his contemporaries to the north. And yet, Anchieta's music is still uncharted territory, even among scholars of Renaissance music; and his biography, though known in its basic outline, is little understood in its detail. This book is a life-and-works study of this important and understudied composer. A biographical chapter, which pulls together recent research into a coherent narrative of the composer's life, is followed by chapters on each of the genres in which the composer wrote. A rough chronology of the works emerges, which is based both on style and codicology. The final chapter, written cooperatively by the two authors, pulls it all together with a summary of Anchieta's life, his work as a whole, and its development over his career and between genres. This is followed by a new account of his influence in his own time and in the decades after his death.
Synopsis
This book explores Juan de Anchieta's life and his music and, for the first time, presents a critical study of the life and works of a major Spanish composer from the time of Ferdinand and Isabel. A key figure in musical developments in Spain in the decades around 1500, Anchieta served in the Castilian royal chapel for over thirty years, from his appointment in 1489 as a singer in the household of Queen Isabel, and he continued to receive a pension from her grandson, the Emperor Charles V, until his death in 1523. He traveled to Flanders in the service of the Catholic Monarchs' daughter Juana, and was briefly music master to Charles himself. Anchieta, along with Francisco de Pe alosa, his contemporary in the Aragonese chapel, and a few others, was a key figure in the rise of elaborate written polyphony in the Spain of Josquin's time.
The book brings together two of the leading specialists in Spanish music of the era in order to review and revise the rich biographical material relating to Anchieta's life, and the historiographical traditions which have dominated its telling. After a biographical overview, the chapters focus on specific genres of his music, sacred and secular, with suggestions as to a possible chronology of his work based on its codicology and style, and consideration of the contexts in which it was conceived and performed. A final chapter summarizes his achievement and his influence in his own time and after his death. As the first comprehensive study of Anchieta's life and works, The Music of Juan de Anchieta is an essential addition to the history of Spanish music.