Exposition

Easter Lamentations for solo voice in Spain during the 17th century (2015)

Victoria Cassano McDonald
open exposition

About this exposition

Name: Victoria Cassano Main subject: Early Music Singing Research coaches: Raúl Angulo, Inês de Avena Braga Title: Easter Lamentations for Solo voice in Spain during the 17th century Research Question: What information is available about the performance of Easter lamentations for solo voice in Spain and how can we get closer to their historical performance practice? Summary of Results: The Easter lamentations are musical settings of the texts from the book of Lamentations by the prophet Jeremiah, describing the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 b.c. They are sung during the Triduum Sacrum, the last three days of the Holy Week - Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday - during the Tenebrae service. Many composers have set music to these texts through history, including Victoria, Lassus and Tallis. In the 17th century lamentations for solo voice with instrumental accompaniment started being composed all over Europe, and became very popular especially in France, where they receive the name of “Leçons de Tenebres”, with the famous settings by Charpentier and Couperin. In Spain it was also a popular genre, but it has not yet been studied in depth and there is not much information available about its performance. This research started with the goal of discovering a repertoire unknown to me before, getting as close as possible to its historical performance practice, and being able to perform some of these pieces, some of which have not been performed in centuries. One of the objectives was to get to know how many of these pieces survive and make a list of the ones that have been already discovered. I have so far managed to put together a list of over thirty lamentations for solo voice from different musical archives in Spain. Some of these works have been catalogued in their respective archives, but are not yet available for the general public as they have not yet been edited nor performed in modern times. Studying musical treatises of the time such as Cerone (1613), Torres (1702), Nassarre (1723) and Valls (1742) I have discovered many useful aspects of performance practice that can be applied to the performance of lamentations, such as the singers who performed them, the instruments that were used for their accompaniment, including the harp and the dulcian, and the basic rules of accompanying sacred music. In my presentation I will show some musical examples of lamentations for solo voice, applying some of the rules found in these treatises as well as using historical pronunciation of Spanish Latin, together with a powerpoint presentation with some general characteristics of the music of the time. Biography: Victoria Cassano (Madrid, 1987) began her musical studies playing both piano and violin in her hometown. In 2008 she graduated from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, with a Bachelor degree in Music teaching. During her university studies she started having singing lessons, and soon after she decided to move to The Netherlands to continue her studies at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, studying both Classical and Early Music singing with Rita Dams, Jill Feldman, Michael Chance and Peter Kooij, where she is now specializing in the performance of Spanish sacred music of the 17th century.
typeresearch exposition
date01/01/2015
published26/05/2015
last modified26/05/2015
statuslimited publication
licenseAll rights reserved
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/62476/62477
published inKC Research Portal
portal issue3. Internal publication


Copyrights

nameFinal Research Paper + appendix Victoria Cassano
copyrightVictoria Cassano
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespdf

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