La cifra hispanamúsica, tañedores e instrumentos (siglos XVI-XVIII)

Résumé

An important amount of the Hispanic musical repertory from the Baroque and Renaissance periods was transmitted using a particular kind of notation called cifra (cipher). This was a system of tablature using mostly numbers or letters instead of notes on the musical staves. As a notational system, cifra faced other formats in figured or mensural notation like partitura (keyboard score), part-books and choral books. The unique characteristics of the cifra as a notational system justify an in-depth investigation of its sources as a preliminary step towards any analytical, editorial or performance-based approach to the repertory, especially taking into account that no complete or extensive study exists on this subject today. With this in mind the objective of this dissertation is the study of the 16th, 17th and 18th century musical sources in cifra which have been conserved in Spain, Portugal, Naples and Ibero-American countries. All of them will be considered Hispanic due to their common historical and cultural factors. Although our main interest focuses on the source material for keyboard instruments, this investigation also takes into account the main sources for harp and vihuela as well as those devoted to other instruments such as the guitar or salterium. In this way a general corpus of more than forty sources is considered both as printed music and manuscripts which have been conserved in European and American libraries and archives. Some of these sources which have been uncovered in the course of these investigations are presented here for the first time. In addition another twenty sources in cifra which are now lost have been taken into account. Their integration in this research project has been considered essential in order to understand the phenomenon of the cifra in its complete extension...