The Cancionero de la Sablonara

The so-called Cancionero de la Sablonara is a highly selective manuscript collection of seventy-five Spanish polyphonic art-songs, composed primarily at the Spanish Court during the first quarter of the seventeenth century.Named after its scribe and compiler, Claudio de Sablonara (the chief copyist of the Spanish Royal Chapel), it constitutes one of the relatively few extant relics of the court's prodigious musical repertoire. The majority of the songs, comprising genuine Spanish genres and set for two, three and four voices, were written by leading composers of the time. The high quality of the musical settings is matched by the poetry, with texts by prominent literary figures of the Golden Age. This long-awaited critical edition of the Cancionero de la Sablonara offers a complete transcription of both the poetry and the music, whilst introductory chapters review the scholarship and research to date on the manuscript. The notes and introduction to this volume are in English. Professor JUDITH ETZION is chair of the Musicology Department, Tel Aviv University.