Franco-Flemish Polyphony versus Palestrina in Spanish Choirbooks with Renaissance Repertory and the Case of Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya, M.682: Towards a Revised "Census-Catalogue"

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a very broad view of the presence of non-Iberian polyphony in manuscript sources found in Spain, taking as points of reference choirbooks compiled from the fifteenth- through the eighteenth centuries and a few specific examples such as Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya, M.682 (E-Be M.682). This approach inmediately brings to the fore many polyphonic choirbooks that have not received the attention they deserve sirnply because they fall outside the traditional periodization of the Renaissance, but whose use in some instances can be documented until the twentieth century. Moreover, a broad perspective (and to a certain extent even a superficial one at this early stage of the project «Libros de polifonía hispana» mentioned above) may help us to pose different questions about the transmission and performance practices of polyphony in the Iberian world in cornparison with the rest of Europe over a longue durée.