Cancionero Musical de Palacio (1475-1515): music at the court of Isabella & Ferdinand

Song titles of the musical excerpts in this video (To skip to another pieces, click on the time stamp next to the song title):

0:09 Todos duermen, corazon (Lope de Baena)
1:07 Mi Querer tanto vos quiere (Enrique)
3:18 Harto de tanta porta (Anonymous)
5:12 Pues que jamas olvidaros (Juan del Encina)
9:05 O desdichado de mi (Badajoz)
11:35 Nunca fue pena mayor (Juan Urrede)
14:52 Gentil dona (Juan Cornago)
16:58 Ques de ti desconsolado (Juan del Encina)
18:08 Pues servicio vos desplace (Enrique)
19:52 Quedaos adios (Pedro de Escobar)
23:10 Virgen bendita sin par (Pedro de Escobar)
24:32 Ya murieron los placeres (Garciamunoz)
25:46 Doncella non pregunteis (Anonymous)
28:26 L'amor donna ch'io te porto (Jacopo da Fogliano)

The Cancionero Musical de Palacio was a musical manuscript that has been associated with the royal court of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Because its assembly spanned a four decade period between 1475 and 1515, it became an eclectic menagerie of different styles, genres and periods. One can hear the transition from a late Medieval villancico like Cornago's to the early Renaissance frottola such as Fogliano's. Included in the collection were secular and sacred songs in Flemish, Italian, French and Spanish. The giant tome, which once contained more than 500 works of varying quality, lacks a finesse and organization, and it was likely not intended as a gift to any members of the royal family. It is also difficult to use as a performance edition. Instead, it was likely a reference source for musicians to copy their parts.

The most pervasive theme in the Cancionero is that of courtly love cultivated among the nobility of Medieval Western Europe. The poets often sing the praises of a "Noble Lady" who is pure, beautiful and unapproachable.

The artworks in the video span the same forty year period that coincides with the soundtrack. I have included drawings of dancers from a French Books of Hours, from Italian painters of the early Renaissance and from manuscript pages of the Cancionero itself. One can see in paintings and other visual arts a transition away from late Medieval themes that were more rigid and stoic toward early Renaissance styles that were more fluid, soft, sensual and empathic. Although it was a cruel and turbulent time interrupted by wars, plagues and religious persecutions, it was also a time for a newly emergent humanism in Western civilization that had been shut away for more than a thousand years since the fall of the Byzantine Roman Empire.

The musical selections in this video are MIDI files edited to using the iPhone app MusicStudio. I downloaded the original digital files from cipoo.net.

Видео Cancionero Musical de Palacio (1475-1515): music at the court of Isabella & Ferdinand канала EARLY MUSIC MIDI