Description

The Mexican music in this volume extends into the first quarter of the eighteenth cen­tury and contains the works of four compos­ers: Antonio Rodríguez Mata, Antonio de Salazar, Miguel de Sumaya, and Francisco López Capillas. The earliest of the four com­posers is Mata, who officially became chap­elmaster of the Mexico City Cathedral in 1625. The two choirbooks, identified by their archival numbers, are Cathedral Inventario: Departmento XXIX, Oficina 71, Obra No. 14 and Cathedral Inventario: Departmento XXIX. Oficina 71, Obra No. 24. Both were transcribed by Simon Rodríguez de Guzmán in 1717.

In preparing these transcriptions, which are intended for practical performance as well as for scholarly use, Barwick has shown how the music appeared in the original sources. Both choirbooks were written en­tirely in the conventional notation of the late sixteenth century. For this edition all note values have been reduced by one-half. The music has been transcribed from the choirbook format (soprano and alto parts in the upper portions of the book and tenor and bass parts in the lower) into a score at the original pitch. The original clefs and time and key signatures are provided at the beginning of each composition. For the transcription, modern clefs—treble for soprano and alto, tenor (transposed treble) for tenor, and bass clef for the bass part—have been used.

About the Author

Steven Barwick is Professor of Music at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.