Schola Antiqua (CD)

Schola Antiqua: Service For The Taking Of Granada; Fray Hernando de Talavera, Hieronymite monk. (+1507); Reconstruction of Matins

HERNANDO DE TALAVERA On 14th May 1507 Fray Hernando de Talavera, a Hieronymite monk and first Archbishop of Granada after the restoration of the Spanish monarchy in 1492, died in Granada. He was born in Talavera in 1428 into the bosom of a modest Jewish family converted to Catholicism, which no doubt influenced the development of his personality. He studied in Salamanca, where he later held the Chair of Moral Philosophy at the university.

 But it was not to teaching that Hernando de Talavera was called. At the age of 36 he gave up the Chair and joined the Hieronymite Monastery of St. Leonardo de Alba de Tormes. After his trial and training period he was chosen to be Prior of the Prado de Valladolid, where he introduced fundamental reforms into the community, endorsed, always, by the integrity of his own example.

 The royal court was then at Valladolid, and the reputation of the Hieronymite monk did not take long to reach the ears of Queen Isabel. His reputation for eloquence, his understanding of the spirit, the insight of his advice, in a word his holiness, prompted the queen to ask Fray Hernando to be her confessor and adviser in government matters pertaining to the budding new Spain. This was the beginning of a close relationship with Isabel and Fernando that was crucial in the reign of the Catholic Monarchs.

 Perhaps the best description of Fray Hernando’s rich personality was left to us by a German traveller, Hieronymus Münzer, who was in the Iberian Peninsula in 1494. After a meeting with the “Faqih Saint”, as the Muslims called the Archbishop from Talavera, he recorded the following words in his travel journal “I have never met a man in Spain who knew more about theology and philosophy. He truly was a new St. Jerome because constant study, hard work in the course of his holy ministry and rigorous abstinence had soaked his body so much that you could count his bones that were only covered by his skin. He is responsible for the conversion of many Saracens, who he constantly encouraged and indoctrinated imitating the example of Jesus Christ, in his work and in his teaching.”

 Indeed, Hernando de Talavera was a distinguished figure of his time: an extremely scholarly man, a man of faith whose life was an example to others, which makes him an indisputable point of reference for the spirit of renewal in the Spanish Church. This can be appreciated in the work he carried out for the Council of Seville, of which he was the maximum promoter and organizer.

 His work as an evangelist, among Mudejars and Moriscos, and the way he carried out his ministry, were ahead of his time, ahead not only of the Council of Trent but also of the II Vatican Council. His eagerness to train priests to be worthy of their mission, his fervour to renew and adapt the Holy liturgy, to organize the Archdiocese that had been entrusted to him, all set a rigorous example for pastors for all time. When describing his faith, biographers allude to his musical abilities, which he must have learned when he was a child at the collegiate in his native town, and that he continued to practise all through his life. He was a singer in the choir as an Archbishop, which to him was in no way demeaning. He increased the participation of the congregation in the divine office and translated liturgical texts into Castilian Spanish to make them more understandable and attractive. He also composed religious songs that spiritually motivated the people to accompany the processions with Arab instruments, from which Spanish carols are said to originate.

The Liturgical Office composed to celebrate the Taking of Granada stands out among his works as a musical composer, recorded on this CD and performed magnificently by Schola Antiqua, the Gregorian choir of old choirboys from the Valle de los Caídos. Fr. Andrés Gª Torralvo, osh. Prior of the Monastery of Holy Mary of the Parral and of San Jerónimo at Yuste.

“OLD” MUSIC FOR A NEW ERA Our foray into Fray Hernando de Talavera’s music is not intended to simply be the presentation of an interesting document. We were fortunate to have access to two publications, each with a different focus. One was the magnificent facsimile edition (Fray Hernando de Talavera. Oficio de la Toma de Granada, Texts by Francisco Javier Martínez Medina, Pilar Ramos López, Elisa Varela and Hermenegildo de la Campa, Granada Provincial Government, 2003), which considers the two known versions that interest us most: the one from the Simancas Archive (Patronato Real section. 25-41), which contains only the text, and the one from the Santa Fe (Granada) Parish Archive (choirbook nº 20 pages 152v-207r). This immaculate facsimile edition includes some excellent studies, as well as the complete translation of the texts by different specialists. Especially significant is the contribution by Pilar Ramos who approached the Office and its evolution from different points of view, obviously not least a musicological one. In 2004, a year after the publication of this edition, another very different publication appeared. Mª Julieta Vega García-Ferrer was in charge of this edition working with a language specialist who studied and translated the texts, but the main aim of the new edition was to present a complete musical version of both the Office and the Mass based on the copy from Santa Fe, and present other sources containing parts of the Office (Santa Fe Parish Archive, choirbook nº 23, page 39v-54r). There are parts, this time the Mass and two antiphons from Vespers, that appear in choirbook nº 29 in the same archive and the Mass of the Taking of Granada appears in a Gradual printed in Granada in about 1540 now preserved in the Monastery of the Incarnation in Granada. All this material was useful to Professor Vega to write a complete monograph (Isabel La Católica y Granada, La Misa y el Oficio de fray Hernando de Talavera. Ed. de Mª Julieta Vega García-Ferrer, Granada, 2004), in which she includes a number of introductory studies, the translation of the texts and the score printed in neumes with some Solesmes rhythmic symbols. She also included a CD (Schola Gregoriana Iliberis directed by Mª Julieta Vega) with 18 works from the Office and 5 extracts from the Proprium Missae in Festo Deditionis Garnatae. Several indications lead us to think that the Office was performed for the first time in 1493 or 1494. These include the chronicle by the German traveller Hieronymus Münzer, and the heading of the complete copy from Santa Fe - if we are to give it credence - In festo deditionis urbis garnatensis quod celebratur prima dominica post circumcisionem Domini et si ipsa die fuerit Epiphaniam celebratur in dominica sequenti… (At the feast to commemorate the Capitulation of the city of Granada celebrated on the first Sunday after the Circumcision (1st January) and if this day was Epiphany (6th January,) to be celebrated the following Sunday…). On page 152v we find the following heading to the musical text of the first antiphon of First Vespers Solemnem agamus: La toma de Granada, año de 1492 a 2 de henero [sic], aquí está todo el Ofiçio (The taking of Granada, year 1492 on 2 January, here is all the Office) commemorating the exact date of the fall of the city. The documentation contributed by Pilar Ramos in the introductory study to the facsimile edition leads us to assume that the Office and the Mass were only played during the first few years. A Consueta (a written notice of a commemorative event) in the cathedral of Granada written as early as 1520 supports this idea as it does not allude to the Office.

 So when Schola Antiqua decided to make a new recording of the music of the Hieronymite monk Fray Hernando, it was not exactly a first edition. Even so, as is our wont, we decided to put the most “dramatic” part of the liturgy of the Hours into context – in the theatrical sense – reconstructing the Matins almost completely. The restrictions of the duration of a CD obliged us to omit the readings of the three nocturnes, which are long recitals – extracted from the Simancas version – that did not add anything to the musical panorama, being simple spoken tones. In a literary sense, however, they are interesting as they put the Taking of the City into context and compare it with different biblical episodes. In the same way the texts of the psalms that accompany the antiphons have been reduced to two verses plus the doxology. We cannot really say whether Fray Hernando was a composer, or an adapter. Without doubt, his years as a student at Salamanca and the great choral experience in the Hieronymite order would have helped a man of letters like him to take familiar melodies that he knew well and adapt a new text alluding to the re-conquest of the city by the Catholic Monarchs to them. In this way, the inclusion of the hymn Sacris solemniis originally written for the Corpus Christi – with its Hispanic melody in mixed chant – adapted using suitable words, made it comparable to one of the most important feasts in the liturgical calendar. In the same way, a contrafactum of the Christmas responsory Hodie nobis de caelo highlights the word Hodie – today – comparing the event no less than with the birth of the Saviour. Many other similarities with other liturgical circumstances can be found in the texts of Fray Hernando, for example the responsory Cantemus Domino paraphrases the episode of the Exodus when Moses thanked God for the victory over the Egyptians after crossing the Red sea. We will not continue with the list, but refer to Professor Ramos’ study for more details.

 For the musical adaptation of the antiphons, Fray Hernando follows the rule of the medieval rhythmic offices, in which the order depends on the modal number. Thus both in the Major Hours of Lauds and Vespers and in Matins, the first antiphon is in mode I, the second in mode II and so on. Although the Major Hours follow the Roman cursus, with 5 antiphons, the series is interrupted in the Tritus Auténtico(mode V) while in the Matins, the presence of 3 antiphons in each nocturne meant mode VIII was repeated in the last one. Interestingly, Fray Hernando decided not to follow the same order in the responsories and the modes are ascribed arbitrarily. The Office does not contemplate the last of the responsories of the third nocturne and although there is no corresponding rubric, we have concluded the office – and replaced the postrer responsorio, or last responsory, – with the Te Deum, a thanksgiving hymn to conclude Matins on feast days. And although not indicated by a heading we have taken the liberty of including some simple fauxbourdons at certain moments – always as recitals and in some psalms – to illustrate a practice that embellished the simple plain chant on such a solemn day.

 Juan Carlos Asensio