On the campus at Logroño, a charming town in the north of Spain, the Universidad de La Rioja hosted a research seminar that aimed to explore musicological views on the Spanish eighteenth century. The prevailing view of nineteenth-century Spanish historians, almost all of a nationalist persuasion, was that the country had experienced a decline during the eighteenth century, especially compared to the earlier siglo de oro (Golden Age). Musicologists of that era (Soriano Fuertes, Felipe Pedrell) followed their example, viewing the eighteenth century with disappointment compared to the earlier period of the great Spanish polyphonists such as Cristóbal de Morales and Tomás Luis de Victoria. This alleged decline was attributed to an ‘invasion’ by Italian music (opera, in particular) and musicians. In 1993, however, a landmark conference held at Cardiff University's Centre for Eighteenth-Century Musical Studies came to a very different conclusion. The strong Italian influence – felt throughout all Europe, not only in Spain – was viewed as a positive modernizing force. The organizers of the Logroño seminar (José María Domínguez, Pablo-L. Rodríguez, Juan José Carreras and Ana Lombardía) conceived it as a means of updating – in Italian, aggiornare – the results of the 1993 Cardiff conference. These were commemorated in the subsequent publication Music in Spain during the Eighteenth Century, edited by Malcolm Boyd and Juan José Carreras (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). At the same time the Logroño seminar served as one of a number of current initiatives devoted to similar revisionist ends. These include the research group ‘Música en España en la edad moderna’ (Music in Spain in the Modern Era; <www.unirioja.es/mecri>), ‘La música de cámera en España en el siglo XVIII: géneros, interpretación, recuperación (2012–2014)’, a project on eighteenth-century Spanish chamber music sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness, and the cycle of concerts ‘Gaetano Brunetti, músico de corte’ heard during November and December 2013 at the Juan March Foundation of Madrid. (For an introduction by Miguel-Ángel Marín and notes to these concerts by Lluís Bertran see <www.march.es/recursos_web/culturales/documentos/conciertos/CC959.pdf>.)

The two-day event began with a delightful talk by the distinguished historian José Luis Gómez Urdáñez (Universidad de La Rioja). Going well beyond the announced title of his address, ‘El reinado de Fernando VI: historiografía, política y cultura’ (The Reign of Fernando VI: Historiography, Politics and Culture), Urdáñez in fact presented a magisterial overview of the entire century. In his preliminary notes to the seminar José Maria Domínguez (Universidad de La Rioja) suggested correctly that Urdáñez would provide an excellent sinfonia avanti l'opera. The remainder of the day was dedicated to papers by a group of young scholars. Sara Erro (Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid) discussed sources of an administrative or financial nature located at the Archivo General de Simancas (near Valladolid) that bear upon the instrumentalists, singers, composers and copyists employed in the royal chambers during the reign of Fernando VI and Maria Barbara of Braganza. As Erro noted, documents of a similar nature also exist in the Archive of the Royal Palace at Madrid and should be studied in conjunction with those at Simancas. New perspectives on the music at court during the second half of the eighteenth century were offered by Judith Ortega (Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales, Madrid). On the basis of her study of musical sources in the Archive and Library of the Royal Palace at Madrid, Ortega stressed the importance of one composer, Gaetano Brunetti (1744–1798), the principal musician at court for the last three decades of the century. While Brunetti was a prodigious composer and the favourite of Carlos IV, his reputation has never received its due since the composer was obliged to work under a restrictive contract that, with only a few exceptions, limited the performance and circulation of his works to the court. As noted by Ortega, most of the musical sources examined have now been catalogued and can be consulted online.

Earlier in the century, during the reign of Felipe V, Italian operas and serenatas were performed on important occasions at the Spanish court. Gorka Rubiales (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) discussed how these genres may have differed in a Spanish context. As in Italy, the serenata in Spain, sometimes called a festa teatrale, was essentially a large multi-voice cantata that did not require all the resources of opera. The two feste teatrali studied by Rubiales from this period, however, were longer than the usual serenata at the Spanish court, and he presented evidence that costumes for the singers and scenery were employed in these two works. Unlike an opera seria, which contained three acts, these feste, written for the name-day celebrations of the king in 1740 and 1741, were divided into two parts. Yet the 1741 festa teatrale, the very curious Lea imperatrice della China, resembled an opera seria in at least one respect. Its libretto was based on a historical incident that took place in 1279 in China rather than on the usual allegorical, mythological or competitive subject matter employed in serenata texts. After a brief pause Lluís Bertran (Universidad de La Rioja) explored the meaning of private versus public space in the context of musical performances given in the churches and theatres of Barcelona during the second half of the eighteenth century. Much information in this regard is preserved in the massive fifty-two-volume diary kept by the Baron de Maldá (1746–1819) from 1769 until just before his death, which carried the Catalan title Calaix de sastre (literally ‘tailor's box’; we might translate this title as something like ‘miscellany’ or ‘hotchpotch’). However, Bertran also noted the limitations present in the journal and so sought to clarify the events and conclusions reported by Maldá with reference to other unpublished sources. Josep Martínez Reinoso (Universidad de La Rioja) reported on works (almost all oratorios) heard during Lent at Madrid in the Coliseo de los Caños del Peral. During the last years of the eighteenth century this theatre employed many of the finest singers and instrumentalists of the city, and the profit generated by the Lenten season supported several charitable causes. The season of 1803 is particularly well documented because of several lawsuits that occurred that year.

The Friday session began with Andrea Bombi (Universitat de València) speaking on ‘Jesuitas y música en la España del siglo XVIII: cosas que sabemos y no conocemos’ (Jesuits and Music in Eighteenth-Century Spain: Things We Know and yet Do Not Know). For a number of reasons enumerated by Bombi, Spanish musicology's contribution to an understanding of the role of the Societas Iesu in the history of music, dance and theatre in Europe and Latin America is almost negligible. Troves of documents in the colleges of Valencia, however, remain to be studied. While there is little evidence that many Jesuits composed, the results of such an investigation may yet demonstrate the major position held by this order in the musical culture of the ancien régime. Such a study might also clarify certain inveterate attitudes on the part of Spanish musicology towards this religious order.

Despite the plethora of Italian musicians employed in Spain and the dominance of Italian genres (opera, serenata, oratorio) at court during the early eighteenth century, as well as the growing influence of Austro-Germanic instrumental forms and techniques as the century progressed, the venerable Spanish villancico held its place in the repertory of the Royal Chapel, as Luis López Morillo (Universidad de La Rioja) recounted. Although their performance at court in a religious setting was banned in 1750 in response to the papal encyclical Annus qui, between 1770 and 1775 five villancicos were composed by Antonio Ugena (c1747–1817), the last eighteenth-century master of the Royal Chapel. Along with two Villancicos de Inocentes by Manuel Cavaza (1776) and José Lidón (1789), these vocal works constitute the last eighteenth-century repertory in the vernacular written for the Royal Chapel. While employing modern instrumental technique, Ugena's villancicos demonstrate that the essential poetic and musical nature of this venerable tradition was able to survive intact well into the eighteenth century. Ana Lombardía (Universidad de La Rioja) delivered a paper entitled ‘José Herrando resucitado … ¿ otra vez?: historia de una “recuperación”’ (José Herrando Resuscitated … Again?: The History of a ‘Recuperation’). Once acclaimed as the equal of Domenico Scarlatti in importance and originality, the violinist and composer José Herrando (c1720–1763) had even been assigned the role of standard-bearer for a Spanish school of violin playing. As recounted by Lombardía, however, Herrando's reputation has experienced several precipitous falls as well as acute rises in the past century alone. These may be explained on the one hand by overly enthusiastic nationalist critics, and on the other by the poor quality of some of the available editions and recordings of Herrando's works. Lombardía postulated the need for better communication between publishers, performers, music critics and musicologists in order to achieve a satisfactory picture of the composer, but left open to debate how this might be accomplished.

The Friday session ended with a roundtable discussion by four senior scholars, José Máximo Leza (Universidad de Salamanca), Miguel-Ángel Marín (Universidad de La Rioja), Juan José Carreras (Universidad de Zaragoza) and Álvaro Torrente (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), on the past and present understanding of the eighteenth century by Spanish musicology. Torrente stressed the importance of the 1993 breakthrough conference at Cardiff, the research project that preceded it and the papers in the publication that resulted (Music in Spain during the Eighteenth Century). The international perception of Spanish musicology had been much influenced and altered for the better by that initiative. Leza, currently finishing the volume dedicated to the eighteenth century in the Historia de la música en España e Hispanoamérica (to be published by the Fondo de Cultura Económica de España), discussed the penetration of Italianate instrumental techniques and genres into traditional Spanish music during the period. He raised the fundamental question of whether, by the eighteenth century, a convincing musical synthesis was even possible given the time-honoured traditions associated with earlier Spanish genres such as the villancico. Marín, presently engaged in the collection, publication and interpretation of Spanish chamber music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and director of the music programme at the Juan March Foundation, asked how musicology might better serve to raise the level of interest in high musical culture in today's society. Carreras, currently working on a history of nineteenth-century music, emphasized the great wealth of eighteenth-century documents yet to be studied and asked how the notion of Enlightenment relates to the production of music in eighteenth-century Spain.

Despite the wealth of new information presented at the seminar, perhaps more questions were raised than answers given, suggesting in turn the work ahead for Spanish musicology. Following each presentation lively discussions ensued, and since the University of La Rioja is renowned for its distance-learning facilities, students not attending the conference in person were able to hear and view the presentations as well as to submit questions for the participants. Those of us physically present were even more fortunate, being able to pursue further conversations while sampling the famous wines and tapas of Logroño at the end of each daily session.